Taipei City - 張記油豆腐細粉 ZhangJi Breakfast store

Value for money: 8/10

Cleanliness: 6/10

Service: 7/10

Quality of food: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Anyone who is a big pastry fan (like I am) is sure to love the smell and the sight when you walk inside this place!  

Here we have a selection of the shallow fried dumplings 生煎小包, layered bun cake 千層大包, Sweetened red bean bun 豆沙大包 and also the meat bun 鮮肉大包. They are all steamed in these beautiful bamboo steamers. The layered cakes are then put onto the hot plate to keep warm, whereas all the others are served instantly. 

Inside, this place is pretty small. Most people take out, it seems. But there is still a healthy amount of people eating in. 

The menu is all in Chinese, as it is a very traditional Taiwanese place, in a very traditional Taiwanese area. The name of the shop is 油豆腐細粉, so I would suggest ordering that, for definite. 

Yes, yes, yes and yes! This hot sauce is brilliant. Vinegary, spicy, fresh onion flavour and garlic. Get it done, bathe your 生煎小包 or 餛飩 and soak in the spicy goodness.

Here's what we ordered:

1. 油豆腐細粉 yóu dòu fǔ xì fěn Tofu, dumpling and glass noodle soup.

2. 豆沙大包 dòu shā dà bāo Sweetened red bean steamed bun.

3. 豆沙酥餅 dòu shā sū bǐng Sweetened red bean pastry.

4. 蘿蔔絲餅 luó bō sī bǐng Daikon Radish pastry.

5. 鹹豆漿 xián dòu jiāng Salty Soy Milk.

1. 油豆腐細粉 yóu dòu fǔ xì fěn Tofu, dumpling and glass noodle soup.

The soup, itself, is really not that tasty. It lacks flavour of any kind at all. However, take out the egg skin meat dumplings, tofu and the wantons, and you're onto a winner! 

Here is the thin skinned wanton. The wanton is filled with a pork mixture, which is very nicely seasoned. It tastes very fresh and it works really well. On the spoon, there is an egg skinned meat dumpling. The egg on the outside is very delicate and the inside tastes similar to the wanton filling. Left inside the bowl is the tofu. This kind of tofu (油豆腐) remains silky smooth inside whilst being a thicker skin on the outside. The flavour of all ingredients is great. However, the soup and also the noodles lack any flavour at all. 

Glass noodles are something I am not really a convert to, anyway. They tend to be soft, slimy and tasteless. Why not just go with a nice flour noodle and have some taste and texture?

2. 豆沙大包 dòu shā dà bāo Sweetened red bean steamed bun.

There's nothing quite like the smell of fresh bread in the morning (granted, usually it is freshly baked bread), and this steamed bread aroma comes wafting towards you as it comes to your table.

Steamed in the bamboo steamer and filled with a sweetened red bean paste, the fresh bread and bean flavour compliment each other very nicely. The red bean paste has been sweetened using brown sugar, which has imparted a slightly smoky flavour that works well with the earthy red bean.

3. 豆沙酥餅 dòu shā sū bǐng Sweetened red bean pastry.

The French are gastronomic mega-giants, and they enjoy pastry for breakfast. With that in mind, why can't we (in Taiwan) enjoy that, too? We can, with this! 

Flaky, crunchy, buttery pastry gives way to a deliciously smoky and smooth red bean paste (the same used in the red bean steamed bun, above). I feel that the pastry here is really, really good. It offers a great crunch to it, and flakes away with each mouthful. In that respect it is better to my favorite 豆沙酥餅 at 世界都將王. However, where it does fall short against that other one, is the filling. This filling is good, but that filling is better. I should buy one of each and mix them together, and my weekend breakfast would be ecstasy in a mouthful (the feeling of ecstasy, not the actual drug. Please don't do drugs!). 

4. 蘿蔔絲餅 luó bō sī bǐng Daikon Radish pastry.

I will warn you, if you try it, you may never go back to any other 蘿蔔絲餅. I ate this one, and also got another one to take-out when we finished our meal. The take-out was well intentioned to be my afternoon snack, but it barely made it 5 paces from the shop before it was in my mouth. I am a huge fan of this radish pastry.

