During the entire week I spent in Taipei, the only thing I could think about was eating delicious Taiwanese food. I seriously stuffed my face each and every day trying the abundance of food at restaurants, cafes, and night markets. Here’s some of the typical food you can encounter while in Taipei, Taiwan.
Introduction to Taipei, Hong Kong, and Tokyo
LAX Airport Korean Air KAL Skyteam Business Class Lounge
EVA Air LAX-TPE 777-300ER Economy Class
Taipei Garden Hotel Review
Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel Review Part 1
Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel Review Part 2
The Westin Taipei Hotel Review Part 1
The Westin Taipei Hotel Review Part 2
W Taipei Hotel Review Part 1
W Taipei Hotel Review Part 2
The Sights and Sounds of Ximending in Taipei
The Sights and Sounds of Taipei Main Station
The Sights and Sounds of Taipei 101
The Sights and Sounds of Shilin Night Market in Taipei
The Sights and Sounds of Shida Night Market in Taipei
The Sights and Sounds of Liaoning Night Market in Taipei
The Sights and Sounds of Tonghua Night Market in Taipei
The Various Eats in Taipei Taiwan
Taipei Airport Cathay Pacific First and Business Class Lounge
Cathay Pacific TPE-HKG A330-300 Business Class
TurboJet Ferry Hong Kong International Airport to Macau
The Westin Macau Resort Hotel Review
Scam City: Macau Edition
TurboJet Macau Outer Ferry Terminal to Kowloon Hong Kong
W Hong Kong Hotel Review Part 1
W Hong Kong Hotel Review Part 2
Le Meridien Cyberport Hong Kong Hotel Review
The Sights and Sounds of Kowloon Hong Kong
The Sights and Sounds of the Star Ferry in Hong Kong
The Sights and Sounds of Central Hong Kong
The Sights and Sounds of the Mid Levels in Hong Kong
The Sights and Sounds of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong
The Sights and Sounds of Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong
The Various Eats in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Airport Cathay Pacific The Wing First Class Lounge
Hong Kong Airport Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge
Hong Kong Airport Cathay Pacific The Cabin Lounge
Cathay Pacific HKG-NRT 747-400 First Class
Hilton Narita Airport Hotel Review
First Inn Kyobashi Tokyo Capsule Hotel Review
The Sights and Sounds of Shibuya in Tokyo Japan
The Sights and Sounds of Harajuku in Tokyo Japan
The Sights and Sounds of Shinjuku in Tokyo Japan
The Various Eats in Tokyo Japan
Narita Airport Main Building JAL First Class Lounge
Japan Airlines NRT-LAX 777-300ER First Class
Cafes and Snack Shops
I went into a local Taiwanese café and had a chicken sandwich with milk tea. This is a typical Taiwanese hole in the wall café where the menu was all written in Mandarin.
I went into a local bakery store which also sold dim sum by the piece which made it great for snacks on the go.
You can find Boba shops in almost every corner in Taipei and my favorite one is from Comebuy.
Fast Food Chain Restaurants
Even though I avoid unhealthy fast food restaurants in the states like a plague, they can actually be quite interesting overseas. I went into a KFC in Taipei where they sold Portuguese Egg Tarts and they were delicious.
McDonald’s is also quite interesting in Taipei because they had fried chicken and corn soup which you can’t get in the United States.
Taiwanese people go crazy for fried chicken and I just had to try it out at a local fast food chain. It wasn’t anything to write home about.
Restaurant Food
I had lunch one day at Ippudo which is a Japanese ramen restaurant chain. It was jammed packed and it was my first time at Ipuddo’s.
I ordered an appetizer, tofu soup, and pork ramen combo which were delicious. Even though this isn’t a Taiwanese specialty, the locals seem to love it.
At the Taipei 101 food court, I went to a restaurant which served Hainanese Chicken Rice. The combo came with rice, soup, and a side of vegetables. This was comfort food and reminded me of my trip to Singapore.
A friend took me to a local hole in the wall restaurant for dinner which was bustling with locals. The menu was written in Mandarin and thankfully my friend knew what to order. We had lu rou fan (minced pork rice), beef soup, soy sauce egg, and vegetables which was the best meal I had in Taipei.
For lunch one day, I went to a kilo restaurant which served healthy food where you pay by the weight.
The main reason why I came to Taipei in the first place was because of my friend’s wedding. We had a large multi course dinner the night before the wedding that consisted of salad, taro, pork, vegetables, xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), turkey, lobster, and gua bao (pork belly bun sandwiches).
Street Food
Street food is very common in Taipei as vendors can pretty much set up shop anywhere on the sidewalk. I had a delicious red bean cake from one of the street vendors for only 10TWD ~ $0.31 USD.
I also had noodles out of a bag and a pan fried pork bun.
You can also buy Iron eggs (hard boiled soy sauce eggs) from convenience stores.
Night Market Street Food
At the Ximending Night Market, I had the famous Flour-Rice Noodles at Ay-Chung.
At the Shilin Night Market, I had Lu Rou Fan (minced pork rice) and oyster omelette.
At the Shida Night Market, I had a pan fried pork bun and gua-bao (pork belly bun sandwich).
At the Liaoning Night Market, I had minced pork noodles and squid with pig’s blood cake.
At the Tonghua Night Market, I had fried squid, pig’s blood cake, candied tomatoes, and stinky tofu.
Interesting article. I like that you mentioned the price of the cake you bought. Any chance in the future of getting some general food prices in the future? If you give examples that show how reasonable the food in a certain place is, then I know I’d personally be more likely to consider visiting. Another factor is language, particularly if there’s an entirely different form of writing. There was a mention above of a menu being in Mandarin. How’d you work that out? For that matter, what languages do you speak?
what the hell do you mean by “written in mandarin”. there’s no such thing.