Taipei Street Eats

Of all my Taiwan posts, I think this one on the Taipei street eats would be a lot interesting. Whenever I travel to a new place, I try to taste the local food, not just those in known fine-dining restaurants, but also those served in small eateries and along the streets.

Our first few hours in Taipei were already cloud-nine experiences as we had a sumptuous dinner in this nondescript place that was pointed to us by our taxi driver, which he declared as the “best” in town. Located in Xining Road, it is about two to three blocks away from our hotel. And what way to start our adventure than to walk around our neighborhood and see what it has in store for us?

This restaurant has no English signage whatsoever. We just observed what other diners were doing and mimicked them. With the help of some hand signals and pointing of items, we somehow manage to put two and two together. The staff were quite taken aback by our presence, which seemed like they weren’t used to having English-speaking customers dropping in. We got some noodles and we just placed whatever was placed on the table on our food – uncrushed garlic, what seemed like chili paste, fish sauce, and what have you. The result was superb!

On the way back to the hotel, we spotted a cart right in front of our building entrance. The man was cooking sausage, we also tried. Another cart nearby was selling various vegetables, seafood, and meat on sticks, but as it was nearly midnight and we were struggling with the language barrier, we told her that we’ll buy next time.

The day after, we discovered we were in the Ximending neighborhood, and there was no turning back since then. We tried the xiao long bao early in the morning when all stores were still closed. We spent a couple of nights just buying our dinner from the carts. Name it and they have it.

There were gyozas and dumplings, cherry tomatoes covered in caramelized sugar, steaks, oyster omelets, cakes, and other street food delights. We also tried the local ice cream and some ice shaved dessert. There were fruits sold but were a bit expensive based on our standards since fruits sold in Philippine streets are way cheaper.

We also had a great dining experience eating in this sidewalk food joint near the Dazhi MRT station. Everything was boiled or steamed. But it was the sauce, spicy and sweet, that really did the trick. Plus, the cars that were zooming past us as we took our bite.

So when you plan to visit Taiwan, don’t miss trying their street food or hole-in-the-wall eateries. See the food in colors through my Facebook page album.

For a complete list of blog articles on my 2015 Taiwan trip, visit this introductory post.