Taiwan Trip Day 8 - Tainan (台南) | Yongle Market (永樂市場) | Shennong Street (神农街) | 水仙宫市场

8 December 2018

Touring Tainan City by Foot

After having our breakfast at Tainan Fushin Hotel, we head out to look out for more local delights. Below list the walking route I have planned originally for our Day 8. However, we changed plans along the way and skipped Baoan Food Street as we had too much food for the morning and decided to give it a miss.

Still, there will be a lot of walking expected but it is achievable. I have used Google Map extensively to guide us to our destinations when we were travelling on our own. Our children are older now and they have somewhat gotten used to our travelling pattern where we often take on long walks which extend throughout the day.

Day 8 @ Tainan

1) Yongle Market (永樂市場)
2) Shennong Street (神农街)
3) Baoan Food Street (保安路)
4) Blueprint Culture & Creative Park (藍曬圖) 
5) Hayashi Department (林百货)
6) 衛民街巨大扭蛋機貨櫃市集 

Walking Map Route (Original Plan) - Skipped No. 3 (Baoan Food Street) during our actual walk.

Taiwan is known to be a food paradise, and many feel that Tainan is the capital where you can source for authentic traditional local delicacies.

8:30am - Yongle Market (永樂市場) is one of the main food street in Tainan and it is only a few minutes walk from Fushin Hotel. Here you can find many good eats and you have to prepare your tummy to try them out.

阿松割包 is a very popular eats in Yongle Market that even the locals will join the queue for it. I guess we were rather early on a Saturday morning and the crowd has not flow in yet. We ordered the lean meat buns at NTD80. Looks pretty much like our Kong Bak Bao (Braised pork buns) only that they had sliced lean pork meat sandwiched between the buns, stuffed with pickled vegetables and topped with peanut and a sweet sauce.

The signature dish is actually the pork tongue bun but we decided that it will not be one that the children would love to share with and hence we gave it a miss.

Further down is 修安扁担豆花 - also rated as one of the top eats in Yongle Market.and has been showcased on various TV shows. In the older days, the owner picked up the pole carrying buckets of bean curd and selling them along the streets.

There are many assorted type and flavour to pick! We just went for the original flavour. 

The homemade bean curb, topped with brown sugar syrup, is extremely delectable. Love its smooth, yet dense and delicate texture and each slurp just goes down smoothly down our throat. We actually returned and came back for our second bowl of bean curb.

Jingde Spring Rolls (金得春卷) is another popular stall where you can find people queuing for the spring roll. Stuffed within the thin wrapper are at least 7 to 8 ingredients! Pork belly, egg slices, cabbage, shrimp, fava beans, peanut, garlic, parsley etc. At a standard price of NT40, the spring roll portion is huge!

Though there was a queue, we did not wait for very long as there staff are very fast is making their spring rolls in a systematic manner. 

金得春卷

There are many great eats along the streets but our tummies can only take so much. 

9am - In the midst of eating, we walked to Shennong Street (神农街). The old street used to be an important river port where merchants would enter Tainan via. Now it has transformed into a hub for art & culture where you can find small cafes, and shops selling souvenirs, creative crafts. When we arrived early in the morning, the street is quiet and many shops are closed. A little disappointed at first but we managed to admire the vintage atmosphere of the street and took some pictures here.

I believe it will be a prettier sight a night when the lanterns are lighted. It would be a different experience to explore the quaint street  and probably a better time as I would assume most of the shops would be open.

9:15am - From Shennong Street, we head back and spotted 水仙宫市场. This was not part of my original walking route but we decided to check it out. It turns out to be the oldest market in Tainan with a history of more than 300 years!

Home to more than 100 stalls selling fruits, vegetables, cooked food, it is definitely another food haven for the locals. We had too much food for the morning and can only wriggle our way within the market and feast our eyes.

9:40am - Continuing our walk, we decided to give Baoan Food Street a miss as we figured we can not longer stuff any more food into our filled and satisfied tummies. The children were thirsty though and we bought red tea from 布莱恩红茶 to quench our thirst. Apparently there are a few outlets in Taiwan and it seems to be a rather popular tea shop.

Near the tea shop along 正興街, there are actually a couple of other interesting shops in the surrounding if you have time to check out small alleys and streets.  

A tyre-inspired playground in the neighbourhood.

Junction of You-Ai Street

Spotted another Taiwan 喔熊 OhBear! This time he is promoting Taiwan's famous dessert - Aiyu Jelly

10:10am - It was getting hotter in the later part of the morning and we needed another cup of drink. Taiwan is famous for its Bubble Tea and there are so many such shops around that we were spoilt with choices.

OAAO 好茶專賣所 is located along Guohua Street and "OAAO" is derived from Hawaiian which means extraordinary. Their signature drink is 巫婆奶奶 (NT50) which is a lovely combo of sweet brown sugar, fragrant Oolong tea, fresh milk and Q and chewy boba pearls. This is probably one of the better brown sugar milk tea I had during our Taiwan trip.

Shaking our 巫婆奶奶

10:25am - We did not get to go to Baoan Food Street but ended up at Baoan Temple (南厂保安宫) which was built during the Qing Dynasty era.

Planned itinerary is meant to be a guide and at times we may defer from the original plan that brings us to new places least expected. This turns out to be the actual route to the first part of our morning walk instead.

Yongle Market (永樂市場) 
Address: Section 3, Guohua St., West Central Dist., Tainan City 700, Taiwan
Opening Hours: 8am - 6pm

Shennong Street (神农街)
Address: Shennong St., West Central Dist., Tainan City 700, Taiwan

水仙宫市场
Address: No. 230, Section 2, Hai'an Road, West Central District, Tainan City, Taiwan

Part 2 of Day 8 on our next post.
Check out our 2 Weeks Taiwan Itinerary Family Trip here