Today, Bon Appétit joins chefs Lucas Sin and Eric Sze in Keelung as they eat their way through an iconic Taiwanese night market for only $18. From specialty pork trotters to charcoal oyster omelets, you can easily indulge in an epic feast on a budget at Taiwan’s night markets.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Welcome to Taipei, this is a classic night market.
00:03We are at Jilong Miao Kou Ye Shi in the city of Jilong,
00:06about 30 minutes outside of Taipei.
00:07We're gonna show you how to eat like chefs
00:09at a night market.
00:10And you know what?
00:11It's probably not gonna cost us over $25.
00:14You fan la, yi jing dao la.
00:16So, you fan is sticky rice.
00:17Yeah.
00:18Any night market, they're gonna specialize
00:20in one or two dishes.
00:21This stall is known for their crab soups,
00:23but we don't wanna fill up.
00:25Skip it.
00:25I think we skip the soup.
00:26We do the rice,
00:28but we try to finesse our way
00:30to let them put the crab onto the rice.
00:48So, chef introduced us to their house-made chili oil.
00:50This looks like it's actually spicy.
00:52Anything in Taiwan that's pasty
00:54and comes in a sauce bottle
00:55and they tell you it's spicy,
00:57don't believe them.
00:58These crab claws taken apart perfectly.
01:00Are these crab legs, rather?
01:02Yeah, crab legs, for sure.
01:04What, no juice?
01:06Very rude.
01:07I couldn't stand it.
01:08Tai xiang.
01:09So much umami.
01:10I've had versions of this before
01:12where it can just be too heavy
01:13because the sticky rice is extra starchy
01:15and all these things.
01:17But the punch of the chili oil,
01:20the bright herbaceousness of the cilantro,
01:25really complements the flavor.
01:27Every single grain is distinct.
01:29It's the perfect amount of stickiness.
01:30This entire order, $115 Taiwan dollars,
01:33which is how much, quick maths?
01:36A little bit under $4.
01:37So, yeah, four bucks.
01:39Okay, let's go on to the next.
01:41Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
01:44Oh, we should try pao pao bean.
01:46Kind of like a combination of Italian ice
01:48and cold stone.
01:49Cool.
01:50Pao pao means bubble.
01:51I don't know exactly why it's called pao pao bean,
01:53but they shave ice, like regular shaved ice.
01:55We should do one dairied version
01:57and one without dairy.
01:59That green mango looks kind of fun.
02:00Or peanut?
02:02Let's do peanut.
02:03I'm a big peanut guy.
02:04Okay.
02:12The machine is quickly shaving down a block of ice
02:13into very fine, fine, fine sheet strands
02:16into a bowl of egg yolks, condensed milk, and syrup.
02:19He's constantly mixing it
02:20to make sure that the flavor's incorporated.
02:22But basically, he's making ice cream to order.
02:25The ice is melting just at the very surface level
02:28because once the new layer of ice reaches the top,
02:31the bottom is solidified and it's very, very cold.
02:34And if you look at the ice itself,
02:35it's completely clear.
02:36That means there's no air inside at all whatsoever.
02:40It's gonna be as creamy as possible
02:42without really the traditional technique
02:44of using a custard in making ice cream.
02:46This is fantastic.
02:47This is really cool.
02:48Phenomenal action right here.
02:49Gorgeous.
02:51I mean, it looks like Italian ice,
02:52but it looks like sorbet, it looks like gelato.
02:54It's like a cloud.
02:55It's like fluffy.
02:56That's what the pom-pom comes from.
02:57It's like foamy, right?
02:58It's like a bubble.
02:59You expect a harder texture, but.
03:03Yummy.
03:04Yummy.
03:05If you think about it,
03:06it's all the ingredients in ice cream.
03:07Egg, syrup, condensed milk.
03:10This is the perfect way to break up
03:12a long night at the night market.
03:14It feels like a lot, but it's not.
03:16Yeah, it's very, very fluffy.
03:1755 NT for one cup, which is about $2-ish.
03:21Yeah, I mean.
03:22What a bargain.
