A review of Taiwanese desserts would not be complete without mentioning starch balls and ice. Eastern Ice Store is a Taipei’s favorite for this dessert.
The visit
The first step is to queue. They are pretty fast though.
Then you can choose four toppings that will be added to a paper bowl full of ice. The balls are made with tapioca and there are classic sweet bean sauces. Unfortunately all the names are in Chinese.
This is what I got in a pretty random fashion.
Adjacent to the main shop there is a room where you can consume your dessert seated.
I did not like it much. I guess it requires a local taste.
The check
This treat is very economical at 60 NTD (or a few cents shy of 2 USD).
Where in Taipei: No. 38, Lane 216, Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City
Breakfast in Taiwan is an unmissable food experience. Taiwanese cities are dotted by restaurants specializing in traditional breakfast dishes, sometimes opening as early as 3am in the morning (and a few even open 24h). I had my breakfast experience on a Sunday morning in a popular restaurant in Daan district near Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.
The visit
I found a Taiwanese diner serving breakfast dishes near the exit of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial station (2 and 3). It is indicated in English as Jiang Yellow Beef Noodle Shop but the signs are in Chinese. It is correctly indicated on Google Maps.
As the name suggests, it is a noodle shop, but until 11am they have a breakfast menu. They have a menu with English translations, so ordering was pretty easy.
The kitchen was pretty busy as they were about to start to serve noodles.
My first dish was the warm soybean milk. It was better than I thought.
Then I had one of the shop’s specialties: a sesame cake rolled around fried bread and a scallion egg omelette. I am a big fan of the fried bread (someone calls it Chinese donuts). All together it was a monster dish, very filling as you can imagine.
At this point my breakfast could have already come to an end, but I also tried their rice roll. This was the version with pork floss and sweet sauce. They had on the menu also a vegetarian version that may be better.
As a side dish I had their radish cake, which was ok.
The check
I ended up paying 194 NTD (or 6.30 USD). By the way, by mistake I ordered two radish cakes (one was more than enough), so the total could have been even lower (one cake was 38 NTD).
I did not like all the food equally (the three-in-one was my favorite dish), but it was a super-filling breakfast. I could not have lunch later on (a pity, as there was a Saboten branch just around the corner).
I cannot judge whether this was a good or a just average Taiwanese breakfast, but I liked the fact that they had an English menu and the ordering process was painless.
Where in Taipei: No. 1, Lane 240, Guangfu South Road, Da’an District. In Chinese: 106台北市大安區光復南路240巷1號.
Shaved ice desserts have been popular for decades in Taiwan. They are called bào bīng (剉冰) and helped scores of Taiwanese to survive the heat of the summer. It took a man to revolutionize this traditional industry with Ice Monster.
The first Ice Monster shop was set up in the popular Yongkang street in Taipei. It was 1997. At the beginning, as told by the founder in an interview, people could not care less about his new dessert, an ice shaved mango “avalanche” (mangoes are grown in Taiwan). They wanted the traditional flavors like red beans and brown sugar. Initially he had to give away the mango desserts for free. And then the lines started to form. Soon it became a sensation.
There was a hiccup in 2010 when the flagship store had to close during a divorce dispute, but in 2012 it reopened in a new part of town: this was the store that I visited in April 2019. (In Yongkang street at the number 15 now there is a Smoothie House that is not connected with Ice Monster, but selling similar desserts.) Since its re-birth, Ice Monster has expanded in the US, Japan, and mainland China. In 2013 it was featured by CNN as one of the world’s best desserts. Lines continue to form.
The visit
The store is now located on Zhongxiao East Road in a busy shopping and entertainment district (Zara and Uniqlo have stores a couple of blocks away).
I had to endure some queue, but it moved quickly.
The store is large, but not enormous. It was pretty packed on an early Saturday afternoon.
Behind the counter, staff is constantly busy in “shaving ice” using the machines that were perfected by the founder working with a Taiwanese supplier. It took 15 minutes before I got my order (that was prepaid and placed when I stepped in the store before going to a table).
Since it was strawberry season, I had their “Strawberry Sensation” that technically is not really shaved ice, but more similar to Taiwanese snow ice, that is a variation were the base, using condensed milk, is infused in the ice (xue hua bing 雪花冰) . For the classic shaved ice you have to check the “Avalanche” items.
It came with a ball of strawberry sorbet (also available individually), a generous amount of panna cotta, strawberry pudding (including an extra glass). It was an immensely rich dessert that could satisfy two people.
The ice is incredibly soft and fluffy, with a very nice texture. It was better than the bingsu I had in Seoul, but the two are not directly comparable.
