Taiwan Cuisine

1. Beef noodles

What is Taiwan Beef Noodle Soup? Stewed soft and tender beef, rich and slightly spicy broth, strong noodles and fresh vegetables, and then add a little green onion and coriander. In fact, the ingredients seem very simple, but the difficulty is that braised beef soup! Finding the perfect balance of spices results in a perfectly coordinated bowl of spicy, savory, meaty goodness.

2. Pearl milk tea

It was invented in Taiwan in the early 1980s. The round shape of the pearl, which tastes a bit elastic, is actually made of tapioca flour and brown sugar. This snack has been in Taiwan for nearly a hundred years, but no one thought of adding it to milk tea before. A man came up with the idea of adding pearls to sweet milk tea, and it turned out to be very popular. Nowadays, tea stalls that can be seen everywhere in Taiwan. Now pearl milk tea has also spread from Taiwan to the whole world and it is popular all over the world.

Pearl milk tea

3. Xiao Long Tang Bao（Soup Dumplings）

This dish has been popular for a hundred years, which appears in the state banquet hall entertaining the head of state and also on the dining table of ordinary people. Xiao lonbao is also a seemingly simple dish, but it is complicated to make.

First, select a good pork hind leg, beat it with a wooden stick until it turns into a slightly elastic meat paste, then add spices, salt and soy sauce to taste. The pork jelly made from pigskin, so that after steaming, it is a veritable small cage "soup" bag. Be very careful when eating Xiaolongbao, usually take a small bite. Let the soup flow into the spoon first, otherwise the soup may scald your mouth!

4. Pork Intestine Noodles

Don't be intimidated by its name, pork intestine! But many people have tasted it and are full of praise. This is also a very traditional meal, which can be served as a main meal or as a snack. The meat quality of pork intestine after marinating is actually delicious, soft and tender.

This dish consists of pig intestines with fine rice noodles and a thick and flavorful broth. Add some chili paste, black vinegar, minced garlic and coriander to the bowl to enhance the taste! Some places also add oysters, head to Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodle, a popular and iconic food stall in Taipei, and you’ll be greeted by long queues of hungry people.

5. Oyster Omelette

This is one of the best street food in Taiwan and can be found in almost every night market. The ingredients are fat oysters, eggs, bean sprouts and lettuce. Fresh oysters are topped with a fried egg and topped with a sauce made of sweet potato starch. It can be done within 3 minutes. This dish is usually even better served with a sweet and spicy sauce.

6. Peanut Ice Cream Roll

This ice cream roll is a fun and quirky Taiwan dessert consisting of peanut sugar shavings and two scoops of taro or vanilla flavored ice cream, wrapped in a handmade thin rice flour tortilla (like a burrito!). The stall owner usually scrapes a chunk of peanuts and caramel brittle right in front of you, so it's pretty entertaining to watch this dessert being prepared.

The flavors are sweet, nutty and salty, while the crust is creamy and crunchy - cilantro is also an odd optional ingredient, but highly recommended! You can find this dessert at many night markets in Taiwan, and it's addictive, I promise.

7. Taiwan Cold Noodles

Taiwan-style cold noodles are a popular street snack that is widely eaten during summer. The dish uses thin wheat-sesame noodles served with homemade peanut butter, tahini and sometimes topped with bean sprouts, cucumber and shredded carrots. This dish is very popular in Taiwan and you can find it in 7-11 stores as well as in many Taiwan restaurants.

8. Braised Pork Rice

Braised pork rice is a simple but popular Taiwanese dish that can be found everywhere from street vendors to fancy restaurants. The dish usually consists of small pieces of minced pork slow-cooked in soy sauce, peppercorns, star anise and cinnamon, served over rice with cilantro, pickles and a hard-boiled egg. The dish is delicious.

9. Taiwan Sausage

The beloved Taiwan pork sausage is very popular with locals as a quick snack and is much sweeter than Western-style sausages. In many night markets, fat and juicy sausages are usually paired with glutinous rice sausages (glutinous rice stuffed into pig intestines and then grilled), with cucumber and sweet and spicy sauce. Many people eat it once a week.

10. Taiwan Stinky Tofu

No matter you love it or not, you'll 100% come across this Taiwan dish during your travel. You'll know it because its stink is unmissable. The iconic snack is made from cubes of tofu marinated in a brine (often including dried fish, meat and fermented milk) and left for months before being fried or steamed.

The stinky tofu smells a bit like Cordon Bleu cheese, and obviously the stinkier the better (there are 13 different grades of stinky tofu). Stinky tofu is best fried, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, served with sweet and spicy sauce or kimchi. Stinky tofu can be tasted in almost every night market.

11. Wheel Pie

Wheel pie is a pancake-like dessert consisting of two halves of dough cooked in a round waffle pan, then sealed together with a creamy filling that comes in a variety of flavors such as red bean, chocolate , peanut, matcha and vanilla custard. You can also buy savory versions with fillings like corn, eggs, tuna, meat and vegetables. You can easy find this dessert in Taiwan.

12. Taiwan Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is one of the favorite late-night snacks among Taiwan people and can be found at many night market stalls and fast food restaurants. Fried chicken stalls serve lots of vegetables besides fried chicken, and you must try the super large chicken cutlet, a thin piece of pounded chicken breast seasoned with salt, star anise, and spicy paprika, then deep-fried twice. It's so big, it's almost as big as your head!

13. Cut package Gua-Bao

Often referred to as the "Taiwan hamburger", Guabao is a popular snack that has become famous in many parts of the world. The dish consists of soft and fluffy steamed buns with hearty fillings such as braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, ground peanuts and coriander. Cuts are packaged in plastic bags so you don't lose any ingredients that might slip out while eating.

14. Scallion Pancake

This crispy and chewy scallion pancake is one of many foreigners’ favorite things and a popular street food in Taiwan. They are round, savory dough pan-fried on a griddle, filled with ingredients such as Taiwan basil, eggs, ham or cheese and served with a thick soy or spicy sauce.

15. Coffin Bread

Coffin Bread, popular since the 1940s, is Taiwan's version of a Western-style bread soup bowl and is one of Tainan City's signature dishes. It is made from a very thick loaf of white bread that has been hollowed out in the middle and fried to create a crunchy, box-shaped "coffin". Then make chowder or sweet cream stew with chicken or vegetables.

16. Pineapple Cake

One of the most popular and widely available desserts you'll find in Taiwan is the pineapple cake. Taipei even held an annual Taipei Pineapple Cake Cultural Festival in 2005 to showcase the variety of fillings (not just pineapple, but strawberry, melon and cranberry, to name a few). The filling is based on soft boiled pineapple. When you take a bite, the sweet and sour jam overflows from its center. It is accompanied by a crispy and soft buttery crust. This taste has made it popular for generations still like it. They're usually sold in airtight packs, so taking a box home on the plane and enjoying is no problem at all.