Sample Taiwanese Foods on a Social and Informative Night Market Tour

TourMeAway offers high quality English language walking tours of Taipei. Find out more information and check out some of their other tours here.

“Hunger Game” is one of the tours offered by TourMeAway, a company that specializes in English-language walking tours of Taipei. It’s highly recommended for visitors as a fun and informative way to explore a traditional night market and sample a range of unique local foods. The tour costs NT$600 (and only NT$500 if you book in advance), which includes at least 12 different dishes introduced by a friendly and knowledgeable guide. The tour is flexible to accommodate dietary restrictions and differing tastes. It runs every Wednesday and Sunday night at 8pm, rain or shine!

We joined the tour on a Wednesday night. It begins at Jingmei Station Exit 2, which is right across the street from the entrance to Jingmei Night Market. We met our guide at the top of the escalator and immediately found her to be very welcoming as we chatted about the Taiwanese food scene. Once our group was assembled (it was on the smaller side with only 5 participants, but the group size varies a lot depending on the night) she gave us an overview of the market and its layout before we headed inside.

The nice thing about this particular night market is that it’s outside central Taipei, meaning it’s less crowded than some of its better-known counterparts (like Raohe, which is usually packed and difficult to navigate). Jingmei is also one of the more traditional markets, so there’s a nice mix of Western favourites and more quintessential Taiwanese dishes that aren’t modified to appeal to the tastes of tourists.

We started off with a choice of 3 different cold teas, ranging from fruity to extremely bitter. Taiwanese Bitter Tea (苦茶) is made with a variety of herbs and is supposed to be good for flushing toxins from the body, but it was so incredibly bitter we literally couldn’t drink more than a few sips. We challenge you to do better!

The real “games” began when our guide gathered us together to each choose a skewer from a bag. The skewers all had chicken meat, but the catch was they each came from a different part of the chicken — and we were selecting at random. The test was to guess which part of the chicken we were eating! Everyone was brave and had a lot of fun guessing. After the big reveal, we all swapped to get a taste of them all.

This Taiwanese delicacy tastes better than it sounds: pig’s blood cake coated with peanut and coriander.

Candied strawberries were a crowd favourite! Our tour guide actually bought this for us to share because we had our eyes on it as we were walking past.

We had a chance to split off and explore the market by ourselves for a brief time. You’re welcome to buy any extra food you want from any of the available vendors, but there’s no need because a) the tour itself provides more than enough food to fill you up (we were stuffed by the end) and b) you can actually make requests to the guide and she’ll buy whatever you’re craving! We were impressed at how flexible the tour is in this regard — not only are dietary restrictions readily accommodated, but the tour itself can actually be shaped by the interests and tastes of its participants.

We moved on to another section of the market and had a chance to sit down on some stools at an outdoor table. Our guide promptly began ordering multiple dishes, some of which she knew we’d love, and some of which she challenged us to try.

We had fried stinky tofu (which thankfully tastes better than it smells), chicken feet, sweet potato balls, and a couple different tea beverages. We made a commitment to try everything and encouraged everyone to do the same — even if we were hesitant or repulsed — and did so successfully!

Moving on, we weaved our way through the market’s maze, soaking in the sounds and the aromas. Exploring a night market is about more than just the food — it’s an opportunity to immerse yourself in Taiwanese culture alongside the locals.

We ended up at another restaurant that’s a favourite among locals and doesn’t cater to tourists at all. It’s a place we’d probably never visit by ourselves and we wouldn’t know what to order anyway, proving the authenticity of the tour and the helpfulness of our guide. We had oyster noodles, soup with intestine-stuffed intestines, and a savoury sticky rice dish — all of which impressed us despite our reservations. We were proud to try every dish once again, and actually enjoyed them a lot more than we thought we would!

Our last food stop was dessert. We shared a couple different varieties of shaved ice that included a mix of flavours and toppings like sweet tofu, jelly, and tapioca. We were absolutely stuffed by this point but the cold, sweet treat was a perfect conclusion to our food adventure.

The tour concluded at this temple, with a final explanation on the history of night markets by our guide that tied the whole thing together. Despite the fact that we’ve already lived in Taipei for more than a year and a half, it was fascinating information. That’s why we recommend this tour not only for visitors, but for expats already settled in the city — we tried a bunch of new dishes, learned a lot, and had fun socializing with our group along the way. Although it’s true that you’d probably spend much less than $600 if you were to go to a night market alone, we completely felt that we got our money’s worth, and were grateful for others to share our portions with. Our guide was extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and accommodating — we can’t recommend this tour enough!

Tour date: March 2019

Hunger Game

Hours: every Wednesday & Sunday at 8pm

Email: service@tourmeaway.com

STARTING POINT English Address: Jingmei MRT Station Exit 2

STARTING POINT Chinese Address: 景美站2號出口