Street Food Tour: The Top 7 Foods at Taiwan's Busiest Night Market

Welcome to Taipei.

This is a classic night market.

We are at Gilong Ko in the city of Gilong.

About 30 minutes outside of Taipei.

We're gonna show you how to eat like

chefs at a night market.

And you know what?

It's probably not gonna cost us over $25.

Youfan eating dollar.

So Youfan is sticky rice.

Any night market, they're gonna specialize

in one or two dishes.

This stall is known for the crab soups,

but we don't want to fill up, skip it.

I think we skip the soup.

We do the rice,

but we try to finesse our way to let him

add the crab onto the rice.

Hi.

[man speaking foreign language]

So chef introduced us to their house made chili oil.

This looks like it's actually spicy.

Anything in Taiwan that's hasty

and comes in a sauce bottle and they tell you it's spicy.

It's spicy.

Don't believe them.

These crab claws taken apart perfectly.

Are these crab legs rather?

Yeah, crab legs for sure.

What no cheese?

Very rude.

I couldn't stand it.

So much umami.

I've had versions of this before

where it can just be too heavy

because the sticky rice is extra starchy

and all these things, but the punch of the chili oil,

the bright and herbacious of the cilantro

really compliments the flavor.

It's kind of like fried rice, right?

Every single grain is distinct.

It's the perfect amount of stickiness.

This entire order, 115 Taiwan dollars,

which is how much cooked map?

A little bit under $4.

So yeah, four bucks.

Okay, let's go onto the next this.

[engine roaring]

Oh, we should try Pao Pao Bing.

Kind of like a combination of Italian ice and cold stone.

Cool.

Oh, Pao means bubble.

I don't know exactly why it's called Pao Pao Bean,

but they shave ice like regular shaved ice.

We should do one dairy version and one without dairy.

That green mango looks kind of fun or peanut.

Let's do peanut, I'm a big peanut guy.

[man speaking foreign language]

[server speaking foreign language]

The machine is quickly shaving down a block

of ice into very fine, fine, fine sheet strands into a bowl

of egg yolks, condensed milk and syrup.

He's constantly mixing it to make sure

that the flavor's incorporated,

but it basically, he's making ice cream to order.

The ice is melting just at the very surface level

because once the new layer of ice reaches the top,

the bottom is solidified and it's very, very cold.

And if you look at the ice itself, it's completely clear.

That means there's no air inside at all whatsoever.

It's gonna be as creamy

as possible without really the traditional technique

of using a custard and making ice cream.

[Presenter] This is fantastic.

[Host] It is really cool.

Phenomenal action right here, gorgeous.

I mean, it looks like Italian ice,

but I mean, well, well it looks like sorbet.

It looks like gelato.

It looks like a cloud.

It's like fluffy that's comes over is like foamy, right?

It's like a bubble.

You expect a harder texture, but yummy.

Yummy.

If you think about it, this all the

ingredients and you know.

Ice cream.

Egg yolks, syrup,

Condense milk.

This is the perfect way to break up a long

night at the night market.

It feels like a lot, but not.

Yeah, it's very, very fluffy.

55 NT for one cup, which is about $2 ish.

Yeah I mean.

What a bargain.

If you look at the flavors they offer

and look at the the space,

it really sings having the most amount

of variety while maximizing the space,

creativity and ingenuity.

This show, let's see, I would travel from Taipei

to Gilong just to eat here.

[man speaking foreign language]

Pork knuckles and a little bit of broth.

And a little bit of noodles.

Delicious.

So good.

It is the quintessential way of eating pork, in my opinion.

[Host] She's making noodles over there.

But there are two big vats of what looks like pork trotter

and pork hawk, right?

[Presenter] Yes.

On the right over here we have Trotter,

which is bonier, but has more skin.

It's actually more expensive in Taiwan to purchase trotters.

These are smaller and less quantity.

Hawks are a little bit less priced,

but some people like meatier stuff.

Some people like more skin.

Yeah, Chef is taking part, the pork hawk,

the connecting part between the trotter

and the shoulder on the front of the pig.

[Presenter] Kind of like the forearm.

[Host] Exactly.

Essentially splitting into half, taking the bone out

because he wants to leave the boneless part

to slice into thinner chunks

that are rewarmed in the soup for service.

