Best STREET FOOD in Taipei Taiwan 🇹🇼 | Night Market Food Adventure

Best STREET FOOD in Taipei Taiwan 🇹🇼 | Night Market Food Adventure

[Music] Hello there guys. Welcome back to my channel Travel Wonder. Hello my wonderful people. How are you? It’s time for a new video. It’s time for a new adventure. And in this opportunity, I want to show you what it’s like the night markets, the street food over here in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, which has over 300 night markets all over Taiwan. And in just in Taipei, we got over 30. So we started this one which is called Manga and it’s a very very local night market. So usually tourists don’t come to this one mainly just the locals as I can show you. You can see only locals around. And in our first stop we’re going to be trying oyster omelette which is made by the owner. And yeah I’m actually in showing you the food that we eat over here. So remember to subscribe to the channel if you like this video and remember to leave a comment below. Enjoy the video. Travel wonderful. So this is the first stop that we come at. It’s called oyster omelette special. And yeah, a lot of people comes here to try the oyster omelette. So this is the ones we have ordered and you can see the owner make it for you. It’s very savory. Uh the guys say that it’s one of the most popular dishes over here. So yeah, looking forward to try. Really delicious. I really really like it. Really really good. This is peanut butter. So really really like the mix of sweet and salty. Something very interesting is is like um when you when you travel from north to the south, you’ll find the food getting sweeter and sweeter. Oh, really? Mhm. Um especially in Thailand, whether there’s another um city in the south of Taiwan, um they really like sweet things. So that you if you try the same dish in Thailand, it will be much sweeter. Much sweeter. Oh wow. So interesting. Taiwan is known as a country of sweet potato. So basically two reasons. One is that we have a lot of sweet potatoes and two is that we are well the the the the island the shape of the island is like a sweet potato. So there are two kind of sweet potatoes. We have a purple one and a and the the yellow one. They taste I think exactly the same. So just pick the color you like. Okay. I’ll take the purple one. So you will see some powder on it. It’s plum powder. So for the I bought it from the the sweet potato shop over there and they have a lot of different flavors but my for example they have seaweed, they have um chocolates but my personal favorite is plum powder. It’s really good. I really like and the texture is very totally different to different something really different. And why you taste this type of text like a airy texture is because later on we come to see the shop if he’s frying some sweet potato. So basically when they deep fry the potato dough they have to squeeze it constantly. So they will squeeze out the air and allow more air to get it. So you will have this fluffy chewy crispy texture. Okay. Actually this alley we walk just walk through this alley we used to call it snake alley and the reason for that is that all the shops in this alley used to be snake restaurants. No way. Why we have a lot of snake restaurants in here. Okay. That’s actually a reason for that because one here very close um is actually one of the biggest red light district in Taiwan. So in the past sex war were legal in Taiwan but it was then illegal 1995 around 1995. So after 1995 you the law the you know the industry change. So you’ll see a lot of hair salons massage place in this alley. The reason they have a lot of snake restaurant is because in Chinese medicine we believe that consuming snake meat can bring you energy, can boost your energy. So when the customers they they visit the red light district after that. But nowadays well this generation the younger generation don’t really find into the idea of eating meat. So that’s why there’s only one restaurant left in this alley. Well last year there were two but now only one. Only one. take photos because these are the only restaurants that still have this one street. So this people still eat it like some people still eat it. Most of elderly elderly people, right? Oh, wow. I like do do come sometimes to eat. They he say it’s really good, but I’ve never tried it personally. Wow. So pork rice, which is saying is the most popular dish in Taiwanese households. So dummy cabbage and the tofu. You can also share tofu. This is also tofu. This one, the brace pork rice is the most iconic one. And this restaurant is actually Mich. Okay. So this is one of the most popular famous uh brace pork rice in um in Taiwan. So why we have brace pork rice? So you’ll find it very normally people use fatty pork the fatty part of the pork to to cook it and the reason for that is that in the past when people you know do not have um a lot of financial resources they would go to if they want to consume meat because meat is not that available in Taiwan in the past. Well when they come