(Asian hip-hop music) - It's nighttime in Taipei, a city that really does stay open around the clock.

(soaring Asian music) (Jazz music) On Taipei streets, good times and delicious food are available 24/7.

In fact, a whole category of Taiwanese dishes is called Siu Yeh, or late night foods.

These quickly wok-fried snacks are some of Taiwan's most iconic street foods.

The best known night spots are not clubs or restaurants, but the night markets that dot Taiwan.

They light up when the sun goes down.

I meet Chef Chelsea Tsai, the founder of CookInn School at Ningxia, a market where Taipei locals go for a side dish of fun.

Before we dive into the market, Chelsea and I meet up at one of her favorite shaved ice spots.

I love how every culture has its own shaved ice tradition.

And my favorite is obviously the Taiwanese one, because you have so many healthy choices.

I feel like I'm having health food when I have shaved ice.

You have these green beans, mung beans, kidney beans.

- [Chelsea] Yeah.

- [Danielle] Peanuts, tarot.

Barley.

- Yeah.

- And pineapple, is that pineapple?

- Pineapple, pineapple.

- Yeah.

It's definitely much better for you than a milkshake, I think.

Why did you decide to focus on Taiwanese cuisine, instead of say French or Japanese?

- To me, I think it's more meaningful to teach Taiwanese cuisine because that's what I grew up with.

I can make it easy and good for people to cook at home.

Late night food in Taiwan, we call Siu Yeh.

So like usually in Taiwan, the dinner time, it's around 6:00 to 8:00, I think.

And so after 8:00 PM, it's more like late night snack, yeah.

So we have over 300 night markets in Taiwan.

- Over 300?

- Over 300.

In Taipei City, we have over 30 night markets in Taipei City.

So every neighborhood, basically, every neighborhood, has one night market.

(guitar music) (singers vocalizing) - Juicy, look at that.

- Wow.

- Amazing char.

- Ooh, it's so sweet.

(guitar and vocalizing continues) Takoyaki.

So, - Yes.

- it really has influences from- - From Japan.

- Japan and China.

And really everywhere.

- Yeah.

(more vocalizing) And we enjoy liver a lot.

The pork liver soup, and also the rice dumpling.

Have you tried pork liver?

- Mm-hmm.

- Yes?

Do you like it?

- Mmm.

- Oh, see- - Yes, very nourishing.

- That's the (speaks Chinese) ball!

- Ooh.

- That's a special way they made it.

You see, they are frying the sweet potato balls.

- Uh-huh.

- And later on, they will press on the sweet potatoes.

- Oh!

- And they will pop.

You see?

Ahh.

- Oh!

- [Chelsea] Yeah!

That's quite special.

- Wow.

- Then, so it will be like a donut.

It'll be like a donut, but getting bigger and bigger.

No, back in, it's developed very early.

Like, from Qin Dynasty, we already had some night market in the old temples.

But when the Chiang Kai-shek, and they came, the government, moved to Taiwan, after 1949.

At the first time they woked, they tried ban it.

Because the night market sometimes caused lots of issues about sanitation or like the traffic issue.

So they tried to ban it.

When his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, become the president, he tried to accept them.

- Huh.

- And tried to regulate them.

Okay, so they started to have some streets, some area that's okay for the night market.

And eventually, in 1987, around the year I was born, the government started to name some of the night market as a tourist night market.

- Oh.

(light guitar music) What I appreciate about the food culture here is there's always an emphasis on creativity and fun.

- Exactly.

You have to try the the duck head.

- The duck head?

I have not tried a duck head.

Wow.

- That's braised.

They deep braise it with a soy sauce.

And then, they deep fried it.

- Really?

I wanna see what it looks like.

- When you eat a duck head, you can taste the brain, taste the tongue.

- Oh.

- Even the- - The beak?

- Even the beak.

It's quite crispy.

- (laughs) Crispy.

- Yeah.

That's a little bit weird to think, right?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- But again, the emphasis on textures.

- Exactly.

(guitar music continues) - There's a lot of pork and chickens here, but not a lot of beef, traditionally.

- Yeah, because we don't have so many farms, we don't have enough space for the beef.

