No booking needed : Back in Taipei (9)

Having caught one of the half hourly evening high speed trains back to Taipei from Kaohsiung, we arrived somewhat hungry. After wandering down one of the streets next to our local MRT station, we settled on one of Taipei's home grown fast food joints: Formosa Chang. Most famous for lu rou fan, it started out in 1960 from street vendor origins. 

The chain specialises in serving up quick meals based around either a small bowl of lu rou fan, shredded chicken and rice or just plain rice with which one can order a variety of side dishes. We had a piece of pan fried fish, vegetables, some sliced sausage and soup. Calling this fast food is an understatement, with some of the dishes arriving while we were still ordering. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was pretty decent fare. At the end of the meal, having spent $NT330, we even had a chance at a lucky dip, picking 3 coupons which entitled us to free side dishes on our next visit. 

Didn't take any pictures of what we ate but it looks just like what's in the Formosa Chang website www.fmsc.com.tw. And wonder of wonders, they also sell prepacked lu rou fan mix in foil pouches, ready to create 7 bowls of their signature dish (just add a dash of pork mince?) in the comfort of one's own home. And no, we didn't buy any, having had enough during our stay to last half a lifetime, or at least until the next trip.

Christmas in Taipei

Taiwan is mainly a Buddhist country, and as such Christmas isn't celebrated much here. The main public signs of Christmas are to be found in and around shopping centres and precincts. Indeed Christmas day is just another working day, and everything is open for business as usual. If you've forgotten to get a present for someone, there's no need to panic on the day.

Thai in Taipei

Although we love our street food, restaurants are ok too! Some dear old friends (you know who you are) took us to their local Thai in the Songshan district for dinner. It's an inner suburban area where many residents and shopkeepers are on first name terms, giving it a great community atmosphere. The food was pretty good considering there aren't many Thais living in Taiwan and it was, of course, full. Booking was required so a different post title here (with apologies for the lame pun effort).

Shihlin Night Market, Taipei

Shihlin night market is a cornucopia of sights, smells and human activity. It comes alive from about 7pm each day and only starts winding down as midnight approaches, mostly because the last MRT train runs not long after that. For food lovers, there's plenty to satisfy the senses, although it's arguably most famous for stinky tofu (chou dou fu) and pepper pork buns (hu jiao bing). We didn't have any of those tonight but tried some equally great street eats, having had a light dinner at the adjacent food centre. 

Taiwanese sausages. Makes a nice after dinner snack. Delightfully grilled sausages in various flavours (garlic, black pepper, normal, mustard) and wrapped in a bun of glutinous rice (itself looking like a sausage) and laced with pickled vegetables.

Fried milk. Yes, that's what the sign says. Actually it's 3 solid custard cubes deep fried on a stick. Suddenly I can hear the words "if it looks good, eat it" echo through the market. So I did.

Another perennial night market favourite: barbecued corn on a stick smothered with a sweet thick sauce with chilli and sesame seeds.

No booking needed: Taipei (2)

Unlike food courts elsewhere, the ones in Taipei generally serve up 3 course meal sets for the princely sum of $NT130 or so on average. And did I say they were always crowded? I mean who eats lunch at 4 in the afternoon? 

We had 2 of Taiwan's great contributions to street food at the basement of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi: oyster omelette (locally called o ah chien) and a fantastically greasy bowl of minced pork, preserved vegetables and rice, well mostly rice and oil (called lu rou fan. Bourdain, eat your heart out. You really need to come to this country to do one of your shows). Even though the food sounds totally artery clogging, vegetables are always served as a side dish (called 小菜 or 'small vegetables').  So it IS a balanced meal, most of the time. But always good!