Taiwan Up –Part II

(4) Night Markets

How can anyone go to Taiwan and NOT go to a night market?  It is like the highlight of my trips to Taiwan.  It is usually crowded and there are lots of good food and cheap clothes on sale.  I had plan to visit at least 3 different night markets, but I only got around to visit 2 but they were good enough :)  I went to Shilin (士林) Market which is next to Bi Tan (碧潭) MRT station.  You can’t really miss it as there are many signs, and besides, you can just follow the crowd! :))

Just some of the food we ate ( clockwise –”Chicken-chop-that- is-bigger-than-your-face”, bao thingy which is cooked in tandoori style..and the famous “Shua Bing”…shave ice with red bean)

We went to Miao Kou (庙口)at Keelung (基隆) as well…. You have to walk about 5 mins from the Train Station to get there.  We didn’t really know where it was, but decided to follow the crowd..and guess what? We found it!

And also Dan Shui (淡水) Old street ( which is right outside Dan Shui MRT station)

Most people come here for the Iron Egg (铁蛋) which is preserved eggs sold in vacuum packs and the 5 inches tall ice-cream.  I did take the ice-cream as it was quite cold the night we were there….

(4）Food…and great service!
We ate at restaurants twice in all our days there, and I must say, both were excellent!!

On the first night, we tried Fei Tian Hotpot at Ximending.  We are so glad we found the place thanks to the recommendations of forummers from Hardwarezone.com.sg!  (西门大奶店, 台北市汉中街 155 号Tel: 02-23886768 or 西门二奶店 台北市西宁南路32 号 Tel: 02-23708787) . It cost less than NT500 which is about S$23.  It has free flow of food – meat, prawns, crabs, osyters, scallops, hagen daz ice cream, drinks and even beer…..

   

On our last night there we went to原烧.  It is a table BBQ place which has excellent service and great food.  The set dinner cost about S$23 as well.  It came with appetisers, soup, dessert, meat, hotpot rice & tea.  We were SO full by the time we finished.  It did give us the energy to stand for the next 4 hours at the New Year’s Eve concert though!

 

(5) New Year’s Eve Concert

It was CROWDED.  There were 500,000 people at the concert but you really didn’t feel the squeeze.  I guess people there just know how to deal with crowds!  There was no pushing and shoving as you would expect at a concert like that…just nudges to get closer to the stage.  As S is tall, he actually saw the entertainers on stage…short me had to jump a bit to see them..