Shilin Night Market

Last night I went to the silin night Market and picked up some food....there are little night markets all over the place, full of carts selling assorted food (much of which looks totally nasty/unsanitary....the worst have to be the Stinky Tofu carts, however....they smell like concentrated garbage/open sewer....I've seen locals turn up their nose at these), but the Shilin one is the largest/most famous.

On the right is a bubble tea place where I has a bubble tea for about $1US. I also ate some shumei dumplings (delicious) and a strange Taiwanese version of a hot dog where a sausage is served using some sort of large rice sausage as the bun. It tasted OK, but was a bit greasy and not the most convenient to eat (rice sausage is not as as ideal as a bread bun). I also ate a donut at a nearby Mister Donut, a Japanese donut chain (the donut was only OK...maybe that's why the place is called "Mister donut" and not "Donut King" or something like that)

Close to the Night Market were a couple of street filled with shoppers. And lots of claw machines. I don't have a picture of these, but they are all over and are quite different than the American version. Most notably, after the claw is raised, it releases immediately, making transport to the hole imossible. Basically, you have to knock the prizes into the hole (generally, they're placed near the edge to give people any sort of chance). I played a couple of dollars, and won two small stuffed animal key chains (one's an alien, the other is some sort of egg lady).

Here are photos of the shopping streets (sorry for the blurriness):