Made in Taiwan: a food tour of Taipei
From a simple dumpling soup to an 18-course gourmet meal, the Taiwanese capital offers a stunning array of cuisine
Streets of desire: a vendor selling delicacies. Photograph: Justin Guariglia/Corbis
On a street corner halfway down Yongkang Street in central
Taipei, a trio of women fry up zhua bing, gorgeous shreddy circles of
hot pastry studded with spring onion, and serve them fresh from the
griddle. Opposite, teenagers perch on stools outside a snack bar
slurping "mango avalanches" and "strawberry blizzards" – piles of juicy
fruit over shaved ice that take the edge off the sultry tropical heat.
It's hard to walk more than a few paces down Yongkang Street, or indeed
many parts of Taipei, without succumbing to gastronomic temptation.
Taiwan may be a small island, but its eating habits have been shaped by a fascinating history of settlement, colonisation and immigration. Once populated by indigenous tribes, it was settled by immigrants from Fujian in southeastern China from the 15th century, and later by Hakka people from the mainland. Portuguese sailors passed by in the 16th century, and the island was colonised in subsequent centuries by the Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. In 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war, Chiang Kai-shek and his defeated Nationalist army, along with some 2 million mainlanders – including some of China's most accomplished chefs – fled to Taiwan.
These days Taipei is a melting pot of regional Chinese cuisines, with a bias towards the refined cooking of Shanghai and eastern China. Most famously, the international Din Tai Fung chain, originally a family business, specialises in what westerners call "Shanghai soup dumplings" and locals "xiaolong", which it has raised to previously undreamed-of levels of perfection. Pick up one of the twirly dumplings, rupture its side with a chopstick and let the exquisite juices flow on to your spoon before you eat.
Bamboo baskets with dumplings Photograph: Corbis
For more formal Shanghainese dining, Feng Chao-lin's Small Shanghai
Restaurant has a cult following among local gourmets. Here, a banquet
might include crucian carp braised with spring onion, belly pork
slow-cooked with fermented beancurd or crisp stir-fried shrimps. And the
tiny and unassuming Sanfen Suqi, a favourite of local food-writer Chu
Chenfan, offers slices of juicy pork neck with a dip of soy sauce,
garlic and chilli, a mesmerising version of a Sichuanese classic, as
well as "dry-fried" fish, a delicious mix of golden crispness, tender
flesh and peppery fragrance.
For Taiwan's local culinary style, try the Ningxia night market where you can perch at a makeshift table and scoff a bowlful of rice covered in a lazy stew of spiced belly pork, a skewer of grilled mullet roe with garlic and radish, or an oyster omelette. Some restaurants bring market food indoors, like Du Hsiao Yeh in Yongkang Street, where you can eat a bowlful of "slack season" noodles topped with a rich pork sauce, mashed garlic and a prawn.
It was the Shin Yeh chain that first brought Taiwanese folk cooking upmarket. Head chef Kun-Yin Cheng says: "We've tried to raise its status, using less oil and salt and serving it in a restaurant environment, but keeping the old flavours and the special local ingredients." Shin Yeh is now an international business, serving delicious renditions of classic Taiwan dishes without the rough edges of the nightmarkets. Try, for example, the marvellous soft wheaten pancakes stuffed with warm vegetables spiked with dried fish, coriander and a sweet peanut relish, or, if you're feeling adventurous, a stew of pig's kidneys and chicken testicles.
In the South Gate market, traders preside over mouthwatering displays of Jinhua-style ham, dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms, all locally produced. The fresh fruit grown on Taiwan is a highlight of any visit. Market stalls are piled with wax apples, mangoes, pineapples and guavas, often served with a powder of preserved plums and salt. And there are growing numbers of organic cafés in Taipei, according to food writer Sarah Chen, who met me at one of them, Tanhou, for a breakfast "enzyme energy soup": glasses piled high with juicy chopped vegetables, dried fruits and seeds, which we ate with a spoon.
There's a Japanese edge to the Taiwan food scene, a legacy of half a century of Japanese colonisation, which ended in 1945. The old city fish market has been transformed into Addiction Aquatic Development, a chic, warehouse-style Japanese restaurant and supermarket, with a "stand and swallow" bar for sushi-eaters and a grill division outside. If you fancy a teppanyaki blow-out, don't hesitate to drive out of town to the Shen Yen restaurant in Yilan county, where Chef Chen Chih-yung will dazzle you with his local seafood. Our lunch was an 18-course miracle of fish, eel and crustaceans, seasoned occasionally with his home-made soy sauce, and interspersed with sublime bamboo shoots, shots of iced hibiscus infusion and other treats.
