Taipei 2014: Night Markets

Night markets. Need I say more?

They are central to any Taiwanese experience. The locals go, the tourists pack the streets, it's just something you must experience in Taiwan. If street food is not enough for you to go out and eat all you can, I don't know what is.

Night market tips:

1. Prepare to we sweaty and burning hot.
2. Share if you can with friends so you can eat lots.
3. The stalls with the long queues are the best.
4. Have money ready in the coin purse or in your pocket so you don't have to struggle with your bag.

Raohe night market 饒河街觀光夜市 is one of the famous ones. You can take the MRT to Houshanpi station and walk 10 min to get there. Shops open around 5 or 6 PM, I mean it's a night market, they open late. There are clothing shops and products lining the street, and also stalls in the middle of the street. Remember to enter from the right and go with the flow of people. Don't be the person who walks the opposite of everyone else.

You will see this stall 福州世祖胡椒餅 the first thing you walk into the street. It is literally right there and constantly has a queue. A queue as in one that snakes around, no kidding. You can see the workers making the buns right there and cooking them fresh. Even within the locals, this is a famous shop and a must go as a tourist. It's basically meat stuffed buns that have a heavy pepper taste to them. This bread is amazing. I'm usually not a meat bun person, but the meat is so juicy and flavored. It's burning hot when you receive it and I understand why there's such a long queue for it.

This egg roll stall became very famous after being on 康熙來了Kangxi, a Taiwanese variety show. They were inspired by the Japanese style of making egg rolls. The egg rolls are all the same, but the ingredients they put on top to flavour is different. So depending on your preference, you can pick your fav toppings. Again, all these are made on the spot, so it's really good and fresh. You also feel better not having all that fried things that is common in night markets.

 I like this sign :D

Tamsui Old Street is another quite well-known places for food. My friend lives near here so she knows all the good things to look out for and have.

This is just a random sweet potato ball. And it's so good. I love sweet potato, and this is just the bomb. I wish I had access to this amazingness all the time.

You always want to rehydrate yourself, especially in Taiwanese summers. This 阿媽的 sour prune soup or suanmeitang 酸梅湯 is great for cooling down. It's not too sweet, just how I like it. You can definitely find other drinks, bubble teas, winter melon teas around, but this was a recommendation from my friend, and I was not disappointed at all!

Hot-star Large Friend Chicken originated from Shilin night market, and they are not kidding when they say "large". It's the biggest piece of fried chicken I've seen. It's bigger than my face, and I have a big face. Definitely share with someone. It is perfectly fried, crispy on the outside and soft inside. It's not fake chicken if you're concern about that.

This candy shop is not on the main street, but on the one above where cars can go. At a glance it seems like any other candy shop. However, it's very fun to go in and look at their peculiar packaging. The photos explain themselves pretty well.

 Iron-hard preserved eggs originated from this shop. The story is that the shop owner was not having great business selling brune (soy sauce flavored) eggs, so she left them in the pot for too long, turning the eggs hard. She started selling these "iron-hard" eggs and became famous.

Stinky tofu is another Taiwanese delicacy. Nowadays in Hong Kong, it's hard to find stinky tofu that has the taste and not only the smell.

Shilin night market is probably the most famous night market in Taipei, but the most commercialized and changed from what a night market is understood as. Now the food stalls are all indoors and underground, while there are game stalls and products sold at the ground level. For me, night markets are all about the food and the experience. So if you're looking for that, it's not a big deal if you skip over Shilin and go to other night markets.

The famous 滷肉飯 chopped meat with rice

 Oyster omelet (doesn't look appetizing, but it's good)

This drink originated from Shilin. No idea how to translate the name into English because I don't even understand where the Chinese name came from. It's not sweet, but has both liquid and solid forms of grass jelly, and some tapioca in there. It's a little bland for my taste.

This is another one that went on Kangxi. It's basically fried rice roll with flavored sauce, Japanese-inspired. It's not as good as the show made it to be, but it's not bad. The only thing that is notable is the sauce. Other than that other ingredients are pretty normal.

I've only seen these on TV, so decided to go try it out. Basically, you have a paper net to catch fish. After a certain number of fish caught you can bring them home. The catch is the paper nets are easily broken. It took me 3 tries to get one little fish without breaking the net.

 Throwing darts are way harder than shooting guns. My friend and I shared 4 baskets of darts and won the highest price, so we picked a little duck keychain. Mature, we know.

I love night markets. It's so much fun just hopping from store to store, eating and sampling everything along the way, and experiencing the crowded and packed streets that is so central to a culture.

Happy eating! xoxo