Holy crap I'm having some serious flashbacks! I've been to Shilin three of four times and I actually recognize some of the specific stands in the pictures. I used to go to the Nan-Shih-Jiao night market almost nightly, and this post brings back all those memories! I am surprised that you mentioned the "stinky tofu" (which really stinks, but tastes great...) but didn't put up a picture!

Great post! Dying of nostalgia currently...

Gotta say, for anyone who has watched Andrew Zimmern on Food Network...an open and neutral mind will allow a whole world of culinary possibilities! Plus, not liking something just because you aren't supposed to isn't a valid excuse to bash it. Huitlacoche looks disgusting, but it's a common food in Central America. If a whole half-continent can find someway to make it work, I owe it to myself to give it a try!

I gotta agree with Kit on the Smelly Tofu comment. Smells up to high heaven a mile away...and is fermented also. I love them though. Every time I go home to Taiwan I get a bowl right out of the street vendors.

I've noticed that these "weird food" reviews always have one thing in common: They tend to eat just one sample preparation from one source and call it the definitive opinion.

Heck, if I got food poisoning the first time I tried a Subway sandwich I'd start to think it was horrible all the time too...

Here are some things to bear in mind about the WBS and Fred Phelps:

1) Of the 71 confirmed members, 60 are related to Phelps by blood or marriage.
2) Phelps himself was AWARDED by the NAACP back in the 1980's for civil rights work in Kansas, bearing in mind that:
a) He was permanently disbarred by the Kansas State Board of Law Examiners in 1979, and...
b) He was forced to stop practicing in Federal Court as part of a lawsuit settlement in 1985.
3) Four of his estranged children have publicly denounced him as a CULT leader.

If you look at Phelps and the congregation that supports him, a pattern emerges. This is a cult of the personality focusing on a certifiable hate-addict (not my idea, btw). There has to something seriously psychological wrong with this man. He was once a champion for African-American rights, and an outspoken opponent of the Jim Crow Laws in Kansas.

Now he is a hate-mongering tyrant...

I abhor his words, but I truly, truly pity the man...

While the woman was obviously lacking in professionalism, it does not dismiss the core fact that the kid does not show any remorse for costing his family $20,000 in fines.

He's pretty much the typical contemporary teenager: Entitled, unapologetic, and more concerned with being liked than being responsible...but is that his fault or his parents'?

No kid does this while the parents are away without some responsibility bearing on the parents, which is why they are the ones being fined.

Anyone else feel a little swindled by the $100 Million films we pay to see?