to consume meat they will go to the market and buy the you know the fatty pork because this is normally the cheaper option. And then because they want to get cool, right? So they would um then put soy sauce, a lot of soy sauce, spices, paper, sugar, and then cook this fatty pork until it’s like very salty and heavy so they can eat and with a lot of rice. So they can have a lot of rice and they have energy. So this nowadays um this is kind of like a every Chinese household, we made it for dinner sometime. And then we do use the the well each of you can get well everyone got the egg. Um this is the brace egg. So we use the same love soy sauce as well. The well everyone every restaurant has their own recipe but basically soy sauce, sugar, some rice, wine and some spices and then they will bra they will cook the egg for a long time. So it’s has the flavor. Here we have two this two. This is um braced cabbage. This is also like a Chinese comforting food. Every household can make it. Basically, we braced the um the cabbage with dry shrimp, some mushrooms. Um this is also like um you’ll see it every like every mom will cook it. And we also eat it during Luna New Year as well. This is the bamboo shoot. Um it’s also raised. Um so you can also try that. This we have two type of tofu here. This one, well, we will I I’ll tear into small parts so each of you can try a little bit. Um, this one is just tofu and braced. This one they fry the tofu first and then they brace it. So, the texture is a little different. This one is a little chewy. This one is soft. So, you can also have a try. If you want to have more food, let me know. Do let me know if you like any particular one. Of course, I’ll order more for you. But I don’t want to waste the food. So, you know, okay, I will brace. Enjoy. Thank you. Really good. Wow. It’s like melting the mouth so soft. But you know like you when you travel you still have Chinese restaurant but they don’t have the same but it’s not the same. Yeah. Very like different. So this is proper like traditional. Yes. Yes. This is like when I grow up I don’t know what to eat. I will order pork rice always. Yeah. It’s like a baby. So yeah, a wonderful fact is that we learned after that one in which we ate the brisket pork in the rice that is a traditional Taiwanese dish that everyone in Taiwan eats especially during lunar year or even every day. And a wonderful fact is that people many many years ago they stopped eating beef because they were using buffaloos for farming. Obviously newer generations they don’t follow this but still some generations do. So a wonderful fact is that the people when they have like a goal they want to achieve they stop eating beef let’s say for 6 months. So one of the girls I met she say which is from Taiwan she said she was having like a very important test exam at university and she said I’m not going to eat beef for 6 months please like I want to succeed. So she stopped for 6 months and she succeeded. He told me well elderly people believe this you know because it used to be sort of like important the be for respect for them because they were using during farming. Obviously they don’t use anymore for farming but still people do this kind of you know like promises in order to achieve things. So super interesting. So this is called green onion pancake. Green onion pancake. So it’s very traditional. Sorry. Very traditional. Very traditional. They normally have this for breakfast. Oh, wow. So, for the next stop, we’re trying the green onion pancake. And our guys, she was saying that this is so traditional that the people eat it every day for breakfast. I just try it. Yeah. Really, you know, like good flavor. Try really like it. Not my favorite of all the things we have tried so far, but it’s really good. Actually, towards the end, I felt a little bit of sugary flavor. I mean, to be honest, here they mix a lot sweet flavor with the salty flavor. I like, as I said before, not the best out of all the things I’ve tried, but it’s good. I imagine eating this for breakfast. Why not? Stinky tofu is the most notorious food in Taiwan, right? Uh we call it stinky tofu because it’s stinky. Um it’s stinky because it’s actually just fermented tofu. So, it’s fermented tofu. In Taiwan, we have different type of stinky tofu. So, we have different levels. Today, you’re just going to try the entry level, okay? Which is the deep fried one. Um, normally we pair it with soy sauce and on the side you’ll have it always with Chinese kimchi. Okay, it’s the peong vegetables, peacock cabbage. Um, it’s a little bit sour and it pairs really good with the sinky tofu. Um, this is the entry level. If you are an adventurer, you can go to the next level. Then we have the barbecue one here. You also have this stink one. I think it’s the most stinky one option you can have. You can have it hot as well. So have a try. For me, I think it’s just home. Okay. Um, so don’t be afraid of the snap because it’s it just tastes like toast. Try the entry level. Something very traditional as