Taipei’s selection of night markets is a reason in and of itself to make the trip to Taiwan. In addition to the cheap, cheap clothes and shoes (and surprisingly good quality!) and great people watching, the food is amazing. Well, amazing if you’re not vegetarian.
A lack of English signs and limited bilingual skills on either side may mean you’re not too sure what you’re digging into, but in my experience, there are only a few choices I’d really recommend avoiding, which we’ll get to. First, let’s start with the good.
Fruits
My favorite thing, while not too exciting, is the sheer amount of fresh fruit. I nearly pass out every time from guava overload, quickly followed by a second course of dragon fruit, lychee and fresh fruit juice. I stay away from durian, which looks like more like a weapon than a food. You’ll smell it before you see it. No one has ever held a middle-ground opinion on durian, and if you try it, be warned that it will linger. The fruit section is basically a great introduction to Asian fruits, if you aren’t yet familiar.
Drinks
Drinks continue the fruit tour, including a tea-like sweet wintermelon drink and something called Frog Laying Eggs, which is nothing like its name. It’s a lime drink with jelly (as in, Jell-O-ish) bits. You’ll recognize the stall from the frog on the sign.
Breakfast
Ease into the marathon with an oyster omelet and an egg wrapped in a pancake topped with hot sauce. Iron eggs are tiny black eggs that have been cooked over and over and over again in spices until they shrink. I’d recommend trying stinky tofu in Taiwan rather than Hong Kong. It’s certainly less stinky and way more visually pleasing. Instead of a quivering slab, it’s served in small chunks and dressed up with peppers. The stink will certainly still hit you, so steel yourself. Octopus soup is really fishy; don’t try it unless you can’t live without seafood. For the rest, stock up on grilled squid or fried soft-shell crab.
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