The check
This huge dessert was 260 NTD (8.5 USD). Considering that you can easily share it, it is still a steal (the price had been going up constantly though). As a comparison, in the Hawaii stores, the same dessert costs 15 USD.
House rule: minimum 100 NTD charge per person and maximum 1 hour stay. This means that most desserts, which cost more than 200 NTD, can be shared between two people, but if you have a third person in the party, you will need to order something else. Fair and square.
Where in Taipei: No.297, Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd. Taipei, Taiwan In Chinese: 台北市忠孝東路四段297號 Tip: Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Exit 1. UPDATE: this shop ended operations on September 15, 2019. List of other stores in Taiwan, China, Japan, and Hawaii: https://www.ice-monster.com/store-
In October 2018 I was invited to a dinner in a well-reputed Chinese restaurant in Tainan specializing in crab. The restaurant was located on the second floor of Tainan’s Dream Mall and was called Jin Xia (錦霞樓). According to my research, the restaurant was run by a local family then in its third generation.
The visit
Our group was assigned a large private room with a classic round table and a lazy Susan at the center.
It was a classic eight-course Chinese meal with some add-ons.
Tea, sparkling wine and Apple Sidra were available throughout the dinner. Appe Sidra is a Taiwanese fixture: launched in 1965, it is a kind of apple cider vinegar soda with a very crisp and sour flavor.
First an amuse bouche including a piece of shrimp and tofu.
A tofu and abalone appetizer.
Another nicely presented appetizer dish including some local specialties like sausages and mullet roe (in the paper wrapping). Well balance of flavors.
Then we had a delicious seafood soup with shrimps, white fish and crab.
Then time for a big ticket item: a crab with its roe on a base of rice.
Another soup with tripe.
Another fish dish with a rich sauce.
Fruit.
A final Chinese dessert with tofu, jellies and brown sugar.
The check
I cannot comment on the price point because I was invited by a friend. But I can imagine that it would be fine dining level.
I found it an incredible good meal, leveraging on local specialties and with a contemporary touch in the presentation of the dishes.
During one of my visits to Tainan (October 2018), I finally tried their coffin bread. Thanks to a local acquaintance I was directed to the restaurant that invented the dish in the 40s and it is still in operations.
Coffin bread (or coffin toast bread, or guancai ban, 府城棺材板) is a dish where the toasted bread is used as a bowl. Given its rectangular shape and the use of a piece of bread as a “lid”, it does look like a coffin. The bread is filled with starchy soup of seafood, vegetables chicken, or curry. Given Tainan’s contact with the Western world it was probably inspired by the Western chowder.
The visit
The shop is called Chikan Eatery in English and is located inside a market. At noon, on a Sunday, it was open for lunch, while many of the other stalls were closed. I and my group were directed to a secondary dining room just across the main restaurant.
Coffin bread was available in various versions: curry, chicken, seafood and a mixed version that I chose.
The soup was very thick and concealed pieces of squid, chicken, and vegetables. It was good, a very filling dish.
I also had deep-fried baby oysters, another local dish.
The eatery has a website (not recently updated) that further explains how the coffin bread concept went about and was named:
The original name for Coffin Toast was“Chicken Liver Plank”. In the 40’s, chicken liver was a fine ingredient. As a result, Hsiung Liu-Yi [the founder of the restaurant] chose chicken liver as its stuffing and named after it. The stuffing tasted like French foie gras and then became very popular at that time. Those, no matter came from local or other places, would visit SAKARIBA and enjoy the snack.
Once there a professor (NTU) came to SAKARIBA and tasted the“Chicken Liver Plank”. After the meal, he praised to it and said to Hsiung Liu-Yi that its shape was a coffin alike. Therefore, Hsiung Liu-Yi finally decided to change its name as Coffin Toast. Since then the snack has become famous and popular in Tainan.
The check
To order, we were provided a Chinese form. Having someone who spoke Chinese was of course an advantage, but with some creativity it should not be difficult to ask for their main dish even without Chinese. The coffin bread cost 60 NTD (less than 2 USD). The oysters were 150 NTD.
It was certainly great to have a lunch at the original place of the coffin bread. Tainan is a city full of culinary points of interest.
Tainan is regarded as the culinary capital of Taiwan (or at least by its inhabitants as a friend of Taipei once remarked). I agree that food in Tainan is a big deal and they have a lot of local specialties that should not be missed. This restaurant does a good job in offering a selection of these specialties.
The visit
The restaurant in English is called Chikan Peddler’s Noodle and is located just next to a Tainan’s landmark, Chihkan Tower.
I initially went there for their Dan Zai noodles, but then I realized they had a set menu to sample some of the main local dishes and I went for it.
I was asked to sit on the upper floor. The building is an old traditional house and the stairs are quite steep…
The dining room upstairs was almost empty and I was quickly served.
