Taiwan Food Guide: 18 Dishes, Night Markets and Regional Specialities

Every region also has its own night-market staples: fried chicken cutlets, grilled squid, small sausage in big sausage, pepper buns and sweet potato balls turn up all over the island.

Tainan was Taiwan’s capital for two centuries, and its cooking is the oldest and sweetest on the island. Start early: beef soup shops open around 4 or 5am, because the beef is slaughtered overnight in the south and served within hours, and many sell out by 10am. Then try milkfish belly soup or congee, a bowl of danzai noodles at Du Hsiao Yueh, the shop that has made them since 1895, shrimp rolls, eel noodles and coffin bread from the old Kangle Market stalls. Anping, by the old Dutch fort, adds bean jelly, oyster rolls and shrimp crackers.

Guohua Street and the lanes around the Chihkan Tower (Fort Provintia) are the best area to graze on foot. Tainan’s night markets rotate through the week: the huge Garden Night Market opens on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, Dadong on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and Wusheng on Wednesday and Saturday, so check which one is on before you go. Summer brings the island’s best mangoes from Yujing, inland from the city.

Taichung is where pearl milk tea was invented in the 1980s, and Chun Shui Tang’s original teahouse on Siwei Street in the West District still serves it. The city’s other signatures are sun cakes, flaky pastries filled with maltose and sold along Ziyou Road, and Miyahara, an ice-cream and sweets shop inside a restored Japanese-era eye clinic by the main station. Fengjia Night Market, beside Feng Chia University in Xitun, is the biggest in Taiwan and the testing ground for new snacks; go on a weekday evening.

South of Taichung, Changhua is known for ba wan, its starchy stuffed dumplings, and Lukang, an old port town 30 minutes away, for oyster omelettes, fried shrimp monkey (a local mud shrimp) and ox-tongue pastries. Chiayi, the gateway to Alishan, has dozens of turkey-rice shops in its centre and the Wenhua Road night market, which runs late every night. The mountain villages around Alishan grow high-mountain oolong and, increasingly, coffee.

Taiwan’s seafood is best in the ports. In Kaohsiung, take the short ferry to Cijin Island, where restaurants on Miaoqian Road let you pick fish, squid and shellfish from ice displays and choose how they are cooked. Kaohsiung’s Liuhe Night Market is central and easy, and Ruifeng, near Kaohsiung Arena, is bigger and more local; it usually closes on Monday and Wednesday. The re chao (hot stir-fry) restaurants found across Taiwan are the local version of a pub: plates of clams, squid and greens at NT$100-250 each, with Taiwan Beer by the bottle.

Keelung, 45 minutes from Taipei by train, is built around Miaokou Night Market, a covered street of stalls in front of the Dianji Temple that also serves breakfast and lunch. Order the nutritious sandwich, tempura (tianbula), crab soup, and ding bian cuo, rice noodles scraped from the side of the wok. On Penghu, seafood is the point of a visit, alongside cactus ice and brown-sugar cakes. Jiufen, on the hills above Keelung, is famous for taro balls; Ah-Gan Yi’s shop has the view down to the sea.

The east coast is quieter but has its own dishes. Hualien’s Dongdamen Night Market, a few minutes’ walk from the sea, groups stalls by theme, including a lane of indigenous food: grilled wild boar sausage, bamboo-tube rice, wild greens, and millet wine. In town, Daiyi’s bian shi wontons, Gongzheng Baozi’s steamed buns and Hualien mochi are the standards, and the city is the jumping-off point for Taroko National Park.

Further south, the rice town of Chishang in the Huadong Valley gives its name to Taiwan’s best-known railway lunchbox: rice, braised pork, egg and pickles in a wooden box, NT$80-120, sold in the town and at Taitung stations. In Taitung and the Amis and Paiwan villages along the coast, look for dishes seasoned with maqaw (mountain pepper, a lemony peppercorn) and grilled fish and seaweed. Indigenous restaurants are easiest to find in Hualien and Taitung cities.

Hakka towns in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, such as Beipu, serve lei cha, Hakka stir-fry (pork, squid and dried tofu) and flat rice noodles; Hsinchu itself is known for rice vermicelli and pork meatballs around its City God Temple.

• Bubble tea: born in Taiwan; order at chains such as 50 Lan, CoCo, Milksha or Kebuke for NT$50-80, setting sugar (0 to 100%) and ice levels. “Half sugar, less ice” is the common order.
• Oolong tea: high-mountain oolong from Alishan and Lishan, Dongding from Lugu in Nantou, Baozhong from Pinglin. Teahouses charge a water fee plus the leaves.
• Black tea: Sun Moon Lake’s Ruby black tea (Taiwan Tea No. 18) has a cinnamon and mint aroma; buy it at the lake.
• Taiwan Beer: the national lager, plus mango, pineapple and grape versions, NT$35-50 a can in convenience stores. Craft breweries are growing in Taipei and Taichung.
• Spirits: Kavalan single malt from Yilan, Kinmen kaoliang (a fiery sorghum liquor, often 58%), and indigenous millet wine on the east coast.
• Coffee: Taiwan grows its own in Gukeng (Yunlin) and around Alishan, and independent cafes are everywhere.
• Fruit and juice: papaya milk, watermelon juice, sugarcane juice, fresh guava, wax apples and lychees from roadside stands, NT$40-100.

Taiwanese eating is spread across a few types of place. Night markets are the obvious one, open from about 5pm to midnight in every city. Breakfast shops open at 5 or 6am and close by late morning. Specialist counters serve one dish, such as beef noodles, braised pork rice or dumplings, and are where locals eat lunch. Biandang (lunchbox) shops sell rice with a main and three sides for NT$80-120; TRA railway bentos sold at major stations cost about the same. Convenience stores sell tea eggs, rice balls and hot meals around the clock. Department-store basements and food courts are the easy option in heat or rain.

For restaurants, hot pot (from individual mala pots to all-you-can-eat), Taiwanese banquet food, Japanese and Cantonese places are all common. The Michelin Guide covers Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and its Bib Gourmand list includes many market stalls and noodle counters, a good shortlist for cheap but excellent food.

Many cooking schools in Taipei and Tainan run half-day classes in dumplings, beef noodles or Taiwanese home cooking, typically NT$1,500-3,500 including a market visit.

• Ordering: many small shops hand you a paper menu in Chinese to tick; use a translation app’s camera, or point at what others are eating. Some take orders by QR code.
• Paying: night-market stalls and small eateries are mostly cash; restaurants take cards and mobile wallets. Tipping is not expected, and sit-down restaurants often add a 10% service charge.
• Chopsticks: do not stand them upright in rice. Use serving spoons for shared dishes.
• Rubbish: public bins are rare and recycling is sorted strictly; carry a bag for your trash at markets.
• Vegetarian: Taiwan is among the easiest countries in Asia for vegetarians, with Buddhist restaurants and buffets in every town. Strict Buddhist food also excludes garlic and onion; vegans should check for egg and dairy (奶蛋素 means lacto-ovo).
• Halal: limited outside the cities. The Taipei Grand Mosque, Taichung Mosque and Kaohsiung Mosque have halal restaurants nearby, and some restaurants carry Taiwan’s Muslim-friendly certification.
• Allergies: peanut powder, shellfish and pork stock are common in snacks and soups. Carry a card in Chinese listing what you cannot eat.
• Food safety: street food is generally safe; choose busy stalls. Do not drink tap water unboiled; hotels and stations have filtered water dispensers.

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