Unlike the majority who will flock to Shilin Night Market the very first night they land in Taiwan, I love being the minority. I flocked to Raohe Street Night Market instead. I know that Shilin would be crowded based on popularity and I hate crowds. Furthermore, Raohe focuses more on food though they do have stalls selling other stuff. Raohe Street Night Market is also smaller and easier to walk around without having to really squeeze and get lost in direction amidst the crowd like when you visit Shilin.
The night market was easy to reach. I heard of people who faced problems finding their way there. I guess it is easier now that they built a new metro station near the market. Just take the metro and alight at Songshan (松山) station and come out from Exit 5. Many people will be walking there if you were to go in the evening. It is just located next to a temple.
It was an eye-opener when I first stepped into the night market. It was bustling with activities. I realised soon enough they have a 'walking system'. One direction in, walk one round and use the other direction out. Of course there were those who go against the traffic. I am a law-abiding citizen of Singapore so I followed the rules. Let;s start the feast with our eyes.
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| Squids |
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| Oysters!!! |
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| Custard apples |
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| Thought of getting these...for the bottles :) |
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| I wanted to try these... |
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| but could not locate the stall the next 2 nights. |
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| Plus-sized candy floss |
Being a chicken meat lover, I will not miss trying anything with chicken. This stall was selling chicken leg rolls / ji tui juan (雞腿捲) so I joined the queue and ordered 3 of them. You get to select different flavours/spices for each roll - the original flavour / yuan wei (原味), the spicy flavour / la wei (辣味), the India curry flavour / jia li (印度加理), the wasabi flavour / ri shi jie mo (日式芥末), the lemon and spice salt flavour / ling meng jiao yan (檸檬椒鹽) and the cumin powder flavour / xing jiang zi ran (新疆孜然). If I remembered correctly, I chose the original, the spicy and the lemon and spice salt flavour. The rolls were still juicy after the grilled. I could have come back for more. They have 2 or 3 similar stalls along the way so if the queue gets too long for the first, try the next one. Too good to miss this!
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| The flavours |
This stall caught my eye with its jelly-like eggs in red and yellow. They looked interesting, just like tadpole eggs. 菜燕 refers to jelly so I thought they would taste like it. I bought 10, with 5 red and 5 yellow. I ate them as I walked through the market. The ones in red were made with red bean paste / hong dou sa (紅豆沙) and the yellow were made with green bean paste / lü dou sa (綠豆沙). They tasted nothing like jelly. They were chewy or 'QQ' as the Taiwanese would say. The transparent 'coverings' were made with starch. Again, there are 2 or 3 stalls selling the same thing with more flavours to choose from so try them out!
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| QQ 凉圆菜燕 |
The following stall was selling blanched squid tentacles (燙魷魚). There was a queue so I just joined in. You can choose how spicy you would like it to be. I brought it back to the hotel. Along the way, I bought a can of Taiwan beer which I thought would go well with the squids. It had turned slightly cold but still tasted nice with the amount of spice!
The pan-fried dumplings (煎餃子) looked good and I was craving for them. I ordered a small bowl. The sauce went well with the dumplings.
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| 一口煎餃 |
Yuan Zhu Min Taiwan Sausage (原住民山猪肉香肠), a popular snack in night markets. I bought one stick to try. It tasted very different from the usual sausages. Unique but not to my liking.
Takoyaki (たこ焼き) is a Japanese snack in the shape of little round balls containing pieces of octopus. It literally translates to 'octopus (tako) fried (yaki)'. It is also called 'Octopus Balls' (章鱼小丸). Delicious!
I walked past this stall on the first night but did not take much notice of it. On the second night, I saw someone place an order and realised that they were selling spring roll / popiah! My favourite, especially the non-fried ones. The Taiwanese called them 'bing juan' 餅捲. I bought the zhong he kou wei (綜合口味), combination of turkey meat, sweet corn and something else which I could not remember. The spring roll turned out to be so huge that a passer-by commented, "Wow!". It tasted really good. I will go back to try it again.
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| 潤餅捲 |
I wondered if this Pocket Toast (口袋吐司) was something new. It seemed quite popular with a queue. I stood by the side to watch how it was made before I decided to try it. Apparently, they have two flavours to choose from - salty and sweet. I went for the sweet and ordered the Chocolate Custard Toast. The product is a small-sized toast, just like a pocket. I will go back to try more flavours. You may want to check them out in Facebook.
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| Bubble + Brûlée |
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| Chocolate custard |
I came across this stall while watching a Channel 8 programme, Taiwan Taste (就愛台湾味). It introduced nice and delicious food in Taiwan and this stall was highlighted. The pies looked delicious and I decided to try it out myself. The staff told me to eat the pie with tomato sauce. He told me that many customers find it weird but would think otherwise after eating it. I totally agreed! I did not know that pies go so well with tomato sauce!
I ate these for dinner on one of the nights. The chicken leg roll right at the back, the Taiwan Sausage and the pie with tomato sauce. All good!
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| Creamy Bacon & Mushroom Chicken Pie |
Do take note that I went to Raohe Street Night Market on more than one night. I could not possibly eat that many things at one go. Most of them I ate back in the hotel room although I wanted to taste them on the spot. I love my food piping hot. Trust me when I say it was not that easy balancing a camera on one hand and holding food to eat on the other in a crowd.
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