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.
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| Mostly adult men shrimping |
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| 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?
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| all kinds of seafood available at Shilin Night Market |
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| 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.
