Night Markets

The making of Taiwan's famous Oyster Pancake

In the Australian society, once the clock strikes 5:30 mostly every shop starts to close and everyone wants to go home to their families after a long hard day at work(except for Thursdays). Not in Taiwan, at 5:30 the nightlife is only just getting started! At 5:30, stalls are being set up on a small but wide street somewhere in the suburb, for what you may ask? For Taiwan's infamous night markets...yes! The only place you can buy cheap things and eat cheap food, oh and...being tightly squashed as you peer over others shoulders to see if your favourite Noodle Stall is busy...of course it is!
The funny thing is...there are soo many people and  they have seats and benches that are attached to the stall so, not only are you already squashed, trying to sit at the benches then eating the food while people are pushing and shoving is definitely something to experience. I must admit, the atmosphere is lovely!

Personally, I love street foods to bits! It is where you truly get a good taste of authentic Taiwanese foods.. and here are some that I extremely love! The night market I went to is 寧夏夜市 (Ning Xia Ye Shi) at Ning Xia St. To get there you exit 雙和站 (Shuang He Station) and it'll be right in front of you.

Oyster Pancake-NT$80

Rice Cake-NT$100

Not your typical rice cake, but it is made of glutinous rice powder which is made into a form of a cake. Inside there are some meat, chinese mushrooms and herbs.

Goose Meat Noodles-NT$100

One highlight of this food feast is the traditional Tofu Pudding, you can buy this at MeetFresh or ZenQ in Australia but it doesn't beat the ones that these night markets sell. I love to have mine with pearls :) The tofu in this dessert isn't the same as the ones you buy in your local Asian supermarket. They have their own way of making it. The sweet soup could vary from your simple sugar soup to ginger flavoured sugar soup. These can be eaten hot or cold. As for the toppings, you can choose from pearls, sweet peanuts, red beans, green beans, just to name a few.

Tofu Pudding-NT$80

And if you are really daring, you may smell a bad stench floating around the place. Well, that is also another famous dish called, "Stinky Tofu" (directly translated). Its main selling point is the odour ;D Basically, it is fermented tofu that is steamed or fried which is eaten with tradtional sauce. Of course, there a variations to the sauce for example, you could have it spicy with pig blood, or with pickled vegetables. 

Stinky Tofu-NT$120

Have I got you drooling yet?

Sylvia. 

P.S. Did you know that Pearl Milk Tea (Bubble Tea) originated from Taiwan?