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I Wish I Had This Taiwan Food List My First Trip There
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items Landing in Taiwan with zero food plan means you'll end up at a 7-Eleven eating a sad triangle onigiri while incredible night market stalls sit two blocks away. This is for the first-timer who wants to eat like a local from hour one, not day three. To...
Sections
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What to Eat Within Your First Hour Off the Plane
Night Market Dishes That Ruined All Other Street Food for Me
Sit-Down Meals Worth Skipping a Night Market For
Regional Specialties Worth a Day Trip
Drinks and Snacks You'll Crave After You Leave
What to Eat Within Your First Hour Off the Plane
You just cleared customs at Taoyuan and your stomach is growling from that awful plane meal. These are the things I sprinted to before even checking into my hotel.
Grab a warm soy milk and shaobing youtiao combo the second you land. I was jetlagged and delirious and this brought me back to life faster than any coffee ever could. For anyone who thinks breakfast is just eggs and toast, this will rewire your brain...
The Great #1 YongHe World Soy Milk King 世界豆漿大王
Get in line at the Ximending location before the lunch crowd hits. The thick rice noodles in that pork intestine broth sound intimidating but taste like pure comfort. Showed up skeptical my first time and went back three days in a row.
Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodles: Don't Miss This Goopy Snack
Skip the airport Starbucks and find one of these instead. They're everywhere and the fresh milk green tea at 30% sugar is the sweet spot. Perfect if you're the person who orders oat milk lattes back home and wants something familiar but way better.
Taiwan in Manila: 50 Lan (50嵐)
Snag a pork chop rice bento from the basement food court for under $3 USD. I almost walked past this whole underground city of food stalls my first trip and still regret the meals I missed. Stock up before your train ride south.
6 Delicious Railway Bento Boxes (Bian Dang) to Try
Try the original Fuzhou pepper bun right at the entrance arch. The pork and green onion filling is baked inside a tandoor-style oven and the crust shatters when you bite in. Burned the roof of my mouth because I couldn't wait and I'd do it again.
Delicious Pepper Buns at the Raohe Night Market
Use both hands because this thing is crispy, floppy, and loaded with egg all at once. Found this cart near Yongkang Street after a local friend dragged me there at 10pm. If you only eat one street snack your first night, make it this.
One of the street foods you shouldn't miss at Ningxia Night
Toss the food snobbery and walk into any convenience store for these soy-braised eggs sitting in that dark fragrant liquid by the register. They cost about 30 cents and taste like someone's grandmother slow-cooked them all day. Honestly the smell alo...
r/taiwan - Recipe for this Family Mart Tea egg
Night Market Dishes That Ruined All Other Street Food for Me
Before Taiwan I thought street food peaked at a good taco truck. Then I walked into Shilin Night Market at 9pm on a Tuesday and realized I'd been living a sheltered food life.
Get the original Hot Star cutlet and eat it while walking through the market chaos. It's literally bigger than your face and seasoned with five-spice and white pepper. For the friend who always orders the largest size of everything, this is your mome...
Shilin Night Market
Pair these chewy handmade taro balls with a warm ginger soup on a cool Taipei evening. I stumbled onto this stall by accident following an old couple who clearly knew where they were going. Trust the locals who have no reason to steer you wrong.
Ningxia Night Market Taipei: 12 Must-Try Foods
Bring an open mind and breathe through your mouth for the first 30 seconds. The fermented smell fades once you bite into the crispy exterior and hit the soft center with pickled cabbage on top. Went from gagging to ordering seconds in the span of one...
下港名彭臭豆腐
Try the version with sweet chili sauce drizzled on top and don't ask what's in the starch. The texture is slippery and weird and completely addictive once you stop overthinking it. Called my mom from the stall to describe it because nothing in my voc...
Shilin Night Market
Watch them brush on layers of soy glaze and chili while the corn chars over coals. Tastes nothing like the buttered corn you grew up eating at barbecues, in the best possible way. Wish I'd found this vendor on night one instead of night four.
Taipei Ningxia Night Market
Swap your usual fried chicken order for this thin, craggy, heavily spiced cutlet dusted with chili powder. The line moves fast even when it wraps around the corner. Perfect for anyone who thinks Popeyes is the pinnacle of fried chicken.
Monga Fried Chicken — 艋舺雞排
Picture a thick toast box filled with creamy seafood chowder, then deep fried. The name sounds morbid but the taste is rich, buttery, and completely ridiculous in the best way. Flew to Tainan specifically to try this after seeing one photo online.
Tainan Garden Night Market
Sit-Down Meals Worth Skipping a Night Market For
Sometimes you need air conditioning, a chair, and a meal that takes longer than 90 seconds to eat. These restaurants made me cancel night market plans without a single regret.
Get the xiao long bao at the Taipei flagship where it all started, not the mall location back home. Watching them fold dumplings through the kitchen window is half the experience. For anyone who's only had the US version, the difference will genuinel...
Din Tai Fung Xinyi Branch
Grab a tray and load up on sashimi, grilled seafood, and lobster bisque in this bizarre hybrid of fish market and food court. Showed up at 11am on a weekday thinking I'd beat the crowd and still waited 20 minutes. Worth every second of standing.
Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產 A Fun Fish
Sit down with the braised beef noodle soup and clear your schedule because you'll want to drink every drop of that broth. The beef chunks are fork-tender and the hand-pulled noodles have actual chew to them. My benchmark for beef noodle soup everywhe...
