Taipei Hao Chi

Taipei is one of the most popular weekend break destinations for Hong Kong people. It is famous for its night markets, where you can find anything from sugar coated tomatoes to sizzling steak. I was in Hong Kong for two weeks during August, so I took the opportunity to visit this nearby city for a couple of days.

It was a very special trip for me, because I had never been away with my oldest friends before, it was the first ever overseas trip we’d had together. We knew each other from school, and now one of them has a very cute four-year-old daughter! We were there just for the weekend, so we had to make the most of every minute. After a one hour flight, our non-stop eating trip had officially begun.

First stop - Shida night market. It is one of the smaller night markets in Taipei, but since it is right next to the National Taiwan Normal University, you will find quite a few young fashion clothes shops in the area. Good for both shopping and eating :)

Lee's stinky tofu - This is fermented tofu, and it stinks. The cafe is in a little back street, it was quite hard to find but don't worry, you can smell the tofu from two blocks away. The tofu was cooked to order, which together with the spicy sauce and pickled vegetables, made this the best stinky tofu ever!

Hue's dumplings - This is one of the must-try delicacies in the Shida night market. The skin was thin, just thick enough to hold the dumpling together, and you can eat it in just one bite. There were so much juice from the meat, it was sensational.

Lantern food stall - You get a basket, pick your favourites from around 20+ prepared ingredients, and then give it to the “head chef” to cook it in a boiling secret soup. There were mushrooms, tofu, udon, pig’s ears, goose wings… everything really!

Clockwise from bottom left: Salt and pepper chicken stall, Squid/Duck soup stall, Drinks stall, Bull Demon King’s steak

On the second day we went to a little café called ‘3 Gu Pu’ off Ximen. It specialises in Xian Cao, also known as grass/herbal jelly. We ordered the best seller, which is a mixture of Xian Cao, red bean, taro, mochi and crushed ice in sugar syrup. It was not too sweet, but not too herby either. It was very refreshing, perfect on a hot summer day.

3 Gu Pu

Next it was time for bubble tea! Originating in Taiwan, bubble tea is known locally as ‘Pearl milk tea’. The drink contains small elastic balls made of tapioca powder. You can add the balls to most non-fizzy drinks and call it a bubble tea. The most popular ones are milk and green tea.  I highly recommend this cafe at the basement of the Xinyi Place Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store. The bubbles here are smaller than the normal ones, around 1cm diameter. I ordered a jasmine favoured milk tea with extra bubbles, which took me more than 45 minutes to finish. Check out the size!

Chun Shui Tang

We wanted a light dinner because we were planning to visit another night market later in the evening... but it didn’t really work out that way! Out of all the restaurants we could choose, we opted for a heavy and meaty sukiyaki set menu in a Japanese restaurant.

We shared a set menu for four between six of us. There was assorted sashimi to start, followed by yakitori skewers, and then sukiyaki of beef and pork, plenty of vegetables and desserts. Considering the quality of the food we had, served in a private room with the staff cooking the meat right in front of us, £20 per head seemed very reasonable.

Shabu-san

After dinner, we headed to the Raohe Street night market. It is one long street packed with food stalls, and there is much more variety than the Shida night market.

From left: Mini Japanese pancake (okonomiyaki) stall, sugar coated tomatoes, stinky tofu stall

Fuzhou original pepper pork bun - This stall was situated towards the end of the street, and the pork buns here are amazing! Each filled with heavily peppered minced pork and vegetables. The pepper flavour was strong with a kick, but not overpowering. They are cooked in a tandoor style barbeque. So juicy, highly recommended!

Other highlights…

Tofu dessert

Grilled squid

Peanut caramel sweets

For the last meal of the trip, we went to a well-known Japanese style barbeque restaurant chain called Kanpai. I love Japanese/Korean barbeque meat, and rice is the perfect accompaniment, along with a cold beer!

The meat menu

Charcoal barbeque on the table

Left to right: Slices of marinated beef, cubes of marbled beef

Kanpai

I cannot remember how we had managed to stuff so much food into our tummies in just two and a half days. Even the four-year-old gained about a kilo after the trip… Taipei’s night markets are truly amazing, with the new and the traditional food stalls gathered together on the same street, all run by friendly people. It was certainly a good introduction to Taiwan, I wish to return to explore the rest of it in the near future. And to try more food!