The radish is sliced thinly and layered together with scallions and garlic. The mixture works wonderfully well together and it softens the inside of the pastry to make it soft, but it still allows the outside to retain its same wonderful crunchiness. It's a triumph, it really is.



5. 鹹豆漿 xián dòu jiāng Salty Soy Milk.

A lot like FuHang Soy Milk , this salty soy milk is a great breakfast staple. The soy milk is hot, and mixes with scallions and 油條 yóu tiáo to come together as a great bowl of breakfast greatness. Whilst it says salty, it isn't too salty (especially when eaten with the 豆沙酥餅). The soy milk tastes good, and its refreshing to not have the thick, sweet, gloopy soy milk that most places provide...


Overall, I would say this place is a pretty solid breakfast shop. However, it isn't in a very convenient location. Now, if you are a market goer and a food lover, I would suggest hitting this place up fairly early and then going for a walk round the corner to the incredibly popular market road (富民路) or across the road at the massive indoor fruit and vegetable market. If you are a really early bird, you could even head to the large fish market (台北魚市) next to the fruit and vegetable market. 


Best dish: 4. 蘿蔔絲餅 luó bō sī bǐng Daikon Radish pastry - I really like the big, white, Daikon radish and I really like pastry. In the morning, mixed together? This is a no-brainer, for me. 

Dish I wouldn't order again: 2. 豆沙大包 dòu shā dà bāo Sweetened red bean steamed bun - It seems to lose heat and become hard very quickly. I would suggest going for the 豆沙酥餅 dòu shā sū bǐng, instead. 




台北市萬華區萬大路479號

No. 479, WanDa Road, WanHua District, Taipei City.

Here is 張記油豆腐細粉 UNOFFICIAL page on Facebook

Eating in Taipei

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Taipei City - 阜杭豆漿 FuHang Soy Milk

Value for money: 9/10

Cleanliness: 6/10

Service: 9/10

Quality of food: 8/10

Accessibility: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

阜杭豆獎 FuHang Breakfast store is a hugely popular Taiwanese breakfast shop near ShanDao Temple. Right off the bat, I have to be honest with you: you will wait a long time. Sorry, but whatever time of the day and on whatever day you decide to go, you will wait any time up to an hour. Is it worth it? Absolutely! 

This was Saturday morning at 7:45am. It's busy like this up until when it closes at 12:30. However, if you are an extra special early worm, you could always get there for when it opens at 5:30am??

So the restaurant shares a floorspace with other restaurants along the back, but the bonus of coming at this time is that nowhere else has opened yet, so finding a seat is made that tiny bit easier. However, my suggestion would be to queue up until you hit the top of the stairs and then send someone in your party to find a table. It took me around 10mins to wait for a table, by which time the queue had moved and we had already collected our food. But, don't be a table hogger, nobody likes that. One woman was sat at a table with 3 empty seats and whoever she was with was very clearly way down in the line, as she sat there alone fending people off for the duration of our stay.

This is the counter, showing you quite clearly the process for which you have to order. Although it is very fast, it feels well controlled and the staff are clearly very competent. The staff speak a variety of languages, so they may just launch English at you to speed up the process.

This is where the mighty 厚燒餅 hòu shāo bǐng which is the signature thick sesame seed cake (bread). The method is essentially like an Indian tandoor: the sesame seed cake (bread) mixture is slapped onto the inside wall of anvextremely hot kiln/oven where it gets baked at high temperatures to allow a crispy skin but a chewy inside. 

Here is the process on how they make the Taiwanese breakfast staple - 油條 yóu tiáo fried dough stick. This is essentially a bit like a cross between churro and doughnut: the dough is made into a long sausage like shape, flattened down a little, scored with a knife to make the cooking process quicker and then dropped into very hot oil to make it puff up. I think it is safe to say that all of the traditional Taiwanese breakfast stores have these (the ones where they sell home-made soy milk etc, not the ones that do sandwiches). You will see a lot of people ordering just one dough stick and a hot soy milk, wherein they will dunk the dough stick into the soy milk, and have that for their breakfast (not my cup of tea, really).

