Yue’s Yappings

Taipei is famous for its street snacks. Once the sun sets the streets come alive with food vendors - each specializing in its own snack prepared with secret cooking techniques handed down through the generations. When I visit Taipei I often skip right past the restaurants and head straight to the streets. I once bought a book that listed all the street snacks in Taiwan. My friend and I spent a week driving around Taiwan trying to find each snack.

During this visit, I asked my friend take me to the Shilin Night Market, one of best known night market in Taipei. It used to be lined with hundreds of food vendors serving everything from special drinks to stinky tofu to grilled octopus to sweets - all yummy and delicious.

But now the street is full of clothing and toy stores. But not to worry, the food vendors have moved to a central location with a covered roof. The place is amazing. All the sounds and smell of food will make anyone’s mouth water.

Feeling hot and sweaty, I bought myself a glass of local drink called “Frogg’s egg.” The way it works is that you pick any combination of sweet fillings, such as red beans, green beans, fruits, etc. Then the vendoer adds black tapioca (the part that resembles frog’s egg), combines it with ice and serves it to you in a paper cup. Shake it up, and drink it with a straw. Delicious.

For dinner, I stopped a stand that had fresh squid. The squid is first soaked in ice water and then cooked in a hot wok. Its then combined with fresh bamboo, hot pepper, salt, sugar, wine, and the owner’s specialty sauce. The result is very tasty. In addition, I also ordered a bowl of Pork kidney soup, one oyster pancake and a bowl of rice topped with slow cooked minced pork.

If you get to visit Taiwan make sure to try the stinky tofu. Its certainly one of the most aromatic snacks, and one of the classics.