So for the cow.

So usually, pork and chicken are the main meats we have.

Find a table first.

- Okay.

Hi we are here to film.

- Thank you.

- This is a beef oxo.

- Oh.

- Oxo soup.

- Tell me about this dish.

- This is a pork knuckle.

They braised it with soy sauce, sugar, and usually with the fried shallot to have the base of the flavors.

And then, also, they spray it with the Fried.

- Ooh!

- So let's have some shacha.

This is, they slice beef.

- Mmm.

- And then, they coat it.

Actually, they coat it with some potato starch before they cook.

So it's not, it won't be too dry.

- The sauce is made from dried seafood.

- Yeah.

- So it really tastes of, like you said, of the sea.

- Yeah, from the sea- - And of the mountains, too.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- True, true, true.

And I love, I enjoy sitting here, eating, because I can see everyone walking through, embodying the vibe.

- Yeah.

- But I'm here.

I'm so, I'm so safe.

I feel safe and comfortable.

- Night markets feel like everyone's dining room.

- Yes.

And welcome to everyone.

Because it's quite affordable.

And it welcome you.

No matter who you are, it welcome you to woking.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - Quick and fresh, wok-fried dishes are the mainstay of late night dining.

In fact, Siu Yeh are so popular that there's an entire category of eateries, called rechao, or hot stir fries, characterized by giant woks, neon lights, and rowdy crowds.

Carrie Mahama's Chao, which translates simply into fry, offers rechao cooking with a twist.

- First of all, I'm vegan.

- Uh-huh.

- And at a time, maybe four years ago, three years ago, there are no vegan or any plantbased rechao in Taiwan.

So we create our first vegan restaurant in Taipei.

And I believe it can save a lot of animal.

And protect our environment.

Even better health for customer.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- What dishes do we have here?

This is, um, this is, I mean, does not look vegan.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Look at that!

This is a duck soup?

- Yeah, so it's made from soy protein.

- Soy protein, wow.

You guys really did a great job, in terms of imitating meat.

Look at all of these goodies in here!

This is a- - It's a vegan fish.

- Uh-huh.

- With tofu.

Yes, and it looks like fish filets here.

- Yeah.

- And right here, we have- - It's Shanghai fried rice.

- So this is made out of... - Pumpkin and potato.

- This looks exactly like walnut shrimp.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) - But it's not shrimp, I'm sure.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

So I see a bit of pineapple here.

It looks so real!

- Look like real.

(chuckles) - Yes!

(gentle music continues) - Yeah.

- It's incredible, it tastes like shrimp.

Last, but not least... - It's Kung Pao chicken.

- Kung Pao chicken.

- Yeah, it's soy protein, too.

- Mmm.

- Yeah.

(slow guitar music) When we just start our business, we always work in the kitchen until midnight.

And it, at this time, most restaurant were closed.

Only rechao still open.

So we opened at rechao.

But we could only eat fried rice, fried noodles, and vegetable.

It's okay, it was okay.

But I'm vegan, so when I ask fried rice without egg, they always give me an egg fried rice.

(chuckles) It's very sad!

- Yeah.

- Very sad for me.

- Mm-hmm.

- Because most Taiwanese people, they never heard "vegan," or this concept.

So one day, I looking at the menu, I'm thinking, "How great it would be if all dishes on the menu were vegan."

- Mm-hmm?

- And six months ago, I opened the Chao-Chao.

- All the food here looks like it's not vegan.

Right?

- Yeah.

- [Danielle] Like, the shrimp even tastes like real fresh shrimp.

- Yeah.

- I'm amazed.

Why do you wanna kind of like trick the eater?

- Sometimes, I still miss meat meals.

And I believe many people like meat.

So I want to create some meal taste like meat.

But never hurt any animal.

- What do you think distinguishes your restaurant?

- The plant-based is changing, and more and more people will turn to plant-based diet.

Industrial production of meat, eggs, and milk, they has caused many environmental or health problem.

Because people eat too much meat.

Animal-based ingredient will more and more expensive to maintain their quality and provision.

So I think the plant-based, this is why meat factories, they're all trying to create or produce plant-based meat.

