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Travel Taiwan: Shilin Night Market

Thursday, April 04, 2013 | 8:00 pm | 0 comments

So here I am, at the most popular and also I've heard, most overrated night market in Taipei.

I'm a stubborn person so even if the whole world tells me it's overrated, I still have to visit to see for myself.

Everything is worth a short visit when I'm overseas (esp since I've never been there before!), yes I'm that kind of traveller.

Okay, didn't eat too much at this night market, but you can only make do with the err..Chinese names for the dishes. It's probably safe to say I can't translate any of the dishes' names into English for you, because this time, I really don't know how! If in doubt, I think you can just look at the picture and point. Lol.

珍珠爱玉冰

One of the must-eats when in Taiwan, is their superb ice jelly 爱玉. I drank this famous concoction and I felt so refreshed, instantly. It provided instant relief to the throat, and I love how the ice jelly glides down smoothly.

蚵仔煎

Yeah yeah yeah.. I wasn't really keen on this but I couldn't resist trying just a few bites.

The addition of vegetables is something we don't see often in fried oyster omelettes because the ones we ate in Singapore doesn't have it. The vegetables provided a refreshing touch to the oily dish though, so I kinda enjoyed it. The use of corn flour here is also minimal, and I ate quite alot of egg haha. The sauce is teeny bit spicy but overall rather flavourful. Not bad!

花枝鱿鱼羹

Okay I have to say here, sticky stuff are not to my liking because it's mostly corn starch.

But ehh since I'm already in Taiwan, might as well try a mouthful. It's a generous portion, a small bowl but filled to the brim with ingredients. Thankfully, this is really not very sticky, it's more of a thick soup texture. Very flavourful, you can taste the sweetness of seafood in the broth.

沙茶蟹肉

Teppanyaki seems to be a hot favourite amongst Taiwanese, so we randomly picked one stall and sat down to try the food. The upside of teppanyaki is that you get to watch the chef cook live, and then consume your food steaming hot. But the downside is that teppanyaki tend to be rather oily. The crab meat is well-cooked and tasted wonderful, the vegetables were all superbly flavoured, but it's really tooooo oily. Plus the underground food street has really bad ventilation, and that just adds to the overall discomfort.

Another thing is to NEVER EVER BUY FRUITS IN SHILIN. The vendors are out to cheat the tourists, 1000 NTD for a bag of fruits is insane. You can get 2 bags of cut fruits for about 50 NTD in the other night markets. Insanely overpriced.

Verdict: 3/5

Shilin is not my favourite night market. Like I said, the ventilation is bad, and it's difficult to get to. You have to fight the throngs of people on the shopping street before you turn into the food basement.
Possibly next time I might just rule Shilin out and visit other night markets instead.
Skip this night market if you don't have enough time.

How to get there:

Take the train to Taipei Station, transfer Taipei MRT to Jiantan Station 剑谭站

Labels: Apr2013, Food, Lifestyle

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