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Tonight, two friends took me to Taipei's biggest night market, Shilin Night Market. It's located towards the top of Taipei, making it about a forty to forty-five minute drive from my grandparents' apartment, which is at the south end of the city. During the drive up, the three of us sipped Starbucks and listened to American greats like Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas. I proudly mentioned that Lady Gaga attended NYU and studied drama just like me, then ashamedly admitted I do not know her personally.
Finally we reached Shilin Night Market, which is a collection of long, brightly-lit streets covered in food stands, clothing stores and PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE. We parked the car and immediately dove into a never-ending food mine, where we sat and ate egg with shrimp and oysters, "chong tofu" (smelly tofu) and sausage wrapped in sticky rice. Bellies stuffed, we paid, stood, walked for ten minutes and bought dessert. Dessert was "dou hua," or "bean flower," a squishy, odd-but-still-delicious white substance that was softer than tofu. The "dou hua" was mixed with shaved ice and "lu dou," or green bean. Not the same green beans that we all hate as children. These green beans are sweet like the red bean and are small and round, not long and stringy. It was so yummy: not very sweet and totally refreshing.
Ended the night with a trip to the pet store (obvi) and a forty minute drive home, Black Eyed Peas blasting.
As all of you know, China (and more specifically, Taiwan) is a big part of my heritage. My mother was born in China but raised in Taipei, Taiwan. (FYI, my father was born in Philadelphia but raised in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. So kind of the same.) All of my mother's immediate family still resides in Taipei: my grandparents, my aunt, my uncle, their children and their children's children. I'm going to Taipei this summer for seven full weeks (from May 28-July 15) to live with them, become familiar with their Taiwan lifestyle and finally learn to speak some Mandarin.
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