今年的旅展上，特別設立一個卓越商圈主題館，網羅優質商圈的特色美食及好物，將地方風味搬進展場，讓民眾在展場就能一站式體驗，參展商圈包括我熟悉的北部商圈如
北投、迪化街、萬華街區、西門町、台北東區，三峽民權老街等，還有我不熟悉的日月潭、彰化縣田中、嘉義縣民雄、高雄旗后及金門後浦商圈等，不過，我比較感興趣的是商圈美食區，正好有看看那些特色美食。
我最先注意到的是內湖737商圈，商圈位在台北市內湖路一段737巷，白天是傳統早市，晚上則搖身一變為一個在地夜市，因為這裡緊鄰內湖科技園區，附近的上班族在中午及晚上會走一段路，到這裡來覓食，原因當然是因為這裡美食眾多，而且價錢較合理，有一陣子，我常在內湖出沒，我才知道，這個俗稱737夜市的地方，這次參展的豬太郎豬血糕，可以說是737夜市美食的扛壩子，超長巨無霸尺寸的豬血糕，讓我記憶深刻，不過當我在展場看到價錢時，也驚掉我的下巴，居然一隻豬血糕要價六十元台幣，我記得我之前吃時，沒那麼貴，好像才三十多元台幣而已，物價有漲的那麼兇嗎？唉！記憶中的美食，都要不美食了。
至於萬華商圈在台北人眼中，也有不少便宜美食，位置大概在龍山寺捷運站附近，拜捷運所賜，現在到那裏相當方便，在我印象中，萬華一直是個龍蛇雜處的地方，越混亂的地方，通常就越好玩，我小時候要到那裏，不是那麼方便，不過，有一段時間我爺爺生病住院，醫院就在那一帶，我們常去探病，所以還算是有點印象，那裏幾乎每天都有殺蛇表演，及可以溫補強身與滋養皮膚的蛇肉湯，在小巷中還可以見到流鶯在拉客，白天還有機會看到流氓在打架，美食很多元，價錢也算合理，不過，參展的肉圓攤，我倒是沒聽過，可能是新品牌吧。
一般人除非旅行，大多生活在某個地區，不太有機會接觸到各地的事物，透過這樣的機會，可以看看各地特色美食及好物，和攤主聊聊天，可以了解一些在地軼事，我發現很多攤位都沒甚麼人氣，我猜，大家沒有預期會在這裡看到這些攤位吧，所以只要我主動開話題，他們都很樂意聊聊天，畢竟在展場，沒人搭理，應該也很無聊吧。
This year’s travel expo featured a special pavilion dedicated to outstanding local business districts, bringing together their signature foods, local specialties, and unique products. It was basically a showcase of local flavors from different parts of Taiwan, giving visitors a chance to experience a variety of places all under one roof. The participating districts included some familiar ones from northern Taiwan, such as Beitou, Dihua Street, the Wanhua area, Ximending, Taipei’s East District, and Sanxia Minquan Old Street. There were also places I wasn’t very familiar with, such as Sun Moon Lake, Tianzhong in Changhua County, Minxiong in Chiayi County, Qihou in Kaohsiung, and Houpu in Kinmen. Personally, though, I was more interested in the food section. I wanted to see what kinds of local specialties they had to offer.
The first place that caught my attention was the Neihu 737 business district. It’s located along Lane 737, Section 1 of Neihu Road in Taipei. During the day, it’s a traditional morning market, but at night, it transforms into a local night market. Since it’s right next to the Neihu Technology Park, office workers in the area often walk over during lunch or in the evening to grab something to eat. The reason is pretty simple: there’s a huge variety of food, and the prices are relatively reasonable. I used to spend quite a bit of time around Neihu, so I knew about this place, which is commonly known as the 737 Night Market. One of its signature foods is the giant pork blood cake sold by Pig Taro, one of the vendors at the expo. Their extra-long, jumbo-sized pork blood cake really left an impression on me. But when I saw the price at the expo, I almost fell over. One pork blood cake now costs NT$60! I remember paying only a little over NT$30 when I had it before. Has everything really gotten that expensive? Sigh… the foods I remember from the past are starting to become unaffordable.
As for the Wanhua business district, people in Taipei also know it as a place where you can find plenty of inexpensive local food. It’s roughly around Longshan Temple MRT Station, and thanks to the MRT, it’s much easier to get there nowadays. In my childhood memories, Wanhua was always a rather chaotic and unpredictable part of Taipei. And somehow, the more chaotic a place is, the more interesting it seems to be. When I was young, it wasn’t particularly convenient for me to get there. But there was a period when my grandfather was hospitalized, and the hospital was in that area, so my family visited him there quite often. That’s probably why I still have some memories of the neighborhood. Back then, you could practically see snake-slaughtering demonstrations every day, along with snake meat soup, which was supposed to help nourish the body and improve your skin. In some of the narrow alleys, you could even see sex workers trying to attract customers. During the daytime, you might also run into gangsters getting into fights. It was definitely a colorful neighborhood, with all kinds of food and fairly reasonable prices. However, I had never heard of the meatball vendor representing Wanhua at the expo. Maybe it’s a relatively new brand.
For most people, unless they travel frequently, they tend to spend most of their time in the same area and don’t have many opportunities to discover things from other parts of Taiwan. An expo like this gives people a chance to check out local foods and specialty products from different places, and by chatting with the vendors, you can also hear some interesting local stories. I noticed that quite a few booths didn’t have many visitors. I guess most people simply didn’t expect to see these local business districts represented at a travel expo. So whenever I started a conversation with the vendors, they were more than happy to chat and tell me about their hometowns and products. After all, standing at a booth all day with nobody talking to you must be pretty boring, right?
