Liuhe Night Market 六合夜市

When I talk about “foodie destinations” I often hear people talk of Penang Malaysia, Singapore or Rome Italy, however, before we headed to Taiwan, I had never heard of Kaohsiung being mentioned as a top foodie location. I am here to tell you that Kaohsiung is your street food destination! There are more than 20 different night markets in this southern Taiwanese city, but in this post (and video above) we visit Liuhe Tourist Night Market and Ruifeng Night Market.

Liuhe night market has been open in some capacity since the 1950s, and it specializes in seafood dishes. If you are taking the metro, the closest stop is Formosa Boulevard.

The first street food we tried at this market was the Fried Oyster Balls. This dish is essentially a giant spherical egg roll filled with egg, oysters and green onions. There is a good video here of how they are made.

Next we tried what is best described as a giant sea shell filled with cheese, shrimp, green onion and garlic (maybe some cloves?) It was delicious, but admittedly greasy, but what good street food isn’t?

Next up I had to get Jives to try my favourite street food snack in Taiwan, the Scallion pancake. I had tried this on my trip to Taiwan for Lunar New Year in 2013! The dish is exactly what it sounds like, a light flaky savoury pancake filled with green onions. It is fried to perfection on a circular grill and tastes so buttery and amazing. We have actually made these at home since, and it is fairly simple. Here is a recipe if you’d like to try it yourself.

Ruifeng Night Market 瑞豐夜市

Next we headed to Ruifeng Night Market in a different part of town. Ruifeng Night Market is the largest night market in Kaohsiung. This market has over 1000 stalls, mostly selling food, but you’ll also find clothing and game booths. It is open from 5pm until 2am. This market has been open for twenty years. The closest metro stop is Zuoying.

First we tried two different steamed pie buns. Jives tried a steak and pepper version, and I tried the cheese and potato (the vegetarian option). They were delicious and crispy on the outside, and crammed full of pipping hot fillings, with sesame seeds resting on the crunchy exterior.

Next we tried something advertised as popcorn fish, and the stall owner recommended the “dolphin” which he was very quick to tell us was definitely not THAT type of dolphin or dolphin meat at all. The fish was heavily breaded and served with raw onion slices. I found the fish itself to be very chewy and a strange texture.

There are so many other delicious looking foods that we didn’t have the time or stomach space to try. Have you been to a Night Market in Taiwan? What founds do you enjoy?

Overall I think we both enjoyed the Liuhe Night market more, just because it was less crowded and there were communal chairs set up where you could bring your own beverages (from 711) and enjoy your purchased food. If you want to try out games however, I would recommend Ruifeng Night Market. The atmosphere was certainly more chaotic at Ruifeng, but you definitely should experience that type of night market atmosphere at some point!