Night Markets

Suppose it were possible for the city of Las Vegas and a farmers market to conceive a child. The deviant offspring of this preposterous conception would be a night market. Night markets: the perfect union between the strange and the stranger, alley upon alley of bright lights and neon signs, walkways bursting at the sides with visitors shuffling by, the shopping malls of peculiar things, where vendors, artisans and shop keeps peddle their wares at a low low price, just for you. Virtually everything you would never need to survive after a nuclear holocaust can be bought in a night market, but for good measure, everything else is there too. You can eat things you in no way ever imagined to be edible or go shopping for underwear. You can play carnival games or purchase your very own new puppy. The latest trends in trucker hats and hip-hop fashion, and everything weird from Japan is at your disposable, and don't forget to negotiate when you buy that over sized stuffed panda bear.

There is, however, many a practical side to the night market. At 11pm, when nothing else in the neighborhood is open, I stop by the Shida night market after work for a quick bite to eat. The variety can be quite intimidating: noodles, dumplings, barbecued meat on a stick, fried everything on a stick, rice, pancakes, omelets, lots of Taiwanese foods that have no English names, and of course, Burger King. And while I'm there for dinner, I can pick up school supplies if I need them, buy some tea, or grab a new pair of argyle socks. You just never know what you're going to come home with when you go to a night market, which is both incredibly and terribly awesome. For instance, the other day I came home with a box of fried rice, a bottle of water, and a small Godzilla action figure. Good for the soul, not so good for the wallet.