Ice Monster

Shaved ice is a classic Taiwanese dessert in the summer. One of the best known places in Taipei is called Ice Monster.

For around $5-$6, you get a HUGE bowl of shaved ice with your choice of toppings. I heard the mango one was incredible (with chunks of sweet, fresh mango on top). I did not hear of this until after I had visited Ice Monster, so I did not order that dish. If I ever go again, I would definitely try it. The Taipei Times has an interesting article here that talks about how the owner, under the pressure of difficult business and tough financial times, developed the mango shaved ice that shot business off the ground.

Anyway, I didn't try the mango. Instead, I ordered the mochi shaced ice.

It was still incredible! It had mochi balls of all different shapes and sizes, and even a huge flat mochi pancake on top. The dish also had sweet red bean topping (azuki) and condensed milk. It was really good! The various mochis had subtly different texture and flavors, so it was fun to try them all. Some were really chewy ("Q" in Taiwanese), while others were softer and sweeter. Over all, they complemented the azuki and condensed milk perfectly. The portion size is generous, and I shared one with my mom. We could have easily shared with a third person.

Ice Monster is located at 15 Yongkang street. Right off of Ding Tai Fung (original), not too far from other good places to eat. Apparently, one of the famous beef noodle restaurants is also on this street. The original Ding Tai Fung is also nearby.

Ice Monster
15 Yong Kang St., Da'an
hours: 11am-11pm

Ice Monster

Shaved ice is a classic Taiwanese dessert in the summer. One of the best known places in Taipei is called Ice Monster.

For around $5-$6, you get a HUGE bowl of shaved ice with your choice of toppings. I heard the mango one was incredible (with chunks of sweet, fresh mango on top). I did not hear of this until after I had visited Ice Monster, so I did not order that dish. If I ever go again, I would definitely try it. The Taipei Times has an interesting article here that talks about how the owner, under the pressure of difficult business and tough financial times, developed the mango shaved ice that shot business off the ground.

Anyway, I didn't try the mango. Instead, I ordered the mochi shaced ice.

It was still incredible! It had mochi balls of all different shapes and sizes, and even a huge flat mochi pancake on top. The dish also had sweet red bean topping (azuki) and condensed milk. It was really good! The various mochis had subtly different texture and flavors, so it was fun to try them all. Some were really chewy ("Q" in Taiwanese), while others were softer and sweeter. Over all, they complemented the azuki and condensed milk perfectly. The portion size is generous, and I shared one with my mom. We could have easily shared with a third person.

Ice Monster is located at 15 Yongkang street. Right off of Ding Tai Fung (original), not too far from other good places to eat. Apparently, one of the famous beef noodle restaurants is also on this street. The original Ding Tai Fung is also nearby.

Ice Monster
15 Yong Kang St., Da'an
hours: 11am-11pm

Aoba (Chin Yeh)

My mom told me that Aoba ("Chinyeh" in Chinese) was better than Shin Yeh, which everyone on the web seems to rave about. Shin Yeh is a large chain, and recently opened a nice classy outpost on the top of Taipei 101. Since my relatives all said Aoba was better, we went there instead.

The food was definitely solid, but we were not blown away. The 3 cup chicken (pictured above) was tasty, and better than any version we'd ever had in Boston.

The Taiwanese lumpia (pictured below) was interesting, but not that yummy. I think I liked the one I had at a Singapore food stall better.

I loved the rice noodle soup (only $3!). It was tasty with strong umami without being too salty, and it was satisfying to eat.

It reminded Bryan of those rice noodle ramen packages that they sell.

Finally, we ordered the special, sauteed livers. I'm not a fan of liver, so I didn't like it that much. Bryan only thought it was OK.

All in all, it's a nice place to try some traditional Taiwanese food, but if you think your stomach can handle it, you can probably get just as good food on the street for a lot less money.

Yonghe Soy Bean Milk / Sheraton Taipei

When we were in Taiwan, we had breakfast included at our hotel every morning. Actually, the breakfast at the Sheraton Taipei is pretty good. Here is a picture below of a typical breakfast. It was a buffet, and I typically would get congee with a bunch of sides (chili bamboo shoots, pickled cucumbers, gluten, fermented tofu) and of course topped with a good heaping of pork sung.

