OMG! Shilin Night Market!

Another full day of food orgy, educational tour, hot spring bathing... fun fun fun!

We started out the day with a tour of the National Palace Museum. It's kind of sad, the museum houses treasures from the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. But most Chinese would never be able to see these amazing art works because they can't go to Taiwan due to visa restrictions and 1/2 of the tourists at the museum were Japanese... kind of ironic.

After we are cultured and educated, we left for a neighborhood called Tian Mu which has a large ex pat population. I really like this place. It's got a relaxed feel to it with many boutique shops lining along the streets and alleys. It was around 3pm and we were starving but most restaurants had the sign -- In Preparation -- on their doors... eventually we found a shabu shabu place that was open. All this food for only 10 bucks and I didn't even take a picture of the plate of thinly sliced lambs I had!



We promised ourselves that we wouldn't eat a big lunch, and at this hour, to leave room for nightmarket food, but oh well. After shabu shabu, we went up the hills to a hot spring resort. We weren't used to the hot spring water at first but got used to it later, it was really relaxing and comfy.


NOW, time for the mother of all night markets -- Shilin Night Market! AHHHHHHH, OMG! Nothing could have prepared me for this place! It was huge, crowded, loud and sooo much fun! We only ended up visiting like 1/2 of the stalls. We missed out the main food areas entirely and yet still managed to stuff ourselves silly. Oh, I also got socks and shoes... so cheap, hmmm, now the question is, how am I going to carry all these with me home? Think hard Cat! Here are the pictures for you all to enjoy and salivate over! Hehehe! Another reason I am including all these pictures is because I really admire the people who work at the stalls. It's hard hard work so I want to say thank you all!



We started out with a fried chicken breast steak! Super yummy -- crunchy, crispy, tender and slightly spicy. Oh yeah, T is holding a sour plum drink, now officially my favorite drink!




I love the color scheme of this picture. I wish I could find the vendor and give this picture to her.



La Jian or Oyster Pancake. It's really really good. Crunchy around the edges, with gooey sauce, and soft on the inside. Now I know why you guys were all so into it! And it cost us a whopping one buck!

Mi Shian -- not a fan. The texture was too soft and mushy for my taste.









Last but not least, J and P, I got the Dragon Beard Candy for you guys -- but whether it can last two weeks until I come back to the States is an entirely different question! Ooops, just ate one. Ok ok, no worries, I'll make sure to find some fresh ones for you guys at the HK airport on my way back :-)