[Keelung, Taiwan] - 廟口夜市 Miaokou Night Market

Every summer that I went back to Taiwan was spent with family. The best part of being with family and just letting them take me everywhere. While there are a lot of people who don't really explore, my family loves food and loves trying new places along with their tried and true favorites. The bad part is not being really able to go off and do things on my own at farther locations. Keelung was one of those farther away locations I never had a chance to visit. Although, I have to say, I wouldn't trade the other places I went instead (Taroko Gorge, Hualien, and a good chunk of the East Coast). 

Now, when I go back to Taiwan, I stay a few days in Taipei which leaves me time to pop over to Keelung. Keelung's Miao Kou Night Market is arguably, one of the best night markets in Taiwan. The seafood alone is already a huge draw. Most of Taipei's fresh seafood comes from Keelung. Aside from seafood, they have a plethora of other options based on rice, pork, or beef. There is also steamed and grilled corn, and other snacks.

Personally, I go for the seafood. My favorite is the crab thick soup which sounds weird and doesn't look anything special, but is deliciously thick with flavor and crab. This last trip out in March was my second and last time going to Songshan Seafood as they have gotten super complacent with their food after they put up those pictures of Bourdain and Zimmern. There is too much competition in Keelung (not to mention Taiwan overall!) to rest on your laurels. 

More info here: Miaokou Night Market

You can also find a lot of cursory information about Taiwanese food in A Taste of Taiwan Ed. Teng, Sue-Feng. Written formally, it has a broad overview of the food of Taiwan. The best sources would be in Taiwan or Japan at this point, or if you're lucky a good blog. When reading blogs for ideas, I would suggest looking over their posts. Are they mostly eating at non-Taiwanese restaurants in Taiwan? If you are looking for a more Taiwanese experience, you'll probably need to read Chinese and or understand enough to search in Chinese as opposed to English. Does the blogger have similar tastes to you? If they have posts that include locations you've been to before, do you generally agree with them? These help narrow down your food search.

Miaokou is very recognizable in photos because of the lanterns and their signage in multiple languages. The stalls also have a number on them. Historically, there were a few fishermen and other vendors who would set up shop temporarily in front of the temple (hence the name that translates literally to "temple entrance"). From there, vendors would make deals with local shop keepers to set up in the eaves of their shops since Keelung has so much rain. Eventually, those stalls became permanent and now have their own names and numbers as a part of the building.

"Oil rice" / 油飯- sticky rice with mushrooms, pork, and small shrimp.

"Crab thick soup"/螃蟹羹 - similar to the way hot and sour soup is made but neither hot nor sour. It has mushrooms, day lilies, bamboo, and big pieces of crab leg meat.

Pictured at the top is the oily rice, the middle is the crab leg that is put in the soup, and the bottom is the soup. They keep it separated so the crab doesn't get soggy and fall apart.

Gets pretty busy. Which stall is the best? A few sell this combo and I have yet to try all of them.

Fresh steamed corn.

松山活海鮮

Songshan Seafood Restaurant is one of the sit down restaurants in the Miaokou Night Market. It was one of those places that we randomly popped into and found out that both Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern have stopped by, and thus, have both of their photos on the walls. In case you want to watch the episodes where they head over to Taipei (even though Keelung is not actually Taipei, it's about an hour drive by car or bus, and about the same by train):

Anthony Bourdain:

• The Layover: Season 2, Episode 5 

Andrew Zimmern:

• Bizarre Foods: Season 1, Episode 10
• Delicious Destinations:  Season 4, Episode 10

Fresh shrimp - sweet but slightly overcooked.

Razor clams - this was probably prepared the best as the clams were plump and juicy.

Bird’s Nest Fern with chilies, garlic, and dried anchovies

Carabineros Shrimp - served raw. This shrimp is huge and sweet. They are from the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. They also go by a few other names such as "scarlet shrimp," "cardinal prawns," and "crevette imperiale."

Grilled clams with a little sea salt

Steamed Wanli Crabs

Spiny lobster

Grilled local Keelung Oysters - bit overcooked. I'm used to the ones in Tainan that are sweeter and vendors taking it off the grill as soon as it pops open so it's still juicy.

This one came with a small crab.

Their fresh seafood display (you can see a picture of Bourdain on the top left of the banner)

Spiny lobsters

Swimmer crabs

Shrimp and crabs

Three spot swimmer crab aka blood spotted swimmer crab aka red-spotted swimmer crab

Spanner crab which I used to refer to as a "crobster" since it looks like a crab/lobster monster.

Don't forget the fish!

陳記泡泡冰

Shaved ice - they hand blend the flavor (fruit, chocolate, coffee, whatever you choose) with the shaved ice. It ends up being so creamy it's like ice cream. I always come here now when I go to the night market.

Chocolate

Pineapple

That's right, just another stall over is another shaved ice vendor. I haven't tried 41, just 37.

Watch out for scooters!

Of course, there are still many other stalls there that I need to try. This is by no means comprehensive!

Address:

Rensan Road

仁三路

仁愛區, 基隆市 200

Taiwan