TW: Night Market 1
When you think of Asia, one of the major attractions is the night markets! Nobody can say no to late late night shopping, street games and supper in the form nibbles here and there. Pretty much every night would end up in the form of night marketing in Asia so it means constant eating haha. Everytime I go back I usually pack on a few kgs sighh! But enough rambling, here is the first night market of the TW series at Sie Ling Night Markets. One problem with going with family is that I feel bad making them wait while I take photos so I ended up missing out on many other foody vendors and other entertaining stores but hopefully this photofest will keep you guys satisfied 
Also I don’t know english names of many of the foods so :S *confusion*
We didn’t really end up eating much this time as we (well I was) were mainly shopping for clothes hee hee. These night markets would have up to 5 stores selling Nike products and all at a pretty decent price.
Taiwanese ‘Fen Yuan’ (QQ/Bubbles + Red Bean)
Chicken egg cake
Baller!! Namely Sephy and En.elle
As I had mentioned before, we are shaved ice fiends but especially my brother, but unusually he didn’t have any tonight. We did end up looking at a few though like this one haha.
And this one…
And this one.
Another love of Asians is fireworks whhheeee! Just cos it is legal over there and can buy them in random convinient stores haha.
A typical vendor of fried goods
These fried goods people are very popular, with a great variety of different specialities you can choose to fry up ranging from tempura, sweet potato, chicken pieces, beans to pigs blood jelly, chicken bum and chicken heart. There is one that we usually go to at a different Night Market which has people lining up for up to an hour even at 2am! But it is so worth it cos they reuse the oil so much it is pretty much frying in flavour and they add their own mixture of pepper and spices (no msg kthx).
I think this is a sight that would make Gordon Ramsey rage and call everyone a ‘donkey’ haha. The food just sitting there collecting bacteria but never fear the deep frying process kills them all hee hee 
More stalls
Food food FOOD XD!
I think this was some random sect or something walking around half nekkid and setting of fireworks
Domokun Hat RRARR! I so shoudl had gotten this! To promote our blog of course 
Hmm which reminds me to get out Domokun banner back haha
Claw machines yyayyyy! Although most of them are rigged which is lame 
Catch a shrimp game and you get to eat it if you catch one
Not easy considering they give you a pretty dogdy string but with some skill and choosing a shrimp that isn’t too fat and tired from fighting other people trying to catch it, it is doable.
The poor shrimp… watching it being impaled alive and covered in salt then cooked alive on the grill made me lose my appetite…
Baseball game, we were so close to knocking them all 9 squares but alas only 2 squares stubbornly stood their ground. We were given 12 balls /game
BB gun game
Now this is where I shine hee hee. Playing with BB guns since I was smaller and having an unhealthy army/gun obsession back in high school (I am not crazy!) meant the rotating balloons were quite easy. Only the really hard one on the left did I not master
Butter Crepe
My little cousins’ butter crepe was super tasty with a crisp texture and beautiful snap with each bite meant that I ended up stealing a lot of it hee hee. Cheap and good sized I should have gotten one for myself!
Candy store!
Bakudan
I was surprised to see this here since I don’t remember seeing it TW before. I had this bad boy in Japan and it is awesomely delicious. A giant version of the Takoyaki but with extra ingredients and a choice of flavours. This was really good but the one in Japanland was still better from memory.
About the size of one of my clenched fists mmmmm
Pepper beef pastry/dumpling
Tasty tasty with a juicy filling and right amount of pepper for flavour without overpowering the rest of the ingredients.
Packedness even at midnight. Most of the clothes and dvd shops close around this time but food stays open till a bit later! How awesome is food ^^!
Modern Toilet!
I think I should explain to the people who haven’t heard about this restaurant. It is a toilet themed restaurant not an actually store of ‘modern toilets’. So all the seats and bowls etc are all toilet related hee hee. I can picture some your faces right now going O_o! Don’t worry all the toilets are brand new and haven’t been used for peoples’ business.. I think The Japanese can turn anything cute by addind a cute face onto it (exhibit A) and since us TWnese are Jap-wannabes we came up with this toilet themed restaurant hee hee.
