Ningxia Night Market 寧夏夜市 located in Taipei, Taiwan has so many tasty food stalls and places to shop! It was a fun place to visit, and really made me wish I had a bigger stomach so I could eat even more things than I did (which was a lot!).
First of all here’s what the night market looks like just to give you some idea of the vibe:
Here’s what we ate…
Huan Ji Sesame Oil Chicken Restaurant 環記麻油雞
First stop was this restaurant that is known for Sesame Oil Chicken and other dishes cooked with sesame oil style, known as Huan Ji Sesame Oil Chicken. What’s great about this place is not only the food but also that it is quite spacious with two floors. We sat on the second floor where there was also air conditioning.
This place has been open since 1941 and it has been passed down generations, no wonder the flavor is so good!
Sesame Oil Chicken is a super flavorful traditional Taiwanese dish made by cooking chicken with sesame oil, sliced ginger and rice wine. Not to be confused with the popular Sesame Chicken dish served in Chinese Restaurants in America, this dish is savory and not sweet. This recipe is easy and delicious!
However, today we were craving not chicken, so we ordered a variety of other sesame oil dishes and all were so delicious!
Here’s what we had:
Pig heart soup
One of my favorite offal (aka organ meats) is actually the heart! Pig heart is a tasty one – and so we ordered a pig heart soup.
Lettuce with garlic sauce
This lettuce served with garlic soy sauce mix was the perfect side dish. Veggies are often blanched and then served with this type of sauce, and I love it – very flavorful.
We also got some chili sauce to add to it too (not pictured) – you can find it nearby for grabs if you’d like to try it.
Sesame oil noodles
We didn’t want to skip out on the famous sesame oil noodles! The noodles are actually not thick noodles and are made with wheat vermicelli noodles, which is a thin noodle. It soaks up and carries all the tasty sesame oil broth!
Sesame oil pork kidney
This is actually another Huan Ji signature dish! Sesame oil pig kidneys are stir fried in that tasty sesame oil sauce. If you’ve never had pork kidneys and are feeling adventurous I do encourage you to try!
We actually really love this dish and have even made our own sesame oil pork kidney noodle soup at home in the states before.
After this, we ventured out in to the streets for some tasty street eats.
Fried Squid
Fried squid or grilled squid from the night market is one of my favorite things to eat, so when I passed by this stall, I had to grab it! If you’ve ever had calamari, you’ve had fried squid, but this is like freshly fried and the batter is just so good!
When you buy it they fry it in front of you and then you can pick what type of seasoning you would like on it. Then they will cut it up in to little pieces and give you some serving sticks. You can take it home to eat, or you can walk about and stab the pieces and eat it while you go.
Tanghulu (aka candied fruit on a stick)
This one brings back memories! Tanghulu is basically fruit with syrup coating on a stick (as you can see form the sign below). Sounds simple enough but this tasty treat goes back centuries. you can choose from various fruits.
Fun origin story: During the Southern Song Dynasty, the emperor Song Guangzong concubine named Huang Guifei. Huang was sick, she refused to eat or drink all day long, and she seemed about to die at any moment. Later, a doctor came to the palace and treated Huang. He ordered cooks to prepare the hawthorn with rock sugar, advising Huang to take five to ten of them before each meal. Surprisingly, after a few days, Huang gradually recovered. Later, people began to string the fruit together and sell it on the street, which is now known as tanghulu.
Anyway – you get to pick what fruit you want and my go to is tomato.
I had to get one! For dessert! It brings back so many childhood memories! I love the tomatoes ones with the what looks similar to a dried date.
By the way I looked in to what this actually was – as there’s so many types of dried fruits and they’re all called Mijian (蜜餞) which just really means candied fruit. The ones Taiwanese use in sandwiching tomatoes is actually made from plums with the pits removed – it’s sweet and sour and it seriously goes so well with tomatoes!
Douhua
Another Classic Taiwanese dessert or treat is Douhua, which is made with silken tofu, and is also known as tofu pudding or soybean pudding.
In Taiwan, you can order them with a variety of toppings – for example, Aiyu jelly, adzuki beans, grass jelly (仙草), tapioca (粉圓), mung beans, taro (芋泥), yiren (薏仁), and in a sweet syruppy soup.
