Longshan night market

This is what happened on the day Koggy decided to go check out the Longshan night market...

The entrance gate

Here was where we met our trusty, Xiong Xiansheng (that's Chinese for Mr.Bear), who took us through the whole market and introduced us to numerous treats that lined the streets...

Xiong Xianseng, our local guide

Within 60 seconds of turning into the first street, XXS ordered a bag of these piping hot crunchy (& chewy) yam balls...

The li'l yam balls

We continued strolling whilst munching on these bite-sized delights... and about 20 meters later we were stopped in our tracks...
Koggy was ecstatic! We had found something we thought we would have to wait until wayyyy later in our adventure...

BEHOLD... the mighty (delicious) peanut brittle ice cream wrap!!!

Shaved peanut brittle (+ ice cream) wrap

The flavours and textures were absolutely gorgeous! (as Koala likes to put it: 'it's like a party in your mouth'!) The sorbet-like hand-churned ice cream wasn't too sweet, so it was just nice when paired with the shaved peanut brittle... and this is the what makes it unique - the CORIANDER leaves... yep, coriander leaves... it may sound weird to most people, but honestly it complemented the other flavours perfectly and actually helps you eat more of it without feeling that "sick" feeling you usually can get from eating too much sweet stuff... and white crepe was also gorgeous! It was so soft and paper-thin! Brought it all together so nicely! This one's definitely going on Koggy's TOP TEN list ^_^

Continuing down the street, we saw more sweet temptations...

Cute caramel candy sticks!

We didn't buy any, because we thought we'd be good and not ruin our appetite with too many sweets just yet...

XXS ushered us into one of the famous oyster pancake shops...

Taiwanese oyster omelet

Oyster omelets are probably one of the most famous Taiwanese dishes. What makes them so special are the incredibly fresh and plump oysters that are farmed locally. What makes these omelets different from others is the potato starch that they use in the batter, which gives makes it plumper and chewy (almost jelly-like) texture... and then a special tangy but savory sauce that is generously poured on (each vendor has their own secret mix). Definitely a must-try when visiting Taiwan.

I'm sure the oysters were still only half way down our throats, when XXS ordered us a pack of these UFO looking cakes... hahaha... they were actually these little steamed cakes made out of rice flour and filled with palm sugar (similar to kue putu found in Southeast Asia)...

"UFO" cakes

Of course, we needed to wash down all that good food with some good cool drinks too...
So we did so with cups of lime juice mixed with aiyu jelly and frog eggs... Yes, that's what they call them (they are EVERYWHERE in Taiwan)...

Aiyu jelly drink

don't worry, they're not really frog eggs... they are tiny glutinous rice balls cooked in a dark sugar syrup. When they are cooked they turn translucent a white dot of starch will appear in the middle which make them look like real frog eggs.

Frog eggs!!!

Armed with full stomachs and great local guide, we continued to explore the rest of the night market...

Views of the night market

... after walking for about another hour, we decided to head back and call it a night (probably because all that food finally reached our tummies and was starting to get digested so we were starting to feel a bit drowsy *yawn*)

Bear-sized thanks to XXS for making our first ever Taiwanese night market experience so memorable!!! Koggy can't wait to go out exploring with you again!

*'0'* & ^'(00)'^

and here's one for the road!