There was also you tiao (fried oil stick) with soy bean milk (not pictured), which we sometimes had.

As a result of the included breakfast, we did not get a chance to venture out and eat Taiwanese street breakfast until the last day!

And oh, how good it was! And cheap! Why didn't we come earlier???

We walked down the street that the Sheraton was on (ZhongXiao East Rd) away from Taipei Main Station for about 15 minutes. We then went to this hole in the wall traditional Taiwanese breakfast place.

Yummmm . . it was so good. This is everything we ordered.

Dan pi is an egg burrito of sorts. The freshly handmade pancake is cooked with a fried egg and then rolled up. It was delicious here, and probably cost around $1. In fact, most items cost around $1 or less. I think the entire meal was less than $5.

Pictured below is a shaobing youtiao. Essentially, it is a fried dough stick inside a sesame pastry. You dip the "sandwich" into the sweet soy milk (kind of like a French Dip).

Salty soy milk is fresh soy milk that had curdled due to the addition of vinegar. The remaining product looks a bit like very soft tofu in soup. Salty soy milk typically includes chopped up "you tiao" (yes, the fried dough sticks from before), za tsai (chopped pickled mustard greens), scallions, and hot oil. If the soy milk is not good quality thick soy milk, the salty soy milk won't curdle as thickly.

The soy milk here was excellent, and the salty soy milk was nice and thickly tofu-like.

If you go to Taiwan, I would definitely recommend you have traditional Taiwanese breakfast at least once!

Formosa (In the Howard Plaza Hotel)

Formosa restaurant is at the basement of the Howard Plaza Hotel near Ren-Ai Road. I think it's a popular place for people to take their relatives since there are large banquet style tables and they serve a lot of authentic and solid Taiwanese food.

It's like eating night market food in a clean, banquet style atmosphere and paying a premium for that privilege.

My entire family (myself included!) thought that the food was really good. Here's some pictures of the dishes we had:

Stewed Pork belly. This is quintessential Taiwanese, and they made it well here. Yum.

I'd never had these local greens before, but they were good. They curled at the ends, not unlike fiddleheads.

Three-cup chicken. Another Taiwanese classic. This is a super fragrant dish where bone-in chicken pieces are stewed with soy sauce, sugar, wine, and basil.

I had never had this before - some sort of flavored crab rice. It was good.

I love how all these Taiwanese restaurants give you peanut-powder covered mochi balls as a free dessert after the meal. I absolutely love these balls. I might try to make some soon. I'll definitely post my experiments in that arena if I go there. :)

Over all, this was a solid, Taiwanese restaurant that is great for large family gatherings. The service was fast, and the food was very good.

Formosa Restaurant
No. 160 Ren Ai Rd Sec 3
Taipei 106 Taiwan

Shilin Night Market - Food Pictures!

Duck Tongue


Insects? Snails? Barnacles?


"Frog Eggs"


Fresh Fruit

Celestial Restaurant - Peking Duck

"Best Pecking Duck I've ever had in my life" - Bryan Che

Seriously, the Peking duck at Celestial Restaurant was phenomenal. It's located upstairs of the Royal Inn Taipei on the second floor. The prices are quite reasonable (we paid around $40 for a 3-course duck meal and we did not even come close to finishing the food).

After bringing out the whole duck for show, they take it back into the kitchen, slice it up, and then bring out the golden, crispy skins. The freshly made pancakes were amazing. They were warm, chewy, and just the right thickness. We made little Peking duck "roll-ups" with duck skin, scallions, and hoisin sauce.

Next, the rest of the duck meat came out. Wow, the rolls made with duck skin plus duck meat was even tastier, in my opinion. The flavors of the fresh scallions, hoisin sauce, tender meat, and crispy skin came together in a perfect harmony of flavors.

Wow.

Bryan ate eight rolls (!)

As part of the three course meal, we also got a light stir fry consisting of bean sprouts and small pieces of duck meat. It was good, refreshing, and solid, but nothing extraordinary.

Finally, at the end of the meal, we got a big bowl of glass noodle soup made with the duck bones. The soup was flavorful and warm. We were so full at that point, however, we probably did not enjoy it as much as we would have enjoyed it had we had it first.

