The night market

[randy_byers]

According to the Seattle Times, the International District is experimenting with a night market in Hing Hay Park. The idea is to offer a traditional experience for immigrants and an adventuresome experience for hip young twenty-somethings who might come and spend some money.

Reading the article reminded me of our family trip to Asia in the summer of 1968, when I was still seven. We went to a night market in what must have been Taipei, and two details have always stuck with me. One was that there was piss running in the gutters along the narrow streets, and the other was the snakes in little bamboo cages in the market stalls. I have no idea how real these memories are. I have a lot of strange, disconnected memories from that trip -- a chaotic dim sum expedition in a restaurant in Hong Kong where little English was spoken, feeding the deer by a castle in Japan, topiaries in Bangkok, water buffalo in the Philippines, staring across the strait at Red China, which didn't look red at all. But snakes and piss are what stick with me from the night market.

I wonder if those are part of this experiment in the International District. Hing Hay Park is apparently considered a bit of blight, so perhaps the piss is already provided.

Well, I can't resist a gratuitous slide of me in old Hong Kong. 1968? I wonder if I saw Cheng Pei Pei and didn't know it!

Comments

[alces2.livejournal.com]

I don't think snakes would be too active in Seattle in the winter. Don't they hibernate up there at that time of year? Actually I think I would prefer a night life similar to that in any Altstadt in Germany or Austria. Admittedly probably not what your new immigrant population would seek out. A nice Christmas Market and some Glutwein?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'd go along with that, but what's Glutwein?

[alces2.livejournal.com]

Glutwein or Glühwein = German Mulled Wine. There's a recipe here. It's enjoyable when you've been walking around in the cold for a while.

[eddvick.livejournal.com]

They've been holding night market there for a couple of years now. After a rocky start it seems to be catching on. We picked up some Japanese and Chinese VCDs there last year, and had a great dinner at Kau-Kau's.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Well, now that I'm aware of it, I hope I hear about them ahead of time next year. Or at least I got the impression from the article that there won't be any more this summer.