Let’s talk about a 5-day Taiwan Trip (Part 4 – Beitou & Yangmingshan) – Page 11

Final pit stop: Shilin Night Market

After a short drive, Xiao Hei dropped some of us off to a roadside spot he claimed to be a good starting area where we can walk towards the last pit stop – the famed Shilin Night Market.

Some of us were game for it, but a few stayed behind the vehicle for our tour guide to drop off somewhere else, maybe a nearby train station perhaps. Seemed not all of us had enough juice for one more nightly activity. Not this motherfucker, I was game and gung-ho. I want to eat some more food. Winner winner, (literal) chicken dinner!

Frankly, I chose this tour largely because of price and it advertised its end stop as this market as well. Two birds with one stone. I don’t have to travel from somewhere else to here, the tour will just drop me off here at the end. Sweet deal.

So where did he drop us off? I marked it on the map after our tour guide went off.

It was a few blocks away from the main market. Once the car drove off, we were instantly dissolved. Some went south, one went to look at the Birkenstock shop (wonder why), but I walked north toward Lane 101, because it kind of piqued my curiosity. I looked at the map, there was an opportunity to go the long way, so I went there. I was the only one who went the long way. OK then.

I looked around, and it was clear to me that 5pm wasn’t yet a good time to go to this market, because it’s supposed to be a “night” market, and road vendors were still setting up. Some were already prepped and ready, some were still pitching their stall, some were still vacant. But I was fine with it. Just leisurely walking, chill, no rush, looking around.

But damn it, my feet. Bad timing. My feet started to ache a little bit. Teeny tiny bit. My Pacer app on my phone told me I had gone past 11,000 steps. Well… I did exceed 18,000 the day before, but I told myself I’d kind of step off the walking gas and try to walk less for my feet’s benefit. But the 11,000 mark told me that while I did walk less, the amount was still quite high. And climbing, as I was to walk to this market.

So I paced myself by looking for a quick snack to eat and chill, stall time while waiting for the sun to go down. I didn’t wait long.

It was a stick with glutinous brown-and-black rice formed into a rectangular shape, slathered with spicy brown sauce and rolled in pork floss. Basically I had a savory dessert. I paired it with a glass of longan juice. The rice was chewy but thick (figures, as it would not hold its figure for long if it wasn’t) and the spiciness wasn’t heavy, just right for a bite. I read later that there were other variants, the more known one was the tube form, but that one was served on a plate.

I looked around while eating and seeing stalls starting to prop up while the sky was getting dark and the sun was setting down. Lots of places selling good stuff as well for low prices. No wonder lots of tourists love Taiwan, lots of things to buy for way less. Discounts and dozens of options.

Also, noticed that a lot of places I’ve encountered sold “pineapple cakes”. Seems Taiwan really loves these treats. Same in Yehliu, Jiufen, Shifen… even the lunch area in Yangmingshan there was a small house near a restaurant with a signboard outside displaying pineapple cake. Even in this nondescript alley near the Shilin market, there were at least two sellers of boxed treats with pineapple cake. But for me, that is one treat I’d never have to buy on the street – I bought mine from Klook, and it’ll be delivered to the airport for pick-up.

After polishing off the snack and finding a spot to deposit the trash – I walked around, and in the end, the original vendor had a garbage bag at the side of his cart for sticks and plastic, and he was generous enough to tell me to put the plastic cup in there as well – I then went to the market. It was slightly near 6pm.

I walked through the main market looking for chicken. Turns out it’s nearer to the entrance.

Again, I had to be picky with what I ate here. While the trip and all that walking helped me burn lots of calories already, I still didn’t want to eat more than necessary. So I kept in mind that I should eat moderately. There might be lots of things to try here, but I don’t have a mukbang stomach anymore. Not since 2016.

So I started with a must – Hot Star Large Fried Chicken, just near the main Shilin Market lantern signage. Spicy, hot off the fryer, delicious. Oh it burns.

With my protein and sodium (partially) settled with a few bites of this big-ass chicken cutlet – after all, it was still steaming hot off the fryer, I walked through the market out of curiosity. I did my research, the actual food stuffs were outside, I just wanted to see what’s what inside the actual market itself.

