Garden Night Market Foods 花園夜市

Here are some of the stalls and foods we tried at the Garden Night Market in Tainan.  For more pictures of the food from the market, please see my Photo Gallery of Garden Night Market.

Deep Fried Ice Cream (轟炸冰)
I’ve tried this before in Canada, but the ones I’ve had before were small little cubes.  This was basically the size of an ice cream sandwich, so I was interested to see how it could fry without melting.  There were a few flavours to choose from including vanilla, chocolate, and mint chocolate.  We decided to go with the vanilla.

The ice cream was cold and was completely unaffected by the deep frying.  This would have been a perfect snack on a hot summer night.

Fried Sweet Potato (地瓜球)
This item doesn’t actually appeal to me, but we tried it anyways and I have to say that my instincts were correct.  I normally love sweet potato but seeing as how this was fried and then glazed, it tasted dry and was very hard.  I wouldn’t try it again.

Fried Chicken (碳烤香雞排)
It would’t be a Taiwanese night market experience without trying some sort of fried chicken.  We picked this stall and had our second fried chicken experience.  Unfortunately, the one at Fenjia Night Market in Taichung was more memorable.  This was still good, but it didn’t quite match up to what we were expecting.

Dong’s BBQ Beef (東記牛肉燒烤)
We spotted this place immediately after walking into the market.  We had read that there was a really good beef stall right at the entrance so we lined up to try it right away.  We’d also been reminiscing about the beef cubes from Raohe Night Market, so we were highly anticipating this.

Just like at Raohe, the beef was made to order.  However, this time around, they just had one standard type of seasoning, instead of allowing us to choose what we wanted.  Perhaps it was the seasoning, but the beef didn’t quite live up to our standards and we were a bit disappointed, especially after having read reviews online.  We found out later on that there was actually a beef stall close to every entrance of the market, so we probably didn’t try the correct stall.

Lemon Aiyu (翰檸檬愛玉)
I tried lemon aiyu for the first time in 2011 and it was one of the things I wanted to try again this time around.  Aiyu is a jelly made from the seeds of a fig.  It is extremely popular in Taiwan, but for some reason, it’s not easy to find this elsewhere.  Lemon aiyu is a lemon tea drink with aiyu jelly and it is really refreshing.

 

Coffin Bread (棺材板)
My main objective the night I visited this market was to find some Coffin Bread (棺材板).  Coffin Bread is a Tainan specialty, but it was unexpectedly difficult to find this specialty at the night market. In the end, I finally found a stall that sold it and it was everything I expected.  A thick slice of bread is deep-fried and then hollowed out (so that it looks like a coffin) and then filled with a cream-based soup.

It was delicious!  The bread was so crispy on the outside and then the seafood and soup made it all soft and chewy on the inside.  This particular stall didn’t seem to have any choices for the filling.  I had read that there are some stalls that offer chicken, some offer seafood, and some offer beef.

Thai Prawns (泰國蝦)
We found this stall selling large prawns which looked really appealing.  The owner started grilling them after we ordered, which made it even more appealing.  Unfortunately we had already decided to take them with us back to our hotel to enjoy and by the time we got back to try them, they had become a bit dry.  I don’t think I’d get these again.

Two Brothers (二師兄)
Our last stop for the night was to buy some snacks at this famous stall.  Two Brothers is known for luo mei (滷味), which doesn’t have a proper translation to English.  Basically, luo mei is the term used to describe food that has been simmered in a dark sauce.  We chose chicken wings, gizzards and tofu which were all delicious!  If I went back though, I’d get more gizzards and wings.  The tofu was also good, but I’ve had better at other night markets.

Lastly, the night market isn’t just a place for food.  There’s quite a few stalls selling goods (anything from clothing to jewelry) and there’s a huge section for people to play games as well.