The first dish was a bowl of their Dan Zai noodles, a type of noodle topped with minced pork ragu (and a shrimp). The pork meat goes through a long preparation process and the result is outstanding. The meat is full of herbal flavors and is extremely delicate. It is really a dish to try.
Then one by one I got the other dishes of this set menu. The second was boiled spearfish thick soup. Quite a good soup with some good pieces of white fish.
The oyster omelette was another typical dish included in the set.
I also had an opportunity to try the milk fish (boiled with a traditional bean paste).
Another dish was rice cake with deep-fried shrimp rolls.
Finally, I was served a kind of flan.
The check
Total was 420 NTD (13.65 USD), which included a large cup of iced tea (white gourd to be precise).
The restaurant clearly caters to tourist, but I think it did a decent job in presenting this selection of traditional dishes. My impression is that the noodle were really great, while the other dishes were quite bland. I do not have enough expertise to say if this was just the norm, or there was a difference between the quality of their noodles and the rest.
Where in Tainan: No.118, Section 2 Minzu Road. Address in Chinese: 老店 台南市中西區民族路二段 180 號 Website: https://www.chikan.com.tw
Tip: for the thick soup the Tainan’s King of Thick Soup has its store just across the street around the corner.
Not the biggest or most interesting night market, still I will write this review because I have not reviewed any Taiwanese night market yet and Lihue in Kaohsiung is a pretty typical example. If you are not aware, night markets are all over Taiwan (every city has many, often running concurrently from evening to midnight or later) and they are all about food. It is some of the best street food you can find in Asia (if you compound price, cleanliness and taste in my opinion).
The visit
I was in Kaohsiung in late December 2018 and I decided to take a stroll in this market as it was very close to my hotel.
The market spread around 700 meters on Lihue street with probably close to 100 vendors. It was quite crowded, as night markets always are in Taiwan. Good thing, it is mostly food, but you can also find garments and souvenir vendors.
I started with one of the popular vendors: a stall preparing Taiwanese hot dogs. This is actually a sausage squeezed in a bun of sticky rice. Other condiments are added including ketchup and spring onion. Only 60 NTD for a small one (1.95 USD). I liked it and it was not too messy to eat. Thanks to the paper wrap it stayed into place.
Then, if you like a soft ball, the diced beef vendor is a sure shot. I have seen them in Taipei as well. The beef is cooked with a blowtorch. Not the highest quality, but it does the job. A small portion is 100 NTD (3.20 USD).
This vendor was quite interesting. She prepared some shrimp and egg balls, using quail eggs. Maybe too much pepper, but another easy dish. Just 60 NTD (1.95 USD).
I also had a piece of mullet roe, made warm and combined with a slice of apple to make it more palatable. Mullet roe is a specialty of the South of Taiwan. Just 50 NTD (1.60 USD). In the picture above, while they are warming my mullet roe, on the grill they are cooking fish gizzard.
Of course there is much more, including more expensive seafood as shown in the picture above. A few stalls have stools and a few tables in the middle of the road, otherwise it is food on the go.
The check
No checks provided, but the total experience was less than 10 USD and it was totally enjoyable. Night markets are a great food experience in Taiwan.
Where in Kaohsiung: Liuhe 2nd Road, Xinxing District. The night market is within walking distance from Formosa Boulevard Station of the Kaohsiung MRT.
Did you know that Taiwan is one of the major sources of tuna in Asia? And the epicenter of the tuna trade is Donggang, a township in the Southern part of Taiwan. As soon as I learnt it I knew I had to visit its fish market. In December 2018 I ventured for the first time in the Huaqiao Fish Market that has a large retail area ready to welcome visitors hungry for sashimi.
The visit
I got to Donggang with a public bus from Kaohsiung stopping at Pingtung Bus Station then I walked one kilometer to the fish market located next to the ferry terminal. It is also possible to find a shuttle that will leave you at the ferry terminal next to the market (more about transportation at the end of the page). Also, no need to wake up early, as this retail market opens at 11am…
The market is quite large with both sellers of any type of seafood and kiosks catering to visitors selling fresh sashimi. Here and there you can find stools and counters where to seat.
My first stop was at stall 186 where I had a lovely sashimi set with tuna, salmon, yellow tail and another type of sashimi. All for 200 NTD (6.5 USD). The sashimi was cut fresh on the spot.
Second stop at stall 118 for another sashimi set with yellow tail, salmon and tuna. This time they handed me the box with the pre-cut pieces of sashimi. Still fresh though.
