Welcome to our Taiwan Travel Series! If you’re looking for a new adventure or a fun place to visit, check out our 7-day itinerary; myths about Taiwan; what Christmas is like in Taipei; a couple of sunset views; our hot spring experience in Beitou; and some fun in Jui Fen. Enjoy!
Not too long ago, there was an article about the food capitals of North America. Our hometown Los Angeles failed to make the list. However, we completely disagree. As extensive travelers, we’ve eaten our way from Los Angeles to New York and everything in between and we can say this with a staunch decisiveness: Los Angeles is the food capital of North America. There is no other place that you can get authentic –well, any– cuisine all within a 40 mile radius. NYC or SF may offer some authenticity. However, many are old, tiresome and lack innovation when it comes to modernizing their cuisine. What can we say, LA has it all and we love our city.
So, I guess that calls into question who takes the crown for the food capital of the world. We’re not biased or anything, but we think it should be Taipei. This city literally has everything. Burgers on a rice bun? They got it. Food on a stick. They got it. French food. They got it. Italian, American, fast or slow food and everything in between. They have it. Take a look at Part 1 of why we think Taipei is the ultimate dining experience!
Shaved Snow, Anyway You Want It
Delicately-shaved deliciousness. All the flavors!The first time I tried shaved snow was at Class 302 in Rowland Heights, California. For the longest time, that little restaurant shaped like a classroom (complete with desks for tables and a ruler-swiveling palm-slapping old school teacher!) was the only place my husband could get shaved snow (not the widely available shaved ice) that reminded him of his childhood. This scrumptious dessert is frozen milk delicately shaved into layers. It’s topped with condensed milk, and pretty much any sweet thing you can think of; like: strawberries, taro, lychee, mango, sprinkles or chocolate. It’s so refreshing and great for a sit-down snack on a warm day…or a cold day.
The first time we went to Taipei, we shared a gigantic shaved snow. The second time, I got my own…and I ate the whole thing. I highly recommend you do the same.
The Poster Child for Street Food: Shilin Night Market
Shilin: Can’t miss it with those neon lights.A night market is a grouped set of food stalls selling easily-portable food. They become lively in the evening and carry on for a majority of the night. It’s a place to get dinner, snacks, desserts and a few drinks. The poster child for night markets is Shilin. The place is huge! It even sells clothes, accessories and some electronics. It’s like a farmer’s market meets a swap meet meets a fair, but things are cheap. And pretty much anything goes at the night market. Like this penis waffle:
This penis waffle is good enough to eat.Deep in the middle of Shilin Market is a smell like none other. It permeates the air so deeply that people (like myself) either hold their noses or sniff their way to the source. It’s a foul smell; a smell similar to maybe rotted yogurt or maybe a pile of something really old. Of course, by my description, it would seem like perhaps it was yesterday’s trash.
It’s not.
It’s stinky tofu and the name for this dish is perfect. This pungent dish is tofu that has been left to ferment for a while. It has no mold and it’s perfectly safe and delicious, just very stinky. The tofu is served in a little bit of hot sauce and garnished with kimchi-like cabbage. It’s the quintessential Taiwanese street food.
Stinky tofu. It’s stinkaliciousLoaded Potatoes
Loaded. Potato. ‘Nuf said.We all know that food on a stick is the best kind of food. These portable loaded potatoes may not be on a stick, but they were no different. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have here in this little plastic tray: a ginormous baked russet potato–which you can’t see because of all the cheese sauce–Canadian bacon, golden corn, flecks of parsley, more bacon, and honest-to-blog I can’t remember what else because I wolfed it down in about three minutes.
The Adonis of Fried Chicken: Hot Star
Go back for seconds! And thirds! And fourths! We won’t judge.Having spent most of my life in ‘Murica, I consider myself somewhat of a conneisur of all things fried. I spent a majority of the summers in my childhood at the county fair and dined on things like fried twinkies, fried fries, fried chicken and even deep-fried deep-fried batter. Luckily, I managed to evade the Beetus, but my love for fried food never really fizzled out. That’s why we love Hot Star’s fried chicken so much.
There’s nothing particularly special about this place. I will never know what the heck a “Hot Star” is. The blue sign stands out like a square neon slap in the face to the night sky. But dat line, tho. The line for a hunked-up piece of chicken heaven was wrapped up and over and loopty-loo. The good news is that the line travels fast and the chicken is only about $2.00 USD (subject to change according to…like we really paid attention in economics class).
So, what’s the secret to this Hot little Star? We’re thinking the chicken is marinaded in five-spiced powders and other juices for probably a good long time. It’s a softened, flattened, large piece of chicken breast and it’s fried in those same five-spiced powders once and then once more when it’s ready to be served. The fried chicken was so good that we went back–not once–not twice–but about four times…in the same night.
More Portable Foods
You can never go wrong with corn.
You can never go wrong with foods on a stick such as grilled corn on the cob. It’s coal-barbecued in teriyaki sauce with a little bit of chili pepper and it is so delicious. But… save some room for the traditional cast iron rotary oven-baked sesame bun with pork. It is cooked vertically on the wall inside a cylindrical style oven that’s actually a barbecue. It’s smoked for a little bit and then served fresh and warm. We carried ours around and simultaneously double-fisted the corn above and some milk tea. Gluttony is the way we roll.
Buns. Everybody needs ’em. Everybody loves ’em.
Shilin isn’t the only place to get food on a stick. At the train station outside of Rui Fang, there’s these little chicken rolls. They look minuscule and even something that wouldn’t catch your eye. But, I swear we had to wait in a line with at least 15 people in front of us and everybody was ordering about a dozen. I think the secret is once again in the marinade and the fact that it is so affordable, you can’t help but buy a dozen….so we did.
Chicken on a stick.The Taiwanese Breakfast Burrito
This delicious little rice burrito.For breakfast, we visited the same little street food place in the Ximending district. We ordered fun twun, which is grilled pork and egg wrapped in glutinous rice like a burrito. For the longest time, I would hear Frank bemoan the state of pork in America. “It just tastes so bland,” he would say. I’d yadda yadda that as I finished off a plate full of pork chops and bacon. Well, folks, it’s true, there is something different about the pork in Taiwan. There’s a whole range of flavors that really set off our Taiwanese breakfast burrito. We coupled it with fresh cold soy milk and it really made our morning.
Milk: It’s Not Just From Cows
Where was this milk for my lucky charmed-filled youth? Ya know what I got? Juice…I was a sickly child.Every time we walked into a 7-11 in Taipei, we were greeted with “Huan Ying Guang Ling” (歡迎光臨). Somewhat uninterestingly, I could never say it right and ended up saying: “Huang Gua Ling” (黄瓜玲), and I was going around saying “I’m a cucumber named Ling.” I really do have the personality of a cucumber, but the point of this little shtick is 7-11 is home to A LOT of different kinds of milk. There’s strawberry, papaya, banana, apple, pretty much anything. It was amazing.
Milk Tea
Boba, baybee!Then there’s milk tea with boba. I think we’ve all had our fair share of boba milk tea at some point. But, for some reason–who knows, maybe the cows are a little different in Taipei, too– this milk tea was a little more rich and milky and a little more red and black tea blended. It was the kind of tea I didn’t mind going on a caffeine-induced sleepless night. And I did! Totally worth it.
Now it’s Your Turn
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