Stinky Tofu and Bacon World Domination

Katie started her assignment today so that left me on my own to explore the city. I headed out to try and find a special spice market and take photos along the way. Unfortunately navigation proved harder than I thought!

I was using Taipei 101 as a reference but it's amazing how the density of the city actually makes it possible to loose sight of a 101 story building. I ended up way south of where I thought I was and was shocked to find out just how lost I was! Everything starts to look the same in a new place. Got some nice shots the cows all over the city. It is the year of the cow so they are doing something similar to the pigs in Seattle or angles in Los Angels by hiring artist to decorate them.

I figured I walked about 8 miles and was pretty tired so I made my way back to the hotel and took a nap before dinner. Her coworkers took us to the Shilin Night Market (one of the largest in Taipei). Thus begins our own rendition of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.

We started off with fish cakes, squid and shrimp, all deep fried. The fish cakes were OK but I wasn't a huge fan of the other things. We then tried these crazy pastries that are basically double wrapped like a burrito. I tried the peanut flavored one and it reminded me of a Swedish pastry but not as sweet. Next were the kabobs. Grilled bacon wrapped around shallots...YUM! I could live off these! Katie had grilled pork wrapped in sticky rice and fried for a second. Also good but not as much as the bacon. I'm convinced that bacon is the superior food everywhere in the world.

Next was a gellitan drink made of seeds which reminded me of ice tea gello. Not bad! Finaly was the stinky tofu (the sign actually says "House of Stinky Tofu"). Basically it is fermented tofu in a variety of flavors. It's...interesting. It changes flavor about 4 times while you are chewing it. VERY rich and I have no idea how you could eat a lot of it.

We then made our way over to the retain section of the market which is filled with vendors selling everything under the sun. Most clothes and shoes. It felt amazingly busy for a Monday night, very festive and full of energy. The whole crowd just kind of flows through everything.

Suprisingly to us, things didn't appear as cheep as you would think for more popular items, but if it's not a name brand things are dirt cheap.

We were full and exhausted and decided to call it a night. More photos here.