Taipei evenings
i came home from the paper at 10.30 or so tonight. walking with lady d and impression-on-the heart down one of the streets just by our lane, i realized another reason why i like taipei. this street, like so many other streets, becomes a veritable food market at night, with ten-fifteen foodstalls on the sidewalk. if you don't bring your stuff home, you sit at tables in the street, the night time outdoor restaurant. it's crowded. peckish taipei residents double park their cars to buy their late evening snack - there is a national weakness for late evening snacks.
we bought some spicy deepfried chicken chunks and squid and walked a bit further down the street to buy a few skewers of lamb, xinjiang style, fairly spicy, too. the lady who runs the place is from xinjiang. she came here after marrying a taiwanese man probably twice her age. they stay open till three in the morning. she roasts it over charcoal, and the seasoning tastes just like it did when i used to have it in beijing, where the uigurs could (and still can, i guess) be found on almost every street corner in winter.
after getting a beer to go with it, we walked home, passing by what is a traditional vegetable market in the mornings, but is turned into a food stall with seating in the indoor market place at night. tonight, there was a group of four or five old men sitting there, eating, drinking beer and chinese rice liquor, talking and playing the fingers game, shouting out the numbers. really loud, the only way to play that game and have a good time. the looser drinks. i'm fairly sharp at it when i'm sober, but when you've lost a couple of rounds, the 50 percent liquor throws your judgment and you're gone. i try not to play it if i can avoid it at all.