Southern China Night Market: Street Food and Snacks After Dark
Video transcript
Hello friends, I’m DaWen. Today, let’s eat our way through a night market in southern China. It’s now 6:30 PM. After a busy day, people come to the night market looking for delicious late-night food. Vendor: Each filling is 1 yuan, beef filling is 2 yuan. This vendor sells Stuffed Pancake Cakes. The main ingredients are eggs, flour, brown sugar, and water. Customers can freely mix and match all kinds of fillings. Savory-sweet pork floss is one of the most common fillings in Chinese bakeries. Making these pancake cakes is actually very simple. The
key is to keep them from sticking or burning. These are jam and crushed Oreo cookies. This is a delicious snack, and many people even eat it as dinner. China is a country with a huge vegetarian food culture. Most Chinese people prefer tangy seasoned vegetables rather than Western-style salads. These sour and refreshing vegetables help stimulate the appetite in hot weather. Potatoes are a beloved everyday ingredient all across China. At the night market, grilled potatoes with your favorite seasonings make a simple and filling dinner. Pan-fried potatoes
mixed with spices and vinegar can still feel very satisfying, even though they’re completely vegetarian. This vendor sells Crispy Fried Tofu. Plain white tofu is fried until golden outside, crispy outside and tender inside. Drizzle on some sweet and sour sauce. Drizzle on some ketchup. Then add pickled long beans and scallions. This is another rich and delicious vegetarian dinner. Stir-fried river snails are a classic late-night drinking snack in China. If morning markets belong to middle-aged and elderly people, then night markets are truly a food
paradise for young people. Of course, no night market is complete without grilled meat. The aroma of this stall’s honey-glazed grilled ribs attracts everyone passing by. In terms of regional flavors, northern Chinese barbecue is usually salty and spicy, while southern barbecue tends to be sweeter and more aromatic. These are Bacon Avocados. This vendor is using Bacon Avocados to make smoothies. The Bacon Avocado was developed in California in the 1950s. Even when ripe, Bacon Avocados don’t turn black on the outside, so it’s hard to judge their
ripeness. Vendor: This one is ripe. It feels softer. I’ve never tried a Bacon Avocado before, so I decided to give it a taste. Because Bacon Avocados are hard to judge for ripeness, with thin skin and soft flesh that bruises easily and doesn’t transport well, they are not commonly seen in markets. Vendor: This avocado is excellent. The flesh is neither too soft nor too firm, and the color is perfect. Super juicy, creamy, full of aroma, absolutely amazing! I think Bacon Avocados taste even better than Hass Avocados! This stall sells pan-fried pork
belly wrapped with vegetables. This snack started becoming popular in Chinese night markets after 2020. It combines meat and vegetables, and the vegetables balance out the richness of the pork belly. Night market food is diverse, affordable, and convenient, which is also why many people don’t cook dinner at home. This stall sells Street Steaks. As the name suggests, street steaks are all about being cheap and good value, without any fancy dining environment. Loudspeaker: Original-cut steak, served with egg and pasta, nutritious, delicious, and
affordable... A steak meal this size would usually cost 68 yuan (10 USD) in a shopping mall restaurant, but at the night market, it only costs 28 yuan (4.0 USD). This stall sells steamed scallops with vermicelli. This is a classic dish from southern coastal China. Drizzle on some soy sauce. This is another kind of scallop. The vermicelli is topped with minced garlic. Just steam them for 15 minutes. The aroma of scallops mixed with garlic fills the air, instantly making you hungry. The price of steamed scallops with vermicelli should be 3 yuan (0.4 USD)
each. When visiting a night market in the hot summer, cold and sweet ice cream is a must. The green one is matcha-flavored ice cream. With red beans, cream, tapioca pearls, and crushed waffle cone pieces, it’s so satisfying. The yellow one is mango-flavored ice cream. Besides food, the night market also has all kinds of pet stalls. In China, young women especially enjoy keeping pets. Vendor: This puppy is very pretty, 400 yuan (60 USD). Due to limited time and energy, as well as community restrictions, only about 20% of households in China currently
keep pets. Rabbits are pets that Chinese children really love. This stall sells beef stuffed pancakes. This is semi-fermented dough, which becomes crispy after pan-frying. After eating one beef pancake like this, your stomach feels satisfied right away. There are all kinds of dough-based snacks at the night market. Sweet and savory Scallion Pancakes are especially popular. Many people choose one scallion pancake with a cup of soy milk for dinner. Soy milk is commonly seen at breakfast and late-night snack stalls. Currently, China’s milk consumption is
about six times that of soy milk. This stall sells brown sugar shaved ice tofu pudding. If the summer heat kills your appetite, a bowl of cold, sweet tofu pudding feels incredibly refreshing. Grilled chicken wings are one of the most popular snacks in Chinese night markets. Chicken legs are thick and hard to cook through, while chicken breast gets too dry, so neither is ideal for barbecue. Also, Chinese people tend to prefer meat with bones, because gnawing meat off the bone brings a special kind of satisfaction. These grilled wings look pretty good!
Savory with a hint of sweetness, and the meat is very tender. The skin isn’t crispy enough, but the meat inside is juicy, so overall it’s still pretty good. There are quite a few stalls selling rice noodle rolls in this southern night market. This snack has many different fillings and is super affordable, so it’s also a dinner choice for many people. The fillings include minced meat, long beans, sour bamboo shoots, mushrooms, carrots, corn, and pickled vegetables. Customers can freely add wampee sauce, garlic sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, and chili
sauce. This stall sells fried rice. The aroma is amazing! Customers can freely choose different vegetables for their fried rice. Because street fried rice is cooked over stronger heat, it is usually more fragrant than homemade fried rice. This fried rice has both great color and aroma. It’s simply perfect! This stall sells cold potato noodles. Potatoes paired with both wide and thin noodles bring the fullness of three kinds of carbs to the max. Fried insect stalls in southern night markets always make people both curious and nervous. But for many
locals, this is just a very ordinary snack. I’ve always been curious about the texture and flavor of these snacks. Honestly, I struggled for a long time over whether to try them or not. Me: I’ll take one scorpion and one centipede. These unusual snacks are unbelievably expensive! Honestly, I’m not personally afraid of how scorpions look, but I do find centipedes really scary. Please allow me to hesitate for a moment before taking a bite. 3, 2, 1, eat! The texture is like chewing shrimp shells, with a burnt insect smell! I almost held my breath
while eating it. It really doesn’t taste good! Its appearance once again makes me hesitate before taking a bite! There’s no meat, it’s like chewing crab shells, with a strong burnt insect flavor too! I think they are purely novelty snacks! I probably won’t eat them again! Now I need to eat an avocado to recover 😂 Let’s continue with something more appetizing — oyster omelet. The ingredients and cooking process for this snack are very simple. Just looking at this color is enough to make you hungry! This stall is running a ball toss game
where you knock down bottles to win cash prizes. Can you understand the game rules written on the ground? Southern Chinese night markets at night are always full of lively local atmosphere and energy. Thank you for walking with me through the crowds and food stalls. I look forward to experiencing more real everyday life in China with you next time.
