QUOTE(SlayerRick @ Aug 20 2023, 01:09 AM)
Been there recently and agree with Shilin night market. Overrated as hell and feel like more carnival (scam) games there than things to enjoy.
Same thoughts on the food, some are good (braised pork ftw!) and some are just tasteless or peppery compared to MY counterpart. Btw, if you go again next time, I recommend Xinbeitou which is slightly north of shilin. Very nice hot spring town and is affordable
Thanks for the recommendation! Probably will enjoy the hot spring in winter

QUOTE(dps404 @ Aug 20 2023, 01:12 AM)
Never try the 18 days beer?
Nope, didn’t came across it in convenient store. Is it good?
QUOTE(jmas @ Aug 20 2023, 01:22 AM)
was there last month, their summer really not for human one, buying big bottles of 青草茶 daily to cool down
oyster mee sua best one still ximending Ah chung
jiufen must walk all the way to top for the 芋圆
shilin n ningxia very overrated, rather lepak at ximending see twmm
overall spent like rm3000 5d4n trip for 2ppl
Dayum…rm3000 for everything including hotel and flight? How much is the flight for 2 pax?
QUOTE(bergstein @ Aug 20 2023, 02:02 AM)
anyway feel like sharing some of my favourite foods (tasty/kinda miss/hard to find elsewhere/value) I had in taiwan:
- braised pork rice (lu rou fan), nuff said, the fenglai rice glutinous mix with the oily braised pork is really quite enjoyable
- devil chicken chop (惡魔雞排), can find it in some night market, it's actually good, juicy, big portion, not like the stupid ximending chicken chop, I probably can find a juicier wood stick in our jungle than it
- taichung salty cake (鹹蛋糕), it sounds crazy and weird and first but surprisingly good, I miss the taste, it's something you can't really find it elsewhere
- taitung shui jian bao (水煎包), I remember it was NTD20? huge and actually taste good,
- oyster, be it raw or bbq or etc,, way cheaper and fresher then msia, even in night market you can find, already beat most of the hotel here 9 street
- soy milk, their soy milk is really 'milk', as in, really thick and flavourful, unlike us really 'soya water' cause damn watery
- dan bing (蛋餅), ok this one a bit hit or miss because it's everywhere (like we can find karipap almost everywhere) but if you happened to find a good one, it's really good
- sashimi, their fresh catch is actually good and darn cheap, beat msia in every way, of course japan still win but value wise, it's really good
- liquor, they have many distillery there and their quality is really not bad, besides kavalan, there's one kaohsiung distillery that make lychee liquor, really really good
- shi jia (釋迦), their buah nona, totally different from ours, it's like tree-growned ice cream
Thank for sharing such detailed list!
QUOTE(HumanExtinction @ Aug 20 2023, 02:38 AM)
taiwan food mostly very bland, maybe its us too taste heavy
Definitely Malaysian taste bud too heavy. I always have to adjust my cooking when I host Japanese friend and family