We’ve said before that Night Markets are a quintessential experience in Taiwan: no other country is recognised for their regular epic, open-air evening food fests like this little country, and for good reason. Besides the incredible selection of delicious food for cheap prices and the rows upon rows of food, games, and merchandise, the night markets exist in sheer numbers throughout the island, with each of them bringing something unique.

Location

Keelung’s main night market, also known as Miao Kou Night Market (廟口夜市), is no exception to this rule, with a layout that differs from every other night market we encountered in Taiwan during the entirety of our trip. Much of it is located over two perpendicular roads: the eastern half of RenSan Road (仁三路), and continues north through AiSi Road (愛四路).

How the Night Market Works

We spent a few days in Keelung, allowing us to truly understand the night market and sample a wide variety of their fare. Half of the night market exists in marked stalls with seats that open from various hours throughout the day and generally close late at night with the night market. These stalls are beneath covers, with reflective metallic signs and numbered from 1 through to around 70, located mostly on RenSan Road. They operate just like any stationary eatery, though their kitchen consists mostly of outdoor burners, with benches for their patrons to sit and eat along their small counters.

During the evening, the entirety of the mentioned area is closed off to traffic, and like any other night market food stands and trucks roll in to set up their evening fare. This means that AiSi Road contains much of the food you won’t find during the day. We found that on the blue half of Aisi Road (marked on the map above), most of the fare is typical of what you’d find around Taiwan, whereas the southern half has a few  more interesting selections, including set-ups with sit-down benches along the streets. With the luxury of time and no mind for budgeting, we made it our goal to conquer Keelung’s Miao Kou Night Market – and document it over 3 parts.

The Snacks

We decided to categorise the snacks as easy-to-eat small meals. These are entirely from the 70 permanent stands along RenSan Road. They were chosen for no particular reason besides looking tasty, and perhaps a lengthy queue – but there are so many choices for food so make sure you sample what looks good to you.

Nutritious Sandwich (營養三明治)

In Taiwan, nutritious sandwiches are almost anything but – or, at least, in terms of Western standards. The “nutritious” refers to the caloric density of the sandwich, which was important when food was scarce. This idea is not unique to Taiwan, as it’s common for government-run campaigns all throughout the world advocating for caloric foods following difficult times.

Still, Taiwan takes this to another level, creating a fat-laden, carb-tastic meal moreish enough to keep cramming in: high energy and constant munching, the two sure-fire methods to gain weight. In their version of a sandwich, a length of crumbed dough is fried to the size and shape of a hotdog bun before being split open and filled with ham, boiled egg, cucumber, a slice of tomato, and a hulking heap of creamy, almost translucent white goop akin to a ghostly mayonnaise. In Keelung at Stall 58, one sandwich will set you back NTD55 (US$1.80).

Things that are that bad for you are often immensely delicious, and this sandwich was just the same. The bread was piping hot with a crisp exterior and soft, chewy crumb, cooled by the creamy mayonnaise that was neither too rich nor too savoury – the white sauce was to a mayonnaise like whipped cream is to buttercream, inexplicably lighter, milder, and complimented the heaviness of the rest of the sandwich well. The crunchy cucumber brought texture and refreshing juiciness, the ham some saltiness, the egg some texture, and the tomato some acid. It was so intensely satisfying that we could have bought another one and gone home – but there was too much food to eat than retire early.

Oil Onion Cakes (油蔥粿)

Though not a particularly appealing name, the literal translation of yu guey (油粿) is “oil cake” or “oil patty”, or “ambiguous packed thing with oil involved in the cooking process”, what with the second character being difficult to translate directly. Variations of this is commonly found all throughout Taiwan, with Tainan’s famous wah guey (碗粿) of a rice-flour slurry cooked in a bowl into a slab of soft rice cake as a famous example.

This one has a similar concept, with serving styles varying from vendor to vendor. At Stall 66, a huge jiggly, white block sits behind a little window. With each portion ordered, the lady operating the stall will shave off a few slices of the cake and pile it onto a paper plate and top it with an orange chilli sauce and a brown sauce. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a few pieces of crispy shallots too – that’s where the onion comes in, altogether making the dish that’s known in butchered English as oil onion cakes (油蔥粿). The cake is slippery smooth and not very strongly seasoned. With the savoury-sweet-salty brown sauce and the slight spice from the chilli, it’s a great snack that will last a good hour or two until your next meal.

