Our main objective in Taipei was to eat, eat, and eat.
Mala Hotpot
Several branches in Taipei
As soon as we arrived in rainy Taipei, our first goal was to stuff our face with hot pot. To the nearest Mala Hot Pot we went (there are two branches in Ximending, and more around Taipei).
Mala Hot Pot serves all you can eat hot pot. Choose from 11 choices of meat, and dozens and dozens of hot pot ingredients: seafood balls, tofu, vegetables, mushrooms, noodles, etc. Dump it all in your soup base of choice (choose two out of five soup base options). Don't forget to make your own dipping sauce from more than a dozen condiments. Start eating, but leave room for drinks (juice, soda, beer, wine, tea, milk tea), desserts (cakes, pastries, jellies, fruits), and ice cream (Haagen-Dazs and Movenpick ice cream!!!)
Eating at Mala Hot Pot costs 598 NTD for lunch / 698 NTD for dinner, plus 10% service charge. The all you can eat hot pot is good for two hours only. Before the two hours is up, I am sure you will be bursting at the seams...so be sure to wear loose clothes when eating here!
We loved Mala Hot Pot so much—the best parts for me were the hot pot and the Movenpick ice cream (Movenpick ice cream in Cebu is so expensive!)—that we ate here twice!
Milk Tea
Pearl Milk Tea was invented in Taiwan and it's no wonder there are so many milk tea shops around. Choosing one will give you a headache. But if you want pearl milk tea from the one who invented it, head on to Chun Shui Tang. Chun Shui Tang's first store is in Taichung City, but it also has several branches around Taipei and we got to taste this original drink from their shop in the same building as the National Concert Hall, located in NTCH Arts Plaza (where Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall also is). 160 NTD for a medium sized pearl milk tea is quite expensive for me, but now I can say I have tried pearl milk tea from its inventor.
Wangji Fucheng Zongzi
王記府城肉粽
No. 84 Xining Road, Wanhua
District, Taipei City
Zongzi is a large dumpling made of rice and fillings and wrapped in a leaf (some Chinese restaurants in the Philippines also have this in their menu as "machang"). During our historic guided tour, we asked our guide for suggestions for a snack, and she pointed us to Wangji Fucheng Zongzi 王記府城肉粽 (the store sign is in Chinese), behind The Red House, for some zongzi. They have three kinds of zongzi: pork (65NTD), peanut (50 NTD), red bean (50 NTD). We tried their specialty, which is the pork rice dumpling, and ended up having a meal, not a snack. So filling!
No. 10 Section 1, Roosevelt Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City
A local eatery our guide suggested we try for lunch was Jin Feng 金峰魯肉飯. And, man, was it popular: there was a long line of hungry locals. We we were very hungry, but we toughed it out and waited. Jin Feng's specialty is braised pork rice (70 NTD). But we waited so long, of course we ordered more than just the braised pork rice! (They have an English menu, but the paper where you have to write your order is in Chinese, but you can ask help from their staff.) It was worth the wait!
I believe a queue of locals indicates that the place is good. The menu board that faces the street was all in Chinese but it did not deter us from having dinner there. When my friend and I were finally seated, we asked for an English menu (they had one! Woohoo!) and settled on four things: marinated meat rice (small, 30 NTD), marinated meat rice with egg (large, 40 NTD), noodle soup (40 NTD), and turnip cake (40 NTD).
Raohe Night Market
Raohe Street, Songshan District, Taipei City
Night Markets are popular in Taiwan. We chose Raohe Night Market for a little Michelin recommended food trip. What took us by surprise in Raohe Night Market was the crowd: it was so dense! My friends and I had to walk close together lest one of us get lost in the crowd. And we also had to double our effort to find the stalls we were looking for. We only found three of the five Michelin recommended food: Fuzhou Black Pepper Bun (50 NTD), Dong Fat Hao's oh-ah mee sua or oyster vermicelli (65 NTD), and ma shu bao bao or mochi with choice of crushed peanuts, sugar, or black sesame (40 NTD).
Taiwanese Snacks I Love
Taipei 2019: Itinerary and Expenses
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