Showing posts with label Huasi Tourist Night Market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huasi Tourist Night Market. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Adventures in I-Ching

Aren't they cute?!
On Friday night I took the boys to Snake Alley. A fortune teller called us over and in perfect English offered to answer questions for $100NT a pop. Is this "eye-ching?" I asked, using my best gringo pronunciation, as I've forgotten how the Chinese say it.

Curiosity outweighed shyness, and the boys lined up. Always the more adventurous, Ricky went first. The lady had him write down a bunch of information - his address, phone number, age, parents names, etc.
Then she asked him what he wanted to know. Ricky shrugged his shoulders and with a goofy grin said, "My wife?"
From I-Ching

Okay, that's a long ways out, but I'll see what the I-Ching tells me, the woman said, and she set to tapping away on the circular board.
tap tap tap
These guys gathered around to watch my goofy brothers

She told Ricky he would meet a woman of "marriage potential" when he is 25. They'll meet in an academic setting, she said. But they'll both be very career-focused at that time, Ricky more so than the lucky lady. The woman will be athletic and smart. Then the woman said he could ask again in 15 years whether or not she was the one.

Billy asked about the future of his band.
From I-Ching
The teller said it is a "practice band" and not to worry too much about the future. Her assistant had a premonition about Billy in a movie.
From I-Ching

And that was that.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Snake-a-Snake-a-Snake!

Is that a feeder bunny I see on the right?

On Lily's last night we went out to Taipei's most touristy night market, Snake Alley, where people go to admire and/or eat snakes.

Just like my Uncle Indiana, I'm not a big fan of the snake. But I managed to cowboy up and ingest some.

Snakes are about as delicious as they are cute.


Lily one-upped me and had two bites.
The meat was icky. Very chewy. Not flavorful. One bite was enough. Our meal also came with a shot of snake blood, snake bile and snake poison.

From Snake-a-Snake-a-Snake!

The "poison" and the "bile" just tasted like booze, so I suspect there was just a tiny bit, if any, of the actual snake stuff in it.

The rest of the table passed on "bile."




!

The blood was disgusting, and by far my least favorite part of the meal. It had some sort of herbs in it.

Dinner on Display!
It was a quirky way to top off a great weekend with Lily. She's somewhere over the Pacific now, bound for Los Angeles. I was sad to see her go.

Videos of all the snake-eating tomfoolery are posted on my YouTube.