At stall 227, for 400 NTD (13 USD) I had four slices of the prized kama-toro: marbled tuna collar. This cut is very rare (it accounts for only 1% of the tuna mass) and it is regarded as a delicacy. It is marbled like o-toro, but more compact. They also threw three pieces of regular tuna included in the price.
Many stalls have a piece of kama-toro on display ready to be cut.
Also had a piece of the fish cake pictured above.
At one extremity of the market there is a small restaurant (menu only in Chinese). In this restaurant I tried one of the local specialties, the flying fish roe sausage. This is really just a sausage sprinkled with flying fish roe. I won’t need to eat another one.
Finally, all over the market there are stalls selling a kind of flavored jelly. They are available in many flavors and one strip costs only 10 NTD (0.32 USD). A good way to cap the meal!
The check
Prices are quite standardized. Sashimi sets cost from 100 to 200 NTD (3.2 to 6.5 USD). The most expensive cut is of course the marbled tuna collar that goes for 100 NTD for slice. By comparison, this is easily between 1 fourth to 1 eight of what you would spend for the same amount of sashimi in a Japanese restaurant in Japan or Mainland China. The feast cost me less than 1000 NTD (33 USD).
These are wholesome market prices! I have never eaten sashimi so fresh and cheap. Needless to say, I highly recommend the detour. I will be back.
Appendix: how to get there
From Kaohsiung you can get a shuttle to the ferry terminal next to the market for 150 NTD. Do not bother buying the return ticket as it is more practical to book another shuttle while in Donggang, there are many hovering in front of the ferry terminal and their normal fare to Kaohsiung is again 150 NTD.
In front of Kaohsiung main station (not the HSR station) there is a vendor of tickets for such a shuttle inside a bike shop at the South-East corner of Zhongnan and Jianguo roads. Here’s a ticket showing the shuttle times:
However, for some reason on the day of my trip the shuttle was not running… so I just moved twenty meters ahead to a bus station for a ticket on the regular 9127A bus. It was a very smooth 45 minute ride. My stop was the Pingtunt bus station in downtown Donggang. From there I walked to my destination.
Forgetting for a moment the weird English name, Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產) in Taipei is a must-see both for foodies and urban planners… they did a fantastic job in turning an old fish market into a multi-function space including a standing sushi bar, an oyster bar, a couple of restaurants, a supermarket and much more. The seafood is fresh and the prices are good. It is really easy to get addicted.
The visit
I visited (again) multiple times the place in late December 2018.
The space is located in North Taipei, unfortunately it is not close to any metro stop, so taxi is the best choice to arrive. Taxis usually station in front of the main entrance pictured above.
Inside, the first area is dedicated to aquaculture with large tanks full of lobsters, giant crabs and so on…
Then you step in a relatively small supermarket area stocked with fresh sushi and sashimi to go. The products are very reasonably priced.
The rest of the main indoor area is dominated by a standing sushi bar and other smaller eating areas (including an oyster bar and a cooked food station).
Above a sashimi platter (with the addiction of 3 pieces of medium fatty tuna and 5 pieces of regular tuna) that I had in the standing sushi bar.
In a station you can have fresh lobster sashimi. The cook will cut the live lobster in front of you and they will also give you a lobster soup with all the left overs. In the pictures a 200gram lobster (quite small).
The four pictures above show more seafood that I bought from the supermarket area and I consumed outside. The sushi was very good and I could even find a big portion of cod roe and mullet roe (a Taiwan specialty, very salty, but to try).
They also have a full-fledged restaurant called Trésors de la mer where bookings are possible. In the restaurant I had their mega seafood platter and a miso soup. Some fruit was complimentary. Otherwise, it is possible to pick the fish from a market display and they will prepare you according to your instructions.
The seafood platter included tuna, yellow tail, salmon, sea snails, oysters, scallops, salmon roe, and a piece of abalone. Everything was delicious. The only thing disappointing was the miso soup, but who cares!
The last picture above shows a view of another seating area, a grilled seafood restaurant that I did not try.
The check(s)
The supermarket food cost me 1304 NTD (42 USD), the big ticket time was the lobster sashimi (644 NTD before tax). The sushi was just a few dollars.
The bill for the huge seafood platter at the restaurant Trésors de la mer was 1595 NTD (52 USD) including a miso soup and a coke. This was really a dish for two people.
The sashimi platter from the standing sushi restaurant was 913 NTD (29.6 USD) and it was a lot of sashimi.
Overall, prices are very reasonable for a funky location. The only caveat is to avoid peak hours on weekends or holidays, unless you like to queue like this people on New Year’s Eve (2018):
Where in Taipei: No. 18, Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu E Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei City. Name in Chinese: 上引水產. Address in Chinese: 台北市民族東路410巷2弄18號. Website: http://www.addiction.com.tw