03:23If we look at the flavors,
03:25and look at the space,
03:26it really sings having the most amount of variety
03:29while maximizing the space.
03:31Creativity and ingenuity.
03:33Give it a shot.
03:34Let's see.
03:35I would travel from Taipei to Keelung just to eat here.
03:38Ji Jia Zhu Jiao.
03:39Pork knuckles with a little bit of broth
03:41and a little bit of noodles.
03:42Delicious.
03:43So good.
03:44It is the quintessential way of eating pork,
03:47in my opinion.
03:48She's making noodles over there,
03:50but there are two big vats of what looks like
03:52pork chowder and pork hock, right?
03:54On the right over here, we have trotter,
03:56which is bonier, but has more skin.
03:58It's actually more expensive in Taiwan
04:00to purchase trotters.
04:01These are smaller and less quantity.
04:04Hocks are a little bit less priced,
04:05but some people like meatier stuff,
04:06some people like more skin.
04:07Chef is taking apart the pork hock,
04:09the connecting part between the trotter
04:12and the shoulder on the front of the pig.
04:13Kind of like the forearms.
04:14Exactly.
04:15Splitting it into half, taking the bone out
04:18because he wants to leave the boneless part
04:19to slice into thinner chunks
04:21that are re-warmed in the soup for service.
04:25The broth you see is a master stock
04:26of bone broth and gelatin in the trotter and the hock.
04:30Oh my goodness.
04:32Look at that.
04:33It has absolutely no seasoning at all.
04:36It looks a lot like tonkotsu
04:37because it's got that emulsification, right?
04:39It means that that fat and that water has come together,
04:41it's held together by that gelatin
04:43that's broken down from cooking these hocks
04:45and these trotters for a very, very long time.
04:47The broth takes 24 hours,
04:48and the hock and the trotter
04:49really only takes about two to three hours to cook.
04:52But it's the broth that it's poached in
04:54that you really don't get
04:56if you don't have this flavorful, flavorful broth.
04:59The noodle is...
05:08The seasoning is very simple.
05:09This is a garlic soy sauce,
05:11and this is lard that's been rendered
05:13with shallots and garlic.
05:18We just put in our order.
05:19Let's go upstairs for food.
05:21So excited.
05:25There it is.
05:26Oh my goodness, dude.
05:27Oh, and the noodle.
05:28Honestly, I know you've been harping on about this soup,
05:30but I'm mostly excited about the noodles.
05:32You see this broth?
05:33You see that it's a little bit milky,
05:34it's a little bit creamy.
05:36It's gonna be thick,
05:37it's gonna have a little bit of body.
05:38It's served with a little bit of a dipping sauce on the side.
05:40Yeah, it's kind of like a Maggi.
05:42Maggi plus more seasoning.
05:43Like a seasoned soy sauce.
05:45And a little bit of chili peppers.
05:46So the two parts you can tell,
05:48this is a hock, right?
05:49Yeah.
05:50Boneless, meaty.
05:52Nice separation between flesh, tendon, fat, and skin.
05:56And a thick layer of skin.
05:57Yeah.
05:58And then this is the trotter.
05:59This is the trotter,
06:00where you get a lot of bone, obviously,
06:01but you have tendon,
06:02you have a lot of collagen.
06:04Most importantly is the marrow in here.
06:07They split right down the middle
06:09and you still get to eat some of that pork marrow.
06:11And that's the best part of any animal.
06:14Even though it looks like a soup,
06:15there really isn't enough soup
06:17to be considered a soup dish.
06:18It's a pork dish that's served with a soup,
06:20the broth that was cooked inside.
06:22Exactly.
06:23Walk me through what's in these noodles again.
06:24So it's sort of like a somen.
06:26It's hóng miàn xiàn.
06:28Noodles heavily salted and then dried under the sun.
06:29And that's where they pick up this brown color, right?
06:31Yes, that's where the proteins begin to sort of cook
06:34and then it becomes stronger.
06:36The minute you toss it together,
06:38there's this like poof of steam
06:41and poof of garlic and soy sauce.