An afternoon tea set. Photograph: Getty Images/Flickr RF
After a meal like this, it might be best to drop into the old Wisteria Tea House,
the famed hangout of local subversives and intellectuals, where you can
sit on wooden chairs or tatami mats and sip honeyed oolong teas as a
glass kettle murmurs away on a burner beside you.
Fuchsia visited Taiwan on a press trip sponsored by the Taiwan Government Information Office. Her book, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, is published by Bloomsbury. To order a copy for £20, with free UK p&p, click on the link above
Little Shanghai Restaurant, Lane 90, Wenhua Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2929 4104)
Sanfen Suqi, Lane 49, Guogang Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2231 1103)
Du Hsiao Yeh, 9-1 Yongkang Street (+886 2 3393 1325)
Shin Yeh, 34-1 Shuangcheng Street (+886 2 2596 3255; shinyeh.com.tw)
Addiction Aquatic Development, 18 Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu East Road (+886 2 2508 1268)
Shen Yen, 326 Hebin Road, Luodong Township, Yilan County (+886 3 965 7998)
Wisteria Tea Hse, 1 Lane, 16 Xinsheng South Road Sec 3 (+886 2 2363 7375; wistariateahouse.com)
Taiwan may be a small island, but its eating habits have been shaped by a fascinating history of settlement, colonisation and immigration. Once populated by indigenous tribes, it was settled by immigrants from Fujian in southeastern China from the 15th century, and later by Hakka people from the mainland. Portuguese sailors passed by in the 16th century, and the island was colonised in subsequent centuries by the Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. In 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war, Chiang Kai-shek and his defeated Nationalist army, along with some 2 million mainlanders – including some of China's most accomplished chefs – fled to Taiwan.
These days Taipei is a melting pot of regional Chinese cuisines, with a bias towards the refined cooking of Shanghai and eastern China. Most famously, the international Din Tai Fung chain, originally a family business, specialises in what westerners call "Shanghai soup dumplings" and locals "xiaolong", which it has raised to previously undreamed-of levels of perfection. Pick up one of the twirly dumplings, rupture its side with a chopstick and let the exquisite juices flow on to your spoon before you eat.
Bamboo baskets with dumplings Photograph: Corbis
For more formal Shanghainese dining, Feng Chao-lin's Small Shanghai
Restaurant has a cult following among local gourmets. Here, a banquet
might include crucian carp braised with spring onion, belly pork
slow-cooked with fermented beancurd or crisp stir-fried shrimps. And the
tiny and unassuming Sanfen Suqi, a favourite of local food-writer Chu
Chenfan, offers slices of juicy pork neck with a dip of soy sauce,
garlic and chilli, a mesmerising version of a Sichuanese classic, as
well as "dry-fried" fish, a delicious mix of golden crispness, tender
flesh and peppery fragrance.For Taiwan's local culinary style, try the Ningxia night market where you can perch at a makeshift table and scoff a bowlful of rice covered in a lazy stew of spiced belly pork, a skewer of grilled mullet roe with garlic and radish, or an oyster omelette. Some restaurants bring market food indoors, like Du Hsiao Yeh in Yongkang Street, where you can eat a bowlful of "slack season" noodles topped with a rich pork sauce, mashed garlic and a prawn.
It was the Shin Yeh chain that first brought Taiwanese folk cooking upmarket. Head chef Kun-Yin Cheng says: "We've tried to raise its status, using less oil and salt and serving it in a restaurant environment, but keeping the old flavours and the special local ingredients." Shin Yeh is now an international business, serving delicious renditions of classic Taiwan dishes without the rough edges of the nightmarkets. Try, for example, the marvellous soft wheaten pancakes stuffed with warm vegetables spiked with dried fish, coriander and a sweet peanut relish, or, if you're feeling adventurous, a stew of pig's kidneys and chicken testicles.
In the South Gate market, traders preside over mouthwatering displays of Jinhua-style ham, dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms, all locally produced. The fresh fruit grown on Taiwan is a highlight of any visit. Market stalls are piled with wax apples, mangoes, pineapples and guavas, often served with a powder of preserved plums and salt. And there are growing numbers of organic cafés in Taipei, according to food writer Sarah Chen, who met me at one of them, Tanhou, for a breakfast "enzyme energy soup": glasses piled high with juicy chopped vegetables, dried fruits and seeds, which we ate with a spoon.