Lots of things, really, but nothing “new” for me. Souvenir stalls, toy stores, pachinko sections, garment shops, festival games (like shotguns and dart balloons), and lots of low-price stuff like t-shirts with bootleg designs, bags, and accessories. But I came here for the night market, so outside I went. And it was on like Donkey Kong out there.

Selective photos.

However… my phone battery was getting dangerously low, like in the high 20’s. I fished around my bag for the charger I brought with me, but damn. I remembered I took out some items when I was clearing the backpack of the previous day’s stuff, and very likely that the charger was mixed with some of those things I took out. And man, I did not want to have a dead phone as a tourist. So I had to be selective of the photos from that point onward. I turned on the batteries’ Low Power Mode, switched on to airplane mode, and dimmed the brightness to half. I had to stretch the remaining battery for longer.

But first things first, I still had an unfinished bag of extra-large spicy chicken cutlet. I had to either polish this off or I throw it away. Nope, not throwing a warm bag of chicken. I looked for a place to sit down, relax, give my feet a few minutes of chill and finally eat this damn chicken. But none – tables occupied, hectic bustle of the crowd, no place to sit down. Save for one place I observed some locals went to with bags full of food – a nearby temple right across the market. It was the Shilin Cixian Temple.

I then watched to the side near the gate to see what do locals do here. They just sat on the stairs on the right side of the main entrance, ate their food, ate quietly, gathered their trash in their own plastic bags, and left the place clean. Come clean, be quiet, and leave clean was the apparent protocol. Easy enough. So to pair with the chicken, I bought a small bowl of oyster mee sua from a vendor nearest to the right gate, looked for an empty spot to sit on the stairs, and chilled for a few while eating my food.

I think I stayed there for a good 30 minutes. Once I finished the chicken and mee sua bowl, I tried to snap pictures of the temple grounds as much as I could. I think I had room for one more main meal and a dessert – a drink, perhaps. I already drank the bottle of tea I had on my bag. And I wasn’t keen on exceeding more calories than what I wanted to. I did burn at least more than a thousand cals, but the ostrich meat meal earlier did me a solid. Staying under 3000 was the soft goal.

But choice paralysis also set in. There were way too many stores to choose foodstuff from. I also had to admit, this also happened the day before at Ningxia Market. Too many choices. Which is a good problem to have in a night market of any size or notoriety. Little choice, nobody comes. Many choices, everybody comes. So I decided on choosing the only ones that caught my curiosity. I then avoided the meat-on-sticks, sausages and fried items. I went past the icy treats and soup stuffs. And soon enough, two roadside stalls caught my eye and I decided, this is it.

I bought four stuffed breads of different fillings from one stall that sold them, and was cooking them from a giant custom pot that had hot coals at the bottom, kind of a tandoor or the old-school Chinese oven I saw once before in Binondo. I pointed my phone translator on one of their signs, and it said it was selling “hújiāo bǐng”. I think I got two each of pork and beef variants. The vendor popped them right out of the oven into a waiting paper bag, and handed them to me after paying. Man, those were hot. And smelled good, kind of pleasant peppery too. Good sesame seed crust.

To wash those buns down, I bought a big glass of “frog eggs”. Nope, no actual amphibian progeny here, just aiyu jelly in round form, and reminded its original vendors of frog eggs. It was good, just a decently-sweet citrus drink. I stood on a convenient alleyway that had an empty spot, and wolfed down on the buns. I managed to eat three. They were crispy off the oven, piping hot, but the insides were full of juicy meat dripping with juice and fat. But the richness kind of took a toll, I only finished three. So I wrapped the remaining one in a plastic bag to prevent squishing, and put it in my bag to eat later as a snack (bun pic was taken at the hotel later).

Dinner solved, I then spent a bit more time looking around the place. To be honest, I kind of liked this market over Ningxia. There were some stalls that offered free samples along the way, so I took most of them to eat. Lots were good too. Especially those “QQ balls”.

After all that walking, I had my fill of Shilin Market. It was bustling at night, lots of activity in every alleyway. Shops were also alive, vendors were busier, crowd was getting thicker and thicker. I also noted some of the “food tours” I saw online was starting to come in waves, with tourists eager not to lose their guide among the crowd. I knew it was my time to say ta-ta.