Shrimping + Shilin Market

One of the unique offerings of Taipei is the activity of ... shrimping. There is a street in northern Taipei with shrimping place (literally 钓虾场) after shrimping place They are basically dirty looking pools where they throw shrimp in, and you fish them. You pay by the hour, per rod.

The hourly rate comes with free bait - chicken liver and mini shrimps.

Mostly adult men shrimping

But this is a family friendly activity

We only caught four shrimp in the span of an hour... pretty sad. The man sitting next to us, who had come alone, was picking up shrimp every five minutes. It was incredible. With that said, he told us he had 10+ years experience. He also had his own rod AND brought his own chicken liver bait. I don't want to know how often this guy shrimps. I wouldn't say that shrimping in itself is a sad hobby (fishing outdoors can be so fun!), but the lighting in these shrimping facilities is downright miserable - not sure I would want to spend hours and hours of my life there.

After your time is up, you go wash and cook your shrimp. And drown it in salt somewhere along the way.

But we were four people who were hungry, so one shrimp per person was not going to cut it. We headed for Shilin Night Market (士林夜市), probably Taipei's most famous night market, for a real dinner.

One of Taipei's signature night market foods is the oyster omelette, seen below. Oysters, lettuce, egg, and a sticky sweet sauce. I've tried the oyster omelette three times and ... still not a huge fan. It's edible. But not great?

all kinds of seafood available at Shilin Night Market

the shrimps we could have caught

The Taiwanese can fry anything, and that includes milk! Check it out.

Beyond food, night markets have lots of booths selling clothes and offering games. SO many games at Shilin.

割包 gua bao

Delicious pork, pickled vegetables, cilantro and ground peanuts (卤肉、酸菜、香菜、花生粉).  in a steamed bun. SO GOOD.

gua bao is the perfect food. There is nothing wrong with it. When done right. I have decided that gua bao and shaved ice are my two favourite foods from Taiwan. I just wish gua bao was as easy to find.

我选的是综合偏瘦

臭臭锅 ｜ Something not covered in oil, for once

Served with rice.

Taipei bakery finds

Some bizarre things can be found in Taiwan's bakeries. It is amazing. Lychee and rose water bread, strawberry bread, earl grey chocolate bread, red wine and walnut bread. It's a great day when I go into a bakery that chooses to be having samples of all the breads I want to try. 

Here are some interesting finds that I took photos of. The only thing I've actually tried was the black sesame & cream cheese bread at the very end. Sweet, black sesame bread with a black sesame and cream cheese filling on the inside. So yum.

"Let's bake a brick-shaped piece of bread and stick a smaller brick of cheese on it"

"Ham & cheese sandwiches are too much work. Solution: ham & cheese bread - no sandwich-assembly needed"

This looks like a pretty delicate thing and yet there is tuna inside

Bread, bacon, cheese, and SEAWEED

Carb on carb. So you don't have to choose between bread and french fries. Also bacon and cheese.

This is not so bizarre. Also it is beautiful. Black sesame and cream cheese bread. Which means, black sesame bread on the outside, delicious black sesame and cream cheese filling on the inside. 

Check out that black sesame & cream cheese filling. I need to make this at home.

River tracing in Hualien

What exactly is river tracing? It's basically a combination of hiking and climbing in the river. You wear a wet suit and special grippy shoes and it's lots of fun. Despite it being a super hot day and the black wet suit only making it hotter, the water is nice and cold and feels wonderful. 

I didn't take any pictures myself because that would require a waterproof camera and dedication towards picture-taking that I don't have, but the company I went river tracing with Hualien took some nice snapshots in between it all.

Yeah this was fun-ish.

5m jump, into water not pictured. (Actually fun)

Taroko Gorge

I took a weekend trip to Hualien, a lovely city on Taiwan's east coast, about 2-3 hours away on train from Taipei. Then about an hour from Hualien is Taroko National Park, home to absolutely breathtaking scenery (and hoards of tour buses, taxi cabs, and tourists, not fully captured). 

It's a pretty large park, so most people explore its many sights via pre-arranged tour bus, private taxi rental, car, or scooter. I went alone (lonely traveler I am). The park is interesting in that it's not as "free to explore" as other national parks often are, it's kind of like: here are the sights, here is the map, here are the roads you take. Probably because building the roads in this area was a massive pain. There are lots and lots of tunnels. Some of them are pitch black pedestrian tunnels that require flashlights / faith in your ability to walk in a straight line.

Some trails had shade, some not so much. Was pretty red by the end of the day!

They recommend you wear helmets when you go in, but traveling not-with-a-tour I didn't have one. I thought this was an adorable sight.

Town of Tianxiang 

And near the end of the day, I saw a monkey!

Yongkang beef noodle soup

Yongkang Street is home to one of Taipei's most well known (at least in tourist circles) beef noodle shops. It's the shop with the big yellow sign saying "Yong-Kang Beef Noodle" though not even on Yongkang Street. And beef noodle soup is one of Taiwan's most famous dishes. 

I biked there around 11AM on a Sunday and there was already a healthy line building outside. But I was told it moved quickly. It can be hard to tell who is local and who isn't (they're all Asian!). I assume most of the line consisted of tourists. The group behind me were very obvious mainland tourists with their Southwestern Mandarin and Taipei city maps.

I got a "small" beef noodle soup (紅燒牛肉麵) and grabbed one of the 小菜 in the window. 200NT + 60NT. About 50% more expensive than other beef noodle soup places! But hey you do things for the sake of tourist-ing.

The meat was amaaaazing. Perfect amount of fat for my tastes. The amount of meat I thought was quite generous. Broth was decent, but I've had better at the not-famous-at-all shop near my apartment. Didn't like the noodles. Too... spaghetti-like. The greens were delicious.

As much as I do love beef noodle soup, it doesn't really go with Taipei's hot hot summers. By the time you get to a shop, line or no line, you're often not feeling like you want to consume a big bowl of soup. But shaved ice? Ah, always.