There's a Japanese edge to the Taiwan food scene, a legacy of half a century of Japanese colonisation, which ended in 1945. The old city fish market has been transformed into Addiction Aquatic Development, a chic, warehouse-style Japanese restaurant and supermarket, with a "stand and swallow" bar for sushi-eaters and a grill division outside. If you fancy a teppanyaki blow-out, don't hesitate to drive out of town to the Shen Yen restaurant in Yilan county, where Chef Chen Chih-yung will dazzle you with his local seafood. Our lunch was an 18-course miracle of fish, eel and crustaceans, seasoned occasionally with his home-made soy sauce, and interspersed with sublime bamboo shoots, shots of iced hibiscus infusion and other treats.
An afternoon tea set. Photograph: Getty Images/Flickr RF
After a meal like this, it might be best to drop into the old Wisteria Tea House,
the famed hangout of local subversives and intellectuals, where you can
sit on wooden chairs or tatami mats and sip honeyed oolong teas as a
glass kettle murmurs away on a burner beside you.Fuchsia visited Taiwan on a press trip sponsored by the Taiwan Government Information Office. Her book, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, is published by Bloomsbury. To order a copy for £20, with free UK p&p, click on the link above
Fuchsia's favourites
Din Tai Fung, 194 Xinyi Road Sec 2 (+886 2 2321 8928; dintaifung.com.tw)Little Shanghai Restaurant, Lane 90, Wenhua Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2929 4104)
Sanfen Suqi, Lane 49, Guogang Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2231 1103)
Du Hsiao Yeh, 9-1 Yongkang Street (+886 2 3393 1325)
Shin Yeh, 34-1 Shuangcheng Street (+886 2 2596 3255; shinyeh.com.tw)
Addiction Aquatic Development, 18 Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu East Road (+886 2 2508 1268)
Shen Yen, 326 Hebin Road, Luodong Township, Yilan County (+886 3 965 7998)
Wisteria Tea Hse, 1 Lane, 16 Xinsheng South Road Sec 3 (+886 2 2363 7375; wistariateahouse.com)
From a simple dumpling soup to an 18-course gourmet meal, the Taiwanese capital offers a stunning array of cuisine
Streets of desire: a vendor selling delicacies. Photograph: Justin Guariglia/Corbis
On a street corner halfway down Yongkang Street in central
Taipei, a trio of women fry up zhua bing, gorgeous shreddy circles of
hot pastry studded with spring onion, and serve them fresh from the
griddle. Opposite, teenagers perch on stools outside a snack bar
slurping "mango avalanches" and "strawberry blizzards" – piles of juicy
fruit over shaved ice that take the edge off the sultry tropical heat.
It's hard to walk more than a few paces down Yongkang Street, or indeed
many parts of Taipei, without succumbing to gastronomic temptation.
Taiwan may be a small island, but its eating habits have been shaped by a fascinating history of settlement, colonisation and immigration. Once populated by indigenous tribes, it was settled by immigrants from Fujian in southeastern China from the 15th century, and later by Hakka people from the mainland. Portuguese sailors passed by in the 16th century, and the island was colonised in subsequent centuries by the Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. In 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war, Chiang Kai-shek and his defeated Nationalist army, along with some 2 million mainlanders – including some of China's most accomplished chefs – fled to Taiwan.
These days Taipei is a melting pot of regional Chinese cuisines, with a bias towards the refined cooking of Shanghai and eastern China. Most famously, the international Din Tai Fung chain, originally a family business, specialises in what westerners call "Shanghai soup dumplings" and locals "xiaolong", which it has raised to previously undreamed-of levels of perfection. Pick up one of the twirly dumplings, rupture its side with a chopstick and let the exquisite juices flow on to your spoon before you eat.
Bamboo baskets with dumplings Photograph: Corbis
For more formal Shanghainese dining, Feng Chao-lin's Small Shanghai
Restaurant has a cult following among local gourmets. Here, a banquet
might include crucian carp braised with spring onion, belly pork
slow-cooked with fermented beancurd or crisp stir-fried shrimps. And the
tiny and unassuming Sanfen Suqi, a favourite of local food-writer Chu
Chenfan, offers slices of juicy pork neck with a dip of soy sauce,
garlic and chilli, a mesmerising version of a Sichuanese classic, as
well as "dry-fried" fish, a delicious mix of golden crispness, tender
flesh and peppery fragrance.
