food stall v. restaurant v. night market cart

There are 3 major ways to eat in Taiwan: a restaurant, which approximates a restaurant in the US with chairs and tables, a server, a menu, etc., a street food vendor at the Night Market - which is kind of like something you see at a county fair or festival - a cart that serves one or two things and you take the food to go. The Night Market vendors are only available 'at night' of course. I am told one cart can support a whole family in Taiwan because the Night Market occurs every night and they are always packed. The Night Market will get its own blog entry someday soon - so much to talk about there. Here are a couple of photos of carts - one is serving 'fried milk' and the other serves a kind of BBQ sausages and pork chopped up together with onions and garlic. I skipped the fried milk - the BBQ was tasty.

A food stall is completely different from both of these. A food stall has an outdoor kitchen. It is a coal or gas fired stove with huge pots for stewing and sauteing. The stall has one or two cooks and one or two helpers. They usually serve noodles, fried chicken parts, various tofu dishes, or soups. There are a few variations on what you can be served there - but there isn't really a menu - just a sign that says generally what they cook. You just talk to the person at the stove and tell them what you want. All of the food is right there because it was purchased that morning most likely. It is all fresh for that reason - there is not storage or a large fridge. This stall may have some stools to sit and a couple tables or a counter which may be inside or outside. There may be water and beer served, maybe not. This is a quick, cheap meal - often eaten at lunchtime. The food stall is a little intimidating to those who do not speak Chinese because it is not clear what they serve, there is not really a menu, and while I have never ever been sick from the food there, the appearance of a food stall is not confidence inspiring, though I trust them completely.

Here are a few photos of a food stall. It does not look like much from the outside. They almost always serve noodles - with or without soup. The noodle dish shown here is my current favorite - gan mian. It is a ground pork stew on top of noodles garnished with bean sprouts and green onion. It is served with a 'tea egg' which is that brown hard boiled egg - it is brown because it is stewed in soy sauce. This should not be confused with the pidan which is also a brown egg - but it is jellied somehow. It is not clear to me how it is done. Its not bad - the texture is strange though.