06:44It's ridiculous.
06:45Okay, bye.
06:46Thank you, thank you.
06:52Yum.
06:54Yum.
06:56Zhū yóu miàn.
06:57This is impeccable.
06:58The noodle itself is not too baking soda-y.
07:01It's bouncy and it's got texture and it's thin, but.
07:05But it's just tender enough, right?
07:06Not overly al dente, not overly soft.
07:09So this in total was $250 Taiwan dollars.
07:13Seven, seven, eight.
07:15Eight bucks.
07:15Eight bucks.
07:16For a Cantonese boy like myself,
07:18this is very, very nourishing.
07:21Okay.
07:22Oyster omelette.
07:24You grew up eating this?
07:25I grew up coming to Taiwan a lot
07:27and my favorite thing was always the oyster omelette
07:29because you can't get it anywhere else.
07:30Not like this, at least.
07:31If you look at the way they make it,
07:33they sear off the oyster first on the cast iron skillet
07:36and then the batter goes on.
07:37Even if you're not buying it as oysters,
07:39you're getting that flavor of the sea.
07:40It's gonna be crispy and it's gonna be gooey.
07:42It's not just crispy.
07:43Sauce A is probably a garlic soy paste
07:45and Sauce B is a sweet.
07:47Xie xie, xie xie.
07:49Sauce B is a sweet, ketchup-y,
07:51lightly spicy miso-based sauce.
07:53Look at this.
07:54It's called hai san jiao.
07:55There we go, there we go.
07:57This is what we're looking for.
07:58This exact texture.
08:00Quintessential oyster omelette.
08:03Very popular in terms of texture
08:05for all of Taiwanese food.
08:06Caramelized starched.
08:09Putting it mildly.
08:16Sweet, salty, tangy, sour.
08:18I love that goo.
08:19It is so complimentary.
08:20Something about the elasticity
08:21that turns into a robust chew,
08:24but with a little bit of crisp and a little bit of sweetness.
08:26And then the last bit is the brininess of the oysters.
08:29So good.
08:30It just feels like a lot of Taiwan,
08:31a lot of texture, a lot of flavor.
08:33The full range represented in one bite.
08:35Don't mind me, I'm just gonna have to finish this.
08:37And this, 80 Taiwan dollars,
08:39which is about $2.50 in the States.
08:42270, 260 these days.
08:45Quick maths.
08:46Delicious.
08:48What else do we have?
08:49Yeah, so this is actually very interesting.
08:51It says tianbu luo,
08:53but in Taiwan it's known as tianbu la.
08:55Okay.
08:55Sweet, not spicy.
08:56Makes no sense, but it's just-
08:57Is this a Japanese thing?
08:58So basically what it is is just fried fish cake.
09:00So fish mixed in with a bunch of starches
09:02like tapioca, sometimes potato, sometimes rice.
09:05Aromatics inside, season it, and then fry it.
09:07Yeah.
09:17You know what, it's so fresh.
09:28The manipulation here is of texture,
09:30and when you manipulate texture,
09:31the question is how much starch you're adding
09:32and how fresh is it gonna be.
09:33I think this is interesting, it's cool.
09:35It's for a little snack, for like 40, not bad.
09:38The way we need to appreciate this is the texture.
09:40And this is q, the quintessential Taiwanese palate.
09:45See that?
09:46The elasticity with tenderness, that is q.
09:49And this, if you ever come to Taiwan,
09:52here's what you're looking for.
09:54The idea is that you have all this fish,
09:56fish with all this protein,
09:57you're manipulating, you're beating it
09:59until those protein strands are nice and long.
10:01And with the addition of the starch,
10:03it's all stabilized before it becomes this paste.
10:06It gets fried, and then that's where the bounce comes from.
10:08It's trapping air, it's trapping moisture,
10:09it's trapping all these things
10:10to create this bouncy texture.
10:11Delicious.
10:12All right, cool.
10:13Okay, next bite.
10:14Xie xie, xie xie.
10:17Okay, every time I come back to Taiwan,
10:18my favorite thing to eat on the street is zhu xie gao.
