Shilin Night Market
Thursday, January 15, 2015
The best way to get to know a new city is with a camera in one hand, something grilled and skewered in the other and lots of mindless wandering. I was impatient to get my fill of Taiwanese street food so on Day 3, I went to the city's most well-known night market: Shilin.
In the recent years, Shilin Market has gone through some major remodeling, and what it is now isn't what it used to be. Food stalls that once spread all around the area were rounded up and relocated to an underground space and the police constantly monitor vendors causing them to move around all the time. It was meant to create more order but, from what I hear, it's the reason why some locals shy away from it.
But I think it's still worth a trip! Lots of shopping to be done, and there are still a couple of stalls above ground and it's where I got my first taste of stinky tofu. Definitely NOT MY FAVORITE. God bless your soul if you like this stuff... I had one tiny chunk and I manage to swallow, but not without getting tears in my eyes by the end of it.
Thankfully there were tons more to make up for that life-changing (but not for the better) experience.
I had a bite of an oyster omelette.
I don't know how I felt about this one, but it's probably because I ate it right after the stinky tofu.
Famous Hot Star fried chicken
The queue for this went right down the street!
Peppered grilled squid
My personal favorite. I had one every night market we went to and we went to a lot of night markets.
I mentioned a few years ago when writing about my Vietnam trip how it's important to do as the locals do as much as possible whilst on holiday. Luckily in Taiwan, it turns out that a lot of what's considered touristy is what the locals love to do, too.
One such thing: shrimping!
You pay for a rod and some bait, sit around a giant pool filled with live shrimp, then just play the waiting game.
I went later in the night with a few of M's friends and together we caught a total of this many!
Skewering, seasoning and grilling the little buggers live felt a little brutal, especially while watching their little arms wriggling in the fire... But they were so good dipped in soy sauce and fresh as can be.
0 comments