Taipei Wanderlust – 9 things you should try at Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市)

First Day in Taipei and my mission was to eat of course! Met up with my dearest secondary schoolmate Kailing before she fly off the new day. Its a gals #fatdieme night!

She recommended us to comb through this local night market since I was always at Raohe, Ximen and Shilin. I was sure it would be a fruitful night as a local knows where the best food are.

Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市) is located in the heart of downtown Taipei on Ningxia Rd. between Nanjing W. Rd. and Mingshen W. Rd and accessible via Shuanglian MRT stop through Exit 1. Despite being a weekday, it is a very busy night market frequent by locals.

Well are you ready? I am all set for my #fatdieme dinner before my beauty procedure the next day.

1) Oyster Omelette

In case you are wondering what’s the sauce you seen on top, its a slightly spicy homemade recipe quite different to the usually ones you tried. We need to queue for 10 minutes before we finally get to it and I heard that at times its usually much longer wait. Its located at 民生西路198之22号. It contained the usual eggs, cornflour, spring onions and not forgetting the oysters. The sauce was the unique part but sadly the oysters could be better if its fatter.

2) Sesame Liver & Kidney
We ordered the sesame oil liver and kidney too. The liver had been cleaned properly without any stench and it’s fresh. The winner part would be the special sauce with cooking wine taste which I found it to be appetising. These were just our starters though.

More to come!

3) Barbeque Pork Inner

This stall had pretty brisk business as its customers ordered its wide variety of pork parts like pork blood, intestine, hotdog and many others.

Pork blood if you dare…

I tried a piece of intestines recommended by Kailing. I am not a pork person so generally I felt someone who enjoyed pork would like it as it was very well seasoned and chewy.

4) Handmade Water-fried Bao

Plus point about this bao as its freshly made and not the usual factory made pau you get in Singapore. Every piece of the bao was handmade from scratch and its a healthy alternative with choices like sesame, cabbage, vegetarian and only one pork bao if you cannot do without meat. In fact you could request for a takeaway and freeze it in your freezer upon request.

5) Geese wings

My first go in tasting geese wings and found it to be pretty chewy and not oily. Well, there’s always a first. For someone who do not take skin usually, it’s a huge leap. I am sure that for wings lovers out there, you would enjoy this additional alternative.

6) Barbeque Seafood
You just pay an incredible amount of TW200 for an abalone, 2 huge prawns for TW100 and many others where they would barbeque on the spot for you.

I tried my favourite oysters of course! Its 3 for TW100 (Price was a steal). However, oysters in Taipei are generally smaller than those from Australia and other imported from other countries that you get in Singapore. You would need to manage your expectation. The oysters would be baked and you would be eating it warm compared to the chilled ones you get in Singapore.

7) Oysters Baozi with Oyster and Egg Filling
These could not be found easily in other night markets. You need to take this hot with the crispy outer skin generously filled with oysters and cooked egg. You could have a choice of prawns version too.

8) Crispy Taro Ball 香脆芋丸
This stall is called “Liu Yu Zai” which makes and sells crispy taro balls. It is a combination of taro and egg stuffed in a dough and then deep fried. This kind of snack is very typical Taiwanese snack. You would need to get at least 2 balls.

9) Taiwan Shaved Ice

There are many Taiwanese Shaved Ice stalls around but we were ending this eating madness with a sweet note.

Kailing tried the traditional shaved iced where the ice was more coarse and you got to choose the ingredients you want inside. Its similar to the Cheng Ting that we ate in Singapore.