Taiwan Itinerary Day 1: Ningxia Night Market 寧夏夜市

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    Ningxia Night Market is a relatively small night market located in western Taipei. It is very popular amongst the locals as it has the highest concentration of all the best snacks from the olden days. So naturally it gets included into our Taiwan trip itinerary as food is of high priority to us. From Shuanglian station, we walked for about 10 minutes to get here.
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    As you can see, the night market is not very crowded as compared to Shihlin Night Market.
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    #1 蓮飲料吧 Lian’s Sugarcane Juice. It is located just right after Ningxia Night Market’s entrance, which is very easy to look for. They are famous for the mixed sugarcane juice. One can opt for sugarcane + starfruits/yakult/lemon.
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    We ordered sugarcane + lemon and sugarcane + starfruits each (NT 40). It was really refreshing, as the sugarcane’s sweetness is tone down by the slightly sourish taste of lemon/starfruits! Maybe our pasar malam operators should learn a trick or two.
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    #2 圓環邊蚵仔煎 Roundabout Oyster Omelette. There are two famous oyster omelette shop in Ningxia Night Market, another one being 賴記蚵仔煎 (from Shuanglian Station towards Ningxia Night Market, before the entrance). Look at the line forming outside the shop! Patrons are suppose to wait for their queue patiently outside. Whenever there is a vacant table inside, place your order at the cooking counter and proceed to go in and sit down.
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    I think I know why these oyster omelettes are so popular amongst the locals.  The cook never seemed to skimp on the ingredients; every pan is filled with a generous amount of oysters.
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    米糕 Tainan Savory Rice Pudding (NT30). It looked and tasted exactly like Lu Rou Fan, in a different form. Glutinous rice is used instead of normal white rice. The glutinous rice had a nice chewy bite to it. It also soaked up all the fatty bits from the braised pork, how could it be not delicious?
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    蚵仔煎 Oyster Omelette (NT 60). If you would like to order this in Taiyu, the right pronunciation is “Er-Ah-Jian”. We just made a huge joke on ourselves by calling it as “Oh-Ah-Jian”. By the way, “Oh-Ah” means crow in Taiyu. The wait staff almost died laughing at us. Back to the food, it was indeed very, very delicious.
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    The omelette is filled with briny oysters and without being too starchy and greasy like the one we tried at Shihlin Night Market. Eat it with some sweet sour gravy and it tastes even better!
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    #3 里长伯臭豆腐 Ah Pek’s Stinky Tofu (please pardon my direct translation).
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    As we walked along the night market, we try to spot for stalls that attract the most crowd. Since this particular stall is almost fully occupied and we felt like having stinky toufu, we quickly grabbed a seat.
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    The stinky tofus (NT 40) were quite dissappointing. It wasn’t as crispy as we thought, and the centre was too chewy for our liking. Nothing compared to the one we had at Luodong Night Market. However, most other patrons were having oyster mee sua at the same time, maybe you could give it a try next time.
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    #4 童年木瓜牛奶 Childhood Papaya Milk.
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    It was really creamy and not too sweet. The ratio of papaya cubes + fresh milk is about 50:50, without any sugar or ice added.
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    #5 方家雞肉飯 Fang’s Chicken Rice
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    Fang’s Chicken Rice is famous for their chicken rice and lu rou fan. Their chicken rice is totally different from our version, it’s shredded chicken + chicken sauce + fried onions on top of a bowl of white rice. We were too full from all the abovementioned food but could not resist pork liver’s soup 豬肝湯 (NT 35).
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    #6 劉芋仔 Liu’s Yam Ball
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    It is undoubtedly the most popular stall in the whole of Ningxia Night Market. The queue went spiral from one end to another and we waited for almost 30 minutes!
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    There are only two items for sale: Yam Ball 香酥芋丸 NT15 / Egg Yolk and Floss Yam Ball 蛋黃芋餅 NT20. The stall operators were working really fast: one guy was mashing the yam, another one rolling it into balls, while another two stuffed it with various other ingredients and working on the deep frying part.
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    We bought half a dozen of these egg yolk and floss yam balls and regretted immediately. It was decent but nothing great.
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    Ningxia Night Market focuses on 小吃 “small bites” a lot so there isn’t any place to do our shopping. There were some old school game stalls for us to spend some time though. If our stomach capacity allows, there are a lot more try – sesame oil chicken, pork trotter rice, fried chicken, prawn fritters, etc.

    Read more about our other favourite night markets in Taipei: Raohe Night Market, Shida Night Market (closing down soon), Keelung Night Market (1 hour from Taipei).

    Ningxia Night Market
    Ningxia Rd., Datong District (between Nanjing W. Rd. and Minsheng W. Rd.)
    Opening Hours :1800-2400
    How to get there by Taipei MRT :
    Alight at either Tamsui Line(Red Line).Shuanglian MRT Station or Zhongshan MRT Station of Tamsui Line,walk towards west(Chengde Rd.)from Exit No.1 for approximately 10 minutes.

    Next Up: Hotel Amba Taipei @ Ximending 

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