永康牛肉麵 (Yong Kang Beef Noodle in Taipei)
Use the tablet ordering system and go wild with the dipping sauce bar. The service is almost suspiciously good, like someone will literally hold your phone in a plastic bag while you eat. Perfect for groups of four or more who can't agree on one rest...
HaiDiLao Taipei Breeze NanShan Branch
Drag yourself out of bed at 5:30am and join the line that wraps around the building. The thick soy milk and flaky shaobing here taste different from every other version I tried. Showed up at 8am once thinking I was early and the line was already 45 m...
Why is soy milk so controversial? : r/vegetarian
Ditch whatever dessert plan you had and get the mango shaved ice between April and September when the fruit is peak season. The ice is shaved so fine it's basically frozen silk with fresh mango piled on top. Ate this four times in one week and my onl...
Ice Monster
Try the three cup chicken and bamboo shoots if you want a proper introduction to traditional Taiwanese home cooking. The basil aroma when they bring the clay pot to your table is unreal. For anyone who wants to understand what Taiwanese grandmothers ...
Shin Yeh Taiwanese Cuisine – Taipei
Regional Specialties Worth a Day Trip
Taipei gets all the attention but some of the best things I ate required a short train ride. Every single trip was worth the early alarm and the slightly confusing rail ticket machine.
Take the HSR south and eat these tiny bowls of shrimp-pork noodles at the original 1895 location. Each bowl is small on purpose so you can try five other things after. For the person who hates committing to one large dish, this format is a dream.
Du Hsiao Yueh - Tainan Danzai Noodles
Swap your usual chicken rice for shredded turkey over sticky rice with a fried egg on top. The turkey has this specific smoky sweetness that regular chicken just cannot replicate. Took a detour through Chiayi specifically for this and would absolutel...
Chiayi Turkey Rice: A City's Identity in a NT$30 Bowl
Catch an early train to Hualien and grab these steamed pork buns near the old downtown before hiking Taroko Gorge. They're juicy, cheap, and the perfect fuel for a day of walking through marble canyons. Packed four in my bag and ate the last one on a...
Gong Zheng Bun Store
Hike up the steep old street and reward yourself with warm taro and sweet potato balls in sweet soup overlooking the ocean. The view from the shop's back terrace looks exactly like a Miyazaki film. Went on a rainy Tuesday and the fog actually made it...
A GAN YI TARO BALL
Bring your appetite to this small Changhua county town where the oysters are absurdly fresh. The thin rice vermicelli in that vinegary broth with cilantro hits differently when you're eating it steps from where the oysters were harvested. For seafood...
Lukang Oyster Omelette in Changhua: What It Is & How to Eat It
Walk the Kenting night market strip with a whole grilled squid brushed in sweet soy glaze. The ocean breeze, the neon lights, the slightly chewy squid. It's a vibe you cannot recreate at home no matter how hard you try. Best eaten barefoot after a be...
Taiwan's night market grilled squid on a stick
Pick up a box of sun cakes from this jaw-dropping renovated eye clinic turned bakery. The flaky pastry with malt sugar filling is the go-to souvenir that Taiwanese people actually gift each other. Buy extra because you'll eat three on the train back ...
Boba, Sun Cakes, and Ice Cream in Taichung | Taiwan
Drinks and Snacks You'll Crave After You Leave
The food gets all the glory but the drinks and small bites in Taiwan quietly wrecked me. Got home and spent two weeks trying to recreate things in my kitchen with embarrassing results.
Try bubble tea at the Taichung shop that claims to have invented it. The tapioca pearls here have a chew that no boba chain back home has matched yet. For anyone who thinks they know boba, this is a respectful reality check.
Chun Shui Tang Humanistic Tea House
Grab the striped brown sugar milk from any Tiger Sugar location and photograph it before the stripes melt together. Tastes like warm caramel mixed into cold fresh milk with chewy pearls at the bottom. Started a genuine argument between me and a frien...
Tiger Sugar Calories: My Best Low-Sugar Swaps & Tips
Snag a box before your flight home because these are the pineapple cakes that locals actually buy, not the tourist brand. The filling is tangy real pineapple, not the winter melon filler some brands use. Brought two boxes home and they disappeared in...
Taiwan's Best Pineapple Cake
Toss back a tall glass of fresh papaya blended with milk at any street stand in southern Taiwan. The papaya down south is sweeter and the milk is richer and the combination should not work this well but it does. Drank this daily in Kaohsiung until my...
PAPAYA MILK
Keep an eye out for this wobbly citrus jelly drink at any night market or drink stand. It's made from a fig seed that only grows at certain elevations in Taiwan and tastes like lemonade's cooler, more interesting cousin. Refreshing enough to revive y...
Honey Lemon Aiyu Jelly
Pause at any cart where someone is pouring batter into little round molds and filling them with red bean, custard, or taro. They cost practically nothing and the warm crispy shell with molten filling is dangerously snackable. Ate seven in one sitting...
Taiwan wheel cakes – 車輪餅 - tales of wander
Pick up bags of dried mango at any traditional market in southern Taiwan where the fruit is grown locally. The texture is chewier and less sugary than the Thai versions you find at Trader Joe's. Pack these in your suitcase because you will run out wi...
【Fruit Market】Tainan Yujing Aiwen Dried Mango