And many restaurant, they try to create vegetarian meal.

I know before most vegetarians, they are vegetarians for religious reason.

But for now, many, many people, they go vegan or be a vegetarian, because of they love animal, want to protect environment, and some people want to become more healthier.

- I have a new appreciation for vegan and vegetarian cuisine because I always thought of it as salads or- - Yeah, I know.

(laughs) - Yeah!

You know, vegetables.

- Yeah.

- But this is amazing.

You don't lose any of the flavor or the texture of meat.

It's so satisfying.

- Sometimes people, they don't really care the meals contain really meat or not.

They just want to eat some delicious or healthy.

(plodding music) - What about, you know, meat eaters?

They want their steak, they want their chicken.

When they come in here, are they surprised?

- One vegan or vegetarian, they bring eight or nine or ten friends.

They are all meat eater.

And he or she didn't tell them, "Today we eat vegan restaurant."

And finish all the dishes.

They didn't, (chuckles) they didn't... - They didn't know, right?

- Yeah.

And we have vegan fish tanks.

- Oh.

That's a vegan fish tank?

- Yeah.

You know, many restaurant, they have fish tank, and you can choose which fish you want to eat today.

I'm very angry.

(both laughing) - Yes.

- So we have a fish tank, vegan fish tank.

And you will know you won't hurt any fish today.

- This is amazing, that you've created this for everyone.

- Thank you.

(plodding music concludes) (bright horn music) - For an entirely different late night experience, I head to one of the local shrimping halls, where I'll fish for my dinner.

At these only-in-Taiwan establishments, schools of shrimp swim in concrete pools whose water is intentionally clouded, so that the fishers can't cheat.

I grab a beer and a rod, and join self-proclaimed shrimp fishing expert, Michelle Chiang, a Taiwanese American radio host, for my first shrimping experience.

Hello, Michelle!

- Oh, this is gonna be so fun.

- I am so excited.

- This is the place.

Let's go get our rods.

Hi.

- Hi, (speaks Chinese).

- Hi, we█ve arrived.

- I mean... - Is this like dinner?

- I guess you could eat it, but it wouldn't be very good.

Just saying.

♪ Let's find a seat - Okay!

Michelle, where did you take me?

(laughs) What is this?

- It's a super, in my opinion, really local thing to do.

Shrimping.

(upbeat music) Like no expats know about this.

A lot of people who are even raised in Taiwan don't really do this.

But yeah, I mean- - How long has this been around?

- Forever.

These places, up and down this, I'm sure you noticed, there's a little river that runs by here.

- Yeah.

- So it uses the water from the river.

- Oh, really?

So who comes here like at 4:00 AM?

(both laugh) - Me.

- Yeah, okay.

- It's a different crowd, depending on what time you're here.

- I'm sure.

- Right, in the afternoon, it's like old retired folks.

And then, right after work, you'll see some families.

And then, after dinner, you'll see like a night crowd.

Then at, you know, 4 in the morning, there's the people, the post-party people, after clubs.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

- Come here to kinda wind down.

- Okay.

- So the first step you do is you unhook these two little, tiny hooks from the bottom.

And then, you unwind the line.

I'm gonna dip the end of the rod until it touches the bottom of the pool.

- Yeah?

- And move the rubber band to where that depth is.

- Okay.

- Oh perfect, actually.

- There we go.

- Did it touch bottom?

- Yes!

- Okay, so it's actually- - Looks like I'm an expert, too.

- Mmm, that's right.

You're about one centimeter too high.

- Oh, okay.

- So we'll scooch that a little.

So this is a floater.

And its job is to float in the water.

And if it gets pulled down, it means that you have a bite.

So you want this at just the right level to alert you.

You want your hooks, one that's a little bit higher than the bottom of the pole; one, a little bit lower.

- So you've been doing this (laughs) since you were how old?

- 14.

- 14?

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah, when I was in high school, this is like a, I guess, a cool thing to do.

(laughs) - Really?

- This bait is, we have these.

They're basically krill, what whales eat.

- Uh-huh?

- Pop the hook into its back, and kind of thread it.

