Night Market Food Poisoning

Friday after work we had some of our friends from the ward come by our apartment and pick us up on their mopeds to take us to the night market. There are two night markets in Changhua. One is somewhat close to our work and we frequent that one on occasion. The other market is much larger and better but it is also farther away--too far to ride there on bikes, hence the need for the mopeds.

Amy was my personal chauffeur for the evening.

She was not only a fantastic driver but a fun friend to hang out with as well.

Even though I have lived in Asia for a combined total of 7 months of my life (5 months in China and 2 months in Taiwan) I had never ridden on a moped before, so I was quite excited. It was an interesting experience to see my city from the back of a moped. With the warm wind whipping my hair and the bumps of the road coming in quick succession as we sped along, I was able to take in the night lights of Changhua like never before.

Once we arrived at the market, the fun began. We were told that this night market was larger than the one we were used to but the extent to the size difference was understated in my opinion. After wandering around for only a few minutes we were lost; our frame of reference lost amongst the endless sea of stalls and shoppers.

Oyster Omelette for everyone to share

Family photo

Twist potato stand

They stretch the potato out and make it super long and add seasonings

Josh and Kim got a seaweed twist potato

Rice Sausage stand that definitely maybe food poisoned me...

Chocolate Crepe

Carnival games

 

There were all sorts of plushie prizes

Kim and Megan played a ring toss game together

Kim won a key chain at the ring toss game

It came in this weird baby bottle container

We love to get these little character waffle things at our night market too. They're like spongy cake that has a slight vanilla/almond taste. They're super yummy and you can get them in batches of 4 or 8.

These are the cast iron molds that they make the waffle things in.

With our bellies bursting with too much food and the evening's festivities over, we were driven home. But wait, there's more. Though the fun ended there, the night sure didn't. I felt completely normal, aside from being full from eating too much, up until about an hour and a half after we got home. That's when I started feeling awful. The feeling came on incredibly quickly too. It turns out that I had consumed something unsavory during our night market trip (my money is on the rice sausage) and I had become food poisoned. I spent half of the night ridding myself of the poison, but honestly as far as food poisoning stints go this one wasn't bad at all. I've been food poisoned plenty of times and this was one of the better times, so I really can't complain.

I also want it on record that I made it 2 solid months in country before getting food poisoned. That's a marked improvement over my last trip to Asia, where I got food poisoned within hours of being in China. Taiwan has been far more welcoming than China was just off the bat.