ShiLin night market

Last night I went to the 士林夜市(ShiLin nigh market) with Anna and her Chinese language partner from last summer, Ray. What a great time. We got some food at this place next to the night market. The place had a roof over it and about 6 lanes going up and down, 6 going left and right, full of probably 100 different places to get food. We got some 臭豆腐(stinky tofu). It did stink quite a bit, but it tasted pretty good and was nice and spicy, just how I like it. Now I know what that obnoxious smell is I get a whiff of when walking around sometimes. We also got an oyster omelet, which is like eating eggs, snot, and chopped up veggies, very intersting. We then got some 湯包 (tang bao) which are like boiled dumplings filled with meat and a little bit of soup. They're a bit squirty, so I prefer to stick the whole thing in my mouth at once, very delicious. We also got some hard candy coated skewered grape tomatoes. They were ok, I think we should have gotten the strawberries instead, but oh well. The last item of food we got was 生煎包(sheng jian bao) which are just large dumplings filled with meat and cooked on a large griddle. This was probably my favorite item of food tonight.

After all that eating, we walked around and browsed all that ShiLin has to offer. You can buy pretty much anything there - clothes, shoes, bags, bedding, perfume, toys, etc. Anna got some boots and some sheets. I had a lot of fun talking to Ray. To him, apparently college students in Taiwan are pretty boring, just going home to study after school. He was fascinated as I told him about the party lifestyle enjoyed by a lot of American college students. He really liked the idea of beer pong when I explained it to him. :) After a lot of browsing, I was thirsty, so we got some 珍珠奶茶 (zhenzhu naicha - known as bubble tea in America). It's like a sort of creamy iced tea with chunks of gelatin and tapioca. I enjoyed it very much. Chewy and refreshing!!! We had to leave soon after that because it was getting late, and I didn't want to miss the last train home. What a great night!