Buns and guns in Shi-lin market

Everyone seems to know about the night markets in Taipei and we were keen to experience one. Luckily our local friends Viv and Dino were up for showing us one of the most famous ones in Shi-lin. After a day of trapsing around a hot city, we were sweaty and looked haggered. We met Dino and Viv outside the subway station looking all fresh and clean. A trip into the depths of the indoor food market would soon sort that out. First a stop for a (large) spot of tea. Bigger than the last one. The most enormous tea I have ever had.









The indoor food market was like nowhere I have ever seen before. Throngs of people circulating, squeezing past giant vats of boiling oil and queuing up for delicacies such as fried chicken and giant sausages. There were mini restaurants inside with a few tables, We went to one of these first to try oyster omelet. Across the aisle was a place doing tofu in a spicy stew. That was more my thing. The sausages were really popular so we bought a couple of portions. They serve it snipped into bite-sized pieces from a bag and gave us 4 cocktail sticks in order to eat it. It was really tasty! We munched standing up while balancing giant cups of mango juice in the other hand.









Now just in case we were still hungry, Viv suggested we try a fried bean bun wrap. These are really popular and people come from miles around for them. It was fascinating to watch the staff make them: roll the dough, stuff it with bean paste and seal, throw them in a vat of oil (tended by a man in a singlet smoking a fag), scoop them out into a pile, roll out a tortilla, but the bun inside, sprinkle with a topping (we chose peanut), roll the tortilla, bash the thing with a closed fist, cut and serve. And the taste? The first few bites were good, but I’m not used to eating deep fried food so I couldn’t finish it. Definitely an experience though. People queued round the block for them.










Outside was a bit cooler and, being a Friday night, there was a real carnival atmosphere. You could try your luck at games such as Mahjong and raffles. The boys had a go at the shooting gallery. David was scarily good at it. He shot 9 out of 10 balloons in quick succession on both goes. Makes me wonder about those years before I knew him… He didn’t get enough points for a cuddly Sponge Bob, but we did get a pack of cards.









We went to the crowded shopping streets next. Makeshift stands down the centre of the street sold everything from clothes to jewellery to stir-fried insects. Occasionally they would disappear when the police showed up. We spent ages there, occasionally going into a regular shop for a blast of air con. I could easily have spent longer, but we had been out all day and were getting pretty tired.