well. Good. Something different. Different. Really good. But it’s so stinky. It’s actually called stinky tofu because it is a stink. I can feel my breath. It’s just smelling so bad. Taste is good. It’s very strong flavor, but not my favorite either. Apparently, this is just entry level. She’s saying that the other ones they stink even more, guys. And when we were trying the stinky tofu, it actually really stinks. And I didn’t know what to say, what to do. You could see my impression saying like, “Well, it’s good.” But I was like, “Oh my god.” I mean, you need to be strong with the smells. smells so bad. Um, but the taste was okay, but it was not my favorite. It was very strong flavor originated from China, from Shanghai, but Taiwanese bring it to a next level. So, we have a very famous restaurant called Kaiong and it has a lot of international branches, but I think the Taiwanese branches are the best one. Well, um, soup dumplings. We call it soup dumpling because when you stick the dumpling, it has soup inside. So you do it’s very hot so you do have to be careful. So the way you eat it is that you mele a little hole and you some of the soup out first and then you eat the whole meat. Normally we pair it with ginger and vinegar. So it also bring out the flavor of that. So inside the soup dumpling is pork pork. Why we have soup inside? Basically they cook the broth and then they freeze the broth and then they you know they put it rabbit and the dumpling. a little bit. So we have to wait for the so so that’s that’s why we created that’s how we created the samples um for the famous restaurant well if you got the chance to visit um they are very precise with the adjustments um so it says that you can see the um you can see them make them there um so you can see how it’s made also each dumpling has 18 bowls so they call it golden 18 bowls so you can count their 18 bowls And each one is very precise, 21 grams. Well, if you don’t have a chance to visit in Tao because there’s always a very long queue because you can make reservation for the restaurant. This shop is also very nice. My head’s um travelers, they told me that this is as good as So for next stop, we got a Shaolong, which is the dumplings inside. So this is very traditional. I mean it originated in Shanghai actually in China but Taiwan brought it to the next level as the guy was saying and here is very very famous because of a shop here in Taiwan that has so many branches around the world and many people cues outside for come to this shop the tour guy said in here is as good as the one in the branch. So really really good. So you need to open a little bit so you let a little bit of the soup to go and then you eat it because it’s very very hot. really hot, very is actually a deity, a god in Taiwan. Um, he is the we call it the old man under the moon. He’s the god of love in Taiwan. Very famous. Well, in the west you have humans, for example, for love. But in Taiwan, we have an old man for that. Okay. Um, it didn’t say that he’s a he’s a Chinese matchmaker. So, he match people. He has a notebook that may match people different people’s name. So in order to find your soulmate, we believe that you have to go to the temple to find the old man under the moon and ask for his blessings. So if you’re looking for your soulmate, um the most two of the most popular the old man under the moon in Taipei, one is in Lan temple just very close to us. He is very famous. When you get to the temple, worship him, tell him who you are looking for. So you can have your criteria. Okay, I’m looking for a man, you know, how tall, doing business, good relationship with his mouth or not. You have your criteria and then you um ask for blessings from him. So, you’ll find yourself. So, what’s his name? His name is La. So, Y actually means moon and means old. So, he’s the old man under the moon. Oh, wow. So interesting. Yeah, we call it man under the moon is because he well people saw him under the moon in the night and writing on his notebook with a lot of names on it. So why do we bring you to 7-Eleven in Taiwan? Okay, make sure we have the some people can test us. Okay, the reason for that is that Tai are obsessed with convenience store. We have a lot of 7-Eleven. Oh, every Chinese dream is to have a 7-Eleven just right under just right like 1 minute walk to our house. Okay, cuz our 7-Eleven is unlike the 7-Eleven in your country. It’s super powerful. You can do a lot of things in 7-Eleven. Actually, I can’t think of Well, for example, if you want to have bubble tea midnight, you can have the bubble tea here. Um, you can do your coffee. You can receive your packages, parcels, you can there’s a lot of food, of course. You can buy your concert tickets. If you want to pay for any fine, you can also pay in the machine here. Basically, a lot of things you can you can do in 7-Eleven. So, every time we couldn’t leave without 7-Eleven. Okay. So, let’s get into the 7-Eleven and I’ll show you something. So, if you are at middle of the night and you want to have