D.1 A Journey Through Taiwanese Food & Drink Culture

Taiwanese food culture isn’t something you sit down for — it’s something you move through. From early-morning breakfast shops to night markets that light up after dark, eating in Taiwan is continuous, casual, and deeply social. There’s no strict separation between meals and snacks, drinks and food, sweet and savory. You eat when you’re hungry, drink because it’s hot, and stop because something smells — good or bad.

Small eats, known as 小吃, shape daily life. Breakfast restaurants feed entire neighborhoods before work. Night markets become communal living rooms. Plastic stools, shared tables, sizzling oil, and drinks carried everywhere are part of the rhythm. In this Tea & Taste section, we wander across Taiwan’s unique food landscape — loosely, intuitively, and without hierarchy — starting with its most famous export in the world:

Bubble Tea

Bubble tea began as a local tea shop experiment and quietly grew into a global phenomenon. What started with milk tea and chewy tapioca pearls turned Taiwanese tea culture into something playful, customizable, and deeply personal. Sugar levels, ice levels, toppings — every cup is a small act of choice.

Despite its global fame, bubble tea in Taiwan still feels everyday and unpretentious. You’ll see office workers grabbing a cup on their lunch break, students lining up after school, and entire friend groups holding different variations of the same drink. It’s not a trend here — it’s infrastructure.

Bubble tea also sets the tone for Taiwanese food culture as a whole: familiar, adaptable, and deeply tied to daily life rather than special occasions.

Breakfast Restaurants: Where the Day Actually Begins

Breakfast in Taiwan isn’t sweet pastries and coffee to go. It’s warm, filling, and often savory. Breakfast shops open early and serve soy milk, rice balls, egg pancakes, and fried dough sticks. Many people eat standing, sitting briefly, or taking food to go — efficiency mixed with comfort.

These places are community anchors. Regulars are recognized. Orders are memorized. And no matter where you are in Taiwan, breakfast restaurants feel oddly familiar, even if the menu changes slightly from city to city.

Buffet-Style Rice Shops: Everyday Fuel

Another pillar of daily eating in Taiwan is the self-serve rice shop, often labelled 自助餐 or 便當店. These buffet-style places line busy streets and office districts, offering trays of cooked vegetables, tofu, fish, and meat served over rice.

Customers point, portions are added quickly, and meals are priced by what you choose. There is no fixed menu and no ceremony — just practical, filling food meant to keep people moving through the day.

Many of these shops are fully vegetarian, influenced by Buddhist food traditions, while others simply lean heavily on plant-based dishes without advertising it as such. Either way, vegetables, braised tofu, seaweed, pumpkin, cabbage, and mushrooms are everyday staples rather than side dishes.

These meals are not about indulgence or novelty. They are about balance, affordability, and rhythm — food designed for working life, not special occasions.

From Street Stalls to Iconic Chains

Not all everyday eating in Taiwan happens on plastic stools. Some of the island’s most recognisable food experiences come from local restaurant chains that grew out of small neighbourhood kitchens.

Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) is the most famous example. What began as a modest shop in Taipei became internationally known for its precise, delicate xiaolongbao — soup dumplings prepared with almost obsessive consistency. Despite its global presence, in Taiwan it still functions as everyday comfort food. Families gather here, colleagues come after work, and queues form not because it is trendy, but because it is reliable.

These types of restaurants sit between street food and high-end dining. They offer familiar dishes in cleaner, calmer spaces, but remain rooted in local tastes and routines. They show how Taiwanese food culture moves easily between informal and structured, without losing its sense of accessibility.

小吃: Small Snacks, Big Identity

小吃 doesn’t translate neatly into English. It’s not just “street food” and not quite “snacks.” These are dishes meant to be eaten casually, often shared, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting — but rarely formal.

Oyster omelettes, beef noodle soup, grilled skewers, and endless variations of noodles and dumplings fall into this category. They’re affordable, accessible, and everywhere. Instead of one large meal, people often eat several small things across the day.

This way of eating removes hierarchy. No dish is “less” because it’s cheap or eaten on the street. Flavour, comfort, and habit matter more than presentation.

Night Markets: Where Taiwan Comes Alive

Night markets aren’t just places to eat — they’re social spaces. Friends meet here. Families wander slowly. Teenagers snack and linger. The energy is loud, warm, and slightly chaotic.

This is also where Taiwanese food culture fully embraces contrast. Sweet next to savory. Familiar next to challenging. Comfort next to shock.

And then there’s the smell.

Stinky Tofu: A Cultural Threshold

Some Taiwanese foods announce themselves long before you see them. Fermented dishes — especially stinky tofu — divide opinions instantly. For many visitors, this is the moment of hesitation. For locals, it’s simply another favourite.

Stinky foods are a reminder that Taiwanese cuisine doesn’t aim to please everyone immediately. Taste is learned. Comfort comes with repetition. What smells overwhelming at first can become deeply familiar over time.

Crossing this threshold often marks a shift — from observer to participant.

Convenience Stores as Part of the Food System

In Taiwan, food does not only come from restaurants and markets. Convenience stores are a daily food source in their own right. With hot snacks, rice balls, tea eggs, microwavable meals, and decent coffee, places like 7-Eleven and FamilyMart function as small, always-open kitchens.

People stop in for breakfast, late-night snacks, or quick meals between errands. Sitting on plastic stools outside a convenience store with a drink is as normal as eating at a table. This further blurs the line between meals and snacks, and reinforces how eating in Taiwan is woven into movement and daily logistics.

More Than Food: A Way of Living

Taiwanese cuisine isn’t about ticking off famous dishes. It’s about rhythm — eating according to weather, mood, time of day, and availability. Drinks matter as much as food. Small portions encourage sharing. And eating is rarely separated from social life.

In Tea & Taste, we don’t rank or list “must-eats.” We wander. We sip, snack, hesitate, and return for seconds. From bubble tea to breakfast shops, from night markets to fermented flavours, Taiwanese food culture is best experienced not as a checklist — but as a landscape you move through, one bite at a time.

Coming up next: a deeper look at bubble tea — from its modern origins back to ancient tea culture, including an introduction to Taiwan’s most iconic teas.