I've covered a few very delicious destination vendor stops at Taipei's Ningxia Road Night Market 寧夏夜市, but feel that this place warrants its own writeup. Do not treat this as a comprehensive guide, as the compilation of photos cover the last 2 to 3 years. Vendors come and go, so what you see might not even be there now.
Unless it is some earth shattering event (like a typhoon, or ground splitting earthquake), the night market opens even when it is pouring. When it does rain, the night market association provides cover.
On rainless nights, it's open air time.
Sorry for not blurring ya, missy.
One of the reasons why I love this night market so much is that it is way less touristy than Shihlin. Sure that place is great, but it is overrun by visitors bused (and flown) in from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea (Hong Kongers in particular). The offerings are rather commercialized, and frankly after 3 to 4 visits, it loses its glamor.
Ningxia Road Night Market can be almost defined as the heart of where Taipei city started and evolved some 50+ years ago. True traditional old school flavors, with many receipes preserved for the ages. While it is true that you can enjoy even better food in Tainan (where they say street food is way way better), for Taipei I believe Ningxia is the place to be. At the same time, you can get the old school, along with new school, and of course the tried and true, adding variety to the spice.
You can even find Tainanese staples here, like the Tu Tuoh fish soup.
"Smile Skewers" - grilled seafood and meat on a stick. Pike mackeral, squid etc.
American Corndogs?! WTF? Sooooo out of place.
"Fortune Fried Chicken" - so bold....note the "if it don't taste good, it's on us". Too bad I didn't try.
Teppanyaki.
Saltwater Chicken
Corn on a stick
Sashimi vendor, all fish from Pingtung harbor 東港. Squid, local snapper of some sort, swordfish, tuna
local "hamachi", more local white fish, something that looks like escolar and colored fish eggs.
Pre-made low tech cheap nigiri on the go (from another stall)
Grilled Middle-Eastern/Indian/Pakinstani style skewers
Master Yu's Xiao Long Bao (they have shrimp XLB too, supposedly great)
Fresh lemons and kumquats for honey lemon/honey lemon kumquat juice
Shandong style grilled duck heads. Strange but nothing new really.
Korean style spicy nian gao
Fresh sugar cane juice
Another famous 30+ yr old local oyster omlette shop on Ningxia Road, not part of the night market vendor strip, but a permanent fixture.
Local versions of takoyaki.
Guava
Fresh seafood all over. Cooked anyway you want.
Red bean pancake sandwiches
So many things to eat, so little time...
Ningxia Road Night Market 寧夏夜市
台北市大同區寧夏路 (Taipei City, Datung District, Ningxia Road)
