18 March 2017
Steak night
The Ruifeng night market
My holiday is already half over. Thas a little depressing. Seems like a week but its been 2.
I am surprised how much I like Kaohsiung, on my second visit. In fact I will rate it only slightly below Taipei as far as cities I like to visit. Taipei has better transport and mountains.
This puts it really high up my list, basically, Tokyo/Osaka, Taipei/Kaohsiung, ahead of Hangzhou, Seoul, Fukuoka, Singapore, Busan, Shanghai the list gets muddled at that point, but London appears below those above but ahead of Munich and Beijing (I need to go back to Beijing), Paris comes dead last. Seriously. Oh and just above Paris would be Cardiff.
My rankings take many things into consideration, how busy they are, transport, activities for the non drinker, food, value for money, proximity to mountains, safety. Just to name a few.
Anyway, tonight I went to the night market the locals love. It is called Ruifeng and is located near the main stadium, right on the subway line, how convenient.
It was super busy on a Saturday night. Very hard to take decent photos, but it was excellent.
Most of the time when in the market you just move with a sea of people, no choice. It works better than it would in Australia because no one is dumb enough to bring a baby pusher / stroller / pram with them. In fact you dont really see those in Taiwan at all, which is great. Babies are born able to walk.
I dont see how its allowed to stay open though, a fire would be horrific, and I think fires in such places have been horrific in the past. But whenever they shut one down, a new one starts illegally. Remember all the food carts are mobile, the places that have seating pack it all away every night.
Unlike last night, this is a proper market, it is impossible to get to the footpath on the other side of the road where the market starts.
Down one of the many aisles of boiling hot oil, This is a less busy spot where I could get my arms up to take a picture.
Shop cat is now a night market cat. He gets his own small house. He seems to like people playing with him as they go past.
Its a hello kitty drinking game. You pay money to drink x beers in y seconds, and if you win, you get a furry pillow toy.
More cactii.
Example of a seating area. I was scouting for somewhere to sit.
I found a seat at a Taiwan steakhouse night market stand. Such things are very popular all over Taiwan. It is a good piece of steak, on top of pasta and an egg, on a grill plate.
So a lot like pepper lunch. Delicious, and about $5, not bad for a good steak.
Pies made to order, sweet or savoury.
German pork knuckle.
Some kind of flame thrower grilled cheese thing. Crap photo but stayed here because the child assistant was yelling at me for taking a picture.
More people eating. I thought that bald guy was a white guy, but on closer inspection its a bald albino Chinese man.
Very comfortable spot to enjoy your xiao long bao. They look good though, made before your eyes in the open.
More chaos.
Redundant photo from afar.
The nearby Australian beer house.
And actually, this whole area despite being a bit out of the city centre is very nice and modern, lots of shops and bright lights. A shame I dont have time to fully explore.