Yanping North Road Night Market, Taipei

A traditional night market in the old Taipei

Yanping North Road Night Market (延三夜市 a.k.a. Yansan Night Market), officially Yanping North Road Section 3 Tourist Night Market, is a traditional night market in Taipei, located in the Datong district, one of the oldest parts of the city. This is one of the least known tourist night markets in Taipei and features some unique traditional Taiwanese dishes. It's truly worth a visit, especially if you live here. If you're just on a short trip in the city, skip this one and visit the famous ones first.

MY IMPRESSION OF THE YANPING ROAD NIGHT MARKET: This is a night market located on the sidewalks of a busy road. The main part is reserved for cars and scooters, who whiz by in huge numbers, which kinda affects the whole atmosphere of the night market: It just doesn't feel you're at a real one, it feels more like a sidewalk with stalls (and that's what it actually is). However, it has a lot of history and many traditional food places and stalls, which kinda makes it interesting in its own way.

WHAT KIND OF FOOD IS COMMON: The food is like from another century or at least from decades long ago. Maybe the 1950s? 1960s? No idea, but it tastes pretty good. It might not be the best night market food I've ever tried, but it's definitely interesting and worth to try. You may not see the usual traditional Taiwanese food such as oyster omelettes, but at least you'll have something different, something unique. This night market is great for those who are tired of the usual food and the atmosphere and want something else.

MUST-TRY FOOD AT THE YANPING NIGHT MARKET: I would recommend you to try the muachi 麻糬 and the meat dumplings 湯圓, those were my favorite snacks here. Another must try would be the popular "chicken roll" 雞捲 and the cut tomatoes 蕃茄切盤. More about them below.

Let me show you some of my photos of Yanping Road Night Market (Apr 2011):

Scooters rushing by on a busy Yanping North Road.

The housing here is of very low standard.

Stalls on the other side.

POPULAR STALL: SHI FAMILY FRESH MEAT DUMPLINGS 施家鮮肉湯圓

This shop is very famous here, so we decided to visit it.

The interior design is a mix of several decades, but mostly the 1970s.

The menu and the prices look appealing to a price conscious Taipeier like me.

One of popular and standard Taiwanese starters: Cooked yam leaves. Yummy.

Boiled squid, which was previously dried. Quite yummy as well.

On the photo you can find the famous meat dumplings or 湯圓 (tang yüen), literally "soup circles". The special thing about this dumpling is the dough, which is made from glutinous rice. It's very delicate and special in taste, definitely the must try dish, if you come to this night market. The price was 45 NTD.

And then we went out on the street again and tried...

POPULAR STALL: CUT TOMATOES 蕃茄切盤

This traditional stall was also very popular.

I was so amazed, when I saw this dish, called 蕃茄切盤 (lit. "tomatoes cut") in Chinese. I was like: "They sell cut tomatoes and sell them as a dish? Wow..." It was interesting for me, because cut tomatoes are a very basic and cheap food in Slovenia, which people eat at home like a snack. We would never eat this outside, but for Taiwan this is normal. After all, eating out daily here is as normal as not eating out very often in Slovenia. The best thing about these cut tomatoes was the sauce, so I definitely recommend to try this dish. The price was 50 NTD (1.2 Eur), a little hight, if you ask me. It's two cut tomatoes after all.

This is the sidewalk at the night market.

POPULAR STALL: YE FAMILY 5 SPICED CHICKEN ROLL 葉家五香雞捲

This dish is famous for this area, popular with people, who like traditional food.

In fact, the stall had a huge line and they really work hard to fry as many rolls as possible, because this is the only dish they sell. The name 五香雞捲 "five spice chicken roll" is deceiving, my girlfriend said inside is no chicken, but pork. The name 雞捲 comes from Taiwanese "gê gèn" which means "extra roll", actually meaning "extra dish from left-over food". And because "gê" sounds very similar to the word for "chicken" in Taiwanese, the Chinese character for chicken was chosen to name this dish. The outer part of the roll is made of tofu skin, the inside is filled with onions and pork, but can be also with other kinds of meat. We paid 45 NTD (1 Eur). The taste is ok, maybe not my favorite food, but definitely interesting enough to recommend it to you.