All in all, an excellent meal and a great value. According to my guide book , it's the "best value Beijing duck in Taipei" ((The Rough Guide to Taiwan page 126).

Oh - I forgot to mention that we ordered a small appetizer that's pretty well known there: blanched celery in a sweet mustard sauce. It's surprising good. The pungent kick of wasabi is tempered by the sweetness of the sauce. It's quite an interesting mix, and combined with the crunch of the celery, actually works pretty well.

Celestial Restaurant
3/F, 1 Nanjing West Road
Taipei, Taiwan

Ding Tai Fung (Taipei)

I love Ding Tai Fung. It's one of my favorite restaurants, period.

Pictured above is my favorite dumpling: the meat and vegetable dumpling. As you can see, it's mostly vegetable, which I love! It's not greasy at all. It's moist and flavorful on the inside and it's got that AWESOME skin on the outside . . . sooo good (can you tell that I love this restaurant???)

We ate at this restaurant three times during our four day stay in Taiwan since I love this restaurant so much. Perfectly kneaded skin; small, delicate xiao-long baos (soup dumplings) whose skins miraculously don't break even though they are filled with hot, juicy soup.

Heavenly eating experience. I would eat there every day if I could.

Prices are quite reasonable too. Dinner cost about $20 for three people - and we were really stuffed!

We went to several different locations. It's worth trying out the original one just because the ambiance seems more authentic. There is a newer one in the basement of Sogo, but it's just a bit more upscale, and thus you lose a little bit of the character.

In both places, you can watch the guys make the dumplings:

Even their other non-dumpling dishes are very good. We tried their hong-yo chao shou (hot oil wontons), Fried rice, Wonton soup, and Hot & Sour soup [yes, I know these sound like American style Chinese dishes, but honestly, we ordered them based on recommendations from our Taiwanese relatives!]. Although these other dishes were pretty good, I probably wouldn't order them again when I could just order more dumplings instead!

Be prepared to wait almost anytime you go. Our wait times varied between 10 minutes to 50 minutes depending on the time of day. I think it's virtually impossible to show up and not have to wait.

Bryan thought that he couldn't tell the difference between the one in Taipei and the one in California (Arcadia). I'm not sure I'm convinced of that, but I will say that the one in Taiwan is AWESOME!

Original restaurant:
194 Xin Yi Road, Section 2
Taipei 106 Taiwan

Ding Tai Fung (Taipei)

I love Ding Tai Fung. It's one of my favorite restaurants, period.

Pictured above is my favorite dumpling: the meat and vegetable dumpling. As you can see, it's mostly vegetable, which I love! It's not greasy at all. It's moist and flavorful on the inside and it's got that AWESOME skin on the outside . . . sooo good (can you tell that I love this restaurant???)

We ate at this restaurant three times during our four day stay in Taiwan since I love this restaurant so much. Perfectly kneaded skin; small, delicate xiao-long baos (soup dumplings) whose skins miraculously don't break even though they are filled with hot, juicy soup.

Heavenly eating experience. I would eat there every day if I could.

Prices are quite reasonable too. Dinner cost about $20 for three people - and we were really stuffed!

We went to several different locations. It's worth trying out the original one just because the ambiance seems more authentic. There is a newer one in the basement of Sogo, but it's just a bit more upscale, and thus you lose a little bit of the character.

In both places, you can watch the guys make the dumplings:

Even their other non-dumpling dishes are very good. We tried their hong-yo chao shou (hot oil wontons), Fried rice, Wonton soup, and Hot & Sour soup [yes, I know these sound like American style Chinese dishes, but honestly, we ordered them based on recommendations from our Taiwanese relatives!]. Although these other dishes were pretty good, I probably wouldn't order them again when I could just order more dumplings instead!

Be prepared to wait almost anytime you go. Our wait times varied between 10 minutes to 50 minutes depending on the time of day. I think it's virtually impossible to show up and not have to wait.

Bryan thought that he couldn't tell the difference between the one in Taipei and the one in California (Arcadia). I'm not sure I'm convinced of that, but I will say that the one in Taiwan is AWESOME!

Original restaurant:
194 Xin Yi Road, Section 2
Taipei 106 Taiwan