Night market is the icon that most Taiwanese recognize as one of our food cultures. We like to buy things and eat at the night market due to its convenience and cheap price. Most of the foods there are Taiwan style, but sometimes the exotic foods are included. People visit there for eating, so normally the food wrapping bag is not beautiful at all.

1. Sausage

Most of the night markets here have food stands to sell sausages, they are very common foods in our lives and we would eat with garlic directly. The sausage here tastes differently than western style. We are the people who like to eat sweet things, so we add sugar to our cuisines to blend the flavor.

2. Roasted Corn

Don’t be scared by the outer color of the corns, they taste delicious with barbecue or the special made sauce.

3. Taiwanese hamburger: kuah-pau

This is definitely the best Taiwanese food that every traveler should try. The deeply stewed pork with coriander and peanut powders on the top. It goes well with the black tea or coffee.

4. Sweet potato fries/balls

If you want to sit down and enjoy your foods, I would recommend the TKK. They provide chicken fries, coke, ice tea, and of course, the classic sweet potato fries.

In some night markets, you could find the sweet potato balls for two colors. The skin of ball is thin, so you won’t feel very greasy after finishing.

5. Stew foods

Some people consume stew foods as their snacks while others prefer eating like a meal. They have tofu, radish, eggs, intestines, pig blood cutlet ( it tastes like sticky rice ) and instant noodles if you want to eat like a full meal.

6. Taiwanese soda

Apple Sidra is available in most convenience stores with coin price. Apple Sidra is popular among young people especially for kids. It is probably one of the best memories for Taiwanese kids.

7. Pan-fried dumplings

If you have ever visited China town in your own country, you probably heard about the dumplings 🥟. In Taiwan, we have different ways to cook our dumplings; steamed, pan-fried, and water boiled. They taste differently, and you could pick your own sauce. In Japan, people eat pan-fried dumplings as topping for rice. In my opinion, the pan-fried dumpling tastes good with cold soybean drink.

8. Oyster omelette: ô-á-tsian

Traditional Taiwanese food is famous for seafoods due to our island surrounded by the ocean. Oyster omelette has long history in our food cultures, and normally it tastes with sweet and spicy sauce.

9. Sweet buns

The sweet buns were originally from Japan but adapted to local flavor with almost half century. You could choose creamy butter, or red beans as your stuffing.

10. Lumpia

Lumpia looks similar to Spring Roll, but we don’t fry it; instead we just wrap all the ingredients , so they are not the same food. Taiwan’s lumpia is more similar to Vietnamese roll with vegetables, bean cutlets or meats inside. Some vendors also add some sugar or peanut powders on the top.

If you are wondering what to eat at the night market, maybe you could start from these above foods. It is convenient to eat while walking around the night market.