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In this video I've traveled all the way to the sovereign nation of Taiwan in an attempt to spend over $100 on street food Taiwan is a country famous for its markets But it's also famous for being really hot and that's why night markets are the thing here today as the Sun begins to set we've Come to Ningxia night market Ningxia night market is one of Taipei's most famous and popular night markets here We've got traditional Taiwanese food and snacks.
I'm talking oyster omelets I'm talking braised pork and various seafood options, but here's the thing This city is known for being moderately expensive But is it gonna be expensive enough to get me over a hundred dollars this money is burning a hole in my pocket and this Ulcer is burning a hole in my stomach.
Let's go eat Boom right behind me our first location.
They're serving a food called scallion rolls.
Let's take a look at the menu option number one it has There's a noodle I know that for sure I can use my app.
All right snap a pic Okay, here it shows it has cheese two times.
It has pickle and it has noodles.
Wow, that is a exciting eccentric combination I'm just gonna point and pick one.
Could I have that?
I've chosen the kimchi cheese because we're in Taiwan wait the people here like kimchi I assume they do if it's here She's got a giant bowl full of noodles and what I presume to be kimchi you can see on the bottom They have kind of a roti or a pancake then cheese and then they have the noodle kimchi mixture She gives it a little bit of a roll and then she Slices it up grab a plate throw it on top hit it with a little bit of sauce and that is ready to go Thank you All right, folks we have our first dish right here three dollars and seventy cents I would have to eat over 30 of these to spend over a hundred dollars That's never gonna happen.
Come take a look at this nice wheat pancake on the outside.
It's full of noodles It's really an unusual creation.
There's lots of scallions in there, too All right, it's full of those cheap cheese squares noodles kimchi.
Let's go Mm-hmm That's actually pretty good it's like a nice crunchy pancake on the outside it's savory you get little bites of kimchi Which are a little bit sour This is a carbohydrate bomb it kind of reminds me of when I was in Ethiopia eating street food What's Taiwan reminded you of Ethiopia?
Yeah in Ethiopia They basically had a big bread pancake and they filled it with spaghetti.
This is the same kind of carb on carb crime here The chili sauce, it's really bringing it all together.
I'm telling you.
This is Taiwanese junk food.
So good Even that dog right there would eat it In the end is this worth ordering?
Yes, but it's not that expensive So from here, I'm gonna go see if I can find some foods that are gonna get me to $100 We've come to our second spot right here It's a location that is specializing in quail eggs two varieties But both of them are fried and this one has cheese.
This looks good.
I have to try it.
Let's go see how it works So right here we have the stall owner and these are the quail eggs my gosh She is cracking literally hundreds of these quail eggs every single night right now She's taking the quail eggs and she's putting it over the heat and then she dumps them into these little Cupcake tins that are full of oil and you can see they're absolutely Bubbling up immediately as she puts them in there once they're done frying She takes them one by one and skewers all of them on this stick eight quail eggs per stick So that's the fried version, but they also have a cheese version.
I'm gonna order that now She breaks off eight of these quail eggs and she hits it with a little bit of cheese Put that in the broiler let it melt and we'll see you in about two minutes All right, folks our second food right here quail eggs that have been fried and then doused with cheese that has been melted all that One dollar and 85 cents for eight eggs.
How many eggs are you supposed to eat in a day two?
It's that for any type of egg What about ostrich eggs because I feel like even one ostrich egg a day it could be too much Cheers You Know when you get fried egg and the best part is that outer part of the egg That's a little bit brown mixed with the white part.
That's been really crispified the whole thing tastes like that But with gooey cheese on top, it's so good Someone call the Taiwanese police too much cheese being pulled over here That is delicious, but let's see if I can ruin what's already perfectly good right here We have soy sauce chili sauce curry sauce and wasabi sauce.
Look at that.
So even a sauce more like a paste I'm just gonna just get to painting over here.
I'm the Bob Ross of food over here I think this is gonna be enough wasabi to burn a hole in my skull here We have cheese We have quail eggs and we have far too much wasabi more than any person should really consume at any one time Cheers I'm okay.
Is it better?
No, but it's different And so if you're eating 35 of these tonight, eventually you're gonna want to switch it up.
