Danshui night market

Danshui is located at the end of the red mrt line. When we got there Koggy was starving that XXS couldn't persuade us to walk a bit further to check out the cool bridge and the fisherman's wharf. I guess we'll just have to come back some other time. tee hee ;p

And here's some great stuff we found at the Danshui night market:

Gigantic crepes

This crepe was pretty fulfilling but of course, we couldn't just stop here ;)

Next up is:

TW hotdog with grilled rice bun + tw sausage

The TW hotdog was pretty interesting. The combo of the grilled rice bun and the somewhat sweet tw sausage is just good.

While we were walking around hunting for food, we saw this stall with a bunch of gigantic fruits!

We didn't buy any, but we did get some of the cut - up fruits in a box ;)

gigantic fruits

There are lots of "deep fried stalls" too ... with different ingredients.

Some has sticks of meat, some has mushrooms, some has chickens or porks, or even intestines ... Yea, the taiwanese love their deep fried food.

sticks of meat ready to be deep fried

1 of our last meal that we took picture of was this delicious onion spring pancake.

spring onion pancake

Oh fluffy yummy pancake!

cool wire souvenirs

And this last photo was taken almost at the end. There were 2 guys that were making and selling these cool wire stuff. You could even have him custom make things for you, whether it be a keychain, business card holder, pendant, and whatever else you can think of really ;)

And now, Koggy is getting ready for a fun filled weekend with our dearest relative, which we'll introduce in the next post. So, stay tune and have a happy weekend!!!

XOXO,

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

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!