Ron Gifford's (boringly titled) Blog

Taipei is well-known for its night markets -- known locally as "streets of snacks."  Imagine a narrow street with food vendors on both sides, mixed in with little retail shops and lots of people, and that's a night market.  Our tour guide gave us this advice:  "only eat with your eyes; you might find the foods don't agree with your stomach." 

My wife and I set out with Rich and Lisa Jones to explore the night market near our hotel.  Notwithstanding our tour guide's admonition, Rich and I were determined to try some scorpion on a stick.  Perhaps lucky for us, we never found the scorpions.  Lots of feet and beaks and other unfamiliar animal body parts, but no scorpions.  I can tell you this, however:  stinky tofu is well-named.  Parts of the street just reeked with the pungent odor of this local treat.  

As unusual and different as this was for us, I can only imagine what Chinese visitors to our community might blog about if they experienced all of the food vendors on the main drag of the Indiana state fair on a Saturday night.  Just think about all the weird stuff we eat off of sticks!  If only I spoke Mandarin, I would google "deep fried twinkie on a stick" to see what showed up on Chinese reviews of Indianapolis.