Taiwan Day 1 - Shilin Night Market

January 06, 2016 feliciawong1988 0 Comments

Day 1 - Shilin Night Market

We arrived at Taoyuan airport on the 26th of December pretty late at night (10.30 pm or so.). The weather was WONDERFUL!!!! Compared to the humidity and heat in KL. The cold in Taipei was so pleasant (about 15°C - 18°C) I really didn't want to leave *cries* :( . Took a cab to the Airbnb I booked and by the time we arrived it was nearly midnight. I didnt take any pictures of this room because we already settled in and the room looked messy with all our stuff.. LOL. Mind you, I was travelling with two other adults and an 11 year old boy, with 5 bags in tow.

The room was pretty small for four persons but it was affordable and had everything we needed for our short 3 day stay in the city. For those of you who might be interested, you could look this listing up here.

Oh, did I mention that the famous Shilin Night Market is just several steps away from this listing? :D. All of us were famished when we arrived in Taipei (didn't order food on the flight because didn't think it was worth it) and luckily, several stalls in the night market were still open for business.. hehe. so we just dropped our stuff and off we went.
The very nice night receptionist in the lobby of the building recommended this 盐水鸡 that was just outside the building itself.

Aunty's Salted Water Chicken (阿姨盐水鸡

Think of it as boiled chicken cut into smaller pieces tossed with a mixture of vegetables, fruits and some spices.

'Rojak (mixture)  ingredients'

As you can see, there are quite a few ingredients to choose from. We picked vegetables and fruits mostly. If I remember correctly, each piece of ingredient, was TWD 20 or so? And I think half a chicken was about TWD50? So outs came out to be about TWD 150 and it looks something like this:

Yan Shui Ji (盐水鸡)

I can't remember all the ingredients that mummy selected but yea, that's what  it looks like.  There's about half a chicken in there tossed with all the other ingredients and it costs about 150 TWD? ( I think?) It was alright to me. Different i suppose but taste wise, nothing out of this world to be honest. Oh that's white bitter gourd on the stick btw. Its not that bitter actually. 
We wanted something warm to fill our stomachs so we stoppped at this restaurant, Zhong Cheng Hao(忠诚号）that was still open even though it was almost midnight. 

Menu at Zhong Cheng Hao Lu Rou Fan, (Braised pork on rice). I suppose one cannot say he or she has been to Taiwan unless they've eaten one of these right?? :D

Lu Rou Fan

It tasted alright. But this one wasn't as good as the one at Formosa Chang which I will tell you about in the next post. But like said we were hungry and anything was fine at that point. 

Here's the famous oyster egg omelette. I didn't know the sauce was sweet! they also mixed the eggs with starch so the dish was gluey which i didnt not expect as well. LOL Not really my cup of tea but you might like it. :)

Anyway, by the time we finished eating I think it was way past midnight but daddy, mummy and myself wanted our coffee fix. Fortunately, there's a 7-11 that's just next to the building where our Airbnb was situated. Yippee!!!! 
Granted there is definitely better tasting coffee elsewhere but at that hour, cannot be too choosy right? Besides, warm coffee  + cool weather =  AWESOME!!!!

7-11 coffee  Anyway, I think that will be all for this post. Stay tuned for the next one.. More in Taipei.. :D Next up: Wu Fen Pu and Taipei 101.. :)