Night Market in Taipei

One evening this week, we paid a visit to one of the numerous night markets in Taipei. These markets burst of live and are cramped with little shops and stands aligned along a narrow street offering all thinkable kinds of goods and foods. Between these stands, crowds of people squeeze through searching for something to buy. (On a rainy night and being tall Europeans, this becomes an eye-endangering slalom, where one wishes to wear really big safety goggles or even better ski or diving goggles...)


We had a Taiwanese friend with us, Mong-Han, who helped us to find a good place to eat, and he explained us many details of the night market, e.g. how to order a meal at one of these cook shops. Actually, this is not so difficult: You pile all food that you like to eat (sorry, I was wrong - that's the difficult part as you do not have a clue what these green thingies, meaty pits and pieces, and tofu-like lumps are...) in one of the plastic bowls and hand it to the cook, who will chop the food into small pieces. Then (and that is the even more difficult part) you have really to keep track on your basket, as your basket is going from one cook to another, who will eventually pour all your food into a metal basket, which he is inserting in a big pot with soup, where in two other baskets somebody elses food is already cooking.
After a short time, your food is ready, and you nod to get some spicy sauce on top. So there you are with your plate full of delicious food in one hand and .....yes, of course! .... chopsticks in the other....




Here are some impressions of the food stands in a night market in Taipei (really fresh fruits, and every - really every - part of ducks: intestines, claws, heads, throats,...).


We close this posting with a picture taken from the crossing next to our apartment: Tapei 101 at night.