byginzo

A personal Taipei travel diary from December 2025, filled with Taiwanese food worth remembering, night markets, rainy evenings and an unexpected earthquake on our last night.

Taipei was the first stop of our December trip down Taiwan’s west coast, making our way south through Taichung, Chiayi and Tainan before eventually reaching Kaohsiung. My partner and I spent our days eating our way through Taipei, walking off all that food, and seeing what else we could stumble upon.

And then, on our last night in Taipei, the building started moving.

But before that, there was a lot of food.

the food i still think about

一甲子餐飲 · braised pork rice

This was the best lu rou fan of my life.

That’s probably enough of a review, but the queue starts early, so go early if you can. We ended up with the braised pork rice with an egg, along with a gua bao, and I still remember how good it was.

Some meals are just good while you’re eating them. This was one I kept thinking about afterwards.

raohe street night market · salt-grilled tilapia · roujiamo

The salt-grilled tilapia at Raohe was probably the biggest surprise of the trip.

It looked like something we could easily skip, but it ended up being the best night-market fish we had in Taiwan. It was meaty, fresh, and didn’t have that weird powdery texture I sometimes associate with grilled fish.

If you’re getting it, let them know you need a seat. They’ll find one for you, or tell you how long the wait will be.

Also: get a roujiamo each. We shared one and regretted not getting our own.

福珍排骨酥麵 · a rainy-day meal

We found this place on a rainy day when we were hungry and just wanted something warm near our stay.

It was my first time having pork rib noodles in that thick, starchy broth, and somehow this became one of the meals I still think about from the trip. The curry rice hits straight to home.

We struggled a little with ordering because the menu was in 繁体 traditional chinese, but one of the staff thankfully noticed our tiny struggle and managed to help us out. Turns out, there was an English menu too! which saved us.

Sometimes the best meals aren’t the ones you planned.

Ningxia Night Market 寧夏夜市 · stinky tofu soup

I know stinky tofu is not everyone’s thing, but the soup here was genuinely one of my favourite things I ate in Taipei.

It was herbal, earthy and really hearty, especially on a cold night. You can add noodles too – we saw a couple of locals having it that way, but we were already too full.

The papaya milk was worth getting too, though you’ll find it at plenty of night markets around Taiwan.

We also tried the Michelin-recommended oyster omelette (Yuen Huan Pien Oyster Egg Omelette 圓環邊蚵仔煎) – honestly, we prefer the one back home. 5/10.

Ningxia felt underrated to me. We went expecting another night market and left thinking we’d happily come back to try more food.

Yoshikawa Seafood Don · the accidental find

We actually stumbled across this little Japanese restaurant while walking from our Airbnb towards Zhongshan Station.

It’s a small standalone shop, so there’s not much fanfare around it – we just happened to walk past, saw the menu, and decided to give it a try.

The seafood don was affordable and really hit the spot when we were craving some Japanese food, but the thing I still remember most was the shrimp miso soup.

The broth was thick. Like, properly comforting thick, with a rich umami flavour.

It was also freezing that day, so sitting there with a hot bowl of miso soup was exactly what we needed.

If you’re going, I’d try to get there earlier. It’s a small place and I can imagine it filling up pretty quickly.

WEEKEND CHICKEN Taipei Dome · chicken + Kuromi pop-up

As a huge Kuromi fan, visiting the Kuromi 20th Anniversary pop-up near Taipei Dome was obviously a non-negotiable. 😂 I was so happy that it happened to be running during our trip!

We also managed to try WEEKEND CHICKEN nearby. The chicken was freshly made on the spot, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, without feeling too heavy. The garlic fries were flavourful too! Honestly, I wish they had WEEKEND CHICKEN in Singapore. It might just become my go-to cheat meal.

Kuromi and good fried chicken? I’d say that was a pretty successful stop.

Ah Cheng Goose · smoked goose and goose oil noodles & rice

If you’re planning to visit during dinner, I’d recommend making a reservation if possible. Otherwise, you might end up queuing for at least 30 minutes, especially during peak dinner hours.

This was my first time trying smoked goose, and I was pleasantly surprised by just how flavourful it was. The goose had a really savoury, smoky taste that I wasn’t quite expecting, because I honestly did not know what to expect. But it was tasty!

We ordered one bowl of rice and noodles to go with the smoked goose because neither was your usual plain rice or noodles. Both were tossed with goose oil, which gave them that extra bit of flavour.

Personally, I preferred the noodles because I’m more of a noodle girly. 😂 But if you’re going with someone, I’d say order both to try. It’s a good way to get a bit of variety, especially if you’re sharing.

We also tried the goose blood cake (mixue gao), which came topped with sweet peanut powder, a savoury-sweet sauce and coriander. This one was a little more divisive for us.

The texture was soft and chewy, almost like mochi, and the taste was a mix of sweet and savoury. It wasn’t really our thing, but we did meet some locals who genuinely loved blood cake and said they craved it from time to time.

If you enjoy mochi-like textures and don’t mind sweet and savoury flavours in the same dish, give it a try! If you’re like me and prefer to keep those flavours separate, I’d probably give it a pass – unless you’re in a bigger group and everyone just wants a little taste.

