Taiwanese Street Food Tour in Taipei, Taiwan: Ultimate Guide 🇹🇼

there's so many reasons why everyone hopes to visit Taipei Taiwan some want to witness the grandor of taipe 101 others want to experience the Innovative technology I'd say most visitors want to Delight in the outstanding food scene between the bustling night markets the Michelin star restaurants and infinite Street vendors Taiwan might just have one of the greatest food scenes in the entire world today we're taking ourselves on a little food tour right here in Taipei and this country altogether holds such a special place in my heart because it's my family's country tree of origin so both of my parents were born and raised in Taiwan meaning I was raised with a lot of the foods that we're about to try today so wish me luck as I practice my kindergarten level Mandarin to Street vendors around Taipei and also showcase the best of Taiwan and Street [Music] Food [Music] [Music] there's only one way to start off your day in Taiwan and that is with a traditional breakfast and we've come to a local eery I tried my very best to write down all the prices to order all the things that I wanted for my list and I think I've got all of them which is pretty impressive so I want to first start off with talking about the drink so this is a warm cup of soy milk or so tang and this is just so so popular everyone always has one of these in their hands at the break of dawn and what's interesting is compared to like the soy milk that you can get in the US it's just a lot more rich in flavor I feel like that's the only way that I can say it so the way that they package their drinks there's always this little plastic slip on the top and then you have a straw with a pointy tip pop it in there and it's ready to drink I got it with a little bit of sugar too so we've decided to get two different pancakes I have the Tom oping or the scallion pancake they're a little bit crispy very flaky and definitely extremely Savory and basically it's made on a hot griddle and it's got scallions all up in there it's so so good and then you've got the I got the dving which is basically a crepe with egg on it and then it has this really sweet sauce that we added to it as well yeah it's a little bit sweet a little bit Savory and Taiwanese people love that combination Chopstick for you thank you yeah yours is flaky mine's like not flaky it's a little bit more bouncy I would say yeah cheers so good w wow I'm one out here next up we have the Mano my favorite bun of all time it is pillowy soft it's like eating a cotton ball and it's just so delicious and so chewy and it's very light at the same time it's not like a huge dense bread that sits in your stomach it just it flows right through and I decide to get the brown sugar one but you can get all sorts of different flavors there's like green tea there's taro ooh also something you might not know about Taiwan is a lot of the owners of the shops live right upstairs so I'm pretty sure like that staircase right in the back will lead up to their home and it's really cool because you'll see like dentist office you'll see um pet stores and all the owners just live right upstairs yeah so it's just like they go downstairs during the day then when they're ready to go home it's very short commute zero commute really the last thing we have for breakfast is the portable breakfast food of Taiwan as you can see it is handheld and it is sticky rice encasing a number of different fillings so the most common fillings are pickled radishes uh pickled mustard greens also pork floss and YOLO and that is the Yol toil right there it's that little brown fried dut they actually look really really long and you can get them at the night markets at breakfast stores but you should definitely try it um I think it tastes best when it's in something like a fanine um but yeah it's just so so good let's dig on in it's it's pretty weighty I think this is going to make us pretty full for for the morning oh I love glutenous rise all right Chad the ultimate bite [Music] wow I hear the crunch I hear the crunch of the Yol Chad feels the crunch I'm full of P I really like the textures going on there's like the the glutenous rice which is is like bouncy and chewy and then the crunchy y yo yo it is really good yeah you got to eat all of it together like you big bite that was good all right ready for your next big bite okay here wash wash it down my friend wash it down you could sense my hesitancy all right now I'm [Music] ready [Music] and thise Y they so nice in my hand I'm holding probably the most famous taiese street food there is is I feel like all around the world it's loved and it's known this is the central NAA or the Boba milk tea and essentially it is a black tea mixed with milk and caramelized tapioca pearls that's the best part and it's kind of shaken all together like Martini obviously you can't see the the goodness on the inside cuz we have this opaque paper cup but I've got my wide mouth straw it's got the sharp end I'm going to poke it through I'm going to give this a try m there's nothing like the bubble teas in Taiwan because the price is just amazing I feel like it's so worth it because you can literally get like so many of these during your time here cuz it's so affordable and something that's so special about this sprink is it prizes the essence of cute which is a beloved texture that's everything bouncy gummy rubbery and chewy so a pro tip that we also want to