You just drop it in anywhere.

- Huh.

Here we go.

- If something's eating it, you'll see the floater bob.

Going to set the hook with a jerk, and then pull him up.

- (gasps) Amazing!

(laughs) - Oop.

Yeah, you were eating it pretty good, buddy.

Okay.

- So like how much do you catch, generally?

- My record is 24 in 2 hours.

- That's amazing!

- And you saw the size of 'em, you can't eat them.

- No.

- That's too much food.

- Yeah.

- So I took 'em home, and I froze 'em for later.

- Is this like a unique Taiwanese pastime?

- Yes.

I have not found this anywhere else.

So this is where we get a beer.

- Uh, okay.

- Yep.

And then, we sit here and we drink and talk.

- [Danielle] Yeah.

You want a beer?

Let's get a beer!

- Maybe.

- So, Michelle, you're a radio host?

- I am.

I am a program host at Radio Taiwan International.

- What do you talk about on your show?

- Oh, my program is called "Geek Out."

I have two, one is a music show.

But the one that's fun, more fun, (laughs) I guess.

"Geek Out" is about, you know, I bring in a guest, and we geek out about anything that you love, or love to hate.

- Mm-hmm.

- So.

Yeah, well, I've had guests talking about everything from scuba diving through to, we just had a pole dance, uh, almost instructor, talking about, you know, the pole dance as sport.

- Oh!

(gasps) (laughs) - Oh my god.

What the... - There you go!

- Yeah, so you slip off the claws?

- I will help you with this part.

I gotcha.

- Both of them?

- Mm-hmm.

Twist.

(chuckles) Pinch and twist.

I know, it's kind of sad.

- Yay!

(chuckles) I'm so happy!

Thank you.

- Yes.

Congratulations.

- More bait, please.

- Oh, bait.

Hating.

- (gasps) Ah!

- Oop.

- Oh, ah!

(laughs) - Where are the claws?

- This one, it didn't have any.

Maybe he lost them in a fight.

- Uh!

- Mm-hmm.

- Feisty little guy.

- Feisty.

- And beautiful.

- Mm-hmm.

- Though you can cook your own shrimp, we order ours from the in-house restaurant, along with some favorite Siu Yeh dishes.

Michelle, what a feast.

- Well, we have your actual shrimp.

These are actually smaller than the ones that are in the tanks.

So yeah, do it!

- Thank you.

- Yes.

This is like omelet stir fried egg with more shrimp.

- Shrimp?

- More shrimp.

- Have to celebrate the shrimp here.

Look at this, wow.

- Yes.

- Mmm.

Sweet potato green right?

♪ Sweet potato greens - What they call popcorn chicken, but it's salt and pepper chicken, hu jiao yan.

It means pepper, salt chicken.

- Mm-hmm.

- Usually, you'll see this at the, um, night market.

So we have your chow mein, basically.

It's stir fried noodles.

- It's like eating- You gotta yolo, you gotta enjoy life.

- Oh yeah.

- Food is a big part of it.

(upbeat music concludes) (slow saxophone music) - Just past midnight in Keelung, home to Taiwan's largest seafood market, I walk down a dark alley straight out of a movie set in search of one of Taipei's most picturesque bars.

Around the corner from a Qin Dynasty temple to Mazu, the goddess of the sea, I find "Bad Mama."

This scarlet-colored dive bar is about as local as you can get.

The bar itself is made out of scavenged materials from the Keelung port.

And the menu is dominated by the freshest, most local seafood, sourced practically on their doorstep.

Here, a pair of artists, the Keelung native, Gemma Lin, and her partner, Adam Hunt, use their bar as an empty canvas.

- Get to- - This place is so wild, and crazy, and personal.

(chuckles) Why do you think it's so successful?

I mean, it's one of the hottest bars in Taiwan.

- For me, "Bad Mama," it's food, drink, music, and art.

All these happen together, including the service.

If one of them fail, this place, it will fail.

And then, we make sure it's very good music, and very good art, and very good lighting.

And somehow, somewhere, the customer, eventually, it will touch their heart.

I don't like the main street, I like the customer come upon us, informally front us, and open door, and saying, "Wow, where am I?"