POPULAR STALL: MUACHI 麻糬

This is a famous muachi stall, which we had to visit.

Muachi is a Taiwanese word for 餅 mochi, the traditional Japanese snack, eaten a lot during the lunar new year. Muachi is very popular in the southern Chinese kitchen, I've tried it in Malaysia and Singapore as well (see a photo here). But this one here (on photo above) was the best I've ever tried. If you're here, please try this muachi, it's so soft, warm and delicious. Maybe I'm biased, because I love muachi (and peanuts) in general, but the quality is really good. And the stall is very popular.

This is the end of the Yanping Nort Road. It was dark, when we left.

Finding the market is very easy. Take the Red Line train to Minquan West Road MRT station and then transfer to the Orange line in direction to Luzhou and exit at Daqiaotou MRT Station (1 station away). Exit at Exit 1 and wak straight for 1 minute, then turn right and you're there. (Map by Google, click on it for a Google Map).

YANPING NORTH ROAD NIGHT MARKET IN CONCLUSION: This is one of Taipei's most unique night markets. I think most foreign visitors might find it boring, but those of us, who live here, might find it quite interesting. In the end it's up to you and your personal preference. But the muachi is very good and can be the only reason to visit this night market.

[FOOD in TAIWAN][My TAIWAN page][My TAIPEI page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

[My TAIWAN NIGHT MARKETS list][My MAP of Night Markets in Taipei]

Taichung's Fengjia Night Market Madness!

How we nearly got killed! I'm not kidding!

I'm pretty experienced when it comes to night markets (or so I thought). Before I visited Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市 in Taichung, I've been to over 20 night markets, mostly in Northern Taiwan. When I saw the huge crowds in Luodong, Taiwan's most crowded night market in the north, I have never ever dreamed that there can be a night market as crowded as that one. But I was so wrong. The Fengjia Night Market in Taichung on the evening of April 3rd completely overwhelmed me. I have never seen so many people at one place in Taiwan and it was the first time I really feared for my life. I kid you not: I was scared! I will tell you why.

The Fengjia Night Market in Taichung is the biggest night market in Taiwan and after my own experience, I can completely sign that statement. I haven't seen any night market in Taiwan comparable in size and the number of people. It was like on a rock concert. It was surreal. Of course we made a big mistake by visiting the night market before the Tomb Sweeping Day, a national holiday. The roads in Taichung were completely clogged with cars, buses and scooters and I've never seen such a big traffic jam in my life.

We needed 1h and 30min from Taichung Station to Fengjia Night Market by bus. And we had to stand. The traffic was so slow, even the bus driver has never seen something like that and kept apologizing.

Once we reached the area, we were let out, the driver said we'll be faster by foot.

Once we reached the night market, the crowds were ridiculously huge.

This is the video I made while walking 2m per minute.

Once we were stuck inside, we hoped that later the crowds will be less. We were so wrong! We kept walking and walking and there were more and more people. At one point we were stuck and couldn't move into any direction.

This was the worst and the scariest part. I told my wife not to go in the center.

I pulled her on the side and we tried this popular snack, the only one we had chance to.

A banana dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with peanuts: Really delicious.

And then it got scary. We started to walk, but couldn't move, because near the stalls people were waiting for food, so we had to go in the central part. But once there, people pushed more and more and I got worried, especially for the wellbeing of my wife. At one point I was literally being squashed by many people at the same time and totally lost control of my body. I became worried for my wife, who was walking in front of me, I didn't want her to get hurt. If she fell down, she could've possibly been trampled to death. The situation reminded me of the stampede in Duisburg (Germany), where 19 people were trampled to death on a concert in 2010. So I tried to steer my wife to the right side, near the stalls and I think it was a good idea. We found small holes and made it to the part, that was less crowded.