share is that you don't want to get it fully sweetened just because that's actually too sweet you want it to be like a little bit less cuz there's this whole scale that you can pick the sweetness level yeah so I I always say salang saling so a little bit of sugar a little bit of ice and I think that's the perfect ratio also with a little bit of ice you actually get more cuz they they always fill it up all the way to the [Music] [Music] top next up we have or beef noodle soup and oh my goodness I'm absolutely in love with this dish essentially It's a combination of a lot of really wonderful things so there's some tangle noodles in there there's some beef tendon and also some really slowly braced beef that just melts away in your mouth and also that broth it has this signature five spice powder that will blow your mind and also you're supposed to kind of top it off with these pickled mustard greens that they have here on the table and honestly the combination of all these wonderful flavors makes it no question as to why it might be considered the national dish of Taiwan so let's get these pickled mustard greens on [Music] there don't want to burn my [Music] mouth the noodles in Taiwan are unmatched so bouncy oo and then get a little little bit of sauce the soup stock just like slathers your tongue in flavor like it literally fills it with like sweet Savory all of it yeah a little like a tiny tiny bit of spiciness too yeah yeah and what I also love about this dish is that they have these huge chunks of meat I feel like a lot of other dishes will like dice it really small and it's like incorporated into the entire dish but I like how it's like separate like it's its own little experience waiting have I can feel this getting Fuller and Fuller with every step but there's one last thing we want to try before we go and walk it off before we go and digest and I think we're pulling up pulling up with our legs pretty soon so far one of my favorite Parts about the city of Taipei in general is just as you walk through the city it is so stimulating in the fact that like every single shop is just so Random like you'll walk past a pet shop then a restaurant then a dentist office and you really never know what's around the corner and I think that's what's so cool and one other thing in case you didn't know this Taiwan is known for their mopeds like everyone rides mopeds around and I think it's such a fun aspect to the city yeah you can also tell that it's a very safe country cuz no one locks their bikes no one locks their mopeds they just leave them out yeah and they go on about their day we walked about 5 minutes over to this guapa place but unfortunately they are resting for 3 days which I'm very happy for them yeah good for them but we won't be able to show the guapa which is basically this like Taiwanese Burger it's kind of on like a somewhat of a MTO bread yeah it kind of looks like this and then on the inside you've got all sorts of delicious pork belly and veggie cilantro and peanuts but we'll have to pass on that maybe we'll find it at the street market tonight though yeah [Music] [Music] we just got off the metro and we've decided to sit down and share our second and sixth impressions of Taiwan so yeah go ahead all right so ever since visiting Taiwan that first time that was very early on in our travel days and what I remember in Taiwan was was just being completely and utterly overwhelmed from the food that we would see and the mopeds being everywhere also it was really hot when we visited last time so I was sweating this time I feel a lot more comfortable here um I'm just used to like how things are done in restaurants and also having Claire as a guide obviously it's great this is my sixth time in Taiwan crazy to think about that but the previous five times I visited it has always been in the summer oh my goodness it is so so hot in the summer it's to the point where you sometimes feel like you can't think straight um and so coming during the winter it feels amazing and the crowds aren't even I don't know where everyone is they're nonexistent yeah where is everyone I think a lot of the locals think it's really cold right now because I see them with like so many jackets on I think it's hilarious just cuz it feels like uh early spring yeah like early spring autumn weather like we can see that we're we're just very comfortable we feel great here and the humidity actually isn't as bad as I have always remembered it to be but after traveling around the world for the last couple of years it's been really awesome for me to be back in a country where I understand the language like people will speak to me in the local dialect and I can actually respond for once and I feel just so excited to finally be able to use my Mandarin because I obviously don't use it in my marriage I don't use it back home really anymore and so like being here in Taiwan and just uh kind of being immersed in the culture that I was raised in once again and has been really really special and to be back as an adult I am loving it oh I also wanted to add that the second impression or just something that I'm able to witness this time is I see Claire in a lot of the things here like the way that they do things they'll like be Thrifty and I don't know I just I see Claire in a lot of the like cultural aspects he he realizes the Taiwanese side of me yeah I think this time because it's a little bit cooler I hear so many birds they're singing all day long