Taiwan trip, Taipei night market

The following series of photos spanned multiple nights, but are all related. The night scene in Taiwan is vibrant, and brings out droves of people who are all looking for great food for cheap, and I’m sure something fun to do with friends. I am jealous of how cool this part of the culture is here.

Mitsy and Mel, best of friends :)

Mel introduced us to a fun game kids typically play. You fling marbles and they bounce down into slots. I’ve seen this before, but have absolutely no clue how the rules work. None of us won anything more than the participation prize of a small root beer flavored candy.

Jello with fruit in the middle. Pretty looking!

The above sweet pastry had a thick slab of butter in the middle. Oh hell yeah it was good.

This is stinky tofu, a revered Taiwan (and likely elsewhere) dish. It is hard to describe other than the fact that the ‘stinky’ moniker vastly under-describes the sheer putridity of it. It literally smells like rotting trash. People eat it here with absolute joy, so much so Mel (my wife’s friend) stated it was her favorite food. I am down to try stuff, but I couldn’t eat more than a few molecules of it.

I took some time to look around on my own in the neighborhoods around Taipei 101.

Taiwan trip, Tainan & Taipei 101

At the start of this day, we took the subway to a bullet train and traveled down to the southeast part of the island known as Tainan to visit some of Mitsy’s friends.

The above bowls are filled with a sweet treat known as Douhua. There are many variations of it I came to find out, as each is customized to the tastes of the buyer, but I believe they are all connected by the very soft and lightly sweet tofu used. The version I got was more savory (probably not considered douhua, but I don’t know…) Anyways, it was really unique, refreshing, and delicious!

Above is the former Tait & Co. Merchant house, which has been consumed by a series of huge banyan trees. I’m not sure of it’s history, but it’s a cute tourist stop in the outskirts of Tainan City.

Finally being able to look out on the city of Taipei, from near the top of the Taipei 101 building. What an absolutely immense and overwhelming city.

Taiwan trip, Taipei day 1

Above was my first sight of the Taipei 101 skyscraper, at the time of the photograph one of the top 10 largest skyscrapers on the planet. This building is the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, and was surrounded by public space that people used to play with their children, hang out, and practice their daily exercise and spiritual routines.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen spent time schooling in Hawaii during his youth, interestingly enough.

First exposure to the markets during the day, here they sold lots of fruits, veggies, and some meat.

Aaaaand of course Din Tai Fung, known for their tasty soup dumplings pictured above, but honestly all of it is good eats!