Taipei the *real* night market

TODAY in Taipei I made it to an "official" night market. It is very near a university and it was Saturday night so, ... CROWDED. We got onto the main drag and shuffled along interminably to get 5 feed down the road. Thankfully it was not a hot sweltering night, but I just don't understand why it is like this when the market is there EVERY night and it sells the SAME stuff (nothing interesting) and actually offered very little in the way of food stalls.

We were expecting to have dinner there and were looking forward to something called a Small Biscuit wrapped in a big biscuit- or something to that effect. It is actually not a biscuit at all but a sausage inside another sausage. We never found this delicacy. (Good thing too, Chinese sausages are not exactly healthy treats- they are sweet-ish and very more like a thin chorizo (but not spicy) or salami (but sweet).

We ended up eating at place famous for its soup. We had Chicken soup with chicken and weird vegetable, chicken soup with herbal medicine and chicken, and herbal medicine soup with a chicken stock base with noodles. Quite yummy actually.

Since it is near a university, at the market's fringes one can find lots of cafés full of students studying hard on their laptops. These small independent cafes are of course either über hip or painfully cute. It is an interesting mix of crowded pushing and quiet spaces that I don't think other university areas in other countries quite have!

Taipei the night market

TODAY in Taipei I realize the whole city is like one big night market. There are street vendors selling corndogs, fruit, waffle sandwich things, bitter melon juice, other salty juice, corn that can be colored all colors of the rainbow, dumpling, beef noodle soup, potstickers, won ton soup, smelly tofu (this seems to be the season- it is EVERYWHERE), meat or veggies on a stick, buns filled with meat or beans or other stuff, rice noodle soup, even shwarma-type sandwiches...

In just about every district, as far as I can tell, it is possible to find a snack. And people line up to get their favorites. Last night there was a huge line to get red bean filled waffle (it is not really a waffle but a very popular thing here- it is a cup made of batter with a scoop of filling and then a matching lid placed on top and sealed together with more batter). Today there was an even longer line, including foreign devils, for 'flour rice noodle.'

More surprising was the line out into the street for STARBUCKS. A very popular Starbucks that is definitely the biggest Starbucks I have every seen. 3 stories!

Besides the food kiosks and carts and small street restaurants, small shops and people with rolling hangers and tables selling scarves and sweaters add to the night market feeling. Even better, I don't know if it is this weekend only or if it is a regular thing, but in this one walking street area there was live music on virtually every corner! From a blind man playing Erhu with an accompanying rock background emanating from some speakers to full 6-person band with synthesizers and sound boards! right there on the street.

Taipei is interesting too because the signs are vertical rather than horizontal, giving it a more exotic feel than Hong Kong or Shanghai. People are friendly and it is easy to get around. The taxis all seem to suffer from overuse of the air freshener so they all smell sickly sweet with a base note of stale smoke.