Taipei eats

Our favorite food in Taipei, Taiwan (originally drafted Dec 2012 for friends wanting to know what to eat and where to go; photos from various trips)

Yong He Dou Jiang 永和豆漿 - the breakfast shops that have this name have the same type of breakfast goodies: dou jiang (soybean milk), mi jiang (thicker nutty-flavored rice milk), shao bing (flaky pastry with sesame seeds) often stuffed with you tiao (fried dough stick like a churro), dan bing (omelet in a flaky scallion tortilla-like pancake),

luo buo gao (turnip cake), fan tuan (sticky rice stuffed with shredded dry pork (rou gan), pickled turnip, you tiao), xiao long bao (steamed juicy pork dumplings)
  

Two of Paul's favorite beef stew noodle places:
He's eaten here since he was a child - 老王記牛肉麵大王, Lao Wang Ji on Taoyuan Street off Heng Yang Road walk fr Xi Men or NTU Hospital train station. It's a little hard to find since there's no sign. Look for the open kitchen and enter from the alley on the left side. Here's a snapshot from Google Maps.

永康牛肉麺館, Yong Kang Beef Stew Noodle is one blk south of XinYi Sec 2 on Alley 13 Jin Shan S Rd in between Jin Shan and Yong Kang St

Din Tai Fung (known for their xiao long bao dumplings) is also near there on Xin Yi and there's another dumpling place around the corner fr Din Tai Fung on Yong Kang - less people, less waiting. 

An old favorite dumpling place 常青餃子館 Chang Qing dumpling shop owned by a family friend is by Qing Guang market near our old office. They have delicious dumplings and potstickers, pork chop fried rice, and clam soup. Chung Shan N Rd, Sec 2, Alley 183 #1-4
 
牛肉餡餅 - niu rou xian bing (a type of beef pan fried dumplings) at
Zhu Ji 朱記餡餅粥店 No. 106號, Section 3, Rén'ài Road, Daan District, Taipei 

 A refreshing treat is shaved ice. Monster Ice on Yong Kang is probably the most famous one - try mango or with 'bu-ding' (creme caramel) and drizzled with condensed milk.


Classic Taiwanese - Shin Yeh Restaurant 欣葉台菜 (several branches) - favorite dishes are hong shao yu (braised fish, hong shao rou (braised pork belly), and dan zai mian (noodle soup topped with ground pork and a shrimp):

There are lots of street food stands, some in local markets selling daily necessities as well as food, some are only open at night. Near our old office is: 晴光市場 Qing Guang Market and Nong An Night Market. The most famous one is Shi Lin Night Market, and another night market is Rao He. If you want a little adventure, hop on a train to Keelung and try the market there spreading out in front of a temple, hence it's name: Keelung Miao Kou 基隆廟口夜市

Favorite street market food: lu rou fan (stewed saucy pork on rice), you fan (steamed sticky rice),

rou gung (thick soup with meatball), liang mian (cold noodles with sesame/peanut sauce, shredded ham/chicken, cucumber/carrot), gan mian (dry/little sauce noodles), you mian (yellow noodle with light soup),

wonton soup, fried chicken, fried pork chop (pai gu), beef roll, tsong you bing (green onion
pancake), hu jiao bing (pepper pork bun cooked on side of a tandoori-like oven)

rou bao - pork or chicken steamed bun, stinky tofu, lemon ai yu bing (refreshing fig jelly with lemon syrup and ice), sugar cane juice, ji dan gao (little cakes shaped like chicken eggs)

It seems like every neighborhood has little restaurants or cafes that may not look like much and often they cook at the front, on the street, but food is not that expensive and usually quite tasty! To try a variety, look for a buffet - lunch box "bian dang" place. Here's one of our favorites - a pork chop set.

Although Starbucks is there, there are other local shops and specialty shops that are serious about their coffee. They use all sorts of methods to brew - vacuum, ice drip...not cheap, but good coffee - usually quite strong. I had my first ice dripped coffee at one called Charlotte Cafe next to Zhu Ji. There was a classic bicycle as part of an eclectic display of collectibles at the back.

Let's not forget about bubble tea - there are lots and lots of places that make milk tea with tapioca pearls. The place that supposedly started it all is called Chun Shui Tang. Other popular shops 50 Lan (offers smaller size bubbles as well), CoCo and Ten Ren. 

There are so many places we've eaten at to list them all - explore and you'll never go hungry!

Here's a map of places mentioned in this post: Taipei eats

Summer 2015

Went on back-to-back vacations this summer with both sides of the family. We arrived on a Monday, were there to celebrate the first birthday of my youngest niece and at weeks end flew the red-eye on our anniversary to Miami for a seven day cruise with my mom and sister on the Norwegian Getaway to St. Thomas, Tortola and Nassau followed by a night in Fort Lauderdale, then a week in Las Vegas with Paul's family with side trips to Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon.

  We drove straight back to join an 80th birthday banquet for Paul's aunt (father's side). There were four tables and it was nice to see a lot of relatives that we hadn't seen in awhile and meet some new ones (married in, babies born). It was to be the last time we saw Paul's oldest uncle, since we received news that he recently passed away. We're thankful of that opportunity.

We settled back in the Su family home after that, taking several trips to the airport as various family members started flying out, Paul, Rosa, then Maggie, who was heading back to her school to teach at summer camp.

We spent the last weeks of July hanging out at the house with Susanna and Catie who were visiting for the summer from Nagoya where they'll be until next summer as well as Helen and Annabel who are temporarily staying there to save on daycare - grandma is it! We also went to visit James, Kathryn, Mia and Christopher for lunch, then lingered on until after dinner. I, for one, enjoyed playing with the little ones.

A late decision the last week was for Alex and I to drive up to Redding to visit my mom one more time and catch my Aunt Hing and Uncle John who were driving back to SLC from Seattle. Although we drove back in one day down I-5, on the way up we took 101 stopping to camp out for a night at New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz, then continuing up the coast on Hwy 1 to stay at Melodie's after a yummy Italian dinner. I hadn't seen my aunt and uncle in quite a few years so it was nice to catch up.

Satisfied most of my US food cravings and even tried a couple food trucks - the famous Kogi Korean BBQ taco, and a lobster roll from Cousins Maine Lobster. Only ended up bringing back one extra bag this year on our late night flight with morning arrival so we can hit the ground running, so they say.