This is food number two Let's keep moving For Our next food I've come behind the counter for all of this ten different types of creatures from land from sea from everywhere I don't even know how to categorize this as one type of food except for that.
It's all protein There's a couple of things that stand out and look very unique to me.
First of all, this is the man work in the stall Hello Boom empty Is that right I said Vietnamese empty And then skin skin, mmm, what's getting?
Oh cool.
Thank you.
So right here we have some pork kidney right door next to it We have snails and this looks absolutely fascinating to me It almost looks like it could be a snake skin, but it is not that is fish skin So next I'm gonna be ordering some snails and some fish skin.
This is a first for me in Taiwan.
Let's go All right, right here.
We've got the snails.
He's gonna put that into our plastic container.
Okay, that's a lot of snails Okay, good good.
And then he's gonna staple that shut so nobody can open it next I fear he's gonna put a dangerous amount of skin in here as well.
I should tell him to stop but I feel shy Okay, okay.
It's good.
Thank you He is refilling his stapler and then stapling the shut so I cannot eat it.
Good move I've got the final product right here.
I gotta say that's a lot of seafood.
This is gonna be expensive Alright folks we have our seafood feast right here First of all, a trove of snails and then this that is the skin of a fish We'll save this for last but all this together costs 400 in the local currency in USD.
That is 1235 Let's talk about the snails.
They're seasoned beautifully.
There's a thick sweet sauce on here.
You can see some of the chilies I didn't know that people in Taiwan a snail They've kind of plucked them all from the shell so we can just eat them straight away.
Even the poop sack is missing Very respectable Cheers It's half glaze half slime the snails themselves are delicious a little bit earthy and kind of crunchy They definitely have a texture to them.
This is the alpha snail of the bunch.
Let's go for it Pretty good.
Here's the thing with snails bigger is not better Always as they get bigger and they get much harder.
So that is a snail but right here we have the fish skin They saute it in different types of seasonings.
I'm also told Taiwanese people eat this when they get a sick burn So, you know if you've been badly burned eat some of this Oh god, it's so good.
Cheers Wow, if you eat pork skin that might be rich fatty and gelatinous, but this is like no actual fat It's just this squishy gelatinous II jiggly miss Who I feel like burns healing.
I gotta be honest I'm not sure how popular this food is here, but it is unique fun to try and medicinal That's the most important part when you're in this part of the world, especially East Asia food is not just food.
It's also medicine sick burn, bro Oh We come to our next location behind me right here something I found irresistible.
It is confusing.
Is it gonna be good?
I have no idea.
First of all fried bread good.
That's basically a donut and there's a lot of cucumber not good I'm gonna get it Anyways, I'm gonna get it how they usually prepare it and see how it goes What she does is she cuts it first and then she puts in some mayo so far so good.
Oh wait, what's happening?
She's filling it full of cucumber She put some sausage and then some egg and last of all she put some tomato What a wild assortment of ingredients wrap it all up and then I don't even know what just happened put some protection on it Put it in another bag for some reason and that is ready to go.
Thank you I'm telling you the people here move so fast.
It gives me PTSD There was no time to give special instructions on the sandwich.
You get what you get and you go Okay, I just saw something wild.
There's a whole pig here Not a whole roasted pig a live one my topple ganger right here.
Taiwan is wild You get to just have a pig this guy seems to be the owner He's got a delicious bag of food scraps right here What a well-behaved pig a lot of people out there do a lot of strange things in order to get attention They get weird tattoos.
They wear revealing clothing guys.
Get a pet pig.
Oh the pig loves him I'm literally gonna be eating pork sausage in about 20 seconds.
Sorry Sorry All right guys right here a sandwich done Taiwanese style the dough that's been fried So it is essentially a donut on the outside when you open it up You see just a wall of cucumber after that sausage made from what animal a pig that was two seconds ago There's a whole ass pig here.
Now if you're new to the show, I don't like cucumber.
It's my least favorite food in the world I'm gonna try it how they meant for me to try it and then I'm gonna remove the cucumber.
Let's give it a shot My god half a pound of mayonnaise in there I love that big fan the flavors are so overwhelming you hardly taste the cucumber at this point The cucumber is just offering a little bit of texture Wow, this is an assortment of ingredients that should not work.
It doesn't make any sense I guess the soy sauce egg feels Taiwanese and so does the fried bread and so does some pork sausage Do I like it?