you can probably hear them in the background right now and also the trees and the greenery it's just so Lush everywhere that you look it's insane like beautiful when we first got off the plane and we're on the train coming into the city we said it literally feels like a Utopia here and it does it's like it has all of the like natural Greenery while still being a modern [Music] city [Music] we have made it to Chen Kai Shake Memorial Hall which is one of my favorite places that we visited last time that we came to Taiwan 6 years ago and this whole Space is this famous Plaza this public space that's completely free to enter apparently it was completed in the 1980s and everything is dedicated to a famous leader Chen Kai Shake it's all dedicated to him so that is what the memorial behind me which kind of has the statue of him inside and it has two soldiers that are like standing super still so that's really cool to see if you do come here I also love that they use this white stone on the building just because it makes all the colors in the park look so much more vibrant than they normally do just one short train ride later we've made it to the end of the red line which is the beginning of our hike up to the top of this mountain and I believe the Viewpoint is called or the mountain is called Elephant Mountain yes it's called shangan shangan and we're going to be hiking up there but I believe before we go up we're looking for like a little Supermarket or something to grab a snack so we can eat it up at the top and kind of take our time one two oh it it keeps going I don't know why he's got to show how many pull-ups he can do but something cool about uh Taiwan Parks is they have um I don't know machinery for adults to work out and for adults to have play time yeah I see some like pretty elderly people out here just you know doing all sorts of things and I think that's great like it's it should be that way it shouldn't just be for the children yeah absolutely I also just think it's very inviting like The Greenery and I don't know it just called to me that's pretty much why why I did [Music] that now begins the very tiring Ascent to the top of elephant Mountain oh my gosh like a million stairs but they're such small stairs yeah they're like half steps definitely taking my breath away [Music] though [Music] after climbing more stairs than I expected to be climbing today I'm going to refresh myself with this Don guata or this winter melon tea and I grew up drinking these it's going to bring me back down memory lane and I could really use something to drink right now oh I spilled it that'd be so sad oh my gosh as good as always the taste of taipe 101 so once a Upon a Time apparently Claire's sister bought me this drink but in can form and I'm going to give it a try and see how it is in Bottle form it tastes exactly like the can but it's really good I love this drink the other thing that I got from the convenience store is a f and it's very similar to Mento as in like the bread is this pillowy soft cottony delicious bun but on the inside there is a meat filling in it I can't even hit the meat but you can see the meat inside good meat you got some I haven't gotten the meat yet here here I'll get the meat after making it to the top of elephant Mountain we've cooled off we've caught our breath we ate our snack and now we're taking a little detour through the forest it's very nice yeah it is just so Lush up here and it's actually getting quite cool um I think also because we're higher up in the mountains I'm getting a little chilly smells so good just the fresh air yeah I'm like inhaling tremendously filling my lungs up with all of this delicious delicious air oh my gosh but I believe now we're going to head back down we're going to make our way towards the night market where we're going to indulge in just an array of foods I know I feel like we've done a lot of really awesome things today but I think this is going to be the highlight the night market yeah for [Music] sure [Music] what an assembly line they have we just made it to the rala night market and we went in and the first stop I already had something from my list and this here is a h chaing or a pork pepper bun it's basically a nice delicious hot steaming bun that's filled with the juiciest pepper pork you can ever imagine and it's actually cooked inside of this uh cylinder that's uh I think it's ceramic and they kind of stick it to the edge and it just like heats up into this goodness right here so let's give it a little bite M I don't know if you can hear that but there was some serious crunch when I bit in and the inside is just so so juicy oh it's like com food more Savory than I expected and the bread is like it's baked more I guess I was used to the Manel so I was expecting something like softer but it's more crispy like a scallion pancake yeah yeah like it's a little bit flaky you can see the layers coming off of it actually all right right so we've got ourselves a drink this isai or papaya milk and basically it's milk with papaya and it tastes so good I think there's also some condensed milk in there as well CLA told me all about this drink when she was growing up she would have it and excited to try it for me papaya has always been an interesting fruit because the first bite for the first taste of it I'm not like totally into it but as I drink it more then I crave it it's so good like I already know I'm going to want another that's nice okay sh next