Dihua Market
After a long afternoon nap yesterday and talking to Kort, I developed the resolve to do some exploring. My destination - Northwest of the Taipei Railway Station, there is district known for its fabric shops and sundry goods, particularly Chinese herbal medicines. The MRT map proved much more useful than the anglicized map that I had been using - en route, passed the Contemporary Art Museum and in the final stretch, took Tacheng Street into the market district which led me by the Xihai City God Temple. This temple hosts the patron god of Taipei which sees many worshippers. In one hand, the god holds an appointment book, and in the other, a walking staff. Young unmarried men and women pray to him to help them find their life partners. Young married couples pray to the god's wife in the hopes that marital harmony will be maintained. Spirit money with the god's image is burned and 3 stick incense offerings are made on the make-shift shrine - an improvised metal table bearing also plates of oranges, fruit, and sweet offerings.
Just beyond the shrine is the beginning of the Dihua market - dried fruits (kiwi, mango, raisins, and the cranberry looking herb that Kort was prescribing Ellen for her eyesight) and herbs, jarred, dessicated seahorse, massive shark jaw and fins for soup, gigantic whole squid. As I walked past the sidewalk vendors, I kept seeing these big brown, ashen donut like shapes. I watched a pedestrian sample a cut-up donut and followed suit. Dried persimmons - like the ones that mom had made in California, sundried herself over a 10-day period in the inland sun. Except these were three times the size. I put down 80NT and bought a box - many of the vendors were selling their wares open air, but after seeing flies land on several of the goods, I went for the packaged version. I am dazzled by the range of fruit and vegetables available to eat but part of me can't help but thinking of Mada's mother on vacation in China - after eating "exotic fruit" she developed heart attack-like symptoms. My own paranoia and germophobia, yes, but health standards here are definitely something else.
Just beyond the shrine is the beginning of the Dihua market - dried fruits (kiwi, mango, raisins, and the cranberry looking herb that Kort was prescribing Ellen for her eyesight) and herbs, jarred, dessicated seahorse, massive shark jaw and fins for soup, gigantic whole squid. As I walked past the sidewalk vendors, I kept seeing these big brown, ashen donut like shapes. I watched a pedestrian sample a cut-up donut and followed suit. Dried persimmons - like the ones that mom had made in California, sundried herself over a 10-day period in the inland sun. Except these were three times the size. I put down 80NT and bought a box - many of the vendors were selling their wares open air, but after seeing flies land on several of the goods, I went for the packaged version. I am dazzled by the range of fruit and vegetables available to eat but part of me can't help but thinking of Mada's mother on vacation in China - after eating "exotic fruit" she developed heart attack-like symptoms. My own paranoia and germophobia, yes, but health standards here are definitely something else.
posted by Shin Yu Pai at 10:38 AM
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