Keelung is a small, seaside town that’s a very quick train ride from Taipei, which makes it an effortless day-trip destination. And that’s a good thing, because the night market here is definitely worth visiting.
After eating one mind-blowingly delicious meal after another here, it’s beginning to dawn on me that Taiwan is one of the best countries for food that I’ve ever visited. Everything I’ve tried has been so good, and everywhere I go there’s one restaurant after another with food that looks delicious. And the street food! And the night markets! It’s overwhelming.
There’s a place near Taipei called the Houtong Cat Village, and it’s basically exactly what it sounds like. Do you want to see a whole bunch of cats? Because they’ve got a whole bunch of cats.
I just mentioned that a cheap Michelin-rated restaurant is basically guaranteed to have a line. Well, Lin Dong Fang is (relatively) cheap, and it’s Michelin-approved, so yeah, there was a line.
If an affordable restaurant has been recognized by the Michelin Guide, you can pretty much guarantee that there’s going to be an intense line to get in. And lo and behold, the Michelin-approved Taiwanese breakfast joint, Fuhang Soy Milk, is fairly notorious for the line that snakes out the door.
There’s a Taiwanese specialty called lu rou fan (or braised pork rice) that consists of ultra-tender pork belly and mushroom on top of rice.
I don’t think there’s any universe in which that wouldn’t be delicious, and certainly, the version they sell at Jin Feng is extremely delicious.
Gua Bao (a.k.a. pork belly buns) are pretty huge in Taiwan, and having just eaten one, it’s very easy to see why.
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is one of those places you pretty much have to see if you’re a tourist. I guess you could skip it, but why? It’s seriously impressive, it’s right in the middle of the city, and it’s free to visit.
Apparently noodles for breakfast is very conclusively a thing here, because I had noodle soup for breakfast the other day, and now here’s another plate of tasty pre-9AM noodles.
Like the noodle soup I mentioned earlier, this is another restaurant I stumbled on completely at random. It’s pretty obvious that Taipei is a great food city if it’s this easy to find amazing food.