Be Afraid

Do you see this picture? Do you know what it is? SQUID!! And guess what, me (yes me) tried some tonight! It didn't really have any flavor but was just super chewy. We had it cut up in a salad, I tried a ring looking piece and then one of the tentacles with all the suction things. I was told that I should try it like this at the night market, it is very good bbq'ed...we will see.

Fish and Paper wanted to make us dinner one more time before we left, tonight was the most logical so they came over to make us some Thai and Indian food (Paper really likes to cook and experiment). They made some curry with coconut milk, a papaya salad, and then the salad with the squid (the rest of the salad was actually quite yummy- I even had seconds!)

Markets

My dearest Mother gently complained that I have not really showed pictures or what a market is, when I was describing it once a few weeks ago she said "oh, that's completely different than I imagined." So when we went downtown with Yuling I took many pictures to show a "market," now this is just a general shopping market, with a little bit of everything...there is also specific markets just for fruit, just for vegetables, food, clothes, stones, meat, etc. but hopefully this will give you a general idea.

Food Adventures

Last week sometime Andrea and I decided to be adventurous and try something new at the night market...first when we went to get our fruit drinks Donald suggested that we try what he called House of Leek, he said that it was really good for when our bodies were hot and that it would cool it down, we both got one (I have labeled it as Green Slime :D). It actually turned out to be pretty good and the last several times that I have gone to get juice that is what I have ended up getting.
Next we had to try something different for our main entree...we decided to try one of stands where you take a bowl and pick what you want and they will cook it for you, well we discovered that there are several different types of those and we went to one that did just deep fat frying. We both got some chicken and potatoes, Andrea got what ended up being fish and I got for us to split some sweet (wasn't very sweet but a little weird being deep fat fried). It was all really yummy but way too much fatty foods to eat together, when we were done Andrea and I both felt a little sick- we rushed to get some fruit and vegetables to help us feel a little healthier :D
It wasn't a bad adventure but we will be a little more prepared next time to try a different kind of booth or to just pick one item that we want to try.

The pictures are...my dinner-potatoes and fried chicken, the green slime (yummy house of leek with pineapple I believe), and the sweet fried stuff (the lady kept on trying to tell us that it was good but we weren't going to jump at something that we couldn't even begin to identify, so finally she called a friend and told us that it was "sweet" and that was all that she told us, but we were brave and went for it :D)
I was adventurous and tried something else this past week, while Andrea was tutoring Vanessa's sister I was going to run down to the night market and get us dinner, Vanessa's Mom offered to drive me over, it was fun to have her walk around with me and explain what things were--- I tried what she called a spring roll, it was more like a soft burrito, it wasn't my favorite and it probably wont be something that I will try again, but hey I tried it once!

Skillet Dinner

Tonight when Natalie finished her 9pm tutoring we were both hungry as we hadn't had any dinner, we decided to head to the night market. When we got there we were kind of wanting to try something new, the old stuff is getting just that, old. We saw these skillet places (I don't really know what they are called but that is what I have tried to call them) where they heat these black skillet plates and make them really hot before putting your food on them. I think that they also then reheat them with the food on because when they bring the food out it is sizzling. Natalie and I thought that they looked interesting and had stopped to watch a guy finish making a plate for someone when a guy walked up and asked if we would like some help, we said yes and thanked him. He was looking at the menu and so we thought that he was reading off the menu to us, we explained what we wanted and he repeated it as if double checking. Once he was for sure what we wanted he said "this way please," and pointed to the skillet stand on the other side of the row. It took me a moment to figure out what was happening but then I realized that we had totally be tricked, though it was kind of funny. We did go with him and ordered food there (as he spoke English and we find it's always a little bit easier if someone knows English beside us). We found it pretty funny how smooth the guy had been in getting us over there, we thought the food was really good (though mine was a little spicy-- it had a black pepper sauce on top), but we don't think that we will go again, we felt really awkward as they kept on watching us and every few seconds two or three people would walk up to our table and just stand over us watching, randomly spitting out something in Chinese. Then the guy would come over and translate telling us that we were doing one thing or other wrong or that we should do it this way. We were glad that we tried it but probably wont go again.
P.S. Oops I forgot to tell you what the food was...I had noodles, with a egg and then chicken and sauce on top (for some reason they really like the sauce here). Natalie had noodles with a egg and then some spaghetti sauce.

~Bethered~