The following highlights some of the popular Traditional Taiwanese Foods. If you manage to be in an Taiwanese restaurant or you are visiting Taiwan, I recommend the following:
1. Bubble Tea
While the bubble tea craze in the Western world started recently, Taiwan has been enjoying milk tea and tapioca bubbles since the 1980s. The balls in the kit are made of tapioca and have a texture somewhere between jelly and bubble gum. In Taiwan, be sure to try different toppings such as grass jelly, sweet pudding or milk foam.
2. Minced Pork Rice
Apparently, it is an ordinary dish. A bowl of pork cooked in delicious, soft and non-greasy rice appears in the home restaurants, the big five-star hotels and also in the banquet of the presidential palace. In northern and central Taiwan, pork cooked in rice is always referred to as meat cooked by knife. In southern Taiwan, the meat is ground with a machine and pork belly is used. On the other hand, this style in northern Taiwan is called pork stewed in rice.
3. Stinky Tofu
As the name suggests, stinky tofu can be smelled from several metres away (no exaggeration), but it’s well worth the effort to stick it out and approach the street food stalls offering this Taiwanese delicacy. It is fermented tofu and could be compared to the smell of some of the cheeses we know with strong smells, precisely because of their fermentation, such as French Roquefort or Spanish Cabrales cheese. If you find the taste too strong, you can also try fried tofu, which can also be found at any Taiwanese night market.
4. Soup Dumplings
It comes from the southern region of China and is known for “small size, meat filling, delicious soup, fresh taste, thin dough, beautiful appearance”. Soup is the soul of traditional dumplings, in order to pursue the translucent appearance, many masters use the rolling pin and rub the flour on top of the dough. Thus the xiaolongbao (as it is also called) will appear translucent in the steamed cages!
5. Chicken Cutlet
Fried chicken cutlets can be said to be “the national popular food first”,in the snack sector it has been given an important position. You could try different flavours of fried chicken cutlets depending on sprinkling with spicy chilli powder, pepper powder, sea moss powder, mustard powder and other seasoning powder. You can also choose different sizes and styles: topped with honey sauce, with cheese or baked cutlets. Due to its diversity and convenience, fried chicken cutlets quickly captured the streets and night market and is the most common snack in Taiwan.
6. Oyster Omelet
If you like scrambled eggs and seafood, you’re probably ready for an Oyster Omelette. This dish consists of an egg omelette with a filling composed mainly of small oysters. Starch is added to the omelette to give it a glutinous consistency and it is often fried in lard. Depending on where you eat it, it may be served with a savoury sauce for added flavour.
7. Intestine and Oyster Vermicelli
Vermicelli is a very common food in Taiwanese life. Not only birthday vermicelli (for longevity), vermicelli with pork knuckle and vermicelli with sesame oil, but also vermicelli with chitterling (with oysters) is the most typical and famous food in Taiwan. Also vermicelli with chitterling (with oysters) is the most typical and famous food in Taiwan. Oysters and vermicelli are the important ingredients of the dish. The oysters must first mix the white powder, but you could also use the large intestines. The quality of the dish depends on the size and freshness of the oysters and large intestines. To serve, you could add the special sauce of chilli, black vinegar, garlic, parsley for more flavour!
8. Beef Noodles
Beef Noodle Soup is Taiwan’s signature dish. It is so famous, it even has its own annual festival. The soup is composed of noodles, broth and beef chunks. The beef chunks come in squares and also include other parts of the cow such as tendons and offal which, when combined, add a gourmet touch to the dish. You can find two variations of this soup according to the broth they contain: Braised Beef Noodles is called Braised Beef Noodles when it contains a soy sauce-based broth; and Clear Broth Beef Noodles is a clearer soup, less strong in flavour, and seasoned with salt and herbs.
9. Pineapple Cake
Pineapple cakes are very famous and can be bought in Taipei’s duty-free shops. And you can’t leave the country without tasting (or taking home) a tasty pineapple cake. They are the perfect souvenir for friends or family with a soft (melt-in-the-mouth) dough and a sweet, slightly tart filling – they can also be eaten piping hot!
10. Shaved Ice
Crushed ice is introduced to Taiwan after the Japanese occupation, after that they cut the ice cubes into a chip shape from an ice machine and add the different ingredients and sauces on top of ice, thus the crushed ice has become the common and special ice cream on the streets of Taiwan. Taiwan’s popular mango ice was named one of the world’s best desserts by the US CNN and travel magazine, and having a bowl full of mango or taro ice, Taiwanese nostalgic style adzuki beans or granulated sugar is a most good choice!
If you found this list useful, here are some more Traditional Asian Foods to try out on my Pinterest channel.