Shihlin Night Market, Taipei

I went to Taiwan for vacation with my family during Chinese New Year 2010. Last CNY, we went to Jakarta. Comparing both the vacation, gotta admit that I enjoyed my trip in Jakarta more. Reason being, the vacation in Taiwan was superly rush (everyday move to new city, new hotel. Very short time to shop – practically can’t enjoy shopping).

Anyway, I managed to sort out some pichas on Day 1 of my trip but I won’t be able to update the whole trip in details, otherwise, Dine with Annna would be Traveling Taiwan with Annna. *LAMAO* Well, I took more than 2,800 pichas (350 pichas a day in average) and I can’t possibly post them all up here. However, I’m sharing the pichas (still uploading) in Facebook and you may check it out to have an idea how the 8 days tour in Taiwan is like.

The 8 days tour covers 4 cities in Taiwan, namely Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hualien, and Taichung. Altogether, I think we visited approximately 20 (plus minus) tourist spots. We visited several famous temples and also those “tourist marketing” spots which makes us sit in a classroom to listen to some herbal stories and how good they are, namely, Ling Zhi, Deer plasenta, pearl powder, royal jelly and etc.. Not cheap lah! All those costs < RM1,000. To me, visiting those places are a waste of time because I have no interest in them, except sampling those expensive stuff. Plus, not like I can afford any of them. Piff.. Those time should be properly spent in night markets or shopping malls where NT (Taiwan dollars) are fairly well spent.

Anyway, I’ll just highlight some places of MY interest and MY makaning (eating/dining) experience in Taiwan. So, just bear with the sudden change of nationality of this blog and feel free to comment or enquire about the trip.

Upon arrival, we were brought to the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. We spent most of our time there taking pichas and me, camwhoring around.

They have dinosaurs in Taiwan. *LOL*

They have this beautiful garden on the other side of the area. We were like sakais children who visited the garden of candies when we saw the Sakura trees (cherry blossoms).

We had dinner our first dinner in Taiwan at Taroko Restaurant. It was an eight course meal and it was a really good meal.

After dinner, we were brought to Shihlin Market, as if dinner was not fulfilling (how can not get fat).

Shihlin Night Market is located in the Shilin District of Taipei City, Taiwan. It is considered as one of the biggest and well known night market in Taipei. There are 2 parts of the market; Eateries and Clothes. They are both just accross the road and we need to walk across via the underground bridge to get to the other side. Oh, jaywalking is a very serious offence in Taiwan.

The most popular food in Shihlin Night Market (according to our tour guide) is the Super Big Chicken Chop. It is NT50 (approximately RM5.50) for a gigantic piece of deep fried chicken fillet with seasoned powder on it.

#Tips to shop for food in Taiwan: the longer the queue, the better the food. If you see a stall with a long queue, the food sold there must be good.

Needless to say, we joined the queue to have a taste of the popular chicken chop. It was a long queue, bro volunteered to wait in line while I hunt for the other Taiwan delicacies: Pearl Milk Tea and Taiwan sausages.

The long wait was paid off. Bro was satisfied with the chicken despite the long wait.

I took a few bites off the chicken chop and it is indeed very good! Now I know why it is so popular.

Since Taiwan is the pioneer of pearl milk tea, it is the first item in our must have list. While bro was waiting for the chicken chop, I went to the next stalls (both left and right side of the chick chop stall) to buy a glass of pearl milk tea – original flavour.

The size is like Starbucks Venti and the price is averagely NT30-35 (RM3.30-3.80) each.

Verdict: Kuching’s pearl milk tea is much nicer =X

Another must have item in our list was the Taiwan sausage:

There were many sizes of sausages to choose from. From big to small. The big ones are sold by weight and then, cut into smaller pieces for easy chewing. As for the small ones, they are slightly bigger than the ones we have in Kuching.

Pricewise, they are pretty slightly more expensive by a few-ty cents. How funny, right? And we thought we would be able to enjoy cheaper Taiwan sausages since they are from Taiwan. Small ones cost NT25 (approximately RM2.75). Big ones cost NT100 (approximately RM11).

Verdict: Even though it is slightly more expensive, but tastewise, it is supremely yummy! Worth the price you paid for it.

The week before I leave for Taiwan, my colleagues recommended that white bittergourd juice it is a must try. I gave the “ewww..” face and they assured me that it is not bitter. Despite their assurance, I was still reluctant to try it. But mum bought it and I stole a sip to try.

Verdict: Not bitter, yet sweet and very very very refreshing!

In case you don’t know how white bittergourd looks like, I took a picha of it (above). It looks fake and even feels fake! But it’s the real thing.

They have a lot of this kinda drinks – something something tea. Didn’t try them because we had so much to try in hands.

These are among the look see look see inside the night market – eateries side:

Then, we stumbled upon this one Oyster Omelet stall with lots of “Corner wit Love” pichas at the signboards.

Could this be the famous oh-ah-jien from the drama? We didn’t try it due to the time as we need to queue for it and that we had to leave the place to check-in to our hotel for the night. T___________T <CIS!!!)

The oyster omelet smells so good, while the stinky tofu is damn smelly!

Since we don’t have the time to queue for the oyster omelet, I went to buy a packet of this stinky tofu since every corner of the night market, there is at least one stall of it. So, I reckoned that I should at least give it a try.

P/S: I don’t eat tofu.

Verdict: The smell is already a killer. The taste is suicidal. First and the last try for this. *strangles self*

Here are some pichas of the other part of the night market which is just across the road from the above.

About 5 minutes walk from the night market, there is this huge wholesale-like fruit stall which sells all varieties of Taiwan fruits.

After loitering for about 1 hour an a half at Shihlin Night Market, we gathered at our coach on time and we were brought to our first night stay at Holiday Inn Express. As if the night was not tiring enough, we went out to loiter on our own after throwing our luggage in the room.

The supper part, will be in the next post…