Food Galores @ Night Markets

In the short span of time in Taiwan, I manage to visit the famous night market in each of the city. Night markets in Taiwan are famous for its small eats.

Tainan - Hua Yuan
Kaoshiung - Hsinshing instead of Liouho since it was not open
Keelung - Miaokou
Taipei - Shilin, Hwahsi Jie, Danshuei

There is always a famous dish for each of the city. For example in Tainan it is coffin cakes (棺材板), bread in the shape of a coffin which has been hollowed out and stuffed. Couple dishes that you can see in all those night markets are oyster omelette (蚵仔煎), chicken shawarma (沙威馬), stinky tofu (臭豆腐) and fish ball.

Basically a trip from the beginning to the end of the night market, you will have your dinner completed. Best of all you get to eat a variety of foods and it will not burn a hole in your pocket. One piece of advise though from my experience is to drink enough liquid if you are going on the night markets non-stop eating :) to avoid ulcer. Sharing my experience since at the end of my trip I had terrible ulcers and fell sick.

Aside from food, the shopping is also something not to be miss. There are lots of items sold there; for example, clothes, bags, shoes, trinkets, ironware, etc. There are also some games; customers can play the games by paying a few coins. One of the most common game I see is the mahjong game.

Out of those I went, Hwahsi Jie differ from all. In this night market you can see a lot of stores that sell snakes as local beliefs snakes are a healthy source of food. I walked past someone with a snake on his shoulder asking us to go in and try the food in the restaurant, urgh... I get goosebumps just from looking. In addition to the snake fever, there are also stores that provide massage services.

My impression of the night market is very similar to the 'Pasar Malam' we have in Malaysia except that goods sold in the night market in Taiwan especially clothing are more fashion forward and dirt cheap.