Yes get it, but only if you can share it with or near a live pig Alright guys, we've come to our next location and this food is very special This is stinky tofu right here on each of these skewers You can see this tofu has already been fried But before it's fried it's made stinky and that's by almost fermenting it letting it rot with some delicious bacteria right now They're making what they call stinky tofu barbecue.
First.
You have the fried tofu right here Then it's slathered in barbecue Then she puts on cabbage once the cabbage is on she applies some Taiwanese barbecue Then when you order it, she puts on even more spices and there's coriander going on top, too But can this delicate coriander handle the intensity of the stinky tofu?
We're about to find out All right, folks, we have our meal right here.
It costs a dollar in 85 cents Well, I want to tell you why this food is very special to me You see first of all stinky tofu not for the faint of heart.
This is gonna be bold now.
I gotta say it I scared the shit out of me.
I know you think there's a drive-by happening right now No, there's just a balloon game for those of you who don't know what stinky tofu smells like I would say You know in the summer when you go to a dumpster and there's a bunch of liquid on the bottom, but it's not just liquid It's really hot liquid.
So it's kind of rancid too smells like that and people here love it.
Let's go for it Wow That was intense the stinky tofu it really stinks my whole mouth It's just like a rancid cesspool right now, but beyond that she put this chili pepper on there.
That's very spicy So, I don't know if it's more smelly or more spicy, but either way it's causing a lot of pain and confusion It's one of those foods that grows on you with each bite the fried texture of the tofu amazing It's like it's got a leathery crunchy coat on top of it.
The first time I saw Andrew Zimmern on television He was in Taiwan eating this food and he was talking about how potent and crazy the smell was it looks Sounds and smells a lot worse than it tastes now me and Andrew Zimmern will be joined together in holy matrimony Do they allow that in Taiwan?
They probably do so that is a stinky tofu.
Maybe not the most delicious, but definitely worth trying We have come to our next location right here a simple menu, this is what I like, I don't want too many options I want pictures this pictures looking nice to me right here So I see a big fat egg in the middle and I see shrimp soup with egg Is there anything else I need to know?
No, if you take a look right here, you can see these eggs are in some kind of a water or a broth Oh, these are not chicken eggs.
It turns out in fact that these are duck eggs.
This dish is much more interesting Let's order one and see how it works.
Boom Alright, it starts with a bowl full of celery then we come over here and we have some spiced cabbage right here The fat partially cooked duck egg that goes in next then we have our shrimp balls and a little bit of broth and that is Complete.
Thank you.
Alright folks meal number 12 18.
I've lost count I got three because I kept getting bad angles.
You guys ever accidentally have to get three more because your angles were bad Just me come take a look at this the broth looking a little bit watery.
Then we have this shrimp It's not really a shrimp ball as much as it is a shrimp covered with stuff and then that is a big beautiful Duck egg try a little bit of broth I Like it celery stock next take a look at these guys.
They look bouncy.
They look artificially orange.
I like it It's really hot that was a bad take let's do it again This is why you have to have three four sometimes I'll have seven dishes lined up just so I get the perfect bite.
All right, my very first time trying the shrimp Let's give it a shot Very bouncy and then it tastes like they've fried it or put some kind of breading on the outside That's not soggy at this point.
Oh right here.
Take a look at that.
That is no normal egg That came out of the butt of a duck.
It's a duck butt egg right here I've got the ultimate bite a little bit of shrimp a little bit of duck egg some of that cabbage and broth I love it.
There's something about the duck egg It's like a little bit bigger and the yolk is a little bit more creamy in Asia They embrace it and I think we should too folks.
This was delicious I'm not sure how much more I have in me, but we must keep going I Come here for another food right now.
We're in the back of the stall.
This is called guapa.
Oh, is that right?
All right, a local person said that was correct and not offensive.
Why is she holding a light?
Anyways, take a look at this right inside of here beautiful braised pork It looks so delicious soft and succulent that is gonna go inside of our guapa Okay, so right here you can see the bao buns inside.
They're steaming.
They look delicious They're in a giant steaming basket one guapa The first thing he does is put some peanut powder in there Then this is pickled mustard greens and then finally the succulent braised pork in those soft buns He's hiding it from me hit it with a little bit of cilantro and then we got some more peanut and that is complete Thank you.
