Taiwan Travelogue: Raohe Night Market

Hi everyone! I'm here to share with you my trip(s) to one of my favourite night markets in Taipei - Raohe Night Market or in Chinese, 饒河街觀光夜市.I very much prefer this to Shilin Night Market because of its simplicity actually. Shilin Night Market in my opinion has evolved into a major tourist trap, pretty much like our local Newton Circus Food Centre. You will never find a local there and from what I've heard from friends who have visited the newly renovated Shilin Night Market, the food area has shifted to an underground area and it was difficult to enjoy your food there. Anyway, I didn't plan on going to Shilin Night Market because it is very far from where my bf lives. Raohe is in fact very near his place thus we visit it quite regularly. Of course the main reason for me liking this place is not because of it being near the bf's home, but more for the variety of food it offers here. Well balanced between food and other items - what more can you ask for?

Typically, one would actually visit Wu Fen Pu Wholesale Centre and then head to Raohe Night Market because both places are extremely near each other (within 5-10 mins walking distance). I did that in the past (go to Wu Fen Pu then go eat at the night market) but this time around, I had planned to go to Wu Fen Pu on another day. We just stopped by here to grab some dinner actually haha! Came back a second time around to collect the shoes I had ordered in a store and ate more food again. There are 2 entrances to this night market - one faces a temple, while the other is facing... somewhere lol. Ok I think it is nearer to Wu Fen Pu. My guess ah, don't quote me on that lol. This night market is actually quite small compared to others like Shilin or Fengjia and stalls are situated in a way that you just walk down 2 stretches and ta-dah, the end! LOL. Kinda like a 2 way road if you get my drift. So food is readily available here and I like how the stalls change every now and then. Everytime I come back to this night market, I always tell the bf 'Wah, new stall leh! BUY!' ROFL

This stall sells flamed beef. SO DELICIOUS PLEASE TRY IT!

How it works is that the staff will grill the beef and then use a torch to give the meat this char flavour. Very juicy the meat lol. And when you other, they will ask you what type of flavours you want as you can see in the pic above. We couldn't decide so we let the guy put what he deemed as delicious for us.

This is the large portion that costs NT100. We actually finished a box of the large portion, made a u-turn and bought another box to eat because it was too nice!

愛玉冰 I love this drink! Very refreshing during hot weather. It's just basically jelly and water mixed with lemon or lime. Shiok factor: very high.

I love how the Taiwanese can just sell anything for others to eat. Case in point: fried Oreo wtf

Lookout for this store at the entrance that isn't facing the temple. It's the bf's favourite stall there because he loves baked potato. Everytime we go to Raohe, he has to have this or else I will never hear the end of it lol. We ended up ordering a portion each to prevent any unwanted stealings haha.

Taiwan sausages! Here's the bf peeling the garlic available at the store to eat with the sausages.

I really didn't fancy the idea of eating garlic raw and he called me a 'tourist'. What, I really am no? :P Anyway, the Aboriginals are famous for making such sausages and they are easily available at all night markets so not to worry. Now this is my favourite smelly tofu store. I never go anywhere else to eat it because it just tastes weird to me i.e. not well fried, cabbage not nice, sauce not nice etc. This store makes the nicest smelly tofu ever!

I cannot remember what it was called but do try and look for it. It is located in the middle section so don't just settle for any stall that sells smelly tofu. The bf and I have tested literally all the stalls there selling smelly tofu and this particular store gets our stamp of approval! :D

When you enter from the entrance at the temple side, this would be the first store greeting you with the queue - pepper bun (?) or 胡椒餅 in Chinese.

Whoa.... Caucasian is making the dough! Impressive (Y)

I quite like the buns from this store, the meat is very generous in the bun but the dough this time around wasn't as nice as I remembered. The exterior was slightly tough due to it being overcooked. Nevertheless, do give this a try if you are at Raohe.

Raohe Night Market also has plenty of stalls selling other things from clothing to socks to undergarments (I buy those bras to wear at home haaha ok TMI oops) to toiletries and what not. I bought a pair of Converse shoes there actually haha and like 2 tops in one of the clothing stores. Pretty decent pricing so not to worry about it being exorbitantly overpriced or something.

Well, if you decide to go to Wu Fen Pu for some shopping or you're getting off at Songshan Railway Station (they renovated this into a nice place fyi~), do pop by Raohe Night Market. I highly recommend this place for you to soak in the whole night market atmosphere.