For Taiwan's local culinary style, try the Ningxia night market where you can perch at a makeshift table and scoff a bowlful of rice covered in a lazy stew of spiced belly pork, a skewer of grilled mullet roe with garlic and radish, or an oyster omelette. Some restaurants bring market food indoors, like Du Hsiao Yeh in Yongkang Street, where you can eat a bowlful of "slack season" noodles topped with a rich pork sauce, mashed garlic and a prawn.
It was the Shin Yeh chain that first brought Taiwanese folk cooking upmarket. Head chef Kun-Yin Cheng says: "We've tried to raise its status, using less oil and salt and serving it in a restaurant environment, but keeping the old flavours and the special local ingredients." Shin Yeh is now an international business, serving delicious renditions of classic Taiwan dishes without the rough edges of the nightmarkets. Try, for example, the marvellous soft wheaten pancakes stuffed with warm vegetables spiked with dried fish, coriander and a sweet peanut relish, or, if you're feeling adventurous, a stew of pig's kidneys and chicken testicles.
In the South Gate market, traders preside over mouthwatering displays of Jinhua-style ham, dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms, all locally produced. The fresh fruit grown on Taiwan is a highlight of any visit. Market stalls are piled with wax apples, mangoes, pineapples and guavas, often served with a powder of preserved plums and salt. And there are growing numbers of organic cafés in Taipei, according to food writer Sarah Chen, who met me at one of them, Tanhou, for a breakfast "enzyme energy soup": glasses piled high with juicy chopped vegetables, dried fruits and seeds, which we ate with a spoon.
There's a Japanese edge to the Taiwan food scene, a legacy of half a century of Japanese colonisation, which ended in 1945. The old city fish market has been transformed into Addiction Aquatic Development, a chic, warehouse-style Japanese restaurant and supermarket, with a "stand and swallow" bar for sushi-eaters and a grill division outside. If you fancy a teppanyaki blow-out, don't hesitate to drive out of town to the Shen Yen restaurant in Yilan county, where Chef Chen Chih-yung will dazzle you with his local seafood. Our lunch was an 18-course miracle of fish, eel and crustaceans, seasoned occasionally with his home-made soy sauce, and interspersed with sublime bamboo shoots, shots of iced hibiscus infusion and other treats.
An afternoon tea set. Photograph: Getty Images/Flickr RF
After a meal like this, it might be best to drop into the old Wisteria Tea House,
the famed hangout of local subversives and intellectuals, where you can
sit on wooden chairs or tatami mats and sip honeyed oolong teas as a
glass kettle murmurs away on a burner beside you.
Fuchsia visited Taiwan on a press trip sponsored by the Taiwan Government Information Office. Her book, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, is published by Bloomsbury. To order a copy for £20, with free UK p&p, click on the link above
Little Shanghai Restaurant, Lane 90, Wenhua Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2929 4104)
Sanfen Suqi, Lane 49, Guogang Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2231 1103)
Du Hsiao Yeh, 9-1 Yongkang Street (+886 2 3393 1325)
Shin Yeh, 34-1 Shuangcheng Street (+886 2 2596 3255; shinyeh.com.tw)
Addiction Aquatic Development, 18 Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu East Road (+886 2 2508 1268)
Shen Yen, 326 Hebin Road, Luodong Township, Yilan County (+886 3 965 7998)
Wisteria Tea Hse, 1 Lane, 16 Xinsheng South Road Sec 3 (+886 2 2363 7375; wistariateahouse.com)
Taiwan may be a small island, but its eating habits have been shaped by a fascinating history of settlement, colonisation and immigration. Once populated by indigenous tribes, it was settled by immigrants from Fujian in southeastern China from the 15th century, and later by Hakka people from the mainland. Portuguese sailors passed by in the 16th century, and the island was colonised in subsequent centuries by the Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. In 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war, Chiang Kai-shek and his defeated Nationalist army, along with some 2 million mainlanders – including some of China's most accomplished chefs – fled to Taiwan.
These days Taipei is a melting pot of regional Chinese cuisines, with a bias towards the refined cooking of Shanghai and eastern China. Most famously, the international Din Tai Fung chain, originally a family business, specialises in what westerners call "Shanghai soup dumplings" and locals "xiaolong", which it has raised to previously undreamed-of levels of perfection. Pick up one of the twirly dumplings, rupture its side with a chopstick and let the exquisite juices flow on to your spoon before you eat.
