12 food things to do in Taiwan

Many people come to Taiwan for the food — and the best of it is not in restaurants you book, but in the night markets, breakfast shops and street stalls that locals use every day.

Here are twelve food experiences worth planning your trip around. Each one links to the dishes and has a button that finds the place near wherever you are.

1. Eat your way through a night market

   Walk, point and share: Fried Chicken Cutlet (雞排), Oyster Omelette (蚵仔煎), Stinky Tofu (臭豆腐), Sausage with Sticky Rice (大腸包小腸) and a Bubble Milk Tea (珍珠奶茶) to carry. Shilin and Raohe in Taipei are the famous ones, but every town has its own, most of them open every evening.

   夜市

2. Start the day at a breakfast shop

   Taiwan eats breakfast out. Order Egg Pancake (蛋餅) or a Taiwanese Rice Ball (飯糰), and try Savoury Soy Milk Soup (鹹豆漿) — warm soy milk set into a savoury soup — with a stick of Fried Dough (油條) to dip. Traditional shops open around 6am and sell out by late morning.

   早餐店豆漿店

3. Order bubble tea the local way

   Bubble Milk Tea (珍珠奶茶) comes from Taiwan, and every stand asks two questions: how sweet and how cold. Try 半糖 (half sugar) with 少冰 (less ice), or skip the milk for Winter Melon Tea (冬瓜茶) or Four Seasons Spring Tea (四季春茶).

   飲料店

4. Take the stinky tofu challenge

   Stinky Tofu (臭豆腐) smells far stronger than it tastes. Start with the deep-fried kind, crisp outside and soft inside, with sweet-sour pickled cabbage. Follow the smell — it is never hard to find.

   臭豆腐

5. Have a bowl of beef noodle soup

   Beef Noodle Soup (牛肉麵) is the closest thing Taiwan has to a national dish: slow-braised beef shank, thick noodles and a deep broth, either red-braised with chilli bean paste or clear. Add a spoonful of pickled mustard greens from the table.

   牛肉麵

6. Watch soup dumplings being folded

   Many Soup Dumplings (小籠包) shops fold them behind a glass window. Put one on your spoon, bite a small hole, let the hot soup out, then eat it with ginger and black vinegar.

   小籠包

7. Eat Tainan’s beef soup at dawn

   In Tainan, breakfast is Tainan Beef Soup (牛肉湯): raw local beef cooked by a ladle of boiling broth, served before sunrise. Stay for the city’s other snacks — Savory Rice Pudding (碗粿), Stir-Fried Eel Yi Mein (鱔魚意麵), Coffin Bread (棺材板).

   牛肉湯

8. Eat a railway bento on the train

   Buy a Railway Bento (台鐵便當) at a station counter — rice, a braised pork chop and an egg, sold warm — and eat it as the countryside goes past. No train ticket needed to buy one.

   台鐵便當

9. Cool down with mango shaved ice

   From May to September, Mango Shaved Ice (芒果冰) is a mountain of shaved ice under fresh mango and condensed milk. One bowl is enough for two.

   芒果冰

10. Hot pot, and the winter pots

    Taiwan eats hot pot all year, usually a pot of your own for NT$250–400 with a help-yourself sauce bar. When it turns cold, locals go two ways: a tonic pot to build you up — Ginger Duck (薑母鴨) or Lamb Hot Pot (羊肉爐), simmered with ginger, rice wine and herbs — or a pot to warm up around with friends, like Stone Hot Pot (石頭火鍋) or a split Yin Yang Hot Pot (鴛鴦鍋).

    火鍋薑母鴨羊肉爐

11. Share stir-fry and beer at a 熱炒

    熱炒 restaurants are where Taiwanese friends go after work: loud, cheap and made for sharing. Order Three Cup Chicken (三杯雞), Hakka Stir-Fry (客家小炒) and Garlic Pork Slices (蒜泥白肉), and pull beers from the fridge yourself.

    熱炒

12. Eat late: braised snacks and popcorn chicken

    After 10pm, the stalls that matter are Braised Snacks (滷味), where you fill a basket with what you want, and Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken (鹹酥雞). Or do it the easy way: Taiwanese Oden (關東煮) and a Tea Egg (茶葉蛋) from any convenience store.

    滷味鹹酥雞

Pick the ones that sound good, and when you are in Taiwan, tap “Find near me” on any dish.

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