Here's what we ordered: 

1. 鹹豆漿 xián dòu jiāng Salty soy milk 

2. 厚燒蛋夾油條 hòu shāo dàn jiā yóu tiáo  Thick sesame seed cake with dough stick and egg

3. 甜酥餅 tián sū bǐng Crispy sweet pastry

1. 鹹豆漿 $30

Now, bear with me on this. If you're anything like me when I ate this for the first time, you may need some convincing to eat this salty, almost congealed mixture. 

Inside the bowl we have a salted soy milk which has (as it has cooled) become a little lumpy and congealed. However, if you can get your head around the texture, then I assure you that the taste is very good, indeed. It is salty, as the dish is named so, but I think this is only because the Taiwanese don't really have a word for savoury that is used often in dining. I would term this more as savoury soy milk, as it isn't that salty. As the hot soy milk and egg mixture has cooled, it has blended into one another and created pockets of eggy, soy milk goodness. 

Furtheremore, there are also scallions inside the soy milk (more like a soup) and if you enjoy spice in your breakfast I would recommend adding a dollop of the chili sauce to give the bowl a nice kick. The extra dough stick on top is nice, but I like my dough stick to be crunchy, otherwise it just feels a little stodgy and heavy.



2. 厚燒蛋夾油條 hòu shāo dàn jiā yóu tiáo  Thick sesame seed cake with dough stick and egg $60

Every time you go, this is the absolute must order! 

We ordered it with the 油條 and the 蛋 dàn (egg). I feel like this combination is great! It's more than enough for your breakfast, trust me! 

You can see just how thick the cake (bread) is, when wrapped around the dough stick. The bread is salty around the outside, but not in the middle, so it balances out very nicely. The dough stick isn't very greasy at all (which a lot of them can be) and the egg is cooked with the classic combination of just egg and scallions. I can't recommend it enough. It's definitely one of my favourite breakfast stores in Taipei. I just wish it wasn't so busy all the time, so I could go more...

3. 甜酥餅 $22

This is the kind of breakfast dessert, to compliment the salty soy milk and the salty sesame seed cake (bread). 

Inside, you can see the many layers of the pastry as it has puffed up and created pockets in between the layers. The pastry is wonderfully rich and well balanced. The sugary paste inside the pastry (which you can see sitting on the bottom layer) is great and as you take a bite you get a mouth full of rich and crunchy pastry, mixing with sweet and thick sugar - awesome! 

My advice? save it as a snack and have it for your 11am snack.

Overall, 阜杭豆漿 comes very highly rated, from myself. There are a huge amount of tourists (western, Japanese, Chinese) lining up, so it must be getting some very good publicity in these countries/guidebooks, too. It clearly is doing incredibly as a business and restaurant, and I would strongly advise you to check it out if you live here or if you are travelling and passing through. It is your typical Taiwanese breakfast experience. 

Best dish: 2. 厚燒蛋夾油條 hòu shāo dàn jiā yóu tiáo  Thick sesame seed cake with dough stick and egg - it is a triumph in breakfast dishes and I feel myself craving that salty, thick sesame seed cake (bread) to eat with egg almost every weekend. This could also be made as an incredible western hybrid if you fill it with some bacon and tomato ketchup, too (bold statement!)

Dish I wouldn't order again: I'd order all of them again, twice over.

Eating in Taipei

台北市中正區忠孝東路1段108號2F

2F, No.108, ZhongXiao East Road, Section 1, ZhongZheng District, Taipei City

FuHang Soy Milk on Facebook

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Taipei City - 三三活力早餐二店 Twin 3 Breakfast shop - MuZha

木柵mu4zha4 MuZha isn't a particularly popular or common place for westerners to go in Taipei, unless it's to go to the zoo. Taipei Zoo is located around the MuZha area, and also if you're scooting up to 貓空 mao1kong1 MaoKong then i'd recommend you to take the road that goes through MuZha - for the scenery! 

Anyway, we went over to MuZha after hearing about this breakfast place. The sandwich looks so plain, but I've heard its delicious. It's almost like it looks too plain, so what's all the fuss about?

It was quite busy on arriving - each table was full. We waited for a few minutes and then got a seat outside, but the atmosphere was quite hectic. Lots of people were coming in to get food to take-out. So we at least had that fact going for us. You should first find a seat, then get a menu and go up to order. We made the mistake of ordering without having a table (thinking that they would assign us to a table, but they didn't. It was kind of a see-it, take-it). 

