Nankan Night Market

So I found out from a new Taiwanese friend that there is a night market in Nankan (the neighborhood I live in).  Just to give you an idea, I live in the outskirts of Taipei, near the major international airport.  So try to imagine a bustling outdoor night market if you were living a ten minute walk from O'hare in Chicago.  Without drugs or weapons. 

The population of this area is about a hundred thousand, which, by Asian standards, doesn't even put it on the map.  So as I went there I was a bit skeptical that it would be no better than the (still awesome) morning market that's right outside my door. 

Well, as it turns out I was a bit misled by my friend, because when I got there, it wasn't so much of a market as it was a carnival!  It was huge and had everything from food to games, to clothes, to shops, to drinks, to books, and more!  Here's what it looked like when I walked in:

Obviously I can't do it justice from a picture, but the place was about 5 square blocks of crowded vendors.  The place was so clean.  People actually used strategically placed garbage cans!  It wasn't all fun and games, though. I'd be lying if I said the stench of openly frying squid didn't wander into my nose.  I don't know how you feel, but when I get a whiff of that, it sure makes me think that sea animals were never meant to come in contact with fire.  Anyway, you know what they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words," so, let's pretend that I'm not actually lazy and here's a handfull of highlights with some captions.

Here's a (very typical) booth where you pick out a bunch of freshly-kabobed meat and vegatables and they're grilled up right in front of you.  This kind of stand is everywhere, although I don't usually see the vendors being so hygenic.  They wore gloves and cleaned meticulously!  Also, the meat and vegetables looked so fresh, not like they were grown in somebody's basement under a blacklight as they often do.

Trust me, the stir-fry station at Earhart Dining Hall has nothing on this guy.

Sushi?? At the night market?? Yes, it's true.  And honestly, it looked good.  They were rolling it right behind the stand.  I didn't try it though, for a couple of reasons. First, because there is a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant right near where I live where every plate is one dollar.  So...that's already pretty satisfying.  Second, their sushi choices were limited especially for the chosen people, if you catch my drift.  Third, Taiwan and I are very new in our relationship, and even though things are going well, I'm just not sure about the safety of the street sushi.  Seems like a bit of an unnecessary risk.  You're welcome, Mom and Dad. For what it's worth, though, it did look delicious and clean, and aside from general raw-fish-off-the-street concerns there wasn't anything that made me worry about it.  Instead, I tried this:

Pakistani samosas!  This guy from Pakistan set up shop in the night market and was hand-making samosas.  I bought a beef one for $1.  (USD not NTD, as is every price I will ever list here.  Taiwan's currency is also called the dollar).  It was delicious!  After basically inhaling it, I needed something to wash it down with.  Fortunately, I found a guy making juice from tall stalks of sugarcane!

He was taking the stalks in the back, stripping off the outer layer, and shoving them through the juicer in front.  Then he would take a big jug of the juice and pour it into cups and add a squirt of lemon juice.  He gave me a free sample, and it was pretty decent, so I bought a cup.  I especially love this picture because it looks like Rosie from The Jetsons is throwing up into a bag.  Sleep it off, honey, we've all been there. 

And that's what a cup of sugarcane juice looks like.  Would I drink it again? Probably not, because if you know me, you know that there is simply no better juice than grapefruit juice.  Well...let's give honorable mentions to pineapple juice and lemonade.  Anyway, here's a look at some of the games they had at the night market!

The first one is some kind of Mahjhong/bingo hybrid.  People seemed to be having fun but it looked a little overwhelming to me.  And don't even ask me whats up with the giant stuffed yellow guy you can win.  What do you even DO with that? Is that for a child??

The second one is a game of ring-toss on crack where you buy a bucket of rings and if you get one around any of the items, you win it.  The picture isn't super clear, but in the foreground all of the glass jars have goldfish in the them, and the bottles in the back are all beers from around the world.  The last picture is some kind of game that reminded me of Skee-ball but is clearly totally different and I didn't understand it at all.  Like most games in Asia, these had spinning lights and loud noises and I was totally overwhelmed and walked away.

Let me leave you with this gem, taken at a t-shirt stand:

 I'm happy to report that even Taiwan is not devoid of hilarious English mistakes.  If I had to guess, I'd say Massachubatts is somewhere between the states of New Yorp and Vermouth. 

So, the verdict?  The Nankan Night Market is awesome.  Now I know what I'm doing ever Tuesday and Saturday night.  It's clean, people are friendly, and there are tons of snacks to sample and games to play!  And now, it's bed time, and I'm sure I will dream about either what fruit I'm going to eat tomorrow, or Paul Rever's ride through Bostom.