First Days, nap time

After arriving to Sorel's clean, cool and cozy apartment, I took a shower and we went off to a night market! these are outdoor food courts that are open between 5 or 6pm and midnight and sell what my friend Stephen described as "carnival food"- dishes that are prepared quickly and in a particular theme. It is cheap, quick, and easy to get meals like this, and it is not just limited to late nights- there are markets that open early in the morning and in the afternoon that sell produce and dishes more suited to meals during those times.

This was the perfect place to take me at first. Sorel took me through the alleys and side streets of their neighborhood, giving me a sense of orientation but also a hint of the complexity of the winding streets between each major road in the city. And we were accompanied by their companion, Barktholemew, aka Thollie aka Smols- a large white dog that will appear in basically every photo hereafter.

On the way to the market we stopped at a shrine and bowed to the local guardian god. I'm sure I'll wax on about how beautiful this religious practice style is...but for now here's just a pic to demonstrate.

This is the entrance to the Nanjichang night market (called South Airport Market, former site of a local airport). We walked through it, I became not completely overwhelmed by choices, and we made some purchases.

The main dish was a Taiwanese sausage (sweet, chunky meat) with a bun made of glutenous rice, with variety of toppings- I choose garlic chives, picked radish greens, and basil leaves. We also got a bowl of chicken broth soup with rice noodles and a typical cucumber salad. We finished up the night with a papaya milk for me and a kiwi juice for S. Thanks for the rec, Luke, to get the papaya milk! It was so mild and soothing.

On the way home we stopped at a pet food store with an amazing collection of figurines to get kibble for Smols and I took pictures of this apartment block stairway.

Then I passed out, only to awaken at 4am full of life!

I waited until 630 or so to start making noise and woke up Sorel who was very accomodating to my jetlagged carcass. We got a congee with century egg and mustard greens at a small stand and some black tea, then walked the dog and tossed the ball for him. Sorels apartment is next to a morning market so we walked through that on the way home and I got some eggplant dish and they got some nuts and fruits. I had been wanting to try a century egg and I am glad I did because I quickly foundout that I don't love the texture of flavor. But I continue to love congee and eggplant!

This all happened before like 8am and nothing else was open besides breakfast places, so we went home, rested and then went back out around 10 when more things were open. They got me a spare key to the apartment, and we visited LongShan Temple, one of the oldest religious sites in the country and a major tourist destination. The sign in the images below give some history.

After that we stopped at a store that sold household goods and I peeped these fun lightbulbs.

We stopped to eat lunch at a Vietnamese cafe that was so lovely and calming after an overwhelming errand. And I ate a vegetable~

Went home, took a nap into the nightime. Sorel went out and revived me with a milk tea with TENDER INCREDIBLE BOBA. So much better than the Charles Village Kung Fu tea

I was able to get my act together to leave the house, and we walked to Youth Park, where the dog posed and then we crossed paths with a regular group of night time dogs+owners and did some chatting. Well, Sorel did the chatting. I nodded and smiled when ever anyone said "American" or "Friend" and I petted the dogs. I also went into this lovely rec center in the park to use a bathroom and saw someone carting around what I thought initially was an injured person but turned out to just be a teaching dummy.

We walked through the night market again and got some popcorn chicken and luobogao (radish/turnip cake) and stinky tofu, a dish with fermented tofu that is then fried. The stand that sold the tofu knows Sorel by their dog and offered us a place to sit in their small seating area of the stall...unfortunately it smelled like straight rotten urine due to a bathroom next to it, and when SJ asked if we could move they were QUICK to accomodate because it was clear it was a nasty stench...the area that we ended up eating in was less intense but it still was not the most appetitizing situation. The food was great though.

We ended the night with a banana milk and a strawberry milk. We walked past the same pet store and Thollie was so sad that we did not need to go in!

The next day involved two naps but I feel like this is long enough so I'll save that for the next post.