My pick? The smoked goose and goose oil noodles. I’d happily have those again.

EZ5 Live House 音樂餐廳 + Kani Kani Cafe & Bar · what happened that night

We went out for drinks at EZ5 Live House and Kani Kani Cafe & Bar, and let’s just say I had a very good night.

So good, in fact, that the next day I couldn’t stop projectile vomiting.

Was it worth it?

At the time, absolutely not.

In hindsight?

What a great night out. 😂

Somewhere in between the drinking and whatever else we were doing, we also ended up at a little local supper spot.

It was one of those places where you basically pick your own combination of dishes – a very Taiwan version of “cai fan”. Plain porridge, braised tofu, vegetables, stinky tofu… whatever you wanted went onto the plate.

And apparently, despite being drunk, I had one very strong opinion.

THE STINKY TOFU STANKSSS.

I apparently kept saying it.Repeatedly.

Which is especially funny because I had literally eaten stinky tofu soup earlier in the trip and enjoyed it.

I don’t remember much else from that night.

But apparently drunk me + local supper + extremely offensive-smelling stinky tofu was a core memory.

Taipei: 1. My liver: 0.

taipei in between meals

The food was a big part of the trip, but some of my favourite memories weren’t planned around food at all.

We spent one rainy evening wandering around Ximending, with umbrellas everywhere, Christmas lights glowing above the streets, and crowds moving around us.

We ended up buying umbrellas too, thanks to a very convincing shop owner. 😂 She demonstrated how we didn’t need to air-dry them after using them – just give them a good shake to get the water off, and voilà! Ready to keep.

Honestly, we were sold. One umbrella each, please.

We went up to Beitou Thermal Valley (also known as Hell Valley or 地獄谷) and found the warmest bubble milk tea at the little stall near the entrance. I’m not even a big bubble tea person, but this one was so good that I still remember it.

We also went out to Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf and had a seafood dinner that was surprisingly good and reasonably priced. The lit-up bridge at night was probably the nicest part, but was too windy and dark to capture. I recall we took Red 26 bus, which is the most popular route straight to Fisherman’s Wharf and Lover’s Bridge. That’s when we realised that the bus drivers there drive like crazy need for speed, no wonder the elderly would rush in the bus to try and get a seat.

And we did the usual tourist things too – Shifen, Jiufen, the waterfall, the old streets, the black pork sausage at Shifen that was apparently famous enough that even our Klook tour guide bought two for himself.

Fun fact: the sausage stall has been there for over 2 decades. Don’t know the name of the stall, but lookout for it based on my image below!

There were also things that looked better on TikTok than they did in real life.

Wulai was one of them.

It took a fair bit of effort to get there, unexpected number of steps to climb up, and the lake was much smaller than I expected from the videos. We were lucky enough to finish before the heavy rain came, but if I were short on time, this would be an easy skip. 

the night the building swayed

27 December 2025.

We were staying on the 11th floor of a condo sitting right above Taipei Main Station and the mall, so we were really quite high up.

It was around 11pm. My partner and I were lying in bed watching IG Reels and laughing hysterically at the videos.

Then the bed started moving.

At first, he thought I was shaking my leg.

But then the building started creaking.

And that’s when I realised – oh.

We’re having an earthquake.

The building was actually swaying from side to side, and suddenly it wasn’t so funny anymore. 😂

It didn’t last very long, but in the moment, it felt like forever. Long enough for my brain to run through every possible worst-case scenario. And then, once the news started reaching Singapore, the messages started coming in.

And somehow, after all that, we still went back to sleep.

Because apparently nothing says goodnight like an earthquake on the 11th floor right?

The next morning was checkout day, so we packed up, said goodbye to Taipei, and took the high-speed rail south to Taichung.

And just like that, Taipei was over.

Oh – and this was the view from our balcony. That dome you can see is actually Q Square Mall.

Thought it was a pretty nice view to have.

a few things i’d tell a friend

Go early for the lu rou fan at 一甲子餐飲. The queue starts early. Remember to bring sufficient cash because Taiwan is still quite cash-heavy.

At Raohe, get the tilapia. And if you see something you really like, don’t make the mistake of ordering one to share when you know you’ll want another.

Try the stinky tofu soup at Ningxia. Add noodles if you’re hungry. Perfect for hangovers too.

Get the warm bubble milk tea near the entrance to Beitou Thermal Valley.

If ordering feels impossible, ask if they have an English menu. Sometimes, shops might have it and someone will usually help!

And if you’re planning to visit somewhere because you saw it all over TikTok, maybe check what the weather is doing first.

what i want to remember

I don’t think I’ll remember every restaurant we went to.

I probably won’t remember the exact route we took through Taipei either.

But I want to remember standing in the rain in Ximending.

The steam rising from Beitou.

The first bite of that lu rou fan.

The ridiculous amount of food we ate at night markets.

And lying on the 11th floor, laughing at IG Reels right before we realised the entire building was moving.

That’s probably what I wanted this blog for in the first place.

Not to remember the trip perfectly.

Just to remember it at all.

next: taichung → chiayi → tainan → kaohsiung