Deciding what to eat in Taipei can be a happy challenge because there are simply too many options from which to choose. Taiwanese cuisine overlaps with multiple regional Chinese cuisines, Japanese cuisine, and American cuisine, yet remains very much its own entity. In Taipei, you’ll find everything from fiery hot pots bubbling with mala spices to incredible shaved ice.
While the city has a thriving fine dining scene, it’s still true that some of the best food in Taipei can be found in its street markets. Here, you’ll find oyster omelets fresh off the griddle and drizzled in sauce. You can follow your nose to the nearest chou doufu, or stinky tofu for a crispy, creamy treat that tastes better than it smells.
Here are just a few of the specialties to try in Taipei.
Gua Bao
Gua bao
This sandwich is often called a “Taiwanese hamburger,” although its resemblance to an American quarter-pounder is minimal. In lieu of a baked brioche bun, gua bao’s vessel is a white, pillowy steamed mantou. It’s loaded up with hefty slices of tender pork belly braised in a sweet soy mixture with rice wine. Crushed peanuts and cilantro at the end add crunch and freshness.
This dish, with Hokkien Chinese roots, got a sudden surge in global popularity in the early 21st century thanks to chef David Chang, who began serving them at his first Momofuku Noodle Bar. Branded simply as “pork buns,” the dish was an instant hit with American diners.
Stinky Tofu
Stinky tofu
One might say that chou doufu, or “stinky tofu,” has a branding problem. For starters, there’s the name, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence among the uninitiated. Then there’s the smell itself, which is certainly powerful, to say the least. Stroll down Shenkeng Old Street or any other markets in Taipei and you’re bound to catch a whiff of chou doufu deep-frying. You’re less likely to find it on indoor restaurant menus, for obvious reasons.
Don’t let your olfactory senses deter you from trying this most pungent of delicacies. In fact, in Taiwan, it’s generally believed that the stinkier the tofu, the better. That’s because artisanally made batches are allowed to age in the brine longer, growing more fragrant with time. Much like durian or ripe blue cheese, stinky tofu’s taste is milder than its aroma would lead you to believe. It has an exceptionally creamy texture and fries up to a lovely golden crisp.
The reason chou doufu is so stinky is because it’s allowed to ferment in a brine with amaranth, herbs, and sometimes dried shrimp. Fermentation changes the texture of tofu and gives it a wonderfully nuanced flavor. It also makes it better for you, with high levels of probiotics and B vitamins.
Xiao Long Bao
Xiao long bao
Even though the world’s most famous xiao long bao, or soup dumpling chain originated in Taipei, these dumplings were most likely invented in Jiangsu province in mainland China. These little parcels are something of a culinary sleight of hand. Break open the delicate, pleated wrapper and a richly seasoned broth bursts forth.
They’re made by making a highly concentrated, collagen-rich broth that solidifies into an aspic when solid. A cube of this jelly goes into each dumpling, along with the filling. Once steamed, the aspic liquifies.
Xiao long bao
There are differing opinions on the best way to eat xiao long bao without burning the roof of your mouth. A surefire method is to dip the dumpling in the soy-black vinegar sauce, then place it in your spoon. Make a small hole in the top and carefully sip most of the soup out, then eat the rest of the dumpling.
Taipei’s love affair with xiao long bao began in the 1970s when an immigrant from Shanxi province changed his cooking oil business into a dumpling restaurant. Nowadays, Din Tai Fung has 170 locations selling xiao long bao all over the globe. One branch in Hong Kong even picked up a Michelin star at one point. You can still visit the original location on Xinyi Road in Taipei, though, and it’s as good as ever.
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Beef Noodle Soup
Beef noodle soup
The origin story of beef noodle soup is closely intertwined with the 20th century history of Taiwan. When the United States began offloading its surplus wheat to Taiwan as a form of aid, locals in the predominantly rice-eating nation turned much of it into noodles. Around the same period, Chinese Muslim immigrants brought over a number of beef-based dishes. Finally, arrivals from Sichuan carried with them the fiery, fermented bean paste, called doubanjiang.
Combine all of those ingredients together and you have the hearty, supremely flavorful dish that is beef noodle soup—possibly the best food in Taipei for hungry travelers. Traditionally, the beef broth is incredibly rich and well-seasoned with warming spices. The noodles should be pleasantly toothsome and the beef shanks braised until ultra-tender. Pickled mustard greens help cut through the richness.
Fan Tuan
Fan tuan
Plenty of cities around the world have their de facto hand-held breakfast on the go. In New York City, it’s a BEC—bacon, egg, and cheese—from the nearest bodega. In San Francisco, it’s a Mission-style breakfast burrito. In Taipei, it’s a fan tuan, a highly convenient tube of sticky rice that comes wrapped in plastic for maximum portability.
As with other great breakfast sandwiches, this one can be customized almost endlessly. Pork floss and pickled mustard greens are classic, but you’re just as likely to see bacon and eggs. Similarly, white glutinous rice may be traditional, but newer places often like to switch that element up. Black or purple glutinous rice makes a particularly pretty variation.
Oyster Omelette
Oyster omelette
A Taiwanese oyster omelet bears no resemblance whatsoever to the wobbly, oblong French egg dish of the same name. Instead, this street food staple consists of briny bivalves bound up in a loose, eggy batter with sweet potato or cornstarch for stability. The whole mess is tossed on a griddle, where it crisps up gloriously.
