The plan for many is to go to Wufenpu Market for shopping and Raohe Night Market for eating and shopping just because the two of them are close by to each other. Prepare your tummies for this exclusive day of feasting.
As I mentioned before, it was raining terribly. It was honestly quite drastic. We missed out on so much street food and shopping because of the pouring sky. Nevertheless, I'd like to introduce you to some of the street food which we wanted to go to when we were there. Maybe you'll have better luck than we did.
FOOD STALLS AT WUFENPU MARKET
(P.s. The addresses of these stalls is included in my itinerary. You can download it in PDF form at this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9_cHcmEYu0VY19YS3hwMVlhcG8/edit?usp=sharing)
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雪中紅大腸包小腸
台北市永吉路443巷9弄公園前 | St. 9, Alley 443, Yong Ji Rd.
(In front of the community park, next to No.1 Fried Chicken)
- This is a famous Taiwanese Street Snack: its name means Big Sausage Wraps Small Sausage.
A Taiwanese-style sausage is wrapped in glutinous rice and is filled with pickled vegetables and peanuts
too! We skipped trying this snack at other locations as well because glutinous rice can be extremely filling.
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第一名香雞排 No. 1 Fried Chicken
台北市永吉路443巷9弄公園前 | St. 9, Alley 443, Yong Ji Rd.
(In front of the community park)
- Fried Chicken is available at all spots in Taiwan/Taipei. This is simply a different and perhaps smaller brand.
You may choose to try it and compare it to the bigger brands like Ji Guang and HOTSTAR.
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From Wufenpu, we decided to hide from the rain at Songshan Train Station. (It drizzled and poured).
Songshan Train is filled with food outlets, convenience stores and shopping. Definitely nothing compared to the street sales, but this is a good place to enjoy some cool air (in the summer), or grab some food and drinks, or simply to rest your weary legs.
The travel mate and I decided to stop and eat at Coco Ichibanya Curry House.
We saw this shop all over Taipei and since it was pouring, we were convinced that it was fate for us to try it.
Since it was around 4pm, and we were heading to Raohe Night Market for street food after, we decided to share one portion of curry rice.
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| This was the fried chicken cutlet with Level 2/3 Curry and Cheese. |
My verdict? Nothing to shout about, but it was served hot, and the chicken was crispy and flavourful, which was comforting in wet weather. The cheese provided a nice creamy touch to the curry. Worth trying if you want a fuss-free meal where the food is not too bad. Prices may be considered a little high though.
Coco Ichibanya Curry House
Songshan Train Station Level 1
市民大道六段 Songshan District, Taipei City Taiwan
HOW TO GET HERE:
From Wufenpu, head west on 永吉路443巷11弄 (Yongji Road Alley 443 Lane 11) toward 永吉路443巷7弄 (Yongji Road Alley 443 Lane 7) for 120m. Turn right onto 松山路 (Songshan Road) and walk for 280m. You will arrive at your destination (a reddish building).
If you are taking the train, simply alight at Songshan Train Station.
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When the rain finally stopped, we decided to head to Raohe Night Market for a night of intense street food eating.
HOW TO GET HERE:
From Songshan Train Station, head north on 松山路 (Songshan Road) toward 市民大道六段 (Shimin Boulevard Section 6) for 89m. Cross the road on the left to go onto 八德路四段 (Ba De Road Section 4) and continue straight for 100m. Turn left when you see the big red entrance sign for Raohe Street Night Market.
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| This is the temple next to the Raohe Street Night Market Entrance. You'll know that you're on the right track when you see this. |
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| This is the entrance to Raohe Street Night Market. You can't miss this brightly lit sign. |
Of course, when anyone mentions Raohe Street Night Market, people usually exclaim for the Pepper Biscuit (福州胡椒饼). Marinated pork meat with pepper is wrapped with chopped scallions in a thin bun skin. Honestly speaking, I do hate pepper; especially food with strong pepper taste such that I can't taste the food itself.  |
| The insanely long queue just at the entrance of Raohe Night Market. The queue clears really quickly though, there are about 10 people making buns which makes the process speedy. |
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| Photo from Tripadvisor: The famous Fuzhou Pepper Biscuits. Look at how thin the skin of this bun is - fantastic. The meat is also packed full of yummy juices and absolutely tasty. |
My Verdict? Since the queue clears really quickly for this stall, I do recommend you queuing up to try one. There is no discount for buying more, so if you want to save some of that tummy space, simply buy 1 or 2 before hopping over to the next yummy street food stall. With its juicy meat buns and thin biscuit/bun skin, this stall is highly recommended.
福州世祖胡椒饼 Fuzhou Ancestor Black Pepper Buns
台北市饒河街249號前 | 249 Raohe Street, Taipei
(within Raohe Street Night Market, near the entrance with Chinese temple)
Opening Hours: Daily 15:00 to 24:00
*As you can see, i wrote down "near the entrance with the Chinese temple, shown in the previous photo
above. There are 2 entrances to Raohe Street Night Market and the one that I've been guiding you to is this
same entrance.
