There's nothing I am more jealous of than the night markets you see around the world. I'm sure there are downsides to them, and what I see on various travel shows are mainly the upside, but man the idea of being able to step out at 1 or 2 in the morning and get a beer and some tasty food seems pretty awesome.
They are a bit unregulated, and people warned me not to eat there too often. For example, I was told that people have died of rat poison after eating rat meat (for rats apparently captured from the street). Another issue is that the vendors would sometimes reuse their cooking oil (so-called "gutter oil"). That said, I got the impression that it was OK to indulge on the occasion, and it is true that the atmosphere is really great.
Ironically, these night markets are disappearing a bit as prosperity goes up. For example, in Shenzhen, a lot more roads were built to accommodate the huge increase in the number of automobiles, and it seems that many of these markets have succumbed to the concrete jungle.