I was so relieved, when I saw this area.

This experience shocked me. I couldn't enjoy the food and the atmosphere, I just wasted time and money and had great concern for my wife's life. This was probably the worse night market experience I had so far.

Nevertheless, I want to return here one day. I was advised to go during the week, where the crowds are less big. Fengjia Night Market has some of the best food in Taiwan, it's truly something I can't miss, if I want to call myself a serious "Night Market Blogger". It's just that I'm so busy lately, I have time to go so far out from Taipei. Those of you, who do have time, better don't go there on weekends and especially not before holidays. I'm not a big fan of Taichung. I like the good weather and friendly people, but that's about it. I have a good friend there and that's the only reason that makes me return to this city. The population density is so big, but there's no subway. It's really a disastrous situation. For a spoiled Taipeier like me, Taichung would be very inconvenient to live, even if I had a car.

[FOOD in TAIWAN][My TAIWAN page][My TAIPEI page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

[My TAIWAN NIGHT MARKETS list][My MAP of Night Markets in Taipei]

Luodong Night Market, Luodong

One of the most crowded night markets in Taiwan

My girlfriend told me, that the Luodong Night Market 羅東夜市 was one of the biggest, most famous and most crowded night markets in Taiwan. When I heard that, I wasn't really sure, whether to believe it or not. After all, Luodong is a less known small town in the scarcely populated northeastern part of Taiwan. But once I was there, I've realized that was completely wrong: This night market is huge! But not only that, it's even more crowded than most night markets in Taipei. I think only the one near Shida draws crowds, that could be comparable to the ones in Luodong. When it comes to food, I have to say I was a little disappointed, but that's probably because my expectations were too high. I definitely need to return more times before I can give preciser answers about the culinary delights of the market.

MY IMPRESSION OF THE LUODONG NIGHT MARKET: This is a night market, that's probably not suitable for every tourist, because the crowds are huge on weekends. Those, who want to avoid them, visit during the week. We had to wait for 20 min to try a popular snack, some queues are very long, the longest I've ever seen. There are two central streets, that are the most crowded, other parts are ok. Some stalls are so popular, that even if you manage to order your snack after a long wait, you won't find a free spot at the table to eat it. You can eat finger food while walking, but it's hard to do so with a soup. See my video from the central area:

WHAT KIND OF FOOD IS COMMON: There are all kinds of foods available here, because the market is really huge, so I'll mention only few. I've seen a lot of green onion cakes 蔥油餅 (cōng yóubǐng) sold here, they're definitely yummy, because the lines were long. Probably the most famous and crowded stall is selling lamb soup with mutton 當歸羊肉湯 (dānggueī yángròu tāng) and an uncle is selling the soup for decades, he's very famous. It's amazing, how many people queued for that soup. For us it was too many, we decided to revisit on a less crowded day and try it. Another famous snack found in Luodong and Yilan county is bu meat 卜肉 (bǔròu). These are small pieces of tender meat coated with batter, seasoned and fried in wok. Another popular stall was called Longfong chicken thighs 龍鳳腿 (lóngfòng tueǐ), but we haven't tried it as well. I saw meat and vegetables on skewers was popular as well as a stall selling steam stuffed buns commonly known as baozi 包子 (bāozi). When it comes to desserts, there's a sort of ice cream found on many stalls throughout the night market. It's called ice with tapioca pearls and red beans 包心粉圓 (bāoxīn fěnyuán), definitely a very delicious treat.

MUST-TRY FOOD AT LOUDONG NIGHT MARKET: I haven't tried much food, but the dishes mentioned above are all worth to try (only skip meat on skewers, if you're a Westerner). I think, if you find yourself there on a less crowded day, go and try the lamb soup, it's really famous. The chicken thighs also look yummy as well as the green onion cakes. I definitely recommend you the ice with tapioca pearls, it's really delicious, because it had one of my favorite flavors: coconut. I think you can find a lot of food here, that will satisfy your taste buds. But from what I've learned, don't always expect something superdelicious, just because the line is long. More about that below.

