Dear Dayre,
It's time to talk everyone's favorite part of travelling.. The FOOD!!! So we've been eating tons on this trip hahaha and I'm gonna start off with our very first night market visit to "宁夏夜市"!
What's awesome about Ningxia is that it's a small and compact street chock full of many many different food stalls. It's not like Shilin or Raohe, where you can also do some shopping for clothes/random stuff. Ningxia is mostly just food so it's perfect for a fast & furious food hunt!
Oh before we went to Ningxia, we were at Ximending! Had the famous peanut ice cream which is two scoops of ice cream in a popiah skin and shaved peanut crumbs!
What the inside looks like.
It's pretty good even tho the ice cream quality is quite normal! I personally found it a nice snack, and also it's like a good snack size haha 👍
The very first stop we visited at Ningxia was this 麻油鸡! It's different from Singapore's version, and is much lighter and not salty like SG's. The shop also sells meesua and 腰子 (yo-ji) and it was so much better compared to Singapore's version (aka Seng Kee meesua)! The 腰子 was actually palatable and not porky or smelly. It was like firm texture but melt-in-the-mouth! *hard to explain*
The Taiwanese chicken is much tougher and chewier than the kind of chicken we get in SG tho, I wasn't used to it.
Lol super hungry.
It's a proper restaurant btw not a stall! And mostly patronized by locals so I think it's quite authentic!
Love the meesua tho. Damn nice!
We walked around until we found the next likely target.. "海宝贝"! It's a scallop that's been cut up and mixed with cheesy and don't know what else filling before being grilled. The smell is incredible!
Yum!
This thing also caught our eye. Guess you wouldn't know what it is if you're a first-time to taiwan like us. It's called "大肠包小肠" and it's basically a Taiwanese pork sausage encased in another sausage made of glutinous rice 😱 And then with some toppings like sauerkraut and garlic!
What the inside looks like. It's shiok de especially eaten on a cold night!
With our Taiwanese acquaintances who enthusiastically brought us around! And photobombed by the stall keeper of the 臭豆腐 stall we were at.
Yes you read it right. I had 臭豆腐 for the first time in my life!!!!
Verdict? It was surprisingly okay! Tasted just like fried tofu hahaha just with a slightly more fermented taste. And it went very well with the picked cabbage and chilli sauce provided!
According to the locals, the trick is to eat from a stall that's crowded cos that means everything is fresh! Legit.
One of the most famous of all Taiwanese food. Orh Jian! (oyster omelette)
Just look at the frying of the omelettes. Like a zai!
And this was tons better than SG's Orh Lua for sure. The starchy bits are so jelly and QQ, the oysters are very fresh and has no fishy taste, and the egg is tender and soft too! Too much sauce for me, I think you can ask for no sauce or less sauce.
This was also at Ningxia but it was a proper eatery on its own, not a stall!