Best stuffed chicken wing evar!

The last few days with my California church friends here in Taipei has been exciting. However, tonight was the last night and the last chance to experience the night markets of Taipei. So we went to the Raohe night market. The last on the list. Once there, I discovered these chicken wings. They are not your normal chicken wings. First off, they're boneless for the win. I hate picking out bones, it's annoying. Second, they're stuffed with rice. The rice comes in two flavors, one is Taiwanese sticky rice (油飯) and the other is Thai flavored rice (泰式吵飯). I chose the Thai flavor as i'm a fan of strong flavors. Awesome idea! It ended up being deliciously awesome. The stuffing could of had a stronger flavor, but it's still a killer snack. The breading has the same texture as Shake-N-Bake which I kind of liked. It's no panko, but it'll do. So basically they're definitely on to something good. The combination of the Thai flavored rice stuffed in a deep fried breaded boneless chicken wing tastes great together. KFC should pick this up (if they haven't already, I don't eat KFC often)! I'd just improve the flavor of the stuffing and keep the Shake-N-Bake breading. Two thumbs up! I want to go back and get another two. Anyone want to go with me?

This second photo is of duck blood stinky tofu soup. Foreigner's be warned. It's a very strong Taiwanese flavor and odor. I think it's delicious, but probably way over the comfort bar of a western foreigner. It's common. Nothing special. You can probably order this at any night market restaurant. But I thought my parents would appreciate this photo. MMmmmm stinky, irony, tasty duck blood stinky tofu soup!

Lost my camera

Yup, lost my camera tonight. I just got back from a great evening at Maokong's 邀月茶坊 tea house celebrating my friend's birthday. About 15 people showed up and the food was great! The homemade chocolate cake and cupcakes were awesome. Then afterwards, Yuki had a friend visiting from out of town, so we headed to Raohe night market. Somewhere between the taxi and halfway down the street, I lost track of my camera. I do remember digging through my right pocket for cab fare. I must have not put it back into my pocket securely and it fell out in the cab. So my only hopes is that the cab driver noticed and turned it into the local police station. So i'll have to check the police station lost and found later. Chances are slim though, so it looks like i'll have to go back to my old compact camera. I'm not actually mad that I lost the camera, as it was cheap, but I wish I could have my memory card from it. Well there's nothing I can do now. So I guess, some time down the road, I'll be looking into a new replacement compact camera. Possible the new micro 4/3s format that's recently been so popular. And to conclude, that means no photos today obviously. Edit: Actually it looks like I save two to my computer before heading off to Maokong. We went to Din Tai Fung in the afternoon for lunch and had the red oil dumplings (紅油餛飩). Always a winner in my books. I'll leave with you the other photo of the original Din Tai Fung kitchen.

Hankyou department store

Well, I woke up this fine weekend morning and the first thing that popped in my head was STEAK. I need me some slab o' meat! So I immediately head to Shipai night market for the Taiwanese steak house they have there. Unfortunately, taiwanese steak not american steak. But I think i'm starting to prefer taiwanese steaks anyways. It's less gut busting and comes with so many extras at a cheaper price. So with my craving for steak satisfied, Yuki and I headed to the Hankyou department store (stolen picture on right). You can get to it directly from the City Hall MRT stop. It branches off the MRT underground. Yuki said it's a rather new mall that opened recently and the interior design is very good. It's special to her, because on one of the top floors (i forgot, 7th?), it has a large japanese bookstore. Majority if not all the books are in japanese. Afterwards, we met up with Yuki's friend and ate at a special japanese shabu shabu place near Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station. Tabitabi which is the company she works for, had a review on this place and it came recommended. But we'd like to mention, it's not really shabu shabu, but a compromise between a taiwanese hot pot and shabu shabu. It's not all you can eat, but it really is delicious and clean in there. But I have to complain about the bad ventilation. There's doesn't seem to be any. So the steam from the pots really fill the air like a steam room. After dinner, we all hitched a cab over to RaoHe night market (饒河夜市). I noticed some new food there, but didn't get a chance to try it out since I already ate dinner. So i'll just make a note about it here for next time. I saw some coffin bread, crispy thai chicken and some bbq lamb on a stick. Afterwards, we went to wufenbu (五分埔) since it was down the street. I saw a lot of sections that i have not visited before because it is really huge and kind of like a maze. It'll definitely take several revisits for me to map this place out. Since most of the shops cater to women clothing, I really have to make a mental note of the good male clothing shops. But it doesn't help if I can't find it again.

RaoHe night market

Tonight I visited the RaoHe night market. OMG, this night market is the bomb! Not only does it have a clothing warehouse next to it. But It also has a dramatic and beautiful temple next to the entrance/gate. First, the clothing warehouse is where a lot of the venders get their clothes from. Usually this would only be for business venders, like in the USA or Japan, because that would just ruin the sales for the venders if the customers knew their source. But in Taiwan, it's also open to the public. And this place is huge! I got lost in it. The clothes are pretty affordable, not cheap, but cheaper than what you'd find at the other night markets. There was a shirt at Shida that I was looking at for $800. I found the same one at this warehouse for $390 NT. The styles they have here is really great too.It's more of a Shida/Ximen style, which appeals to the 16-30 year olds. YongLe yesterday was pretty good, but due to the cheaper prices, the style suffered alittle. Not at this warehouse. This is a must must revisit. Moving on to RaoHe night market. The place isn't that big, one street length. But they have food that I haven't seen at other night markets. They have a Thai banana crepe thing. It's banana in crepe, then pan fried. Soo frigid' delicious! I had a Thai iced tea to go with it. Then I also found a Indian Pakistani restaurant. I ordered grilled masala chicken. It was extremely good. And they had Chai tea. Finally, I get my Chai tea in Taiwan! Third, we found a cart serving Beijing style Lamb kebab. We didn't try any because we wanted to save that for next visit. But since we saw several people eating this, I figure it's a must be good. When I'm just about getting bored with night market food, Taipei pulls another ace out of it's sleeves. Bravo Raohe night market! I'm coming back for you. Good night everyone!