Thursday, January 17, 2013

Taiwan, Part 3 - Food and Night Markets

Food!!!
Nothing compares to food in Taiwan, particularly the street food.  People in Taiwan are obsessed with food.  It's everywhere. And Taiwan is known for its night markets. Every big city has multiple markets, some run daily, some 3 days a week. They usually start at about 5 or 6 pm and run 'till midnight. It used to be street vendors setting up completely illegally, but now they are regulated by the cities. Night markets usually have tons of food with very wide variety and vendors selling clothes, toys, etc.

Every time we saw a long line for a vendor at the night market, we'd immediately get in line. We were never disappointed. People know their food in Taiwan.


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This is the infamous "Stinky Tofu"! It's probably the most notorious street food. 
How do you know someone is a native of Taiwan? 
See if the person likes (most likely loves) stinky tofu.  
No foreigner I know can stand it. But those of us grew up with it just LOVE it! 
Paul would try it but he'd never eat more than one.  
He simply does not understand our love for it. 


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simple breakfast food - rice milk, eggy scallion pancake, and turnip cake.


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the breakfast place we visited regularly in the morning.  There was always a long line of people.


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At a night market in Taipei


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Vedor Stall


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Night Market in Tainan. It was incredibly crowded on a Thursday night.  
This was not even the better known/biggest night market in Tainan.


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Vendor at a Day (Produce) Market

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Usually I dislike buffets. But Taipei has some really incredible vegetarian buffets.
This was one of the three we visited during our trip.  
It had probably close to 100 selections.  All really yummy, a treat for a vegetarian like myself.


But one thing Taiwan never got it right - Coffee! I  could not find a cup of regular coffee.  We even broke down and went to Starbucks. But the so called "regular" coffee at Starbucks was actually espresso with water. I even tried to order cafe Americana, and it was still just espresso with water. 




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