Thursday, March 13, 2008

Taiwan Eating Trip Vol II

We started our next day with some local breakfast near our hotel. There were several interesting choices, but we decided to stick with something safe so we tried out the rice vermicelli soup.


The lady scooping the vermicelli into a bowl for me


My breakfast, vermicelli soup and Soy milk

The soy milk was actually very nice, it doesn't have the burnt soy bean taste that I hate. We also spotted the same lady selling some rice rolls, and thought it would be quite interesting to try.


The rice roll tasted nothing like its Japanese relative. There are two varieties, either with black glutinous(sticky) rice or normal white glutinous rice. The fillings consisted of preserved vegetables, omelette, and dried shredded pork. Perhaps a great way to incorporate all the food groups into one meal.

We thought we were done with our breakfast until we walked past this little stall with several people waiting for their food.



Not surprisingly, we decided to join the queue and got ourselves one of the little omelette/crepe looking food.


It was served with chilli sauce. This was quite good, and the lady was very generous with the fillings. There were lots of lettuces with some creamed corn and other unidentifiable ingredients. It tasted pretty good overall, but also slightly oily.

With our full tummies, we spent the day visiting the mountains and the sceneries. Taiwan is really clean and there were tissues in all the toilets! I'm very impressed!



For lunch, our driver took us to try out some clear Taiwanese beef noodles. I have to say I still prefer the previous type.


Clear Beef Noodle Soup


Stir fried vegetables in curry sauce (ordered by the driver)
I am not a big fan of curry, so this did not appeal to me.


Another stir fried noodles with curry powder
As above, I didn't really enjoy this either

For dinner, at first we decided to take a look at a smaller night market which was recommended by the driver as he thought that the Shi Lin Night Market was too commercialized. However, we were quite disappointed with the size and varieties of food available at the smaller night market, so we proceeded to the Shi Lin Night market.

Though it's true that the Shi Lin night market is quite commercialized, but I think there are still a lot of authentic food you can get there. The whole market was packed with people, mostly teenagers. There was a whole shopping street that shopoholics would go crazy over. The street was so crowded because the shop owners also open their 'temporary' stalls in the middle of the road. Every once in a while, you would see the shop owners pack their belongings up and pushed them back towards their shops because there were rumors that the police were coming to check. It happened around 4 times while I was there which I found very amusing.


Next snack has a very interesting name. The owner is taking a rest from his rigorous deep frying.


This is probably one of my favorite snack during this trip


It's a deep-fried thick sliced white bread filled with creamed corn, mayonnaise, shredded dried pork, and a starchy sauce. It might not sound very appetizing but I really loved it. I know it's not the healthiest food, but let's face the fact, most good food are not that healthy. Moderation is the key! (I'm no where near that)


The crunchiness of the deep fried bread went surprisingly well with the starchy sweet/salty fillings.




Baked mashed potatoes with Cheese. This was my sister's choice and she loved it.


We also queue up for this famous fried chicken. There were easily 20 people in the queue, so we decided to try it out to see what's so good about the fried chicken.


They are flattened-crumbed- and deep-fried chicken pieces.
I thought it was way too greasy for me, but my sister who is a fan of oily food loved it.

Shi Lin Market has more things that I can imagined


I spotted this old man receiving some sort of treatment in the middle of the food areas


Oyster omelet. This was very different from the Thai or Malaysian one that I've tried.
The sauce tasted like it was made from preserved Tofu.

We also tried a lot of other food that night but due to poor lighting, I will not be putting up the photos. This shall be it for my Taipei eating trip Vol II, there will be more posts to follow so do drop by and check it out soon!

7 comments:

The Peanut Butter Boy said...

Crazy looking foods. I love foreign cuisine, that's what really defines a culture for me. I agree with you, that creamed corn filled pastry thing looks awesome. Send me one please?

- The Peanut Butter Boy

lackadensicle said...

I love Taiwan! stinky tofu, deep fried salty chicken bits, pig blood cake, breakfast.... sigh.

Hungry Hamster said...

Nick: Haha, please feel free to grab it off your computer screen :p

Lackadensicle: Ooh, I've heard a lot of about pig blood cake, but didn't get to try it! My friend said I was missing out! Shall put it on my list next time! :) Thanks for dropping by!

Anonymous said...

your blog makes me hungry again!!!
don't wanna read laew...
hahaha
:P

Hungry Hamster said...

Haha, thanks Jist :p

Thanks for dropping by :)

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

tt rice roll thing is Shanghai zhi fan meaning sticky rice. i don't like it either.

Hungry Hamster said...

ooh, thanks Terri :)