- The discovery.

- Yeah.

This is my parent.

(chuckles) - (gasps) Can I see that?

They're both from Taiwan?

- Yeah, yeah.

- How do people find you?

- Well, we've got the little spinning light up the corridor.

And you know, we like to say, "We're just behind the big 17th century temple to the great goddess, Mazu, who was the original bad mama."

I mean, she was bad.

- Oh.

- She's the patron saint of seafarers everywhere.

And she had these two demons fall in love with her.

And she said that she would marry the one who could defeat her in combat.

But she was a kung-fu mistress, and she kicked both their asses.

- Really?

- And so she remained single all her life.

Now that's girl power.

- I actually come from the countryside.

I come from Yehliu, it's the little sea village about 30 minutes from Keelung.

But my school was in Keelung.

And original, we wanted to open something in Taipei.

But my school friend, they all know I return back.

So they all can try to ask me and say, "Hey you gotta do something in Keelung.

Keelung doesn't have something like you guys that is cool."

So after that, we chat, and we think "Okay."

- I was living in Bondi, and I saw this Asian restaurant.

And I went upstairs.

It had a beautiful outdoor balcony overlooking Bondi Beach.

And the restaurant was owned by Gemma.

- So love brought you to Taiwan.

- Love brought me to Taiwan.

(guitar music) This building was, it's well over a hundred years old, and it was completely derelict.

Like we, nothing had been in here for a long time.

So we completely gutted the place.

We had to rewire it, we had to re-plumb it.

And then, we just started building from whatever we found.

I literally spent months walking the coast.

Fishing boat wood, you know, everything.

Everything here is scavenged.

We are great scavengers.

- There's a sauce in here.

- Ooh!

Mmm.

Good.

I love fried fish, and this is delicious.

- We also hand-make all our sauce.

- Yeah, I'm double-dipping.

- So our sauce is not, really like, you taste like a normal taste of mayonnaise.

It's a (indistinct).

It's not- - Mm-hmm.

- We actually then making our sauce.

- But your place is really kind of like an Izakaya, it's more Japanese influence.

- Yeah, yeah.

Izakaya, but more European style food.

(upbeat music) - There's so much to look at all around here.

This bar looks like a shipwreck.

- We're very tactile.

Like, everything you touch, texture.

You know, like we love our textures, we love indulging the senses: what you see, what you smell, what you hear.

- So what do people drink when they're in a shipwreck?

- Everything, and lots of it.

(both laughing) Oh look, we're a cocktail bar.

We've got some beautiful barrel-aged cocktails here, in American oak-charred barrels.

We've got a Negroni, we've got an old-fashioned, we've got a revolver.

Well, we were lucky enough to get named amongst the world's top 10 bars in 2023 by the, uh, lemme get my accent right, (crusty accent) the Society of British and International Designers.

- How fancy!

- So, we're very happy about that.

We've got a pretty good online presence.

And you just type in "cool bar," and we come up pretty much at the top.

And so anybody who's visiting town and wants to know where a cool bar is, they tend to find their way.

It is a journey.

But you know, happiness is the destination, I guess, in this case.

- Yeah.

- So people find their way here, and they have a great time.

So we often have people who come in here and have a few drinks, and then, they go out and buy their fresh seafood for the next day.

(gentle string music) The fish markets are well over 150 years old.

I think they were started, uh, the Japanese.

In the Japanese era, they became very big and popular.

And they've been going ever since.

I think it's probably one of the oldest and most historic fish markets in all of Taiwan.

It's quite surreal.

You just walk down this laneway, and you are confronted by this incredible array of treasures from the ocean.

(gentle string music) You've gotta have great food as your starting point.

I mean, if you don't have great food, I don't know why you open your doors.

So you start with great food, and then, you try and create a place that's cool to hang out.

A place that you wanna spend a few hours.

- This is the perfect personification of Keelung, because it's very eccentric, and it's welcoming, and it just feels like a treasure hunt.

This is (inaudible).

- Okay!

- Okay, well, we'll take all of them.

(laughs) (gentle music fades) (upbeat musical flourish)