To say that Taipei offers exquisite Chinese cuisine is the ultimate in understatement. In fact, the city's restaurants offer the best Chinese cuisine on earth. First-time visitors to Taiwan frequently discover that the “Chinese food”served back home is but a bland imitation of the real thing.

Continental China's diverse geographical regions each developed a distinctive cuisine. As people from throughout the mainland came to Taiwan in the late 1940s, they brought their taste preferences, cooking abilities, and traditions with them, and many started regional restaurants. This gives Taiwan, and especially Taipei, the unique ability to offer diners the entire range of Chinese cuisine. The hardest part is selecting a cooking style that appeals to your personal taste.

The adventurous can sample all of China's varied regional styles and a complete range of fare, from creative common foods to lavish banquets better than those once served to emperors. Even in small inexpensive restaurants, theuse of ancient recipes, modern techniques and ingredients, and sanitary preparation produces tastes that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

Gourmet Guide

Northern Delights

Northern cuisine is commonly called Peking style, but in fact it encompasses most northern provinces. Here the principle crops are wheat, millet, sorghum, peanuts, corn, and soybeans. Noodles, steamed breads, and various buns or dumplings are the staples of any meal.

Peking-style meals usually include vegetable dishes, soups, toufu (soybean curd), and fish. The food is mild in taste, is often slightly oily, and vinegar and garlic are common ingredients; it is frequently fried, stewed, or braised.

Some favorite snack foods, such as buns and dumplings, can double as meals. Round flat buns are stuffed with meat and pan-fried or baked with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Dumplings are filled with a meat or vegetable mixture and steamed, boiled, or fried.

Happily Shanghaied

Shanghai (also called Chiangche style) is the best known branch of Eastern cuisine, and because of the city's proximity to the ocean, major lakes, and rivers, this style is renowned for superb preparation of both fresh-and saltwater fish and mollusks. For the most part, Shanghai food is lightly spiced and relatively oily, and its sauces tend to be rich and slightly sweet.

Popular choices from Eastern menus include: fried prawns, West Lake Vinegar Fish (a whole carp, but-terflied and lightly poached, smothered with minced ginger and sweet and sour sauce).

Taiwanese cooking is an interesting branch of the Eastern style, with a strong Japanese influence. Taiwanese food is light, simple, easy to prepare, often liberally spiced with ginger; fried dishes are frequently cooked in pork fat. Like its Shanghai cousin, Taiwanese cuisine features excellent seafood. Good choices are poached shrimp or squid, grilled eel, fried shrimp rolls, grilled clams, and turlts soup.

Some Like It Hot

The western provinces of Szechwan and Human are known for their hot and spicy dishes. Both cooking styles favor the liberal use of garlic, scallions, and chilies. Szechwan food is richer and a bit more oily, and may be either spicy and hot or sweet and sour. Chicken, pork, river fish, and shellfish are all popular items.

One standard Szechwan dish is ma-po toufu, a bean curd dish with spicy minced pork. A highly recommended dish is stir-fried diced chicken with dry chili peppers. You can wash them both down with hot and sour soup. Favorite Hunan food includes Hunan preserved meat, shrimp wrapped in lettuce, and bamboo cup chicken.

Dim Sum and......

Cantonese food (southern style) tends to be more colorful, less spicy, and is usually stir fried, which preserves both the texture and flavor. Because most Chinese emigrants to other countries hail from the Canton region, this style of cooking has almost become synonymous, in the West, with Chinese cuisine.

Favorite dishes include whole steamed fish, roast duck, roast pigeon, poached chicken, Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, and a wide range of crispy green vegetables sauteed to perfection.

Dim Sum are Cantonese snacks (known locally as Yam Cha), tasty little dumplings and pastries stuffed with m3ats or vegetables. This is perhaps the most popular form of southern cuisine since a meal of dim sum is a great way to pick and choose a variety of foods yet not feel overly full. Waitresses push around carts laden with small, freshly cooked snacks, and diners simply stop them as they pass and point out what they want.

Other Cuisines

As a tourist destination and international business center, Taipei also offers European and American cuisines, as well as other Asian fare. Most major tourist hotels have at least two dining rooms, one serving Western and the other serving Chinesecuisine. Major cities also have numerous restaurants offering Western or Asian foods, along with countless snack centers (generally in department stores) and fast food outlets. In general, restaurants hire only experienced, native chefs, ensuring customers of authentic gourmet dining.

