XXXIII: Pasar Malam Shilin

 The thing about night markets in Taipei is that theirs run every night of the week, unlike ours. There's no worry about going on the wrong night or the wrong place. We went to probably 3 night markets in various locations. One that cannot be missed is Shilin, simply for its notorious reputation for being the biggest one of them all.

Plus, I think if you did go to Taipei but not come to Shilin, that'll be like saying you had sex with a girl but your pants were still on.

Just few minutes walk from the train station, you just need to follow the crowd to head into the right direction.

 The fried hotdog which I suspect is similar to the American corn dog though I can't say for sure as I've not been to America nor tried that version of dog. However, this wasn't very impressive as it wasn't crunchy and the (hot) dog inside didn't taste particularly delicious. Plus point would be that it wasn't very oily for something that was deep fried.

Or maybe it's because the cubed beef steaks set the bar way too high way too early into the night.

 Settled for this bowl of tang hoon beef noodle. The Taiwanese really love kangkung  as it's almost the defacto fiber in every one of their dishes. What I don't enjoy is the long and sometimes thick/large stalks as they would break them roughly right before cooking.

As you may have observed, this was rather oily, more so in reality. However, I have to admit that the flavor was almost good except for the oiliness.

 Deep fried soft shell crab 🦀. Sadly I didn't try any 😭

 Maltose candy 🍬 I think. They looked too sweet for my liking.

 Stinky tofu. This, you must try to complete your Taiwan journey. Where do you find one? Funny you should ask. Let your nose lead the way. Follow where the stench brings you to and chances are, it'll lead you to a stall selling these acquired delicacy. There are now stalls in Malaysia selling the same thing but if you apply the same logic, you may just end up by a clogged up drain instead. Really, the smell is almost one the same.

This is pan fried and the stench comes from the sauce. Stuffed with cabbage, the firm tofu smells even worse up close and way too personal. When you eat it, the stench translates into a taste which could make those queasy ones throw up. Proud to say that I didn't but a bite (or two) was the max I could muster. Is this close to how durian taste like? If so, I ain't missing out on much there. 

The weather was warming up and after all that walking, it was nice to just sit down and chill. This is shaved ice with jelly drizzled with brown sugar.

Funnily enough, I've not seen any shops in Taipei selling anything remotely close to SnowFlake (shaved iced with taro balls). Their tea and milk on the other hand .....