Snacking in Shilin Night Market

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During our second night in Taipei, we decided to explore one of Taipei’s most famous night market in Shilin. Getting to Shilin Night Market was pretty easy by MRT.The market was just across the road from Shilin Station, and it’s hard to miss judging from the huge crowd along the street. There were plenty of food and beverage stalls along the street, and the smell of fried chicken especially wafted through the air.

Shilin Market

Large crowd along Shilin street food market

Walking along the long street of stalls without giving in to temptation was not easy. There were plenty of choices to choose from, and we couldn’t decide which one to try. In the end, we settled for a tofu stall that sold different types of tofu. They turned out to be quite good, even though not spectacular.

All types of sausages

Tofu stall

Juicy tofu

Along one row of the street was stall after stall selling pork rib soup, which looked very much like our bak kut teh. They seemed to be pretty popular too, judging from the crowd and the long queues at some of them. We decided to give one of the stalls a try, and ordered the Pork Rib Soup. The soup was dark and opaque, with a strong herbal aroma. It was savory and thick, and extremely comforting to drink in the cold spring night.

Pork rib soup menu

Pork rib soup

Huge pork rib

Saucer also bought a fried dumpling to snack on, which had a filling of vegetables and chives. It had a thick layer of pastry that we didn’t quite enjoy.

Fried dumpling

Vegetable filling

Last but not least, we couldn’t resist the temptation of the aromatic deep fried chicken that filled the air. The queue to this stall was the longest, and we had to wait for more than half an hour for our turn. Thankfully, the deep fried chicken did not disappoint. It was large in portion, superbly crispy and tasty, with tender and juicy flesh within.

Deep fried chicken fillet stall

Deep fried chicken

Grilled after fried

Crunchy and aromatic chicken fillet

We spent more than 2 hours in the night market, but could barely try a fraction of what it had to offer. Shilin Night Market truly lived up to its expectation of being the largest and most famous night market in Taipei. We’ll be back!