Taiwan Food

Now how can I have written a series of posts on our trip to Taiwan with the scantiest mention about the food we ate there? Because they will all be compressed into this one post.

The first dishes we ate in Taiwan were wonton noodles for me and beef noodles for Gaz. Later, Gaz said that these were the best noodles he'd in Taiwan. The broth was excellent and my wontons were quite interesting. The wrappers seemed to have spinach mixed into it, which is something I haven't seen in Aust.



We had these 3 dishes at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel we were staying in, Fleur de Chine at Sun Moon Lake. We were a bit nervous about dining at a 5 star hotel's restaurant because of the steep prices, but we had limited choice because the isolated location of the hotel meant we could not simply walk out the door and find a hawker stall. I am very glad we dined in the r'ant though because these were the best dishes of our trip.

The captain recommended stir fried local vege - she said this is grown in the lake and is local to the area. I do not know what this vege is, but it is crunchy and has a clear taste. It was stir fried with some mushrooms. The captain also most kindly told us she'll order half portions for us so that we can have a greater variety but not overwhelmed by the portion size.

Full portion of fish stir fried with ginger. The fish's texture is slightly rough but the taste is delicious.

And my favourite dish of the night and the trip - braised Japanese beancurd with crab roe sauce. It was absolutely delicious!!! We both loved it so much we scraped the pot clean and nearly licked it too. The total bill came to around AUD 30, relatively high compared to normal restaurant food but a steal for us. This meal would have cost $50 in Aust.

We had this in Tainan. It was something like yee mee with Japanese influenced tempura prawns and fish cakes. Gaz ordered the one with finer fried noodles which was more delicious than my thicker ones :(

We had these two dishes in another hotel restaurant. We'd ordered eggplant and minced pork in hot sauce (below) and chicken with spring onions and did not realise that both came in hot pots. The eggplant was delicious and I was lucky to have been reminded by the waitress to make it less spicy because it was spicy!

This is the chicken with spring onions. The chicken was starchy and it was a little salty but went well with rice.


We had these two dinner sets at Hualien. The restaurant was recommended by our guide and was about 15m walk away from our hotel. On our way there, we met with a hawker who was selling paintings by the roadside. Toys, food, clothing yes, but paintings?

The restaurant specialises in health food and is a strong advocate of the usage of Chinese herbs to promote holistic health. My set consists of chicken herbal soup, mee sua and an assortment of side dishes which include purple sweet potato, pickled melon strips, stir fried ferns, a whole green chilli (which was only slightly spicy), boiled taro and braised melon.

The herbal soup was a little bland and the chicken was tough, but the mee sua boiled and mixed with a little sesame oil was delicious! This was the only mee sua dish I had in Taiwan. I was told that Taiwan serves good mee sua so I was on the look out wherever we went. When we went to one of the night markets, I spotted some people eating a bowl of what looked like mee sua. Remember both of us cannot read Chinese so I can only rely on pictures to point out what we want. I asked the vendor to give us a bowl of mee sua upon she looked at me like I was stupid and said in Chinese, 'I am not selling mee sua, I'm selling pork rib noodles!!'. So malu...

Gaz's set of steamed cod, black rice (steamed wrapped in bamboo leaves), and a soup of tear drop egg and a type of vege my mom's always said is good for the eyes (I eat this in M'sia but I can't find it in Aust), with the same side dishes.

The cod was silky smooth, and the soup tasted better than the herbal soup for sure. The black rice has a slightly chewy texture, because it is unpolished and therefore healthier.

We also got a cup of herbal tea and pineapple jelly. I was initially very sceptical of the serving sizes because the dishes looked small in the menu but after we've downed everything in the set, we were so full. I felt quite good after the meal, knowing we've eaten healthily and two days' serving of veges!

These are what we ate on our last day in Taiwan, and they were... BAD. I told my brother about this and he said he had some Japanese food in Taiwan and it was bad too.

Gaz's unagi bento came with pickled ginger, some soy product which was slightly spicy Taiwanese style and cabbage. The unagi must have came from a pack, so it was alright tasting.

I ordered a pork katsu don. It came with the same cabbage and soy product. The pork was pink in some places and really tough in others. It was also crying out for some seasoning. It was not a perfect ending to our trip.


Many people told us that the street food in Taiwan is delicious but I am afraid I'm not a big fan of them. They're very creative and novel food, that's for sure but I'm not sure I appreciate the flavours (except for tea eggs and Taiwanese grilled sausages). I much rather prefer traditional sit down food like the ones we had above.