At the Market

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet one of my step mom's old friends. Her name is Tiffany, and she lives in New Zealand. She is in Taiwan right now for the holiday, and she kindly offered to take me around. First, we went to the Ning Xia night market. Right before the holiday, all of the vendors begin selling food and decorations for Chinese New Year, and the market is open during the day. It is normally packed with people preparing for the holiday, and yesterday was no exception.

Here is the entrance to the night market

This night market is in the oldest part of Taipei. The buildings here are either very old and very beautiful, or very new and chic.

The majority of the things sold in the New Year's market are food items

wax apples

some kind of fruit puff thing

sugar cane juice

I finally got to try the sugar cane juice, it is interesting. It is a little bit sweet, and it has a somewhat earthy taste. It is pretty much exactly the way that you would think sugar cane juice would taste.

chicken steaks

lottery

Squid on a stick

These are rice puffs that are covered in different toppings, like nuts or wasabi.

Here I am in the market with sugar cane juice

Here I am in the market with out sugar cane juice.

There were several stands that were selling a wide variety of dried fruits and vegetables. People were giving out free samples and I was able to try some. I tried dried apple chips, and dried papaya, which is nothing too special. I also had dried green beans and mushrooms, and those were delicious. I was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful they were even dried, and there wasn't anything "weird" about the flavor at all. They were something that you could easily snack on by itself. I was really impressed.

this is dried meat, like jerky

Dried foods seem to be the theme here. Up next, is dried fish. and dried pork

a closer look at the dried squid

These are rice puffs that are seasoned, so they are kind of the Chinese equivalent of potato chips, but much better.

This cowboy was pointing people towards a candy shop

These are strange tortilla chip-type things. Except they aren't crunchy, they are chewy. I don't know what they are made of. I didn't like them all that much because of the texture. I just couldn't get past the thought that they were supposed to be crunchy.

candy

Chinese medicine shop

nuts

dried fruits

shrimp crackers, these actually are crunchy

more candy

It's the cowboy's candy shop!

There was a news station filming the crowds

These paper-thin sheets are dried jellyfish.

Dried Pork Paper. Just as the name would suggest, it is super
 dry pork in paper thin slices that are crunchy and flavorful.

nougaty nut bars

sausage

These are advertised as "German-style Pork Knuckles"
I don't know what pork knuckles are, but they do look good.

more candy

I think that this is dried fruit, it was gummy
though, instead of crunchy like the others

This is a bucket full of crushed black sesame seeds

packaged eggs

packaged dried squid

this is some kind of herb

This guy is writing auspicious words on Chinese New Year decorations

Little New Year's cakes

more pork paper

The green in the middle there is rolled-up, steamed seaweed

After the Chinese New Year's market, Tiffany took me to Xindian to see an old bridge. Xindian is in the Southernmost part of Taipei, and it forms the border between Taipei City and Taipei County. It is home to several nature trails and scenic areas.

here is the bridge

Bitan is the name of the scenic area of Xindian

more bridge

on the mountain side, was this house far from any others

This house was in a similar state, the two houses were the only
buildings in that area that were visible from the bridge.

Here are the buildings along one bank

there are the MRT tracks spanning the river

Here is the river

you could rent paddle boats, and a lot of people were out doing that 

There was a lone Taiwanese flag sticking out of the water

The river was jade green. I've never seen a river that color before

Upon reaching the other side of the river, we walked along one of the trails.

"mountain trail" in Taiwan means stairs.
An endless succession of stairs. 

The place was crawling with caterpillars. I
 guess the weather was perfect for these little guys.

Here is one of the houses that we could see from the bridge

It was a great trip, and I'm really glad that Tiffany took me to see all of these places.

When I got back from Xindian, I had to pack up to go to South Taiwan. I am currently writing this from a small town in Taiwan's country side. I will post pictures of this area tomorrow. Until then!