From Street Food To Fine Food

Right about 6pm. We rode the MRT going to Jiantian station where the Shi-Lin Night market is located. We were looking for authentic Taiwanese food and this is just the place to find it.



Crowded. Hot. Noisy. The busy market was lined with rows of food stalls. Our first dish was a bowl of boiling hot dumpling in clear soup with chillie sauce and vegetables.




Next, we had oa-tian or oyster cake. It is cooked in these large round griddles. Soft and moist in the center, these cakes were made with eggs, oysters and vegetables.








We also had the stinky tofu! Decades ago, stinky tofu was a staple for soldiers patrolling China's borders. As wars ended and Taiwan's night-market culture developed, so did stronger, spicier and more diverse flavors of stinky tofu. It is now a famous Taiwanese specialty.
Stinky tofu or commonly called tsao tau-hoo is fermented tofu dish which has a very strong odor, is sometimes politely called "fragrant tofu". Its smell has been described as "baby poo," "hellacious" and "sharply foul". My dad had a bite and lost his appetite afterwards. I think its okey, though I would not crave for it. It’s a taste that needs a little bit of acquiring.




We also tried huge Taiwanese sausage which tastes similar to Chinese ham.




After dinner we went to the fruit stand for dessert. Rows of huge mangoes (really HUGE, see photo below) are arranged on wooden crates. Grapes, cherries, dragon fruits are among our choices. We decided get ourselves the giant mangoes so as to compare it to our small but sweet and juicy Philippine mangoes. These huge mangoes are not just pleasing to the eye, but has the nice juicy flesh and sweetness and aroma of this wonderful tropical fruit.







The night was a bit tiring though it was another night of satisfied tummies. Taiwanese street food in general are good. They use fresh and natural ingredients. It is noticeable that they don't use a lot of artificial flavoring which is really good. Food are simple yet are very well cooked. Vegetables are still crisp and meat and seafood are still tender and juicy. In addition to that of course, the food are served really hot, just a few seconds off the fire!

To cap the night off, my sister and I decided to wind down at the hotel, open a bottle of light and fruity red wine from Beaujolais particularly from Appellation Cote de Brouilly Controlée. If I remember correctly, gamay grapes come from this region. Perhaps this is the particular grape variety used for this wine. We paired it with Manchego cheese from Spain (a semi hard cheese coming from sheep’s milk, it has quite a strong and pungent flavor. I really like it), Aged Gouda and St. Agur blue cheese. St Agur is my new favorite so far. I even like it better now than Roquefort which has been my blue cheese of choice for quite some time. St. Agur is a moist, creamy and a mild type of blue cheese that can become an easy favorite even for those that cannot take stronger more pungently flavored ones.








This was it for our adventure today. Tomorrow… Alisan Mountain.

Day 2: Damper Baby Taipei 101

The day started at around 8:00am. The shuttle dropped us off near the Citihall. Most shops were still closed. My sister and I decided to take a quick breakfast at Starbucks. Focaccia with olives and rosemary to share then I had my double shot vanilla latte - short while ma and pa went to Mcdonald's for their first meal.

We went to see the Damper baby at Taipei 101 its like a giant pendulum to counteract the building's movement due to strong winds, earthquakes and other such seismic and atmospheric assaults. 101 stories above ground and 5 stories below. It was indeed a sight to see, just like an emerald and silver jewel in the city of Taipei.
At the 88th floor 349 miles above ground, we had a commanding view of the city and Taipei Basin at all directions. The baby weighs 730 metric tons and is the largest in the world so far. The Observatory is equipped with high-power binoculars, drinks bar, image services, pre-recorded audio tour guides in seven languages, & souvenir shops. The outdoor observatory was unfortunately closed this morning so we went back down to shop for a while. As the clock started to tick. We felt our tummies rumbling a bit. Lunch time. :)

We simply went down to the Grand Market. Rows of food stalls were in the area. Me and my sister decided to share lunch as usual. Before we were even able to decide on the main, we came across a japanese pastry bar where rows of mochi, rice desserts, green tea and black sesame coated sweets arranged all in a row. Thoughts of warm soup and braised pork flew off my mind. But we had to have lunch before we had desserts so we got noodles none the less, it had braised onions and pork in it. and a dish of Taiwanese appetizer made of chile, tofu and salty fish. Looking at the bill, we spent twice the amount for our dessert as compared to our main course! Well, I think its well worth it and I wanted to grab some of those sweets at the instant I saw them. It was quite a struggle to do the shopping though.I wanted to know more about what it is made of or what the fillings were inside so I could choose, but all I got were just smiles, nods and shakes of the head. No English of course. It all looked delicious, we went to pick the ones that well... looked the yummiest! I picked a green tea flavored mochi We also had a japanese style sticky rice ball coated with black sesame seeds, sugar and I'm just guessing... rice flour, ground into a very fine powder. The texture, unlike the local suman is much lighter and not as heavy and gummy. It was wonderful! Other varieties were the mandarin orange flavored rice ball which my sister liked so much. There was also a surprising flavor, the light green colored mochi was flavored with mint and preserved sour plum or much commonly called red kiam-moy. It takes a bit of getting used too. I also liked the chocolate flavored mochi. The texture was indeed very fine, smooth and light. it was dusted with bitter cocoa powder. It tasted like it had a little bit of tea powder as well, quite interesting. After all of the sweets were were finished, I was still having those cocoa -tea powder off my fingers. After lunch was over, we were full, feeling a little sleepy and of course tummy happy. We decided to go back to the hotel to take a short nap. That is to get ready for the next food Trip. Shi-Lin Night Market. Authentic Taiwanese Street food! ;)

Day 1: Taipei Here We Come!

Flight was scheduled at 10am so early on Ma,pa and I went to the Airport to catch the plane bound for Taipei. Atch was on her way too, from Singapore that is. Plane will be landing the same time. Right about 1pm. Flight was smooth, everything was on time. We had a little trouble looking for each other at the airport though, but we finally met! That was past lunch time already. Have not eaten anything yet since breakfast. I was starving to death! Quietly I was just sitting on the bus waiting for the final destination. My sister never fails to bring a surprise. A craving of hers a few days back lead her to get Teuscher chocolates from Switzerland. It is said that these chocolates were shipped to Singapore via air. Not surprising... these were delicate chocolates filled with smooth and creamy ganache centers as well as griotines soaked in kirsh and Grand Marnier filled chocolate truffles . Hungry I was indeed, but the chocolates made me happy. It took quite a while for travel. 4pm already and we did not have proper lunch yet. After Check in we went to the mom and pop food stalls surrounding the hotel. We had pork dumplings with seeweed. It was a bit spicy. We also had noodles with local vegetables and chicken. We were trying the appetizer that was served with my dad's pork chop and we could not really figure out what it was. Gingery, sour and salty with other oriental flavors in it. It has a taste that needs to be acquired I guess. My mom's verdict? Not the food we came all the way here for. Not just yet! Well, satisfied tummies nonetheless, real food trip starts tomorrow.