The menu is fairly typical of most breakfast shops. You have the classic: 土司 tu3si1 toast, 蛋餅 dan4bing3, 單點 dan1dian3 a la carte, 熱飲 re4yin3 hot drinks, 冷飲 leng3yin3 cold drinks and finally 其它 qi2ta1 others section. 

When it says toast here, it really means sandwich. So don't expect a couple of slices of toast, buttered and then topped with something. Expect a sandwich.

Here's what we ordered:

1. 招牌肉蛋土司 zhao1pai2rou4dan4tu3si1 Speciality ham and egg sandwich

2. 泡菜燒肉蛋餅 pao4cai4shao1rou4dan4bing3 kimchi, pork and egg pancake roll

3. 高麗菜蛋餅 gao1li4cai4dan4bing3 Cabbage and egg pancake roll

1. 招牌肉蛋土司 zhao1pai2rou4dan4tu3si1 Speciality ham and egg sandwich

Looks awful, right? Anyone serving me this better have confidence in their food, as this picture alone does it no justice in any way...

The cross-section is looking better, in comparison. From the top down we have bread, slice of cheese, fried egg, flat slice of pork and then another slice of bread to form the sandwich. For the cheese option you just circle the 45 where at the top of the menu it says 起司 qi4si1 Cheese. If you don't want cheese, just circle the 40 where at the top of the menu it says 單價 dan1jia4 for just the sandwich. 

The reason the sandwich tastes nice is because of the dry seasoning of the pork. It has been fried on top of the griddle, but clearly been rubbed with a seasoning prior to cooking: a little salty, mixed herbs and lightly spiced. The egg isn't runny - I'm sorry. The bread is very standard, but not as sweet as normal Taiwanese bread can be. The sandwich was meaty in consistency and quite surprising (especially based on picture 1!)

2. 泡菜燒肉蛋餅 pao4cai4shao1rou4dan4bing3 kimchi, pork and egg pancake roll

From the outside it looks like a fairly standard 蛋餅.

On the inside, we can see a layer of cheese, egg and kimchi pork. The pork has clearly been marinated in the kimchi for a little while, and then some of the kimchi has been put into the 蛋餅, too. It maintains a strong chilli and garlic flavour, and the thin pancake keeps it all together nicely. The cheese is always a good addition to a 蛋餅 and I strongly advise it here, too.

3. 高麗菜蛋餅 gao1li4cai4dan4bing3 Cabbage and egg pancake roll.

It's pretty weird to look at, but don't worry, its just wafer thin shavings of squid. You can also see the thin squirting of sweet Taiwanese mayonnaise resting on top of the pancake roll.

I guess it was a bit of an odd thing to have on a menu - cabbage and egg pancake roll. So we got it, because we were intrigued. It was a pleasant surprise to see it topped with the wafer thin shavings of squid. This gave it an extra flavour and an extra dimension. The cabbage inside was plentiful, it was fresh and it had a good flavour. The egg complimented the cabbage well and the whole dish tasted fresh and light. Usually when you order the 蛋餅, it tends to be quite soft, quite chewy and quite dense. This one wasn't, the flavour had been thought of properly and the ingredients were all put together very well.

Overall, I think if you're in this area for breakfast then I would strongly recommend this place over any of the chain breakfast stores such as My Warm Day or Breakfast Time. With nothing particularly against those stores, this one just does similar dishes, but much better taste and quality. 

Best dish: 1. 招牌肉蛋土司 zhao1pai2rou4dan4tu3si1 Speciality ham and egg sandwich - it was filling, it was hearty and it was remarkably simple. The ingredients all worked well and the taste was very satisfying for a breakfast sandwich.

Dish I wouldn't order again: I'd order all dishes again.

This breakfast shop was so popular that they created a second shop, on the same road, just a few places down. We actually went to 1., whereas the original one (2,) is just up the road. 

臺北市文山區木新路二段103號 （1）

No.103, Section 2, MuXin Road, WenShan District, Taipei City

臺北市文山區木新路三段122號 （2）

No.122, Section 3, MuXin Road, WenShan District, Taipei City

1.

2.

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