week 36_Bowling & Shilin Night Market!

After our tea time, we moseyed on along to a bowling alley near Shilin Night Market to spend the afternoon practicing our bowling skills! (Ha ha! Or lack there of...) The hubby had been searching for a bowling alley, and it sounded like fun... but, no wonder he wanted to go bowling! That boy has skills.

If you can't tell, there are FOUR X's next to "J"...

Jason bowled FOUR strikes in a row on the first game! When you bowl three strikes in a row, apparently that is called a turkey... when you bowl four strikes in a row, is there a name for that?! That's alright... I was pretty weak for the first game, but I caught up with him during the second!

That was probably a strike...!

The bowling alley was pretty typical. About what you would expect to find in the US. Not crowded, and a little dated, but clean enough and it was nice to be there without being over crowded by the masses. The name of this place said something like 'Bowling & Gaming Center'...they appeared to have some other arcade games to one side, and possibly billiard tables upstairs?

I understand the pool stick & the 8 ball,
I can get the microphone (Karaoke is pretty big here),
But what is with the banana in the Kings hand???

After Jason beat me again in the third - we were playing for best 2 out of 3 - it was about time to get some dinner anyways. Since we happened to be just across the street from the largest and most well-known night market in Taipei (Shilin Night Market, we've been there before), we decided it would be the perfect spot to grab some very local dinner... And dinner at a night market, is always an adventure...

Name that dish...?

My first purchase was a crispy seafood... pancake? I don't know what the actual name was, but a lot of flat entrees get called "pancakes" here, and I guess I don't blame them - what would these undefined eats be called?! Jason had some steamed baos (doughy buns filled with pork & veggies). I tried to order some grilled corn on the cob that looked delicious! But when the vendor told me the price, I was convinced he was telling me the foreigner price (the 'you don't know any better...' price tag) so even though I asked him to repeat it twice, once in English, I still walked away from the corn. Darn. Maybe next time!

Candied fruit on a stick

In the end, I decided to try some candied fruits on a stick. I see these every time I visit the night market, and always want one - they look so good! The vendors sell strawberries dipped in red hard candy; the strawberries are easy to distinguish by shape and size. They also sell 4 or 5 other fruits dipped in candy... and though I was hoping I'd ordered a stick of cherries, it turned out to be bite sized tomatoes. Yes, I said tomatoes. Those are still a fruit, right? Well, whatever the case they were still tasty! Next time I may go for the obvious fruits...

Day 1 of the birthday weekend = Success.