How to eat your way through a Taiwanese night market

Almost every town in Taiwan has a night market. Some are permanent streets that open every evening, others set up only on certain days of the week in a car park or an empty lot. Taipei has famous ones such as Shilin, Raohe and Ningxia; Kaohsiung and Tainan have their own, and Tainan's large Garden Night Market opens only on a few days each week.

What to try

Food is the point. A few classics that most markets have:

• Oyster omelette (o-á-tsian), with a sweet-savoury sauce
• Stinky tofu, fried or in a spicy broth; stronger in smell than in taste
• Pepper buns baked against the walls of a clay oven
• Grilled squid, sausages and skewers of all kinds
• Shaved ice and fruit, and of course bubble tea

How to do it

1. Go hungry, order small. Share each dish so you can try more.
2. Bring cash. Mobile payment is spreading, but many stalls still prefer coins and small notes.
3. Follow the queue. A long line of locals is usually a good sign.
4. Eat near the stall. Many stalls have a few stools; walking with hot soup in a crowd is not a good idea.

Rubbish

Taiwan has very few public bins, and night markets are no exception. Stalls will often take back their own cups and boxes, and some markets have sorting stations. Carrying a small bag for your own rubbish makes life easier.

Beyond food

Night markets also have games, cheap clothes, phone accessories and small fortune tellers. The games, like shrimp fishing or ring toss, are as much part of the evening as the food.

The best way to treat a night market is not as a sight but as dinner: arrive without a plan, walk one full loop, then decide.

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Photos: 4601460, aiworldexplore, faizkun on Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License. These are not my photographs.