Taiwan’s Night Market Food Showdown: Innovative Bear Paw Buns vs. Classic Fried Chicken Cutlets

The online voting phase of the “Taiwan Top 10 Night Market Food PK Challenge” is divided into two stages. The first phase results were announced on June 27, featuring not only classic snacks like chicken cutlets, wheel cakes, and pepper buns, but also innovative foods based on the three principles of “new sensations,” “new trends,” and “new ways to eat.” Ultimately, 20 new entries—including deep-fried squid, bear paw buns, scallop skewers, and stir-fried noodle bread—made it to the finals.

The night markets participating in this event include Keelung Miaokou, Taipei Shilin Night Market, Huaxi Street Night Market, Ningxia Night Market, Taichung Fengjia Night Market, Chiayi Wenhua Road Night Market, Tainan Garden Night Market, Kaohsiung Liouhe Night Market, Fengshan Zhonghua Street Night Market, and Yilan Luodong Night Market. The 30 classic snacks include: big wrap with small wrap, spring rolls, braised pork rice, pan-fried pork buns, scallion pancakes, grilled sausages, stinky tofu, salt and pepper chicken, medicinal pork rib soup, chicken cutlets, rice cakes, oyster vermicelli, pig’s blood cake, grilled fish ball soup, grilled corn, pepper buns, rice flour balls, stuffed buns, stir-fried squid, grilled squid, coffin bread, oyster omelet, wheel cakes, diced rice noodles, braised snacks, egg cakes, eel noodles, sausage in a bun, tempura, and salted chicken.

Director Tsai Ming-ling of the Tourism Bureau hopes to elevate the quality of night market food.

Tsai Ming-ling stated that night market food is the easiest way to attract foreign tourists. For example, the famous danzai noodles also started out in night markets. She hopes that in the future, night market foods can be packaged and expanded into restaurants or eateries—not only becoming more refined but also elevating the status of street food.

The selected 20 innovative snacks will enter the second phase of the event, running from July 1 to July 31, where they will compete against the 30 classic night market foods in a PK challenge. The public is invited to vote online for their favorite night market dishes, encouraging tourism through the night market food voting campaign. Additionally, to encourage participation, the Tourism Bureau has prepared several great prizes. During the campaign period, those who vote online for their favorite night market foods will have the chance to win major prizes such as smartphones, tablets, and dash cams.