Let me show you my photos of the Luodong Night Market in Ilan (March 2011):

This is the Luodong train station, built in a classic Chinese style.

You have to walk straight from the station and then turn left.

In about 5-10 min you'll be at the night market.

This is a map of the night market area. Click on the photo to enlarge.

This is a shopping mall nearby.

Slowly approaching the central part.

Shops.

This street is very crowded and many popular stalls are located here.

Now you believe me.

POPULAR SNACK: CHESTNUTS

My girlfriend bought chestnuts. They were ok.

We walked further to check some stalls. There was also a covered market area.

POPULAR SNACK: SCALLION MEAT SKEWER 蔥肉串

We saw this stall selling scallion meat skewers. Because of the big queue, I wanted to try it.

Nearby was a popular shop selling fried baozi. The queue was long as well.

We were waiting 20 minutes for this! The longest waiting time for me ever.

Finally it was our turn! We bought 1 skewer, it cost 35 NTD (less than 1 Eur). The meat is pork and it's very chewy. I made a mistake and bit off a part, which proved to be very tedious to eat. They should be eaten wholly. The taste is so so, nothing special, definitely not worth waiting 20 min.

I made a funny comment about this photo and my girlfriend laughed. Can you guess of what this has reminded me?

Here you can get all kinds of candy.

This stall is very popular, they sell a dessert named. More about it at the end.

This is my artsy fartsy version of the Luodong crowds.

POPULAR SNACK: BU MEAT 卜肉

I liked this snack the best, the meat is very delicious, I highly recommend this snack.

This part was less crowded, but I wanted to go where most people are found.

My girlfriend made a very dirty comment about this snack. What do you think she said?

This area is very crowded, because some of the traditional stalls can be found here.

And people kept coming...

POPULAR SNACK: LAMB SOUP WITH MUTTON 當歸羊肉湯

This uncle is famous here. He's serving this soup for many many years, he's a legend. I'm glad I got a photo of him, he was very busy, as if he's in his own world. His stall is the most popular in Luotong.

This stall is also very popular.

We were slowly approaching the end.

POPULAR SNACK: MEAT ON SKEWERS

My girlfriend bought this meat skewer. I strongly don't recommend!

I'm not sure, what meat it was, but when I tried it, it was so awful, that I almost couldn't eat it. It was sour and chewy and the taste was really bad. It was the first time something like that happened to me and I've tried all kinds of stuff here before, from chicken testicles to a cooked frog... but to swallow this was really tough. I don't recommend to Westerners., Malayisans and Singaporeans might like it.

POPULAR SNACK: ICE WITH PEARLS AND RED BEANS 包心粉圓

This was the highlight of my Luodong adventure to me.

It's ice and tapioca pearls merged together, the same ones that are known from the bubble teas commonly sold around Taiwan. I really liked the taste and I highly recommend this dessert to you. But if you're two people, you can share one, the portion is pretty big.

HOW TO FIND THE LUODONG NIGHT MARKET? SEE MY MAP:

LUODONG NIGHT MARKET IN CONCLUSION: This is one of the most crowded night markets in Taiwan, it attracts a lot of people from other parts of Ilan county or even from Taipei. It's definitely a big adventure to visit on a Friday night, but you need to have a thick skin and be used to crowds. If you're not, you were warned: It can get pretty crazy. Food wise it may not be among the top 10 night markets in Taiwan, at least not for me. But I have to say I need to try more in order to give a better judgement on this. When that happens, I will update this post.

[FOOD in TAIWAN][My TAIWAN page][My TAIPEI page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

[My TAIWAN NIGHT MARKETS list][My MAP of Night Markets in Taipei]