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After purchasing our juicy pepper bun, we walked down Raohe Street. About a few stalls away, the boyfriend spotted a stall selling grilled hotate (scallops) and insisted that he had to get one.
At this stall, the owner makes everything as freshly as you order it. So you may have to wait a couple minutes for your food, but you can rest assured the scallop is made piping hot and fresh.
When you approach the stall, the owner will hand you a list of different flavours (sauces or sprinklings) to choose for your hotate.
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| The stall with its fake hotate display: for you to recognise this stall! |
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| Lo and behold, that's a beauty right there. I believe the sauce smeared over was teriyaki and the sprinkling seaweed.
My verdict? This was absolutely yummy especially if you are one
of those die-hard hotate lovers. I'm not a scallop lover myself and I
was completely sold. The pairing with the sweet teriyaki sauce and
seaweed sprinkles topped off the hotate with a nice touch. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED.
------------------------------------------------------- A few stalls down from there, I spotted a Tamago shop. Tamago is a sweet Japanese egg omelette which we often find on sushi. This stall makes their tamago special by combining this sweet omelette with cheese and corn on the inside. What you do as a customer is to choose a topping/flavour of your choice. There were many to choose from such as Hawaiian (ham and pineapple), mushrooms (i think?) but being a die-hard Lobster Salad fan, that was my choice. Certain flavours cost more than others depending on the quality and type of ingredients used in that combination. *Since this stall and the scallop shop were not planned, I don't have their address. I do however have pictures for you so that you can recognise these stalls easily if you are there! |
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| The stall that sells Tamago - absolutely striking, you won't miss it. The queue (not too long) is on the right side of this photo. |
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| My lobster salad Tamago, complete with bonito flakes. YUM. |
My verdict? A must for all eggy-lovers. The tamago (omelette) is smooth, firm and yet soft. The corn and cheese inside the egg provide a nice texture and bite to the smoothness of the egg. The creamy lobster salad on top shows that they don't scrimp on good stuff (there were plenty of "lobster pieces" in my lobster salad and the added bonito flakes gave the dish that wonderful Japanese flavour.
TWO THUMBS UP - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
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After that we were way too full to stomach anything down, so we walked around to explore the place. We decided to check out the Rainbow Bridge which is just behind the Raohe Street Night Market.
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| Taken with my iPhone - kinda pixelated (SORRY!) |
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| Beautiful view of Taipei's night life and orangey-hued streets with the Keelung River. |
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| Peaceful and quiet - really beautiful. |
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| People crossing over the bridge, the architecture is quite amazing. |
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| Found this "LOVE" structure on the side of the river where Raohe Street Night Market is. Good PHOTO SPOT! |
My verdict? Worth a walk-around, especially after all that good food feasting at Raohe Street Night Market. Come here to snap some photos, and enjoy the quiet night with dotted city lights. This bridge is a matter of 2-3 mins walk away from Raohe Market.
Rainbow Bridge 台北彩虹橋
At the end of Lane 221, Raohe St., Taipei City
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After a great relaxing night's walk, we decided to make our way back to CityInn Hotel to prepare for the next day's long journey to Jiufen.
The fastest way back to Taipei Main Station from Raohe Street Night Market is to take the train from Songshan Train Station. It's one stop away, so it is really quick. Also, you can explore a new kind of transportation in Taipei.
* IMPORTANT *
A word of caution about trains in Taipei (not Subways) which we had to learn the hard way:
Scanning into the gantries to use the train with your EzyCard (You You Card)
is possible and convenient, yes. HOWEVER, it means that you are not guaranteed
a seat. There are people who purchase train tickets who get fixed seatings, so they
have priority over you, a card-scanner. So, do not simply rush and sit down at a random
empty spot, especially in a crowded train, that seat is likely not yours.
(In other words, card-scanners do not actually have any seats. You do pay much less, but I would suggest that if the journey is long, buy train tickets.)
THANKFULLY, we did not encounter this problem till the next day (more on that later). Since the journey from Songshan to Taipei Main Station was so short, and there weren't too many passengers, we managed to get a seat back for the 7 minute ride.
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| Comfortable seats with plenty of leg-room - I DO LOVE THEIR TRAINS. But yes, do be careful about seating as I mentioned above. |
We stopped to grab more supper at FamilyMart (greedy bums we are) and I tried FamilyMart's Mango Soft Serve Ice Cream. The ice cream was really good but my cone was no longer crispy. We packed up our belongings since we were going to check-out the next morning for a one-night stay in Jiufen.
Stay tuned to the next post, for more on our Jiufen and Shifen travels.
Don't forget to leave any comments or tips for me so I can improve my blog posts!
Fly Safe and Eat Happy,
V
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