We would have also liked to try the taro cake (芋粿), kept gently warm in a vat of poaching oil, but we decided it would have been much to heavy if we were to keep eating the rest of Keelung. The oil cakes are a little spendy at NTD40 (US$1.30) per plate, but it’s great for people who like rice cakes.

One-Bite Grilled Taiwanese Sausages (一口吃香腸)

Taiwanese grilled sausages are a delight to many people: juicy and spiced, its light sweetness is a contrast to the rich, salty sausages of the west. Just like many other countries, the Taiwanese love their sausages (香腸), and they have creative ways of serving it. Besides the famous example of “little sausage in big sausage”, Keelung’s famous sausage is simply bite-sized, and despite the simplicity of its obvious marketing tactics, it’s surprisingly popular.

It’s not uncommon to find queues for Stand 43-1, but with piles of grilled sausages ready to go, there’s hardly any wait. One sausage is NTD7 (US$0.25), the price consistent regardless of how many you order. Though it lacks the crunchy snap of a western sausage’s skin, it’s still juicy, savoury, slightly spiced, and a little sweet. A great little mouthful, it’s a good way of sampling Taiwan’s fare without filling up too much.

Ma Lao Peanut Rice Puffs (蔴粩)

Puffed rice snacks are popular everywhere in the world, and it’s the case in Asia, too. Found commonly throughout East Asia, these snacks are made by heating rice starch at high pressure, which gelatinises the starch into a more liquid form. When the pressure is released and the temperature drops suddenly, the rice paste expands and solidifies as it cools, turning into a matrix of starch strands and air – the perfect, light snack, ready to be seasoned to your heart’s content.

At 金興蔴粩, also known as Stand 62, these airy puffs are coated with a selection of ingredients, including peanut, white sesame, black sesame, puffed white or purple rice, and savoury seaweed powder. They’re sold by weight: it’s NTD280 (US$9.20) for 1 Taiwanese catty (台斤), which is equivalent to around 600g (1.32lb). For one piece, with an awfully large and equivalently-weight plastic bag, we paid NTD10 (US$0.33).

As expected, these are absolutely delicious. The puff dissolves on the tongue into a something akin to a sugar paste, though a fraction of the sweetness. It went well with the roasted peanuts, which added texture and flavour. It makes for an excellent souvenir, or it’s definitely a great snack if you need something to sustain you heading to your next city.

Peanut Shaved Ice (花生泡冰)

Frozen desserts are common in any country you go to, be in Italian gelato, American frozen custards, or a Korean bingsu. Taiwan’s shaved ice comes in a form similar to its East-Asian neighbours, usually topped with fruit, condensed milk, and other toppings, but there’s also one that’s a little more unique. There isn’t much info out there on pao pao bing (泡泡冰), translating to “bubble ice”, but it seems to be a finer shaved ice, which results in a creamier texture closer to ice cream. At Number 37 of Keelung’s Night Market, the pao pao bing stand is popular not only thanks to the sweltering heat, but also the range of flavours as displayed on the board outside.

We chose peanut (花生), as it was one of the most popular flavours, and also the one we saw constantly as we walked around. Because of its finer flakes – likely thanks to a high sugar content – it’s more similar to a slushy than a shaved ice. The peanuts may also be contributing some fat, resulting in a melt that was much creamier than what we’d anticipated. It has a mellow flavour of roasted peanuts, like a cold, sweet peanut butter, a great dessert for the kind of people who like to eat it straight from the jar. At NTD50 (US$1.65) per cup, this is a hefty dessert for small change, with a flavour to suit anyone’s taste.

With the night market running virtually all day, there’s no reason not to stop by central Keelung for a unique taste of Taiwan, and with choices like this, you would be hard-pressed not to come across something that tickles your fancy. Later, we’ll explore the stands that roll out when evening arrives before tasting our way through the permanent stands of the daytime market.