A peaceful oasis in the middle of the bustling city....
Peaceful music and lots of incense burning.
A street market - very noisy!
The "Snake Alley" market - during old times, lots of snake vendors....taking live snakes and making meals of them on the spot. Apparently a night venue....mostly closed up today!
I seem to never tire of the "foreign street scene"...
And there are temples stuck in the most unlikely places....this one was cool with just a small "store front" entrance, it opened onto a really lovely temple!
The skies opened up and I decided it was time to call it a day...
Subway scene.....
Photo on the way back to the hotel...
I was famished, though - and on the way back there was a "take-out" restaurant.
....I pointed to the second item on the right...and gave the lady my printed statement that one of Duane's co-workers had written out for him in Mandarin - "I am allergic to beef, pork and lamb. Please make sure this item does not contain these meats." The lady nicely shook her head and indicated that it did not. Said...."no, no, no". OK.
Back at the hotel - yummy lunch - looks like your average ramen noodles - but it was actually very good with fresh onions, chile peppers and bean sprouts mixed in. Hit the spot!
Duane was invited to a "team dinner" with his IBM crew....and I wasn't exactly invited. But, a friend of Duane's from a couple of years ago volunteered to take me to dinner. I am horrified to note that I didn't take a single photo of him, even though we ate dinner together, then Duane met us later to visit a night market.... Here is Roland's (terrible cell phone photo) that I posted on the blog in 2009...really nice guy and I had a great meal with him learning some more about his family here in Taipei.
He had given me a silk scarf as a gift during that meal and I made sure that I brought along a USA gift for just such occcasion! The week before we left I went out in the country to the "Southern Supreme Nutcake Factory" and picked up a couple of pre-wrapped nutcakes. I packed them nicely in the luggage so they didn't get damaged. I'm glad I brought them, although he and his family will probably think they are wwwwaaaay too sweet!
He took me to a neat restaurant close to our hotel - I ordered a weird seafood dish with squid-ink noodles. Just a little "fishy" (as one might expect!) but very good. I finished every bite!
Duane met up with us in a few hours and Roland served as tour-guide to a "night market"...most of us would think of this as a flea-market-held-at-night-crossed -with-the-state-fair. They are popular here.
These night markets are known for their interesting foods....this is the "topping bar" at a ice cream stand. Notable here is the black pickled "fungus" and several types of beans.
Stinky tofu was also available, as was all sorts or fish and crab meat.
The one thing I tried was bamboo juice...yep -- the guy was squeezing bamboo just like sugar cane....
And, it tasted just like you'd expect....just like grass. I took a few swigs, but that's all I could stomach.
Never let it be said I won't try something different....I just don't have to always like it!!
1 comment:
Another FUN day!...yucky food again though...I would defnitely have tried bamboo juice too...and the night market looks like fun!
Love,
T
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