Once finished, the dish has a slightly gooey, barely set interior and lacy edges. It gets doused in a sweet and sour sauce. It’s great at any time of day, particularly when paired with a cold beer to wash it down.
Lu Rou Fan
Lu rou fan
Lou rou fan is comfort food at its finest. In essence, the dish consists of pork belly slow-braised until tender with warming spices, soy sauce, vinegar, and other ingredients. It’s typically served with white rice, usually accompanied with a hard-boiled egg and pickled mustard greens. It’s both unpretentious and delicious fare.
There’s a great deal of variation between recipes for lou rou fan. Some cooks use ground pork, while others braise a large cut of pork belly. Others still treat it almost as more of an ingredient in other dishes. Because lou rou fan is inherently rich and flavorful, a little bit can go far. A spoonful or two is sometimes used to enrich a sauce for noodles or other dishes.
Boba
Boba
Boba, also known as pearl tea or bubble tea, is now very much a global phenomenon, but it started right here in Taiwan. This beverage starts with a base of black, green, or oolong tea, usually enriched with milk and sugar. The key element here is the boba, or large pearls of tapioca cooked with sugar until they morph into translucent orbs.
Boba is a prime example of the highly prized texture known as Q in Taiwan. Roughly translated as “chewy” or “bouncy,” Q—or QQ for emphasis—is somehow so much more than that. It’s all about how deeply satisfying biting into, say, a piece of mochi or glutinous rice ball is. It’s one of those phrases that has no real English equivalent.
If you want to understand QQ’s appeal, do yourself a favor and order a boba while walking around downtown Taipei. Shops here offer near infinite variations. Expect to see vivid purple boba tea with taro or flamboyantly green matcha. Red bean, pineapple, black sesame, and even winter melon are all popular flavors.
Scallion Pancakes
Scallion pancakes
Scallion pancakes, or cōng yóu bǐng, have to be one of the most texturally satisfying foods on the planet. Although these ultra-flaky breads are not unique to Taiwan, they are an extremely popular street snack here.
Making these breads is all about technique. To create those distinct layers, cooks roll out an unleavened wheat dough, then brush it with oil or lard and sprinkle it with scallions. The bread is then rolled into a coil and flattened again. Once the pancake is pan-fried, the fat causes the bread to separate into all those gorgeous individual layers.
Taiwanese XXL Fried Chicken
Taiwanese XXL fried chicken
The appeal of fried chicken seems to be more or less universal, judging by the number of cultures around the world that have embraced it. Whether it’s Japanese karaage, Thai gai tod, or Nashvillle hot chicken, it’s all delicious.
In Taiwan, there are actually two popular styles of fried chicken. Taiwanese popcorn chicken typically is made with bite-size pieces of chicken thigh with an extra-crunchy coating. Seasoning blends vary, but often include five-spice powder and white pepper.
If you stroll through any night market, however, chances are high that you’ll see Taiwan’s more dramatic manifestation of the genre. True to its name, XXL fried chicken—sometimes simply referred to as “big fried chicken cutlet”—is enormous. It owes its crispy exterior to sweet potato starch and sometimes comes accompanied by a sweet glaze.
Taiwanese Hot Dog
Taiwanese hot dog
A Taiwanese “hot dog” is, in fact, not a hot dog at all. For starters, the sausage in question packs a whole lot more flavor than the standard Oscar Meyer wiener. While the latter have a homogenous, pink interior, these have more textural variety. They’re also juicy and aggressively seasoned.
The “bun” in this case is not bread, but rather sticky rice molded into a tubular shape, enriched with lard, then steamed again to make a surprisingly sturdy vessel. The chewy, seasoned rice makes for the perfect foil for the sausage. Sliced radish or cucumber and cilantro rounds out this street food favorite.
Ice Cream Burrito
Ice cream burrito
Good luck walking by a street food vendor selling these without ordering one immediately. This frozen treat, which has its roots in Taiwan’s Yilan County and is possibly the best food in Taipei on a hot day, is irresistible. Picture a thin flour crepe loaded up with several scoops of ice cream. Any flavor will do, although ice cream made with taro or pineapple—both key ingredients here—is traditional.
Crushed peanuts or shaved peanut brittle are sprinkled all over, along with cilantro. While the often savory herb might initially seem curious in a dessert, the combination works beautifully. It all gets rolled up for what might be the ultimate ice cream sandwich.
The inspiration for this particular sweet is more likely a run bing, a type of crepe similar to Beijing’s famous jiānbǐng. Nevertheless, the unofficial nickname “burrito” has stuck.
Pineapple Cake
Pineapple cake
Taiwan is blessed with some of the sweetest pineapples in the whole world. In Taiwanese Hokkien dialect, “pineapple” sounds similar to “prosperity.” As a result, pineapples are thought to be auspicious. These tasty treats made with the fruit are popular gifts at weddings and other special occasions.
Pineapple cakes are believed to have been invented in Taichung around the 1920s by bakers looking to use up a glut of the tropical fruit. The term “cake” here is a bit of a misnomer, since these confections more closely resemble cookies.
Picture a rich shortbread-like cookie dough around a pineapple jam. Some bakeries cut their pineapple with winter melon, while others add dried fruits and other flavorings to the filling.
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Taipei
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