5 Favourite Taiwanese foods

1. Braised pork rice (滷肉飯)

A Taiwanese saying goes, "Where there is a wisp of smoke from the kitchen chimney, there will be lurou fan" (braised pork with rice). The popularity of this humble dish cannot be overstated. 

"Lurou fan" is synonymous with Taiwan.

The Taipei city government launched a "braised pork rice is ours" campaign last year after Michelin’s Green Guide Taiwan claimed that the dish is from Shandong Province in mainland China.

A good bowl of lurou fan has finely chopped, not quite minced, pork belly, slow-cooked in aromatic soy sauce with five spices. There should be an ample amount of fattiness, in which lies the magic.

The meat is spooned over hot rice.  

A little sweet, a little salty, the braised pork rice is comfort food perfected.

2. Beef noodle (牛肉麵)

You know it's an obsession when it gets its own festival.

Beef noodle soup is a dish that inspires competitiveness and innovation in chefs. Everyone wants to claim the title of beef noodle king.

From visiting Niu Ba Ba for one of the most expensive bowls of beef noodle soup in the world (TW$10,000, or US$334) to a serendipitous duck into the first makeshift noodle shack that you spot, it's almost impossible to have a bad beef noodle experience in Taiwan.

Lin Dong Fang's beef shanks with al dente noodles in a herbal soup are a perennial favorite. The streetside eatery’s secret weapon is the dollop of homemade chili-butter added last.

3. Oyster omelet (蚵仔煎)

Here's a snack that really showcases the fat of the land of Taiwan. You've got something from the sea and something from the soil.

The eggs are the perfect foil for the little oysters easily found around the island, while sweet potato starch is added to give the whole thing a gooey chewiness -- a signature Taiwan food texture.

No wonder it was voted best snack to represent the islandin a poll of 1,000 Taiwanese by Global Views Monthly in 2007

4. Coffin bread (棺材板)

This Tainan specialty is a mutated offspring of French toast and chowder.

An extra thick piece of bread is hollowed out to resemble a flat bread bowl. It is toasted to harden it and then filled with seafood chowder.

Legend says a Taiwanese chef who studied Western cooking invented this bread-soup-bowl-with-corners.

One day an archeologist tried the toast and told the chef, “It looks just like the coffin I am excavating now.”

Thus, the chowder soup took on its morbid Chinese name, which means "coffin bread."

5. Gua bao (割包)

It's a hamburger, Taiwan-style.

A steamed bun sandwiches a hearty filling of braised pork belly, pickled Chinese cabbage and powdered peanuts.

The filling is chopped up into small pieces and mixed together so there's a bit of everything in every bite. Consider doing this with Western hamburgers.

Take in a big mouthful and enjoy the salty, sour and sweet flavors and the greasy pork swimming in your mouth.