On weekend mornings when I was growing up, our Shanghainese family would always visit either Kao Chi or Ding Tai Fung for breakfast. Kao Chi has excellent Shanghai pan-fried pork buns, which we dip in black vinegar. This family habit must come from my grandfather who ate these weekly until he passed at the age of 99!

These little soy milk joints used to be everywhere, but since globalization, now Starbucks is everywhere. Open 24/7, they are most popular for breakfast or a midnight snack. Standard fare is Chinese flatbread stuffed with fried dough; egg pancake; sweet or savory glutinous rice rolls, and sweet or savory soy milk. It’s inexpensive and extremely satisfying.

Kuen Yang’s beef noodle soup’s base is in the style of Sichuan braised soy sauce, which is richer in flavor than clear broth. You can choose between thin or wide noodles, normal or spicy broth and type of beef — shank, shank and tendon, or shank, tendon and tripe. In most restaurants, when you order “half shank and half tendon,”... full article

The beef noodles at Lin Dong Fong are served in a clear broth. The broth is made with some Chinese herbs, which are beneficial to your health, but the essence of the herbs is not overwhelming. The rich beef broth is delicious, and it’s essential to add a little beef lard to the soup to make it even more flavorful. The preference is to... full article

I mentioned carbs at Yin Yi. Well, our family does NOT like to choose between dishes so we always get everything. That means, we order about four noodles, dumplings, and whatever else we want, enough to feed eight. Here are the famous Shanghainese eel noodles. You can order it dry or wet (soup noodles). Either way these luscious eels with noodles are delicious!

In the steak business for over a decade, Chef Danny Teng knows his beef. His signature steak at Danny and Company — a teppanyaki steakhouse — is the US dry-aged rib eye cap from Idaho. This cut has less muscle, more moisture, and a richer flavor. Cooked beautifully medium rare, as I requested it, the outside is perfectly crispy and the inside... full article

Chef-owner Max Tseng sources local ingredients like pickled Chinese mustard vegetable in one of his signature pasta dishes. In a completely new interpretation of a vegetable typically found in a traditional soup noodle dish, here it yields a spicy chicken spaghetti ($480 N.T. ~ $15). The paprika-marinated chicken is cooked with butter,... full article

I love my iced espressos. Yes, I do. I have favorites in every city I frequent. In Taipei, I love the freddo espresso shakerato ($4.50) from Puro. What does it for me is the frothy top with the intense dark-roast flavors. Like wine, it’s not easy to find coffee with perfect balance and structure. Jamais facile, mais toujours... full article

Le Ruban specializes in roll cakes. While the bakery’s other pastries, like the lemon tarts and pear mousse below, are also good, the roll cakes draw queues before they go on sale each day at 2 p.m. They sell out quickly, so if you don’t come early, you won’t get a cake. Each customer is limited to buying one, but on my first visit, the man... full article

In the last couple of years, there has been a craze for bread by Wu Pao-chun, a Taiwanese baker who won the title “Bakery Master” for bread making at the 2010 Bakery World Cup in Paris. There are lines out the doors at both of his bakeries in Kaohsiung and Taipei. We chanced upon the Taipei store one day and decided to see what... full article