Tonights adventures are dedicated to Joanna! She’s stuck at school in Texas while the rest of her siblings are running around Taiwan and Africa or living in Vancouver Island paradises. So we officially dedicate the evening’s eatings and seeings to her.
Our friends Zhī-líng (a.k.a ‘Sunny’) and Wén-dí (his English name is Andy… don’t call him Wendy) took us out to the Keelung (ji1-lung2) Night Market, located in the port city of Keelung. In addition to the usual night market fair, Keelung Night Market has a huge temple and tons of seafood. This night we finally got close enough to the cho4do4fu3 (‘stinky tofu’) to try it – even though the acrid cloud of malevolent fumes always claws its way down your throat long before the actual dofu is in visual range – along with oyster omelettes, intestine soup, and various other assorted drinks and steamed balls containing we-don’t-know-exaclty-what-but-we’re-pretty-sure-it-came-from-the-ocean. (We didn’t have our note pad with us this time, so the details are a little vague.) We found out where you buy huge live frogs to eat at home (but they’ll kill it for you there), and get bitter melon smoothies (the bumpy cucumber-looking things by the blenders). It’s always lots of fun to run around, try some more Mandarin, and of course, eat our way through several city blocks of foreign food. Wish you were here!
You can read about this night market trip here:
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You guys are more brave that I would ever be!! That stuff looks disgusting… i’m impressed that you keep going back to try even grosser stuff than you ate last time…impressed and also wondering if they have you under some sort of curse. :) Hope you are having a good time. i’m glad you got a chance to take a break from studying!! :)
but you’re a nurse, Tami! You have to deal with more nasty stuff in one shift than we see in a week… though you don’t put that stuff in your mouth, so maybe we’re even.
AHHHHH!!! TENTACLES!!!!
Ok… here’s the westerner in me… No tentacles here… and if there’s the possibility of tentacles, they’re usually batter dipped and fried to oblivion. I have to give you guys the “IRON STOMACH” award! Somewhat like the Oscars, but worse smelling and nowhere near as prestigious.
Sounds like great fun, though. I wish I could be there… instead I’m drinking my freshly brewed (sorry!!) coffee and eating a Krispy Kreme doughnut… Oh, poor me!
Love you both!
Since when did you start drinking coffee????? (= Don’t apologize for it though. Meredith sent us four lovely bags of Starbucks coffee…and we have 2.5 left!!! (= So we get fresh brewed coffee every day now.
Such a nice blessing.
We didn’t actually eat the tentacles last night…though we had some when we were in Hong Kong! Those ones were neon orange. And I know what you mean though, about tentacles being on the “off” list…I had a hard time trying it, too. They’re not bad. They don’t taste like chicken though…and they’re much, much chewier.
Since I became an elementary school speech therapist and had to get up at 6am regularly… I still suck at being a morning person. Pretty much as soon as I had Sydney and was ALLOWED to have caffeine again, I started up the habit again. Now… I totally sympathize with your “What does coffee do?? Coffee makes teacher happy” conversation. I’ve realized that without my joe, I’m a rather grumpy teacher… and with it, I can bear almost any child for the half hour that they’re in my room.
Yeah… I don’t imagine tentacles would be chicken-like in any way…For me, it’d be the texture. I can’t even handle SHRIMP texture… how could I handle the tentacular suckers?? =)
Alright, congratulations you are really accamating to Taiwan.
???????????? I am proud of your two.
David
Great to see your sweet faces!
.. I LOVED the pictures.. I have been using some of your pics for reference photos for my artwork (chinese garden).. think I will throw in a lantern or two .. so is stinkydufo worse than sauerkraut and liver? whats it taste like? HEY… have you started having chinese food cravings? Like being hungry and craving a donut but instead its something chinese?
looks good, but not as good as you two. The orient has been ever so good to ya.
In case anyone is wondering, David said,
which means something like,
Wish you guys were here!
i feel so special!! :) ewww that stuff looks worse than curry, chili, and even joel’s nasty “eggbarf”. you guys are so brave!!
You are special, with or without the stinky dofu! But don’t worry, no frogs were harmed in the making of the chodofu… I think.
Hey by the way, remember how we used to put malt vinegar, chili powder, paprika, and all the other spices mom had in our Mr. Noodles? Well, they have noodle dishes here that taste just like that. It’s great!
that’s disgusting. I may have to deal with gross stuff being a nurse but it definately is cancelled out in comparison because there is NEVER a thought to put ANY of it in my mouth.Judging by some of the things you have said, some of the stuff you’re putting in your mouth could smell like some of the stuff I deal with which is DISGUSTING!! But as I am reminded of the Mr Noodles and eggbarf…sometimes it may not be an as much of an adjustment for Joel :)
Wow, this brings a whole new meaning to Chinese Food for me! I can’t imagine Little Panda ever selling any of that stuff–especially those pickled looking frogs! Your next adventure should be trying to cook and each one of those! The whole frog thing just reminds me of middle school science, dissection, and the smell of formaldehyde (sp?). Well I am so proud of your two for trying the smelly food. I honestly think that you will get more out of your experience there if you step out of your comfort zone and try things like that. Love ya!
~Abi
Abi,
there’s enough personal info on here that people could figure out who we are without too much effort. We don’t allow our last names or the acronyms/full names of our schools so as to stay out of the search engines. If anyone is determined to find out about us, then they’ll have the ability. We just don’t want to stick a big flashing sign out there point to our site and our personal details (like our education).
Ha! If you haven’t already, you should check these out:
First Trip to the Night Market!
Meet the P.E.I. team, & nasty surprise
Chicken feet (our first day on the job, I think)
Random Dinner Adventures – Episode 1