up we have probably the most common street food item in Taiwan this is y g or Taiwanese fried chicken and these little nuggets are actually deep fried twice resulting in a very crispy and thin shell yeah and another thing you can note is that most of the SS will have a spice that you can put on because we we did previously and it was just a little bit too spicy for us oh should I wait for you I put it all Cheers Cheers refill refill I believe we have found the perfect ornament for Taiwan it is a little bubble tea and it's actually really cool cuz they have bubbles inside and it moves around definitely Chad's favorite thing here in Taiwan so this will be on our Christmas tree this upcoming Christmas it feels really good to rest our legs after walking around this bustling night market and we have come to an eery that specializes in this dish right here OA or oyster vermicelli noodles and essentially it is a really thick um very slimy soup with vermell noodles as well as hunks of oyster and pig intestine and then it's top off with some cilantro and then you also want to put in a big splash of vinegar the Aromas what I love about this is it's a little bit sour a little bit sweet but also a little bit spicy and a little bit Savory it's got like everything in there and it's got such a distinct flavor that like once you have it you'll remember it forever little bit of spice it is really good I think with all the food that cl's introduced me to at first I was a little bit skeptical but then you just crave it yeah you never really have sour dishes in America so good we just went to this Michelin rated Mochi place and the the owner was very adamant that we eat this right now right now he said that to me three times in Mandarin um but basically Mochi or Mai um is very popular here in Taiwan it's this very chewy rice cake and on the inside there's a filling and I believe on the outside of this one there's this beautiful um peanut powder that they kind of toss it [Music] in did you eat it soon enough I think I ate it soon enough wow one of the best mju I've eat hands down wow that's [Music] amazing [Music] we have something new that Chad has never tried before this here is oin or oyster omelette and it's basically really crispy on the outside gooey gooey on the inside it's slathered in this sweet sour sauce and fil f with some cabbage and a really Clump [Music] oyster I'm not a big oyster guy like it's not my to thing unless they're raw all of a sudden those things so first impressions I didn't think it was good Second Impressions after continuing to eat it it was really good I just had to get used to that texture because that texture for me has never been food like in my realm of what food is I've never had something that bouncy and chewy even more than Mochi honestly it was like so interesting but the flavor amazing I would recommend you guys [Music] [Music] try next up on the list is a nice summery dessert even though we're missing in the winter we still had to indulge this is spping or shaved ice we got the mango one and basically it's a big block of ice or a frozen milkshake that is shaved down into this delicious pile of goodness and because we got the mango on and CHP with some fresh mango and also some condensed milk tap yoga pearls and grass jelly and I actually added on the tap pearls and grass J so nice dark with the Y may as you can see it's almost like snow like it's not really big chunks of hece it's very light and fluffy how would he shav face I would typically think of like a snow Con in the US this is like a thousand times better than we are just about done with our shaved ice and the way that I Define a good dessert is whether or not I drink water while eating it and throughout this entire time we both have not taken a single sip of water because it's just it's very light it's not too sweet and it's perfect I feel like it's a nice palette cleanser and honestly I'm ready to go out and eat again and that's just what I love about Taiwanese desserts they always make it perfectly sweet never too much delicious yes thank you so much the final thing that we're going to eat tonight is shalong baow it's these little soup dumplings and although we had so many other things on the list I think we're going to have to cut it off with these cuz there are 10 in this serving so these dumplings are very intricately wrapped as you can see there's several folds on the top and then inside is some really hot soup as well as some delicious pork so normally I would have a spoon and I would bite a hole let the soup drip into it but all I have tonight is a stick so use a different method I suppose yeah that is so much better than the ones you can buy from the grocery store the only thing that could improve it is just a tiny bit of spice but man that is so nice mhm we got the pleasure of eating so many amazing Foods today and honestly we still have a lot more to try things like stinky tofu and hot pot but our stomachs cannot have anything else in there oh my gosh I'm so full but full of really great food but if you want to continue to see what we eat here in Taiwan and all the other Adventures that we have as we travel to 50 countries around the world Hit subscribe and with all that said we'll catch you on the next one [Music] bye

Channel: Chad and Claire

Views: 71,490

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Id: 7wfglgfmP5c

Length: 27min 50sec (1670 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2024