No matter where you travel to in the world, night markets always provide fascinating things to look at, interesting people to watch, and delicious food to sample.
Late one evening, I was wandering the streets near Id Kah Mosque when I came across the “Ou Er Da Xi Ke” Road night (technically, “evening”) market. Entrance to the street the night market was located on required getting past a security checkpoint. Uyghurs and anyone who looked Turkic were required to present ID whereas people like myself, Han-looking folk, get past without so much as a glance. Call it… “yellow privilege”.
Stalls selling fruit, nuts, spices, vegetables, snacks were everywhere. Not only is this a popular spot for locals to come for dinner, it was also a hot spot for tourists. I was going from stall to stall when I spotted a big group of Asian tourists (at that time, I had identified where they were from based on the language I overheard them speak but now, I don’t remember) with their DSLR cameras, firing away at everything and everyone.
There was one section where the congregation of stalls were selling cooked food; soup, meats, fried fish, and desserts. Although some of the food being sold looked appealing, there were several stalls selling four-legged-animal innards and what appeared to be goat heads in soup. Although I am one to never shy away from trying some “bizarre foods”, this time, I decided to enjoy a more conventional meal of soup and chicken and left the consumption of those alternative foods to the hungry locals.
Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words so here are pictures that can better describe the kinds of items on display:
