June 23 and 26, 2023
Now Taipei is under tropical weather. The temperature in the daytime is in the low 30’s, and mid-20’s at night, but it’s very humid. Walking down the mountain from University House my shirt is damp with sweat. Usually in the afternoon there is a tremendous downpour, but the sun comes out afterwards like nothing had happened.
Recently there was the Dragon Boat Festival which gave two days off.
I decided to do a post on night markets, so I looked on the Internet. To my surprise, the Shida Night Market was prominently displayed. It is just down from NTNU.
The above map shows this. The dotted line is my journey from the Taipower Building MRT Station to the Bo-Ai Building just near the NTNU library.
One of the entrances to Shida Night Market. I’m standing on the grass of the long narrow park. Just to the right out of view are the men’s and women’s dormitories for NTNU. There is a plaque just to the right of the image, but it’s all in Chinese.
A view from inside the market. The weather this day was stinking hot and humid, with the temperature in the low 30’s Centigrade. Great globs of sweat were spattering off my face as I struggled with the camera.
Shida Night Market is in narrow lanes, but not covered over.
I heard previously that Shida Night Market used to be bigger. According to Guide to Taipei, “What happened to Shi-Da Night Market? Long story short, neighbours were becoming concerned with the market’s rapid expansion and the noise associated with the market’s seemingly unending growth. The city government stepped in to enforce proper licensing and regulation, and many of the vendors left. This doesn’t mean that the market is empty, however, just many of the unlicensed pushcart operators have moved on to other markets in the city. Shi-Da is still a great place to walk around and browse, and has returned more to its roots of a student hangout.”
There are quite a few YouTube clips of Shida Night Market. I chose the one above because I have the same feeling visiting it.
I had lunch in Yi Sen (壹森) restaurant (above).
The English translation to the Chinese characters above is “Thai Food Hall”.
The Yi Sen restaurant has several large signs explaining Thai eating habits – you can see one on the top left of the image above. However the food has only a faint allusion to Thailand. I speak from experience, as I spent a couple of years living in Bangkok. Regardless, I come for the grilled chicken, which is fantastic!
Grilled chicken, sides, rice, and iced oolong tea, with chopsticks – not used in Thailand, where they use a fork and spoon. This was a delicious meal. The cost was $AUD 7 for the meal and $AUD 2.25 for the drink.
Next I headed to Taipower Building MRT Station, passing through another traditional market. The picture above is the entrance to it, just to the left of the label “Guting Elementary School”, although the traditional market is unmarked.
The traditional market is a long, shadowed, covered space like a tunnel. The vendors were just finishing for the day, at a little past 12 o’clock.
You can get quite heavy trucks and other machinery on the path.
A few days ago, I visited Hui Guo Market, between Qizhang MRT and Xindian District Office MRT Stations. On the way from International House I stopped off at a cafe on 中興路 (Zhōng Xìng Road).
Above is the counter where I placed my order. Note the menu, all in traditional Chinese. I ordered in Chinese, feeling quite self-satisfied; the 老闆 (proprietor) replied but I could only catch about one word in three.
I had: 蔥油餅 (cōngyóubǐng), “scallion pancakes“; 煎餃 (jiānjiǎo), fried dumpling; and 奶茶 (nǎichá), milk tea. The first of these, 蔥油餅, I read up on the Internet, not hearing it spoken, so the 老闆 had no idea what I was saying. Fortunately, I recognised 蔥油餅 on the menu on the wall, and the 老闆 put me straight about the pronunciation. The meal was good and hearty, and cost a little less than $AUD 5.
Next I walked a little way the the traditional morning market, hidden in a laneway. I have a webpage about the market. The market only functions in the morning, ending about 1pm. I buy my fruit there weekly.
I walked to the end of the laneway looking for a Vietnamese restaurant (above) on the corner.
This Vietnamese restaurant (above) sells exactly the same Vietnamese food as Sydney, or Vietnam. Oddly, in Australia, Vietnamese food is huge and sophisticated. In Taiwan, I think it’s more of an “ethnic” food, relegated to simple restaurants and stalls.
I overheard the customers talking among themselves in Vietnamese, although the lady in charge spoke Chinese. My Vietnamese friends say Chinese is close to Vietnamese, and Vietnamese school children learn Chinese as a set subject.
I ordered Vietnamese rice paper rolls and a banh mi, about $AUD8. I overheard the Taiwanese saying (I thought) “miànbāo” to refer to a banh mi – is this correct?
In honour of the dragon boat races then on, I purchased a zongzi from a stall (above). The vendor said there are two types, but my Chinese skills were totally inadequate to understand the difference. So I purchased one zongzi at random – in hindsight I wish I’d bought two, one of each.
Closeup of the zongzi.
Unwrapping the zongzi. I realised that I had bought a sweet zongzi because it had an odd sweet flavour. I identified rice as part of the mixture, but the rest is a mystery.
Wandering Richard 