This guy is a guapa machine All right, folks, we have our guapa right here.
Is that really how you say it?
Okay, I feel racist the more I say it but you got to embrace that feeling sometimes guys Sunny saying embrace racism moving on the food.
It's here.
It's all about that steamy bread inside the vegetables fine They're necessary for contrast.
But what we really care about right there is the braised pork You can see it's been soaked in dark color probably because of soy sauce You know because I am a fat American the only thing that's missing is mayonnaise is delicious The pork is tender and juicy the pickled mustard greens adds a little bit of sourness and a little bit of texture But man, it's all about those steamy buns.
So soft and they're almost like elastic like stretchy.
You could wrap anything in there Take a look at that.
That's just pure fat who needs mayonnaise when you have pure pork fat Plus a little bit of that crushed peanut is nice.
I taste it.
It's sweet, too There's some sugar in there as well.
This is Taiwan between a couple of buns and I love it All right, folks We've come to our final location because after this I cannot fit any more greasy food inside of me There's so many interesting chicken parts.
First of all chicken wings chicken drummies over here a whole pile of chicken hearts I mean, it's pure carnage.
Can you imagine all those hearts were pumping the blood of a whole chicken?
That's like 300 hearts right there wild after that right here We have classic Taiwanese fried chicken and then this right here is my favorite part and something you won't see at KFC This is any guesses everybody you're looking at it.
That is the ass of the chicken a part that's often unappreciated I have a feeling that our American asses are being exported out of the USA and to here where they actually appreciate a good ass Let's get some ass.
May I please have some ass?
He said no.
Okay, here we go right here He's gonna scoop the ass into a colander.
That is not nearly enough.
Oh, he hits it with a little bit of powder I've asked for even more ass.
He piles the ass.
He puts it on the scale.
He weighs the ass He hits it with a little bit of spicy powder.
Yes.
Oh, no.
I said spicy.
Yes.
He put even more powder He puts it in a popcorn bag.
And before I know it my life has flashed before my eyes.
Ooh unnecessary plastic That's for the ocean and that is for me.
Let's eat All right, folks, this is the final meal and I mean at this time he said it was a whole extended family So we got the hearts here here obviously asses and these are very petite asses.
Definitely Asian chickens Not an acceptable joke.
I am sorry.
I apologize.
Let's move forward now.
He piled on the super spicy seasoning.
Let's see how it is Cheers That's unbelievable, it's super salty, but it's also very sweet like it's been soaking in a syrup that's wild Good heart now a lot of people their intuition is led by their heart But for even more people their intuition is led by their ass.
It is surprisingly small I'm guessing there's no bones, but there's probably some like cartilage inside.
Let's give it a shot Cheers Wow Like pure fat it's crunchy on the outside It's super fatty like melting like a stick of chicken butter in my mouth There is a little bit of cartilage that exists inside some of the best I've ever put in my mouth But from here, we must add up all the foods We tried today and see if we broke our goal of spending $100 here in Taiwan at the night market Today I set out with the mission to spend over 100 US dollars on street food here in the sovereign nation of Taiwan Did I do it?
No, not even close.
I only spent $31 and 20 cents.
That's it I'm full but worse than that I have a sodium overdose and I'm thirsty The other thing that surprised me is I'm very impressed with the lack of morbid obesity in Taiwan.
Good job guys I don't know if it's because they're sweating it all out I don't know if it's because they have to walk around all night while they're eating this food But my gosh, this is some of the heaviest food I've had in a while, but folks here pretty slim Before we go I want to say a huge thank you to Ola Taipei Travel for helping to make this video possible Ola Taipei is offering custom private tours led by passionate locals like her Ola Taipei takes you beyond the typical tourist spots from cat cafes and antique shops to scenic hikes Experience Taiwan's culture and beauty in a unique way.
Plus they offer tours in English, Spanish, Chinese and even Catalan, right?
Their tours provide rich insights and unforgettable experiences.
Book your adventure at OlaTaipei.com And experience Taipei like a local.
Otherwise, that is it for this video guys.
Thank you so much for watching I will see you next time All right good, that's a wrap If you love Indian food, then you're gonna love our new channel Best Ever Food Indian Subscribe now for weekly videos showcasing the most unique street food from around the country You