This was a relatively busy day. But first, breakfast.
My grandma kindly steamed sticky rice she made along with tea eggs and bamboo soup. 10/10
After this, my mother and I headed to the hairdressers to get our hair done. We had been looking forward to getting it permed for a while.
As we were there for 6 to 7 hours, the boss bought me lunch. She got it from a place close by that has been around for many years. My cousin, who met us at the salon, also remembers that place as she used to buy lunch there when she was in middle school.
This bento box was pretty good. It included rice as usual, a good amount of veg, half a stewed egg, tofu, fish ball, and some spam ham. On the side, it came with fried pork filets. The pork was seasoned very well and still juicy.
After the many hours, we walked back home and stopped at a roadside vendor for these wheel cakes.
That evening, for dinner we decided to meet up with my cousin and go to the night market.
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I got what I’ve been looking forward to for years. Stinky tofu. This is fermented tofu that is then deep fried and served with chili sauce and pickled cabbage. It sounds strange and the heavy smell can be smelled a mile away, but it does not taste fermented or sour. The tofu tastes very close to regular tofu, but the outside is extra crispy. 10/10 This stall only sold two things, the other being pig’s blood soup. The soup is a nice flavorful broth that has chunks of blood in it. The blood wasn’t gammy or heavy in taste, and had a nice QQ texture. 7/10
Across this stall was one selling sugarcane juice. I vividly remember getting this last time I was here, which was like 5/6 years ago, so I had to get it again. 6/10
The weather wasn’t the best that evening as there were on and off showers.
When we could, we walked around a little more.
This was a big surprise to see. I didn’t know this was eaten (i dunno if it’s a crocodile or alligator). It is definitely not commonly eaten so I’m guessing this was more a novelty item for tourists. I didn’t try it, maybe next time.
Next to it was a stall selling a variety of things, but what we really wanted was the sausages.
Taiwanese sausages are so so so good. They are made with fattier bits of pork and are on the sweeter side. 8.5/10
The clouds were pouring and there was no sign of it slowing down. The sausage sellers offered to let us borrow an umbrella so one of us could go buy ponchos, which is what we did, then headed straight home.
The market does have a lot to offer. Lots of food and activities. The activities are similar to ones you’d find in a carvinal or fair, such as tossing rings and shooting balloons. One that may not be as common in the western side of the world could be this one.
You get a little net like thing but instead of a mesh net, it is a thing piece of paper. The goal is to use this to ‘fish’ for the small fish and turtles. This may sound easy but isn’t. The movement from the animals easily breaks the paper. The prize, the fish and turtles you are able to collect.
Not sure if anyone would recognise this, but I saw these blow up balloons of frogs. Just like the ones carried by those people dressed up as frogs in public on douyin.
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