like a late night drink, you can off of course come to the 7-Eleven. Um something very interested is that if you want to buy any alcohol in Taiwan, you can look for something like this. This is only in Taiwan. We call it gaang gala. Actually in the past only the government can sell alcohol in Taiwan. So like normal stores, they are not allowed to sell. So the the biggest tobacco and um liquor store are owned by the government. But later on they make it legalized. I think around 2006 and then the the shop got their license and they can sell it. So if you’re looking for some spirits, you can buy this. Normally we have it. It’s like it’s called galang. It’s made with sen. Um it’s very high alcohol cont. It’s like 54. Very high. Super high. We don’t have a little cup of it with sausage. Okay. It’s really nice. Mhm. So I will I’ll let you explore 7-Eleven a little bit and I’ll buy you something that’s I enjoy as a child and I’ll share it with you. So we will meet at the table back there. Okay. Okay. In Taiwan, we have a quite white culture. Okay? So, we believe that if you want anything to be well behaved, you put this white besides it. So, for example, they have the ATM machine here and it always got stocked. They want it to behave well. So, they will put white next to the machine. For example, for the hospital, they have the MRI machine. They want it to always be steady. So, they put white after that. I have a friend who travels a lot and he does she doesn’t want his fl like flight to be delay or anything. So she always have a package of wa in her bag. Um the idea of that is that you should not eat it. You should just put it besides it and it’s going to be well behaved. Okay. So um every Chinese know that here you have a blank space here. This is for you to write the name. So for example, if you want Jenny to be well behaved, you write Jenny here. Okay? If you want your computer, your laptop, you write the name of your computer and laptop here and just place besides it. So, if you got the chance to visit around Taiwan, sometimes you’ll see it around the cashure machine. A lot of different places have this. So, um, pay attention to it. But this actually tastes really good. Um, it’s coconut flavor. So, have a try. Do not eat it. Okay. But this is for us to taste. And Wi-Fi actually have um a song on at the back of it. Very nice. I like both. In Taiwan, always we always keep the receipts. And that’s the reason why because each receipt is actually a lottery ticket. Oh. So you’ll see a a receipt here. We have a number here. And the government they were they were um announce the numbers every two two month. Every two months. The top price is is 10 million euro. It’s a lot. And um the the lowest price is around 200. Okay. and they have 200 uh 400 500 1,000 2,000 something like that. Okay. So, we always keep the receipt. But why do our government want to put it as lottery tickets? Because they want to make sure all the shops pay tax. So, if they can make sure that they issue a receipt because the customer always want to ask for receipts. They if as long as this is issued then they can they have tax income. So this is the idea that come up with our government and it has been around for many many many years. Um and it actually work but nowadays we want to you know it’s a it’s a bit tiring to keep all the receipts. So every Taiwanese I’m not sure whether you pay in 7-Eleven you’ll see people scanning the barcode. Um every Taiwanese have a barcode. Okay. And then we scan it the receipts save into our account and every two months it’s going to check whether you win the lottery or not automatically. If you won the lottery then the money will be deposited to your bank account directly. So we always keep the receipts. So that different things but we do have a to me away special mix. You can it’s not on the menu. Okay. It’s just for us. So it’s actually a mix of herbal tea and um winter melon tea. So everyone want to if there anyone want to sleep everyone good. Okay. So in Taiwan um if we got sick we have two options. We can go to easter regular doctor western doctor or we can go to Chinese medicine practitioner. For Chinese medicine practitioner they believe that our well our body have two energy. We have the in energy and yang energy. So in order to keep us healthy we have to balance those two energy. So for example, if you have too much in energy, you’ll have diarrhea, you’ll feel cold, you’ll feel pale. If you have too much young energy, you’ll have painful, acne, um fever, different type of signs. So we will always want to keep our energy balanced. So one of the way to keep our energy balance is by drinking herbal tea. So especially the the traditional mix herbal tea is for cooling down your young energy. So um especially nowadays in the summer super humid and hot so people will drink that to help us to balance our end. So please everyone you will have one and this special mix is a mix of herbal tea and winter melon tea. It’s actually tastes like cinnamon but no cinnamon but it’s no