In Taipei, the northern suburbs of Shihlin and Tienmu offer American, English, Italian, German, and Vietnamese cuisines. The northern business district, centered around Chungshan North Rd., has Italian, German, Spanish, English, American, Indonesian, Indian, Korean, and Japanese restaurants. The Eastern business district has the widest variety: Greek, Italian, French, German, Swiss, English, American, Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Japanese.

Sample Menus

Peking(北方菜) Peking roast chicken北平燻雞 Sauteed beef with scallions蔥爆牛肉 Fried pork軟炸里脊 Peking roast duck北平烤鴨 Shredded pork with bean sauce京醬肉絲 Stir-fried shredded chicken with grean peas 鮮豌豆雞絲 Stir-fried diced chicken with walnuts醬爆核桃雞丁 Deep fried prawn balls炸烹明蝦段 Sweet & sour boneless fish松鼠黃魚 Peking style fried bean curd鍋塌豆腐 Stir-fried vegetables with egg合菜戴帽 Hot & sour soup酸辣湯 Shanghai (Chiangche) 上海(浙江)菜 Drunken chicken (cold chicken in wine)醉雞 Anchovies鳳尾魚 Wu Hsi spareribs無鍚排骨 Stir-fried shrimp with bean sprouts豆苗蝦仁 Sweet & sour pork糖醋里肌 Sliced yellow fish雪菜黃魚片 stir-fried shrimp with eggs蝦仁爆蛋 Deep-fried sweet baby eel蘇式脆鱔 Eight-treasures hot sauce八寶辣醬 Stewed chicken with fried bean curd砂鍋油豆腐雞 Taiwanese (台菜) Braised meat魯肉 Three-cup chicken三杯土雞 Three-cup baby squid三杯小卷 Shrimp cutlets金錢蝦餅 Deep-fried cuttlefish balls花枝丸 Salted small fish with peanuts小魚花生 Tan-tze mien (noodles)擔仔麵 Buddha jumps the wall (shark's fin, tendons, and vegetables)佛跳牆 Szechuan(四川菜) Dry shredded beef乾扁牛肉絲 Cold bean sprout rools with chili sauce麻辣豆魚

Stewed prawns乾燒明蝦 Stir-fried diced chicken with dry chili peppers宮保雞丁 Shrimp in tomato sauce on crackling rice鍋巴蝦仁 Stir-fried shredded pork with hot sauce魚香肉絲 Camphor-&tea-smoked duck樟茶鴨 Bean curd with spicy minced pork (Ma Po's bean curd) 麻婆豆腐 Dry-fried string beans乾扁四季豆 Stir-fried eggplant with hot sauce魚香茄子 Hunan(湘菜) Braised beef with brown sauce貴妃牛腩 Baked ham with honey (rich man's ham)富貴火腿 Deep-fried vegetarian meal酥烤素方 Viceroy (Tso tsung)chicken左宗棠雞 Wild chicken pot山雞鍋 Minced shrimp wrapped in lettuce生菜蝦鬆 Stewed duck with fresh ginger子薑鴨脯 Sauteed shrimp cutlets生煎蝦餅 Fish soup魚生湯 Minced pork in bamboo cup竹節肉盅 Cantonese(粵菜) Stewed shark's fin紅燒排翅 Chinese-style sauteed beef steak中式煎牛排 Sliced abalone with black mushrooms北菇鮑片 Steamed seafood清蒸海上鮮 Braised lobster soup上湯焗龍蝦 Pineapple fried rice原個梨炒飯 Steamed prawns with garlic蒜蓉蒸生蝦 Crispy chicken脆皮炸子雞 Sweet &sour pork with pineapple鳳梨咕嚕肉 Vegetarian(素菜) Delicious vegetarian “duck”(cold dish)美味素鵝(冷盤) Salad (cold dish)沙拉紫捲(冷盤) Five flavors (cold dish)五味吉珍(冷盤) Sweet & sour sliced “fish”糖醋魚片 Teppanyaki“ell”鐵板鱔鰗 “Bacon”asparagus培根蘆荀 Deep-fried bean curd脆皮豆腐 Soup一品元盅(湯類)

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