10:21I'm looking at it right here.
10:22Pig's blood cake.
10:25Lao ban, ma fan lai yi zhi, xie xie.
10:31So, it's always, you take it out of the steam basket.
10:33This is soy paste, a light brush.
10:35And we ordered spicy, so it gets a little bath
10:38of a spicy bean paste as well.
10:40Dabbed into this peanut powder
10:41that's slightly seasoned with sugar and salt,
10:44and then a bed of cilantro on the bottom,
10:46and then covered up with more peanut powder.
10:50Boy, this looks good.
10:51Don't laugh, I'm not cooked.
10:53This looks like a savory pork blood obstacle.
10:56Blood, in terms of culinary technique,
10:58it does the same thing as eggs, right?
11:00Right, right.
11:01It emulsifies, it carries a lot of flavor,
11:02it thickens, all these things.
11:03And velvets.
11:04It's seasoned with a little bit of salt,
11:05a little bit of wine,
11:06soaked with sticky rice, and then steamed.
11:08That becomes a block.
11:10And then they cut it, skewer it,
11:11and hold it in that steam basket we just saw.
11:13So simple, so delicious.
11:15Cheers. Cheers.
11:19Yummy.
11:21Yummy, yummy, right?
11:21Yeah.
11:22There's a peanut that's a base nuttiness.
11:24On the top level, there's a little bit
11:26of this herbaceous cilantro-ness.
11:28The soy paste ties it all together
11:29with that middle note of savory,
11:31and a little bit of chili just to make it tingle.
11:34We've seen this flavor profile in a lot of dishes today,
11:36but this pig's blood cake,
11:38I think, is one of the best exemplifications
11:41of that classic Taiwanese flavor profile.
11:43Oh, it's 40 NT, which is?
11:47About $1.30.
11:48That's right.
11:50We're gonna turn a corner.
11:52So this is the temple
11:52that kind of started this community, huh?
11:54Yes, exactly.
11:55Now it's a poppin' night market.
11:57Amazing.
11:58One spot I really wanna go to
11:59inside of this little temple complex.
12:08At that time, I was originally a seafood vendor,
12:11so I couldn't make a living.
12:12If you're a seafood vendor, you have to make people drink.
12:14The location was too small.
12:16So I had to change my job.
12:18I changed to sell beer.
12:20Because I like to eat mutton.
12:22If you look at it, right, the sauce is very loose,
12:24because lamb has such a strong flavor, right?
12:26It's got that flavor that's,
12:27it's not a gaminess, it's a pungency.
12:30Pairing here with the Chinese celery
12:32means that there's gonna be a bright,
12:34green, herbaceous punch
12:36with the earthiness of the lamb itself.
12:38Can't wait.
12:42Oh, yummy.
12:43Come on, man.
12:44This is my favorite thing so far.
12:47So simple, so good.
12:48And you get lu rou fan everywhere,
12:49but this is so different.
12:51Amazing.
12:5235 Taiwan dollars.
12:54Dollar.
12:54Dollar-ish. Dollar 30.
12:55Yeah.
12:57Dollar 20.
12:58So good.
12:59That was incredible.
13:00Me, my favorite bites today
13:02were places that really honored
13:05super careful local ingredients.
13:08They cooked with a sense of history and tradition,
13:11and they also presented food
13:13in a way that is very, very accessible,
13:15so that you can select whatever you'd like,
13:17pick your own adventure in the night market,
13:19like Xilong.
13:20Exactly.
13:21Even though it's a little bit smaller,
13:21it still has so much variety.
13:23Right.
13:24And with the carefully selected crowd of vendors,
13:27they all have history,
13:28all of them are experienced,
13:29lots of craftsmanship,
13:31all super master chef level.
13:33And, you know.
13:34It's like good food everywhere in the world.
13:36When you want the good stuff,
13:36you're looking for craftsmanship,
13:38you're looking for ingredients,
13:39you're looking for history.
13:40Very simple.
13:41Good stuff.
13:42Come to Xilong.