Bamboo baskets with dumplings Photograph: Corbis
For more formal Shanghainese dining, Feng Chao-lin's Small Shanghai
Restaurant has a cult following among local gourmets. Here, a banquet
might include crucian carp braised with spring onion, belly pork
slow-cooked with fermented beancurd or crisp stir-fried shrimps. And the
tiny and unassuming Sanfen Suqi, a favourite of local food-writer Chu
Chenfan, offers slices of juicy pork neck with a dip of soy sauce,
garlic and chilli, a mesmerising version of a Sichuanese classic, as
well as "dry-fried" fish, a delicious mix of golden crispness, tender
flesh and peppery fragrance.For Taiwan's local culinary style, try the Ningxia night market where you can perch at a makeshift table and scoff a bowlful of rice covered in a lazy stew of spiced belly pork, a skewer of grilled mullet roe with garlic and radish, or an oyster omelette. Some restaurants bring market food indoors, like Du Hsiao Yeh in Yongkang Street, where you can eat a bowlful of "slack season" noodles topped with a rich pork sauce, mashed garlic and a prawn.
It was the Shin Yeh chain that first brought Taiwanese folk cooking upmarket. Head chef Kun-Yin Cheng says: "We've tried to raise its status, using less oil and salt and serving it in a restaurant environment, but keeping the old flavours and the special local ingredients." Shin Yeh is now an international business, serving delicious renditions of classic Taiwan dishes without the rough edges of the nightmarkets. Try, for example, the marvellous soft wheaten pancakes stuffed with warm vegetables spiked with dried fish, coriander and a sweet peanut relish, or, if you're feeling adventurous, a stew of pig's kidneys and chicken testicles.
In the South Gate market, traders preside over mouthwatering displays of Jinhua-style ham, dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms, all locally produced. The fresh fruit grown on Taiwan is a highlight of any visit. Market stalls are piled with wax apples, mangoes, pineapples and guavas, often served with a powder of preserved plums and salt. And there are growing numbers of organic cafés in Taipei, according to food writer Sarah Chen, who met me at one of them, Tanhou, for a breakfast "enzyme energy soup": glasses piled high with juicy chopped vegetables, dried fruits and seeds, which we ate with a spoon.
There's a Japanese edge to the Taiwan food scene, a legacy of half a century of Japanese colonisation, which ended in 1945. The old city fish market has been transformed into Addiction Aquatic Development, a chic, warehouse-style Japanese restaurant and supermarket, with a "stand and swallow" bar for sushi-eaters and a grill division outside. If you fancy a teppanyaki blow-out, don't hesitate to drive out of town to the Shen Yen restaurant in Yilan county, where Chef Chen Chih-yung will dazzle you with his local seafood. Our lunch was an 18-course miracle of fish, eel and crustaceans, seasoned occasionally with his home-made soy sauce, and interspersed with sublime bamboo shoots, shots of iced hibiscus infusion and other treats.
An afternoon tea set. Photograph: Getty Images/Flickr RF
After a meal like this, it might be best to drop into the old Wisteria Tea House,
the famed hangout of local subversives and intellectuals, where you can
sit on wooden chairs or tatami mats and sip honeyed oolong teas as a
glass kettle murmurs away on a burner beside you.Fuchsia visited Taiwan on a press trip sponsored by the Taiwan Government Information Office. Her book, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, is published by Bloomsbury. To order a copy for £20, with free UK p&p, click on the link above
Fuchsia's favourites
Din Tai Fung, 194 Xinyi Road Sec 2 (+886 2 2321 8928; dintaifung.com.tw)Little Shanghai Restaurant, Lane 90, Wenhua Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2929 4104)
Sanfen Suqi, Lane 49, Guogang Road, Yonghe (+886 2 2231 1103)
Du Hsiao Yeh, 9-1 Yongkang Street (+886 2 3393 1325)
Shin Yeh, 34-1 Shuangcheng Street (+886 2 2596 3255; shinyeh.com.tw)
Addiction Aquatic Development, 18 Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu East Road (+886 2 2508 1268)
Shen Yen, 326 Hebin Road, Luodong Township, Yilan County (+886 3 965 7998)
Wisteria Tea Hse, 1 Lane, 16 Xinsheng South Road Sec 3 (+886 2 2363 7375; wistariateahouse.com)
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