their succulent soup dumplings
accompanied by assorted veggies,
pot stickers, salads and eightflavored sticky rice. At the popular
Taipei 101 basement location you
can watch the cooks masterfully
folding whisper-thin wrappers
around the juicy pork meatballs
to create these quality XiaoLongBao,
which explains the one to two
hour wait.
Inside tip: Put your name in, get
your number, and then cross the
hall to the fried chicken stand for
some appetizers. Their flavorful
fried popcorn chicken niblets,
liberally sprinkled with salt,
pepper and basil, kick Colonel
Sanders butt!
Best oasis of calm
Din Tai Fung’s
XiaoLongBao
Tea snacks at
Wistaria Tea House
the yin/yang of the crunchy exterior
and silken inside and sweet and sour
flavor profile can be highly addictive.
Stinky tofu can be found at most
any night market stand or you can
try over 20 different vegan varieties
at Jiaziyuan Restaurant in New
Taipei City.
Insider tip: There’s almost nothing
worse than stinky tofu breath.
One helpful breath freshener,
“Watering KissMint” chewing gum,
can be bought at any of Taiwan’s
5,000+, 7-Eleven stores. These
convenience stores sell everything
Pick your own
fresh seafood at
Addiction Aquatic
Development
The best oyster
omelet maker
from hot dinner and concert
tickets, to a bottle of Johnny
Walker, and they’ll even mail
your packages.
Best work of art veggie
alternative
Vegetarians will have an easy time
in Taiwan with its 6,000 vegetarianfriendly restaurants. But even the
most ardent meat eater will be
tempted to turn veg-head after
trying the vegetarian Kaiseki haute
cuisine at the elegant Yu Shan Ge.
No matter which set menu you order
you are in for a creative culinary
experience that is seldom seen in
vegetarian dining. The artistically
presented meaty hedgehog
mushroom was as satisfying as
any Wagyu steak, and the stylized
platter of cold appetizers had some
sort of pink agar that I would have
sworn was cured salmon. Plates were
artistically garnished with living
plants, mini-rock gardens or candles
nestled inside cutout oranges.
Worst kept secret:
XiaoLongBao
Shilin Night Market
36
Din Tai Fung’s renown culinary
empire (two of its Hong Kong stores
have been awarded a Michelin Star)
got off to a slow start as a cooking
oil shop in Taiwan in 1958. When
sales began to dwindle owner Yang
Bingy and his wife started selling
XiaoLongBao, steamed soup
dumplings on the side and the rest
is history. Now no trip to Taipei is
complete without slurping down
Wistaria Tea House is a traditional
wooden tea house that was originally
a Japanese naval dormitory built in
1920. It was designated a historic
monument by the Taipei government
in 1997. Opt for one of the serene
tatami rooms to experience the
ultimate Taiwanese tea ceremony.
Wistaria uses water (the most
important ingredient in making tea)
from the Wu Lai Mountain Spring,
which is poured into a glass pot and
heated on a kerosene boiler. They
offer a wide variety quality teas (try
their special Pu’ehr tea from Yunnan,
China) with wonderfully poetic
names, accompanied by sweet and
savory snacks.
Freshest seafood meal that
lives up to its name
Addiction Aquatic Development is
made up of a cluster of seafood
eateries located next to the Taipei
Fish Market serving pick-your-ownfrom-the-happily-swimming-in-thetank-fresh fish, scallops, geoducks,
prawns, abalone and king crab, etc.
Pay for your selection and then they
will either run it over to one of the
restaurants where they will cook it
to your specifications or you can
bring it home to cook yourself.
Visitors can join the crowds at the
supermarket area which is stocked
with shelves of pre-packaged, fresh
sushi, sashimi, salads and side dishes,
as well as a nice selection of wine
and beer. Then scurry outside to
nab yourself a spot at one of the
standing only tables.
For the ultimate hunter/gatherer
types you can head to Shillin Night
Market, where you can rent baby
fishing poles to catch your own
shrimp, not as easy as you would
think! Afterwards, they will grill
your catch on a tiny hibachi at the
back of the stand.