[Presenter] The broth you see is a master stock,

a bone broth and gelatin in the trotter and the hawk.

Oh my goodness.

Look at that.

It has absolutely no seasoning at all.

[Host] It looks a lot like soup

because it's got that emulsification right?

It means that that fat and that water has come together.

It's held together by that gelatin

that's broken down from cooking these hawks

and these trotters for a very, very long time.

[Presenter] The broth takes 24 hours and the hawk

and the the trotter really only takes about two

to three hours to cook.

But it's the broth that it's poached in

that gives it all the pork umami that you really don't get.

If you don't have this flavorful, flavorful broth.

The noodle is.

[man speaking foreign language]

The seasoning is very simple.

This is a garlic soy sauce

and this is lard that's been rendered

with shallots and garlic.

[man speaking foreign language]

We just put in our order.

Let's go upstairs for food.

So excited.

Oh, there it is.

Oh my goodness.

Oh, and the noodle, honestly serious.

I know we've been harping on about this soup,

but I'm mostly excited about the noodles.

You see this broth, you see that it's a little bit milky.

It's a little bit creamy, it's gonna be thick,

it's gonna have a little bit of body.

It's served with a little bit

of a dipping sauce on the side.

Yeah, kinda like a Maggie season.

Maggie plus more seasoning.

A seasoned soy sauce and a little bit of chili peppers.

So the two parts, you can tell this is a hawk, right?

Yeah, boneless, meaty, nice separation between flesh,

tendon, fat and skin and a thick layer of skin.

Yeah.

And then this is the trotter.

This is the trotter where you get

a lot of bone, obviously,

but you have tendon, you have a lot of collagen,

but most importantly is the marrow in here.

They split right down the middle

and you still get to eat some of that pork marrow.

And that's the best part of any animal.

Even though it looks like a soup,

there really isn't enough soup to be considered a soup dish.

It's a pork dish that's served with a soup

that the broth that was cooked inside.

Exactly right.

Walk me through what's in these noodles again.

So it's sort of like a salmon, so it's home

and chin noodles heavily salted

and dried under the sun.

And that's where they pick up this brown color, right?

Yes, that's where the proteins begin to sort

of cook and then it becomes stronger.

The minute you toss it together,

there's this like poof of steam and poof of garlic

and soy sauce.

[group chattering]

It's ridiculous, okay, bye, thank you.

Thank you.

[group chattering]

Yum.

[man speaking foreign language]

Impeccable.

The noodle itself is not too baking soday.

Yeah, it's bouncy and it's got texture

and it's thin, but it's just tender enough, right?

Not overly aldente.

Not overly soft.

So this in total was 250 Taiwan dollars,

7 cents, eight bucks.

Eight bucks.

For a Cantonese boy like myself

this is very, very nourishing.

[group chattering]

Okay.

Oyster Omelet.

[dramatic music]

You grew up eating this?

I grew up coming to Taiwan a lot

and my favorite thing was always the oyster omelet

because you can't get it anywhere else.

Not like this at least.

If you look at the way they make it.

They sear off the oyster first on the cast iron skillet,

and then the batter goes on.

Even if you're not buying those oysters.

You're getting that flavor of the seed.

It's gonna be crispy and it's gonna be gooey.

It's not just crispy.

Sauce A is probably a garlic soy paste and sauce B

is a sweet sauce.

Sauce B is a sweet ketchupy, lightly spicy miso based sauce.

[Presenter] Look at this.

[man speaking foreign language]

[Host] There we go.

There we go.

[Presenter] That's right.

This is what we're looking for.

This exact texture.

Quintessential oyster omelet.

Very popular in terms of like texture

for all Taiwanese food.

Caramelized starch.

Putting it mildly.

[group laughing]

Sweet, salty, tangy, sour.

Dude, I love that goo.

It is so.

Something about elasticity that turns into a robust chew.

But with a little bit of crisp and a little bit

of sweetness.

And then the last bit is the brightness of the oysters.

So good.

It just feels like a lot of Taiwan, a lot

of texture, a lot of flavor.

The full range represented in one bite.

Don't mind me, I'm just gonna have to finish this.

And this, 80 Taiwan dollars, which is

about $2 and 50 cents in the states.

2.70, 2.60 these days.