there’s no cinnamon in it. It’s very special but very refreshing. It’s delicious. It’s really good. If you’re wondering what is a winter melon, that’s a winter melon. Okay. Herald tea and winter melon. Wow. Wow, guys. So, for that next stop, we got this, which is kind of a dessert. It’s a herald tea mixed with winter melon. Yeah, she said that this mix they just make for us on this tour. I got to say it’s very, very, very refreshing, very delicious. She was saying that in here people go either to the traditional doctor when they are sick or they use Chinese medicine. So they believe a lot you know in the energies and yeah she say that the people drink this kind of drinks like herald teas medicinal teas with juices in order to feel better. So cheers for that. I got to say even though it has no cinnamon at all it tastes just like cinnamon. I love it. Honestly, this one is escalating towards the top two, top three, but it’s a drink. [Music] Wow. So much variety of things you can find at night over here, guys. So many. I I think we just been through a few and it felt like we’ve been through a lot of them. So many nights markets, so many different things you can find and eat and drink and just enjoy. Even you can find shops selling you kind of souvenirs, t-shirts, everything. Everything, everything. It’s just a streets and streets either indoor or outdoor. Really, really cool. Even you got things for the people gambling, the elderly just playing and people playing even traditional video games as well. It’s a night market. So, it’s actually again chewy. So, because I like chewy things. Um, outside is tapioca flour. So, it’s chewy and inside it’s the stuffing is bean paste. So, it’s vegetarian as well. Um, you have a lot of different options here. You have this um this green one is honeydew flavor paste. And the the white one is the white bean. Pink one is strawberry. This one here, this is taro taro paste. And this is black bean. Um the traditional Taiwanese one is this two. The black bean one and the white bean one. Okay. Have a try, please. The reason why they put ice on top of this because we want to keep it cool. Um, this actually called cool. Well, if you translate it into English will be cool balls. Um, so if you want to you keep it cool, so it’s chewy. Very chewy. We’re just trying out this jelly ball. All right, guys. So that was my whole experience here trying the street food in Taiwan, the street food in Taipei and trying diverse different kinds of things throughout the night markets. I got to say that the people doing the tour were absolutely amazing. I highly highly recommended. My top favorites obviously the oyster omelette. I really really enjoy it. I really like the potatoes that purple one I ate and I really really like the pork brisket. It was absolutely delicious. I really really enjoyed. Those are my top three. The drink is a bonus because it’s a it’s a drink, but it was really, really good. The pool, if you want to do this tour with these two amazing girls that I went to tonight, it’s called Tour Me Away. So, I’ll leave you the website here or you can check getyougu.com if it’s easier, but tour me away if you want to explore. It’s amazing because it’s local people actually and they share their experiences. Who better than a local to tell you about the history of the things, interesting fact, mean wonderful facts that we share throughout the video. I really, really enjoy it. So, well, this will be it, guys. It was so much fun. We went through different night markets. We tried different foods. We tried traditional food as well. Uh, we even went to a 7-Eleven and they share funny stories as well about certain products that they believe that they give good luck and so many interesting things. So, well, this is it guys. Thank you so much for watching and I will be seeing you in the next video. Travel wonder [Music]

Get ready to explore the craziest and most delicious street food in Taipei! In this video, I take you on a full Taiwan night market adventure, tasting some of the most iconic local dishes — from the famous Oyster Omelet, crispy Green Onion Pancake, and the legendary Stinky Tofu, to Sweet Potato Balls, Xiaolongbao dumplings, and even a visit to the old Snake Alley!

Along the way, I’ll also share some unique Taiwanese food culture, like the story behind pork rice, why 7-Eleven is a lifestyle in Taiwan, and how locals believe the Kuai Kuai snack brings good luck 🍀

If you love discovering authentic flavors, history, and culture through food, this Taipei night market tour is a must-watch.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe for more travel and food adventures around the world! 🌍

📍 Featured spots & foods:

Oyster Omelet (蚵仔煎 / É-ā-jiān)

Sweet Potato Balls (地瓜球)

Snake Alley (Huaxi Street)

Pork Brisket on Rice with Tofu, Duck Egg & Bamboo

Green Onion Pancake (蔥油餅)

Stinky Tofu (臭豆腐)

Xiaolongbao (小籠包)

7-Eleven Kuai Kuai Snack (乖乖)

Winter Melon Tea (冬瓜茶)

Taiwanese Mochi Skewers (麻糬串)

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