Taiwan: Danshui Night Market

I live in Danshui, but it took me until a couple of days before my sister had to leave Taiwan to visit the Danshui night market. I only have one excuse: there's too much to do (eat) in Taiwan. Anyway, my sister and I grabbed my cousin and his girlfriend to check out Danshui Friday night:

This is going to sound silly, but another one of my favorite night market snacks is fried mushrooms:

I usually get a mixed order, but my favorite has to be the enoki mushrooms:

We also stopped for some takoyaki:

Forgive the ugly flash photo:

I demanded a cup of passion fruit juice with basil seeds:

I made my sister find me a shrimp roll stand:

Unfortunately, the shrimp rolls weren't quite what I'd imagined:

I wouldn't recommend getting the shrimp rolls. There wasn't much flavor at all (I couldn't even taste the shrimp) and the rolls were HARD instead of being pleasantly crunchy.

As kids, we would always watch people order Turkish ice cream, but this is the first time we actually got a cone ourselves:

Turkish ice cream is different from regular ice cream in that it's gummy in texture and sticky. The owner scoops up the ice cream with a long metal paddle. Because of the stickiness of the ice cream, he is able to twirl the cone out of your hands everytime you reach for it. A crowd usually gathers to watch his latest victim.

He finally took pity on my sister and let her take the ice cream:

While fun to watch, I wasn't too crazy about the ice cream itself. I prefer my ice cream thick and creamy.

Danshui is a nice place for couples to stroll along the river (much to our bitterness). There are a lot of trinket stores and local specialty shops to check out, not to mention loads of food to try. Definitely a nice scenic change of pace from the busy streets of Taipei.