After the screening, my guide and I left the theater and headed over to Snake Alley, a night market notorious for selling snakes to eat. They also offer snake blood mixed with alcohol to drink for vitality. However, most of the locals think it's gross to eat snakes, and I read on the internet that it's mostly for tourists. Other interesting dishes you can find there include turtle and mouse.
The night markets start around dusk and we arrived a little early, so there wasn't much happening yet. The restaurants seemed to love putting the live snakes out in front to lure people in, but there were signs everywhere saying that we weren't allowed to take photos. A festival volunteer told me she thought it may be because they don't want that kind of cultural publicity.
One restaurant looked like a pet store out front, with glass cages of mice and what looked like hamsters and gerbils. A man was holding a large, beautiful yellow snake. My guide asked him if those critters and the snake were to eat and he said no. So maybe it was just a ploy - who knows.
Another place had a turtle tank out front with aquatic turtles that looked just like the ones I used to have as pets at home. I really don't know why people enjoy seeing the animals that they are about to eat. I know it's supposed to be good because it's "fresh," but bringing back memories of my cute little turtles Sam and Nella did not do the trick for me.
I did manage to get a photo of one of the more interesting items for sale - rooster testicles, supposedly eaten to improve a man's sexual performance.
We also saw Betel Nut, which is also called Taiwanese chewing gum.
It comes from a tree that looks like a palm tree, and locals chew it like tobacco. There are health risks associated with it, such as mouth cancer, etc. However, the substance is not regulated the way that tobacco is and there are no age restrictions on purchasing it.
After snake alley, we went to Taipei's largest and most popular night market called Shihlin. Since it was a weekend and getting a little later, Shihlin was packed.
We walked around the food court and fought the crowds and the heat. Even though it was October, the weather was as hot and humid as July. Inside the food court, there was also an incredible amount of heat coming from open cooking fires. Too cool off, I bought myself some boba (also called bubble tea), a cold and sweet milk tea with big black tapioca balls at the bottom. It's popular in Koreatown here in L.A. so I wanted to try it there. I read online to avoid eating dairy and ice cubes in Taiwan, both of which were in the drink, but I decided to go ahead and "live on the edge." It tasted similar to the boba here in L.A., but the one in Taipei was a little more subtle in its sweetness and the flavor of the tea came through more, which I liked.
After that, my guide insisted I try some stinky tofu soup (pictured above). The heat inside the food area left me wanting anything but something hot and stinky, but since stinky tofu is famous in Taiwan, I wanted to try at least a bite. After we had some, my guide told me that it wasn't that stinky, which I found a little disappointing because I wanted to get the full experience of it before I crossed it off my list. Not that it was ever on my list, but I suppose it is now.
Next we went to a walk-up grill type bar where they cook the food in front of you. I had some beef and veggies and it was exceptionally delicious, in addition to being cheap (the food in Taipei is generally much less expensive).
After that, we walked around and saw some pigs feet (in the photo above). My guide asked if I wanted to try some.
"Does it taste like ham?"
"No...it's chewy..."
"Then no."
I don't suppose I would completely rule it out, but the idea of gnawing on a foot sort of gives me the heebie jeebies. One of my most visual memories from my trip to Hong Kong several years ago is of my friend and her father gnawing on some chicken's feet over dim sum. Now if you've ever seen a chicken's foot (and who hasn't), then you can imagine how hard it might be to extract some food from it. Definitely a lot of gnawing going on there. A pig's foot does look like something actually edible, although if you look closely in this photo below, you can see the foot pad on the right hand side. Maybe the chewy part is just a big callous...
By the shine on those things, they almost look like cinnamon buns, don't they? Almost.
We also saw the big cahonas - bull's balls.
They were huge and...beautiful. The design in them made them look almost like a work of art, like a handmade glass vase.
Other than the chicken and pig's feet, most of what I deemed inedible my guide thought the same about. One stand sold chicken stomachs, which she thought was particularly gross. But after seeing the turtles, mice, and variety of testicles, I didn't think that sounded half bad.
On the metro back to my hotel, my guide and I talked about the grossest things we'd ever eaten. I told her I had alligator once in New Orleans which I thought was pretty good, but she thought that sounded really gross.
"Have you ever eaten snails?" she asked.
"No."
"Did you have that bread at the press conference with the black things on top?"
"Yeah."
"Those were snails."
"...I thought those were olives."
A perfect ending to a perfect day.
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