Unfortunately I did not dine here this time, I have been a few times before and their food is just mediocre but the concept is fun. The portions are also small because they sneakily just put a plate in the toilet (view some photos here)
Toilet fun!
My Taiwan Trip so far:
FFichiban
March 25th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Ooh I love Asian night markets like pasar malams in Malaysia! Ugh these photos make me almost homesick.
Blargh I wish you didn’t tell me the story of the poor shrimp (and put the photo!). I have nightmares now
March 26th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Now that is one market I will definitely enjoy! food food everywhere!
March 26th, 2009 at 9:55 am
The crepe looks huge! The fireworks look fun too. But poor shrimp, that’s a horrible end.
March 26th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Aww I want to go to Taiwan with you! You know all the cool places
The crepe looks ginormous too! And chicken egg cake? I’m intrigued by that-is that sweet or savoury?
March 27th, 2009 at 7:49 am
The night market looks great. Looks like there’s more interesting things and more to do than the HK night markets.
The toilet place seems like an interesting novelty, especially the toilet as seats at the table. A restaurant for the time poor, for those who can “go” without having to go!
I feel you with the whole live prawn thing. I have yet to witness the moment of skewering but seen the aftermath with their final movements when fresh prawns were ordered at Zilver for steamboat. As they didn’t taste all that much different from good quality ready-dead prawns, I question whether it was worth it.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
I never imagined Taiwan to be so cool, crazy and chaotic, probably because it’s still relatively untapped by tourists. Your post badly makes me want to visit. Curious…about what the most typical well known Taiwanese dish would be?
March 27th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Oh and I said it once but I’ll say it again…bring back Domokun.
March 28th, 2009 at 4:01 am
Oh S**T!!!! Hujiaobing!!!! I love it I love ittt! Did you go to Raohe Night Market? The ones there are better compared to the Shilin ones, IMHO (HOTTER! The pepperier, the better for me!)
…and the Taiwanese Night Market Kushiyakis!!! The BAKUDAN!!! OoooOOOoohHH…
That’s it, I’m going back to Taiwan as soon as I can! (join meeeee!!!)
March 29th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Karen – Yeah I miss night markets as well
Hahaha I think they would be more useful for you since you stay up so late 
RIP shrimp.
Veron – Hee hee yup yup and I missed out on many many more stalls too!
Arwen – Crepes were awesome, we need a really good crepe store here or I will have to make more myself haha. Jaime Oliver needs to do a few more documentaries!
Lorraine – Haha I know the touristy places
but yes trip it to TW yayyyy ^^! Hmm I think I only had the chicken egg cakes when I was really young but I think they are on the sweet side. I think they similar to Taiyakis.
Simon – LOL yeah. Hmm I don’t really remmeber HK markets much but I would assume that there would be heaps of food too no? Yeah not much difference between live and good quality prawns.
Lyf – Ahhh hee hee yes it is a good experience if you have never been. I think TW cuisine would be mostly ’small eats’ and lots of shaved ice ^^! Haha I am trying XD Domokun is awesome!
Erique – Hmm we went to a few but I’m not too sure about RaoHe NM. Haha nice nice! Mmm I’m craving some shaved ice esp with our temp right now haha
March 31st, 2009 at 10:21 am
Ah – I went to Taiwan late last year and checked out the RaoHe night markets near Wu Fen Pu (and got more than a little distracted by the clothing in Wu Fen Pu). Wish I’d gone with a Taiwanese (or at least a Mandarin speaker) as I clearly had a slightly lamer experience as I couldn’t understand the hawkers properly. Local guides are always the best!
March 31st, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Forager – Ahh but at least you got to look around and experience ^^! Good work! Did you like TW anyway XD?