Raohe Night Market in Taipei: MUST-EAT Taiwan Street Food - Pepper Pork Buns & Bone Soup!

Hey everyone, it's Mark Wiens with Migrationology.com. I'm in Taipei, Taiwan, and right now we are heading to Raohe Night Market, which is one of the famous Taiwan Taipei night markets. Gonna get some food and explore. Here comes our train now, on our way. We are just getting off the metro at Songshan Station, and let me come over and take a look at the map. There we go, Raohe Street Night Market, exit number 5. Okay, this is the entrance to the market, you can see the sign and the gate over there, and it was just literally just a 30 second walk from the metro station. Right at the entrance I can see one of the most famous snacks at this market, which are the pepper buns, and I have no choice but to jump in line immediately for this. This street food stall is so famous that they have lines, even though it's a street food stall it feels like I'm in immigration, waiting in line. We waited in line, and luckily we're here pretty early so the line wasn't as long as it can be I'm sure, on the weekend or in a few hours, but that took about 10 minutes, and we ordered our pepper pork buns. They are just hot and fresh right out of that oven, and then they put it into a little paper bag. That is just steaming hot. So what they do, just look at that, that is a baked good of beauty. Just look how it's crispy, it's almost like cracker crispy on that side, and then it looks a little more gooey and doughy on that side. The process of making this is quite fantastic as well. What they do is they take a piece of dough, flatten it out, and then they put in a pork mixture into the middle, and then the step I really like is that they take that dough with the meat filling on the inside, and they just take it and just sort of like slap it down into a giant pile of green onions. And so all those green onions stick to the center of the pork, and then they wrap it up into a ball, and then it is cooked in what is similar, very similar to a tandoori oven. The heat is at the bottom, and then the sides are hot, and they just slap them into the oven, and then they cook until they are golden perfection like this. And so this is fresh out of the oven, I gotta eat it now before it gets cold. I don't know whether to begin with the crispy part or the juicy part, I'm going with the juicy part. Oh, that's ridiculously good. That bread is like cracker crispy, but at the same time, inside, it's sort of gooey. Then that pork is a little bit sweet, a little bit salty, and I can really taste sesame oil, as well as those green onions really come in there nicely as well. And then I also love those sesame seeds, those crispy sesame seeds on top as well. That was a marvelous way to start the evening, that was really good, I really enjoyed it, and now we're gonna see what else to eat. Oh, hello grilled squid, I think this might be our next treat. Yeah, let's have one. They have two different versions, one of them they butterfly cut, and the other one they leave in its original shape. They grilled up the squid, and they brushed it in some kind of a teriyaki-looking sauce, and then once we ordered it, she sliced it into bite-sized rings and pieces, and then sprinkled on some kind of spice, it looks like chili powder. Let me give it a smell real fast. I think it's chili powder. Okay, I'm gonna start with this ring right here, with all that chili powder on it. That is just really soft, tender squid, just a tiny bit chewy for a good texture, oh and that chili powder is nice and a little bit spicy, and nice and salty. Oh, if you love squid, that's delicious. We've done a full circle around the market now, and eaten a couple things, but still lots to eat, but we're still waiting for everything to set up, we got here kinda early, so yeah, still lots of vendors are setting up. We just got in line and ordered a cup of fried dumplings, and then she put them into a cup and topped it with some kind of a chili glaze sauce, and oh, you can see on the bottom, they are really crispy looking, and then on the top look nice and gooey, oh where did my chili go? Oh there we go, oh come on, oh okay there we go, oh that is tasty, and very hot right now, and it is a little bit crispy on the bottom, and then inside I can taste some cabbage, and kinda some like leeks, and then some pork as well, that's very tasty. Those fried dumplings were nearly perfect for me, just the flavor was excellent, and then that sauce, sometimes it can be a little bit sweet, but that sauce was just salty and spicy with those chilies, yeah that was perfect. And to end our night here at Laohu Night Market, we just got seats at this packed out restaurant that is serving pork bone soup, and you can just smell it, it has a sweet cinnamon fragrance, and this is the place to come if you wanna lick some pork bones clean, and I do. And your soup comes literally like instantly as soon as you order it, and you can see all these bones, and all of these ribs, if I can grab a, oh I'm gonna grab one of these guys, and just lick some of that meat off, or wait let me find a more meaty one for my first bite. That is extremely hot, it's a little bit plain, but really, really good pork, yeah, let me find a spoon, oh that's extremely soothing, it has a nice cinnamon flavor to it, maybe some anise, and yeah that's excellent. This is the dipping sauce for the, I think it's a fermented bean sauce, so that's why the pork is pretty plain, I think you're supposed to dip it in the sauce. There's not a lot of meat on these bones, but you're really supposed to just lick the bones clean, and that's what it's all about I think, but I'm gonna go in for some of that sauce this time. A lot of meat on that bite, but that sauce is very good, it has kind of a cheesy flavor from those fermented beans, and then I also got the rice topped with pork oil to go with it. I think I can taste some crispy shallots on that as well, if you love to chew on bones, that is like one of the best things you could possibly eat, the meat is not like fall off the bone tender, but instead it has some texture to it, it's still gripping to the bone, and so you really gotta like gnaw at it and chew off all the meat, which is really good and really flavorful, and then the broth just has a really nice subtle cinnamony flavor to it. This is like a place a whole family can come and just gnaw on pork bones, excellent, I loved it. I think we are going to call it a night, it has been a fantastic evening of eating, and I'm starting to get sleepy after that last bowl of pork bone soup, but everything was good, and this is a wonderful kind of neighborhood like environment, but packed out, and yeah this is a great place. So when you come to Taipei, the Laohu Night Market is an excellent place to come, I want to say a big thank you for watching this video, please remember to give it a thumbs up, leave a comment below if you have any questions, and I will see you on the next video.