Taiwan Hualien Food

In this post I’ll try to cover all the yummy food I had in Hualien.

First up, we have the xiao long baos and soya bean drink. The bao was not bad but I think it pales in comparison to Ding Tai Fung’s version of xiao long bao.

In this famous 24 hours bao store, it was pretty crowded and you can see them making the baos as you eat. Just look at how high those steamer baskets stacked up!

Just as with most parts of Taiwan, you can find betel nuts sold here too.

Next stop was the famous wanton stall.

Once again, this is all freshly hand made on order! We had these wanton soups to go so that we can enjoy them on the train ride back to Taipei.

I would have loved to stop by to try the famous Lai Chen Pork Rib Noodles but we simply didn’t have time. For those who have tried it before, was it good?

Our driver then kindly sent us to the very famous roadside store to pick up our pre-ordered  scallion pancake ( green onion pancake) or otherwise known in Taiwan as 葱油饼 Chong You Bing. When we got there, the queue was really long so it was a good thing the driver called an hour in advance to reserve our orders. It was a quick pick up and go.

The scallion pancake 葱油饼 is a tad oily but pretty good. It’s made with dough rather than batter and fried.

We also made a stop to get the famous Muah Chee  at Zeng Ji 曾记, a local specialty chain! They had loads of pre-packed goodies to buy home for friends but I was more keen on the freshly made muah chee that has no preservatives. Unfortunately, that meant the freshly made ones have to be consumed immediately and cannot be brought back to Singapore.

I picked quite a few flavours including peanut, taro, red bean, sweet potato and green bean. My personal favorite is the peanut flavored one. The rest were fun to eat for novelty sake but not as tasty as the peanut version.

They also sold muah chee ice-cream and I bought the chocolate one for dessert.

Last stop was the 7-11 store at the train station where we bought some hot (yes they sell hot can drinks!) and cold Ovaltine drinks for the journey back to Taipei.

And this concludes my Hualien side trip!