Taiwanese Snacks
A few weeks ago we read somewhere that there was a Taiwanese Snack Festival going on in Suzhou. I completely forgot about it until today, when I suddenly felt like going there for dinner and picture-taking. Well, I guess I am pretty unlucky: we checked online and the event just ended yesterday. So I will have to hold my cravings until October, when we are going to southern Taiwan for a week.
Last year, before we went to Taiwan to attend our friends’ wedding, all of my colleagues had just one suggestion for me: 夜宵 yexiao or late-night snacks. When Chinese people think about Taiwan, the first thing that comes to their mind is: Food! (Well, to be honest, Chinese people are always thinking about food, no matter where they go). Taiwan is famous here for its 夜市 yeshi or street food markets where all kind of late-night snacks can be found. So of course we had to check what all the fuss was about.
After the wedding in Taipei our friends arranged a trip to Hualien, a small town in the east coast of Taiwan. Of course there was a street food market in town so we headed there.
To my surprise it was quite crowded. It was a Sunday night, the day after was not a holiday, it was already late for Chinese standards and the place was full of people, noise and neon lights. There was a vast array of food stalls offering all the snacks my colleagues had been drooling about, so I found the best strategy was to eat a little bit of each thing and try everything.
In this stall you had to choose your skewers, get a number and go back 30 minutes later to pick them grilled.
One of the foods that is very popular among Chinese tourists in Taiwan is seafood. I guess it is because seafood in China tastes like dirty water. Seriously, the only place where I ate decent fish and seafood in China was Shengsi Island. Even in Xiamen it was disgusting. So my travel mates, all Chinese, fell head over heels for these huge oysters and scallops.
C. was eager to try the famous Taiwanese hot dog: it is a meat sausage inside another sausage which acts like the bread and is made of rice:
The white sausage is made of rice.
My personal favourite of the night was the sweetcorn. It was yummy!
I still have more than two months before my next trip to Taiwan. I should start working on losing my belly so I can make it big again with all the snacks!
I’ve always said and heard 宵夜. This is the first time I’ve seen it as 夜宵.
I just checked and both are correct. In Baidu there are 21 million results for 宵夜 and 27 million results for 夜宵, so both are widely used. I will check if 夜宵 is the one that is most used in Suzhou, that would explain why it came to my mind first!
That would be interesting if it’s Suzhou specific. I should clarify that my experience of only saying and hearing 宵夜 has been from Taiwan.
I see! I will remember it when I go to Taiwan :)
We say 宵夜 here too. To me, one sounds more like verb, and the other noun.
The Taiwanese hot dog sounds crazy. First time I see a white sausage which is not from Bavaria :o
We also have white sausages in Spain! But it is eaten cold.
Debe ser que sus ancestros pasaron hambre, de ahí el interés. Yo pensaba que la gente en La Rioja tenía prejuicio sobre los productos chinos (ya no les traigo nada), pero tampoco les gustan los noruegos! De alguna manera, es admirable como a los chinos les gusta probar todo.
Que no les gustan los productos noruegos? ni el salmón ahumado?
I. Am. So. Hungry. Everything looks delicious.
Please have a safe trip in October^^
Thanks! ;)
That sausage in a sausage blew me away. Did C. think it was good? Definitely on my “to eat” list when I make my way over there!
He says it was good! I will try it next time ;)
I love Taiwan’s night markets!
My favorite was the stalls where you could choose bunches of cut up vegetables and (in my case) vegan meats, which they would then coat in garlic and spices and deep fry! Amazing!
Taiwanese cuisine is becoming ones of my favourites! The Taiwanese Sausage is my weakspot! http://backpackerlee.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/taiwanese-foodporn/