Not Quite Adventurous Enough to Sample Taiwan Street Foods

Days 90-91, 2026 Grand World Voyage

Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5, 2026; Kaohsiung and Keelung/Taipei, Taiwan.

Who cares that I wore formal evening attire to a casual Italian restaurant in Taiwan? I didn’t even get any weird stares.

Elaine hadn’t returned yet from her all-day tour to Taipei so I was on my own for the formal dinner. When casually dressed friends at early evening cocktails invited me to join them for dinner out instead, I quickly agreed, despite my silky pink top, mid-calf black skirt and sparkly wedge sandals. We ended up at an Italian restaurant near the ship that had an open table for six and menu choices both for the carnivores and vegans among us. Plus a selection of about 200 beers.

We wondered why one of our relatively few formal nights was scheduled on a day that we were in port until midnight. The answer was that it was Easter, and traditionally that is one of the formal nights on the grand cruises. So formal it was, even though many people weren’t back from tours or were out for dinner on the town.

The port of Keelung was our second stop in Taiwan, a new country for many on the ship but the scene of one of my favorite previous cruise memories. In 2018, I joined a small group for a cooking class at Din Tai Fung in Taipei, home of the now-famous xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings. Knowing I would be back in Taiwan this year, I searched in vain for a repeat class.

Rather than return to Taipei, I explored Keelung after our late morning arrival. My main objective was to check out the Miaokou Night Market just a few blocks from the cruise terminal.

While Asian markets typically come alive at night, many also operate throughout the day. Here in Keelung the core of the market fills a closed street, with rows of small carts lining the middle and down the sides – just allowing enough room for crowds to squeeze through. Busy storefronts are behind the sidewalks.

Easter isn’t much of a holiday in Taiwan, where fewer than 10 percent of the population are Christians, but this long weekend included both Children’s Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day. And any time is a good time to pamper dogs, it seems.

Whatever the reason, the market seemed packed in midafternoon, but I saw parades of vendors pushing more and more carts out of narrow alleyways to the surrounding streets in preparation for the night.

My goal was to check out the market to decide whether I wanted to return by myself at night. I decided I would have felt safe, but otherwise overwhelmed at the choices of strange-to-me foods and the prospect of eating them while standing in a crowd. Already long lines snaked up to the more popular choices. I decided that my daytime immersion in the market was enough. So ultimately I went to the Italian dinner with friends.

The previous day I visited a similar but less crowded market along Cijin Old Street in Kaohsiung on Taiwan’s south coast.

I didn’t have any local currency, so I stuck with taking photographs. Even with currency I would have passed on some of the “delicacies.” (Even though I did eat ants earlier on this cruise.) And why not take your pet duck with you to the market, probably while waiting for a parent?

Cijin was part of a half-day ship’s tour in the new-to-me port of Kaohsiung. Modern buildings line its streets and piers.

While rain was in the forecast, it held off for most of the tour, including at Lotus Pond, our first stop. It’s an artificial lake lined with colorful temples. I rushed ahead to have time to sketch while the group stopped at the restrooms.

The nearby Dragon and Tiger Pagodas proved a challenge, as like everything here they are ornate and detailed. I finished a rough pencil sketch, but didn’t have time to tour the pagodas. If I had, I would of course have entered through the dragon’s mouth and exited through the tiger’s mouth, which is believed to be auspicious.

The problem with tours is they usually move too quickly. We made a brief stop to see the Great Harbor Bridge, a horizontally rotating footbridge allowing luxury yachts to enter the harbor.

I could have spent the day at the nearby Pier-2 Art Center, where shops, cafes, artist studios, music venues and bars fill old warehouses. I couldn’t resist one picture while rushing to catch up with my tour group.