Shilin Night Market

Hello, hello! Here is the latest installment of our adventures in Taiwan. In the last article, I shared that we went to watch the sunset in Tamsui. We left Tamsui just after sunset to avoid the crowds, took the Red line of the MRT again and we stopped at Jiantan Station.

If you take the Red Line, Jiantan station is somewhere in the middle, whether you are coming from Tamsui or Xiangshan, the other end. There is a Shilin Station of the MRT but the market is nearer to access  from Jiantan station.

When you get off at Jiantan Station, just follow the directions to 101 Jihe Rd, which is the start of the night market. From the exit of the train station, it's just a few meters walk and you will see the long lines for food stalls already.

It was quite a sight to behold. I've been to Myeongdong in South Korea, which has basically the same atmosphere, but I dare say the smells in this place was something else! The above picture is fried lobsters and other kinds of seafood.

If you like what you see, fall in line if there is one, otherwise, you can just ask how much, buy, and munch away. These fruits were so fresh!

These avocados were the biggest I've seen in my whole life, I kid you not. They were bigger than my whole hand, and I have a big one. We ordered a smoothie, and it was so, so good!

We kept walking around, and we just ordered whatever we fancied and kept on walking. It is an unconventional way to have to dinner, but that's what we did on our second night!

Shilin Market is one of the largest,  and most famous night market in Taiwan. This is where tourists usually come to, but there are a lot of other night markets scattered all over.

This is steak being grilled. There was quite a queue for this one, and we ordered it too. Me and my sister decided it was not for us afterwards, ha ha. Good thing we only ordered a small portion.

The texture was too 'rubbery' and we consoled ourselves that at least we got to try it.

We were amazed to see the white variety of a bitter gourd, but neither one of us wanted to try it, so we just took a picture.

Now we're talking. I've had my first taste of xiao long bao at the Din Tai Fung restaurant in Hong Kong, and I have fallen in love with it since. Since there were long lines at the Din Tai Fung in Taiwan, I just had it at the night market, and it was still good!

These are the trays for xiao long bao, and one tray cost NTD120, and there's 8 pieces inside, which I think is quite affordable.

Don't know what type of soil they plant in, or what types of fertilizers they use but all the fruits I've seen were humongous!

These are shells, and they can be flavored differently according to what they have available. Since I am not a fan of these, we skipped it and just took pictures as well.

Since we are not getting any younger, we tried to stay away from deep fried foods, so again, we passed these scallops by. They looked good though.

There was a long line in this restaurant but what I took a picture of is the couple wearing the same shirt. Oh, the love. :-)

These are rose apples. I have tried these in Thailand and Indonesia on my other trips before but the ones in Taiwan were ginormous and super sweet! We bought some to bring home on our last day.

These were the ones that were a bit pricey, the fruits. So we just looked, and we just tried the ones that had testers, ha ha!

Not to forget the stinky tofu. It was indeed stinky and you can smell it from several hundred meters away! Ugh! I dared my sister to try it but she was not game for it, and neither was I.

Since I am not a fan of sugar coated fruits or super sweet things, we gave this one a pass as well.

There was stinky tofu every few hundred meters so the smell kinda follows you. :-)

Since we already tasted the sausages in Tamsui, we also passed this one.

This one was quite interesting. There was a kind of batter, and he was putting veggies on top, but  I did not wait to see the finished product. 

We kept on walking until we came to a shop that sold packaged snacks like mochi, pineapple cakes and other things to bring home, we bought so many, and so we decided to go back to the hotel with our arms and tummies full.

We were not able to see everything that there was to see here, but we got to eat and buy snacks, so we were quite happy to leave prematurely. Stay tuned for the third day adventures!