Long overdue post, but I wanted to share some food highlights from my Taiwan trip last year! At the end of 2022, I spent a couple weeks in Taipei to visit family, view the Taipei 101 fireworks, and of course eat everything in sight.
As a Taiwanese American, I might be a little biased, but Taiwan has perhaps the most food-obsessed culture that I’ve observed. The density of food and beverage establishments in Taipei and other cities is a marvelous sight to behold.
Taiwan is especially known for their street food and night market scene. On my last trip, I divided my time between Taipei and Luodong, a town about 1 hour SE of Taipei. Luodong is easily accessible by a Kamalan bus that leaves every 20 minutes or so. The town is worth a day trip for their night market if you are staying a while in Taipei and want to do a side trip. I have relatives there, so I stayed longer, but it is quite small and sleepy other than the night market.
Here’s a list of my favorite Taiwanese casual/street foods that I enjoyed on this trip. I put my favorite vendor that I tried, but many of these are widely found across Taiwan.
1. Pork floss ice cream (wasabi was a close runner up, and all the crazy and classic flavors we tried were incredible!) – Snow King Ice Cream, Taipei
2. Sour cabbage pork hot pot – 長白小館, Taipei
3. Giant fried chicken (ji pai) – Monga, Taipei
4. Deep fried pork rolls with spicy peanut sauce – 羅東肉焿番, Luodong
5. Taiwanese burrito (run bing) – 宜蘭鄭記潤餅, Luodong night market (also open for lunch)
6. Oyster vermicelli (orh ah mee sua) – 黃金麵線, Taipei
7. Steamed rice noodle rolls (chee cheong fun) – 穗 廣式腸粉, Raohe night market, Taipei
8. Sweet potato bun (and you can’t go wrong here, this was the best bakery I’ve tried in Taiwan) – Yoshi Bakery, Taipei
9. Oyster omelette (orh ah jian) – Tian Tian Li, Taipei
10. Peanut ice cream roll with cilantro – A Zhu, Jiufen old street
