Going to the Night Market

Night markets are a must-do if you are in China.  We learned of one and received the following responses:

Mr. Hu:  "The food is not very good."

WJ:  "Don't go; you'll get mugged."

Jacky:  "Go!  You'll have fun!"

Two of the three were right.  

I took lots of pictures which could never do the experience justice-- there are just some sensations that you can't capture in a picture...the smells, mostly not horrid except the stinky tofu..the heat from the cooking + the already hot and humid evening....the shouting of people selling their items...the chatter of hundreds of the people, the stares from people--they can't get over the girls.  I also didn't take pictures of people eating which is a whole other experience---the slurping of long noodles, the devouring of things with feet and eyeballs and antennae, the little kids with chopsticks; the incredulous fact that you get gloves to eat your pizza and French fries, yet you eat very sloppy food with bare hands and no napkins.....  Clearly a very different way of thinking here.

This was mostly a food market and the aisles between the vendors were maybe 10 ft across, super close for the number of people and the heat the cookers put off.  We wove through in single file; getting lost only a few times.  I wanted to take better pictures, but sometimes the push of the crowd just didn't allow it. There were probably 3 aisles of food, then a larger section with sit-down type restaurants.  There were small carnival rides and carnival games and a few shops with cheap things and knock off brands.  And with that little introduction, let's get started!  

To enter, we had to wait in a longish line to scan the health code.

The food aisles:

First we're greeted by lovely things on sticks:

Candied fruit on a stick--pretty good unless they are tomatoes!

Then we met up with some not so lovely things on sticks:

This item is not the worst thing--the yellow spiral on a stick is a type of sweet potato, but it's probably not seasoned so while it looks fun and quite edible, it likely wouldn't be enjoyable--but more enjoyable than the forthcoming items.

A variety of things in a sauce--hot dogs, chicken? mushrooms? seaweed? intestines?

Legs with suction cups on them in different formats---sliced, small or large.  Take your pick!

More leggies with suction cups, baby sting rays (or something that looks like that...)

Some creepy crawlies

There were hanging things:

Baked things--all look quite safe:

Things in shells, foil, bins and intestines:

The fruit always looks good!

How does one eat a starfish??

Leek stuffed intestines, we think....

Stinky things:  (stinky tofu)

And everything else you ever wanted:

Pets

Fake Nikes

Socks

Succulents

Fruits and vegetables

Shoes

Jewelry & hair bands

Bright colored plastic

Flowers

Here's what we ate:  fried chicken

Two kinds of deep fried breaded chicken: spicy and sweet

Ice cream in a puffy waffle cone thingy:

Fruit in a bowl

Ice cream cubes to eat with a stick

Other than food, the only thing we bought was:

for Tessa. $45.  Could have gotten them for cheaper, but Tom forgot he could talk them down.

I had someone ask me to take a selfie with her.  She had on a filter on her camera that gave us both bright red lipstick and eye brows.  (Of course.)  I hope that there was light in my eyes since we all know it will end up on her "WeChat moments"....

And in case you were wondering.....the food wasn't really great; we didn't get mugged but we did have a really good time!