Cook maps.

Delicious.

Finishing this.

[Presenter] What else do we have?

Yeah, so this is actually very interesting.

It says, but in Tian Bu La it's known as Tela.

Okay, sweet not spicy, makes no sense.

But it's just, is this a Japanese thing?

So basically what it is is just fried fish cake.

So fish mixed in with a bunch

of starches like tapioca, sometimes potatoes,

sometimes rice, aromatics inside.

Season it and then fry it.

[group speaking foreign language]

Okay.

Oh.

You know what?

So it's so fresh.

The manipulation here is of texture.

And when you manipulate texture, the questions,

how much starts adding and how precious is it gonna be?

I think this is like interesting, it's cool.

It's like for a little snack for like 40.

Not bad.

The way we need to appreciate this is the texture.

And this is Q,

the quintessential Taiwanese palette.

You see that the elasticity with tenderness that is Q

and this, if you ever come to Taiwan,

here's what you're looking for.

The idea is that you have all this fish.

Fish with all this protein you're manipulating,

you're beating it until those protein strings

are nice and long.

And with the addition of the starch,

it's all stabilized

before it becomes this paste, it gets fried.

And then that's where the bounce comes from.

It's trapping air, it's trapping moisture,

trapping all these things to create this bouncy texture.

Delicious.

All right, cool.

Okay, next bite.

[man speaking foreign language]

Okay, every time I come back to Taiwan, my favorite thing

to eat on the street is.

[man speaking foreign language]

I'm looking at it right here.

Pigs blood cake.

[engine roaring]

[man speaking foreign language]

So it's always, and you take it out of the steam basket.

This is soy paste, a light brush

and we ordered spicy so it gets a little bath

of a spicy bean paste as well.

Dabbed into this peanut powder that's slightly seasoned

with sugar and salt.

And then a bed of cilantro on the bottom.

And then cover it up with more peanut powder.

Boy, this looks good.

[man speaking foreign language]

This looks like a savory pork led Popsicle.

Blood in terms of culinary technique.

It does the same thing as eggs.

Right, right, right.

It emulsifies it carries a lot of flavor.

It thickens all these things.

And velvets, it's seasoned with a little bit

of salt, a little bit of wine.

Soaked with sticky rice and then steamed.

That becomes a block and then they cut it, skewer it

and hold it in that steamed basket we just saw.

So simple, so delicious.

Cheers.

Cheers.

[engine roaring]

Yummy, yummy.

There's a peanut that's a base nuttiness on the top level.

There's a little bit of this herbaceous cilantros.

This soy paste ties it all together with that middle note

of savory and a little bit of chili just to make it tingle.

We've seen the flavor profile in a lot of dishes today,

but this pig blood cake, I think is one of the best

exemplifications of that classic Taiwanese flavor profile.

Oh, it's 40 NT, which is?

About a dollar and 30 cents.

That's right.

[Presenter] We're gonna turn a corner.

So this is the temple that of started this community, huh?

Yes, exactly.

Now it's a popping night market.

Amazing, one spot I really want to go to inside

of this little temple complex.

[group speaking foreign language]

If you look at it right, the sauce is very loose

because lamb has such a strong flavor right?

It's got that flavor that's, it's not a gameyness,

it's a pungency.

Pairing here with a Chinese celery means

that there's gonna be a bright green herbaceous punch

with the earthiness of the lamb itself.

Can't wait.

Mm.

Oh ya.

Come on man.

This is my favorite thing so far.

So simple.

So good and you're Lulan everywhere,

but this is so different.

Amazing.

$35,000 dollars.

Dollar, dollar ish, yeah.

So good.

That was incredible, to me my favorite bite today were

places that really honored super careful local ingredients.

They cooked with a sense of history and tradition

and they also presented food in a way that is like very,

very accessible so that you can select whatever you'd like.

Pick your own adventure in the night market.

Exactly.

Even though it's a little bit smaller,

it still has so much variety.

And with the carefully selected crowd of vendors.

They all have history.

All of them are experienced.

Lots of craftsmanship.

All super master chef level and you know.

It's like good food everywhere in the world.

When you want the good stuff, you're looking

for craftsmanship, you're looking for

ingredients, you're looking for history.

Very simple.

Good stuff.

Come to Tulan.

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