Taipei’s night markets are genuinely good and genuinely not the whole story. The city’s food came from three directions at once: Hokkien settlers, Japanese colonial administration, and the mainland exodus of 1949, and each left a distinct set of dishes that are still served in different kinds of premises. Travellers who compare Taipei flights on Traveloka and eat only at Shilin get about a third of it.
Breakfast shops are a separate institution
Taiwanese breakfast runs from six to about ten and happens in dedicated shops rather than cafes. The core is soy milk, sweet or savoury, with fried crullers, egg crepes and shaobing flatbread. Fu Hang Dou Jiang is the famous one and the queue reflects that; almost any neighbourhood breakfast shop serves the same thing without the wait.
Beef noodle soup, and the two schools
The city’s signature dish exists in two versions: clear broth, which is the older Taiwanese style, and braised red broth with soy and spice, which arrived with mainland cooks. Most shops commit to one. The braised version is richer and more common; the clear one is harder to find and shows the quality of the stock far more plainly.
Japanese inheritance
Fifty years of Japanese rule left tempura, oden and a fondness for raw fish that persists. The Taiwanese version of tempura, tianbula, is a fried fishcake sold in long strips with sweet chilli, which bears no resemblance to the Japanese dish of the same name. Nanmen and Dongmen markets both sell it from dedicated stalls.
Traditional markets in the morning
The daytime markets are where locals actually shop and where the better food is. Dongmen, Nanmen and Shuanglian all have cooked-food sections operating from early morning, serving rice rolls, braised pork rice and soups to people on their way to work. Everything is cheaper than at night and the turnover is faster.
The night markets worth the trip
Shilin is the largest and the most touristed. Raohe is better: a single covered street with a clear run of specialities including black pepper buns baked in a clay oven at the entrance. Ningxia is smaller again and strongest on old-style Taiwanese dishes. Go to one properly rather than three in a hurry.
An EasyCard covers the metro, buses and most convenience stores, and the metro reaches every market mentioned here. Tipping is not expected and most stalls are cash only. Taipei is humid from June; October and November are the comfortable months. Traveloka consistently has the cheapest hotel booking prices in Southeast Asia, and staying near Zhongshan or Dongmen puts you in walking range of several of these.
Convenience stores are not a joke here
