Shilin Night Market

Chunnan wanted to go to the night market so he could get some food that he rarely has a chance to get. So we hopped on the metro, transferred to two different subways, and arrived at the Shilin Night Market. A night market is like a HUGE collection of street vendors (food, games, curios, and knock-off shops). It's like a flea market on steroids, spread across a dozen city blocks and crammed with so many people that, at times, you have to walk in tiny little shuffling steps to avoid stepping on each other. It really is hard to relate the side streets and back alleys with booths and stores on each side, neon and bright lights flashing, barkers calling out their sales patter over megaphones, and a river of people wallowing through the middle of it all. After my attack of chaos and claustrophobia earlier in the day you'd think this was the last place I'd want to be, but the rest at the hotel worked wonders and I was ok with it all, even enjoyed it, really.

So, what follows are a few pics of our adventures there. The only things we bought were food, but the two and a half hours we spent there were a treat in its own right.

The Shilin Market has one dedicated main building that is all food vendors. There's food vendors everywhere else, too, but this warehouse building is ALL food. The smell hits you even before you enter the building. One of the main "delicacies" here is called Stinky Tofu and it lives up to it's name. The tofu is fermented in a way that grows an aroma that is impossible to describe...maybe somewhere between bile and vinegar is close. They slice it into wedges and deep fry it and service it with sweet pickled cabbage. I've had it before in Seattle and, in a tame restaurant environment, I can eat a few pieces and the cabbage is actually pretty good, but out in the wild of the night market the smell was just too offensive.

Here's a picture of one of the wider streets filled with vendors and shoppers.

And here is one of the narrower alleys. There really was only room for two or three people abreast as people jostled their way in both directions through the tight alleyway full of vendors. Going into a booth was almost the only way to find breathing room at times.

The first thing we ate were small sausages-on-a-stick (not pictured here, sorry). They had sausages ranging in size from vienna cocktail wieners to huge double-thick kielbassa-like monsters and they all looked hot, greasy, and delicious. So, this picture above...it's basically an oyster omelet with lettuce. It looked weird at best and a gooey runny mess at worst. I did not try it but...

...Chunnan was wolfing it down like a champ! I surprised him with this pic so don't judge the food by his facial expression. He loved it! While we were in this booth eating the oysters, the vendor from another booth came to us and asked if we wanted some squib balls...YUP! He brought is a small plate of fried squid balls and they were yummy!

The next stop on our street food adventure was a steak and egg place. Ya, really. Chunnan says this place was really famous several years ago and opened many branches in areas near universities where, because students had so little money, they advertised "double meat" to get them into their booths. The steak was the toughest, gristeliest, piece of meat I've ever eaten, but there was a lot of it (and a fried egg and pasta a gravy too) so I can see where a starving student might see it as a bargain.

My half-eaten steak, egg, and pasta. It tasted about as good as it looks here. :-/

Next stop was for a Taiwan Meatball. This is another one I've had back home in Seattle and didn't really like it too much so didn't have any at the night market either. Basically it is a pork and veggies meatball wrapped in a rice dough shell, boiled in a big wok, and served with gravy. That's it in the closer wok above.

On a plate, it looks like a large jellyfish swimming in gravy. The rice dough shell is hard to cut so when you do get into it so you end up with a big wad of translucent goop and a pile of meat and veggies in your bowl. Still, Chunnan loves it and who can argue with that?

While wandering through the alleys we found a vendor selling my favorite foot...twice cooked buns. They are pork meatballs wrapped in bread dough. They first boil them then they pan fry them (thus the "twice cooked" name). At this booth they also had veggie versions, but I opted for the pork. It was sooooooo good and juicy and chewy and good. Did I say they were good? MMMMMmmmmm.

Lastly, we had juice drinks. Actualy, we had juice drinks earlier too, but we wanted more so we got them again. I had a pineaple-yogurt smoothy both times but Chunnan has a bitter mellow-honey drink the first time and a papaya milk drink the second time. Again, I didn't care much for his choices and he thought mine was too strong and too sweet, but we both liked what we ordered and that's god enough for me.

As a final picture for the night, here is the metro train station that dropped us off right at the Shilin Night Market. Please forgive the dark or blurry pics in this post. They were all taken with my iphone and it's not the best for lowlight photography.

Today, Saturday, we're heading over to Taipei 101 to see an exhibition of incredibly detailed architectural miniatures. They really look amazing on the web page and I am eager to see them in person. I hope they allow photographs.