I’ve run out of superlatives to describe the food in Taipei, but I haven’t run out of food photos.
Waiting patiently at the Shilin Night Market for more soup dumplings. Rich with an oyster omelette. Shilin Night Market.Oh yes, the appetizer on our way into the market – Taiwanese Sausage on a ‘bun’ of sticky rice. The sausage is slightly sweet and the sticky rice so chewy- lots of Q. Delicious This market was mostly moved underground. It’s a different feel to the stalls on the street – which also still remain – but there is seating which is nice. On a day trip by train to the mountains, here I am in Pingxi, continuing my quest to eat all the soup dumplings. Rich and his quest to eat all the beef noodle soup.
Ningxia Night Market was our next food stop after a day out of town. The amazing travel planner booked us into a hotel right across the street from an MRT station so it’s easy to get to downtown and the amazing night markets.
First stop, stall 91 for Liu Yu Zi’s deep-fried homemade taro balls that have crispy casing and chewy inside filled with pork floss and egg york.The chef is using a spring scoop to make the balls of uniform size.We only got two. The flavors were so unique and absolutely delicious. Next stop. Squid! As you can see, there is a bit of English on the stall signs, but Google translate camera comes in very handy. The Chef chopping up the squid. A bowl of squid. Pickled onions on top, we think. The fun of the night markets is just strolling along and buying whatever catches your fancy. This is a sorghum sausage inside a crepe with scrambled egg cooked onto the crepe. Another absolutely unique and delicious treat.The close up. Yes, food photography is not easy. But perhaps this gives you an idea of what it was like. I like the background captures of night market life. And to finish our evening, a peanut ice cream roll.A crepe, shaved peanut candy, like peanut brittle, two scoops of taro ice cream, and a sprinkling of cilantro.Rolled up like a burrito and delicious.
This city. Being presented with all new flavor profiles. And in a fairly easy to access way. Even speaking no Chinese we get fed thanks to the kindness of people and multicultural nature of Taipei.
Individual hot pots for lunch one day, with a side of the famous stinky tofu on the right. The smell is stronger than the taste. Glad we tried it but I won’t seek it out again. For our final lunch we went to a small Japanese restaurant for curry. Rich got pork.And I had fried chicken. This was a small place, the two chefs you see are the complete staff. They ran an organized and tasty place.
For our final night we went back to the Raohe night market. We both wanted the pepper buns again, and I went in saying, right – done with taking photos. But as soon as we had something new and amazing I was back at it! And again, in good company. There were plenty of other people, locals and visitors, snapping pictures and rhapsodizing about the food. Not many western/non Asian visitors here. Taipei seems to be a slightly ignored Asian city by the western world travelers.
Cabbage and tofu. Both from the small cart over Rich’s shoulder. Both delicious. Each plate $2.00. The market on a Tuesday night was much less crowded than Saturday. We could look around and find places to sit.
I had noticed a stand on our first visit selling pineapple buns filled with ice cream. We didn’t make it back to the stall the first night- I had reached my crowd limit – but on our second visit we made sure to leave time and room in our tummies. There is no pineapple involved in this bun, it’s a soft fluffy milk bun with a cookie like crumbly topping reminiscent of Dutch crunch rolls we get in SF. The top is cut to look like a pineapple.
Fire Ice Pineapple was the Google translation. Note that you can get cheese, butter, cheese and butter, or one of a few flavors of ice cream in your bun.I decided on vanilla ice cream.Rich got mango.Both were delicious. I don’t think of desserts when craving Asian cooking, but from now on I will associate Taiwan with some pretty unique and delicious desserts. And not too sweet, which is nice.
With our bellies happy, and with a new love for this amazing City and its lovely residents, we move on. Rich is working on a post all about everything not food related that we did – and honest, we did more than eat!
21 years car free, 11 years serving on transit boards helping SF and Caltrain move forward, and now, traveling the world. Happy doesn’t begin to describe how I feel when traveling with my hubby TravelRich.
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