58 TAIPEI
Another popular night market in Taipei is Huaxi Night Market, known locally as snake alley. This area was once the city’ s red light district but is steadily being gentrified and the extensive markets, the oldest in the city, remain popular with traditional medicine practitioners, snake keepers, and tourists. Here you’ ll find turtle meat, deer penis wine and the most traditional dish of all, snake’ s blood and venom from live cobras.
But most people are not going to the night markets to feast on snake and turtle. They go for xiaochi, the Taiwanese equivalent of tapas. In Asian culture, dining is a very social occasion, a chance to gossip and catch up with friends and family. The small xiaochi dishes – which include everything from omelettes laced with tiny oysters, and deep fried tofu skin, through to grilled chicken wings and sea grass jelly – make it much easier to talk, and of course jump up for the customary cum bai toasts which echo across the crowded markets as tables bless each other. Sometimes particular stalls specialise in just one xiaochi dish so the trick is to collect the best dishes from the best hawkers before sitting down to eat.
Taiwan’ s fascination with food has lead to a raft of signature dishes, many of which are now mimicked in cities like Singapore and Hong Kong. Some classic dishes include coffin bread, a savory form of French Toast filled with curried chicken or black pepper beef; turkey rice bowls with diakon radish; sweet garlic and basil sausages that you can eat with your fingers; and san bei ji, the three cups chicken, a winter favourite laced with rice wine.
The Taiwanese also have a wicked sweet tooth and many restaurants only specialise in desserts, including zukak kway sun cakes, green rice flour cakes; grass jelly made from the seeds of fig-like trees, and the famous bubble tea, which can now be found around the world.
Travel Essentials
Getting There: Cathay Pacific( www. cathaypacific. com) have direct flights between Hong Kong and Taipei
Where to Stay: The Regent Taipei( www. regenthotels. com) makes for a luxurious and convenient base from which to explore the city.
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