You could find breakfasts from many nations in Taipei - Chinese, American, British and even Thai, but it is real hard to name a delicious traditional Taiwanese breakfast place here. Waiting outside those long-queued breakfast shops along main roads is just a waste of time as what you will get is an ordinary meal. However, once you leave downtown, the option would be much more abundant in alleys of residence area. Around Dazhi MRT Station, except Huahua Soy Milk (花花豆漿) offering splendid danbing (蛋餅), Dazhi Soy Milk is worthy to pay a visit as well.
This traditional breakfast shop opens at 6 am every day and attracts nearby residents to come since then. Though the closing hour is 9:30 am, due to its popularity, it is usual to sell out earlier and close at 9 am. Therefore, younger people who wake up later on holidays would hardly catch the chance to enjoy this nice breakfast. In the shop, most customers are middle-aged or elderly. The variety of items available is not wide, but basic dishes such as shaobing (燒餅), youtiao (油條), danbing(蛋餅), fantuan (飯糰) and soy milk are still on the menu. There are two dishes must not be missed: zhima subing (芝麻酥餅, sesame crispy biscuit), which has crisp outer layer and filling in balanced sweetness, and shuijianbao (水煎包, pan-fried stuffed bun), which is handmade by the old lady in shop. When entering this breakfast shop, you could see a dish of shuijianbao on almost everyone’s table, revealing that it is undoubtedly the specialty here. Moreover, watching the old lady kneading and stuffing makes customers even hungrier. Because their shuijianbao is cooked on order, customers need to ask for a poker card as enrollment at entrance. When customers’ dish is cooked, they would be called to take it in front of the fry plate at entrance. Crisp layer and fresh stuffing are just superb with assistance of spicy sauce. There are two kinds of stuffing consisting either cabbage or garlic chives. We more recommend the one with cabbage as many people might dislike the strong flavor of garlic chives.
