Hi, everyone, my name is Jim, a local guide from Taiwan. Today, I am going to introduce you, as a son of Tainan, food that you can’t miss when you visit Tainan. Alright, so without more saying, let’s start.
There are two dishes that represent the essence of the city, which are beef soup and fish soup.
I usually start my day with a bowl of Milkfish skin soup, which is warm, nutritional and delicious. The style of the soup in Tainan is light. We stew the soup from the ingredient itself without much seasoning; therefore, for the fish soup, as you drink, you will taste the freshness of the fish. As Tainan has many fishing ports, you don’t have to worry about the quality of the fish, especially if you have it in the morning, the fish is just shipped directly from the ports.
Secondly, the beef soup. The raw beef will be sliced into thin pieces, and then be put into the bowl. As you order, the vender will add in the hot soup that is stewed and made out from beef bones. That’s it! Because the raw beef is really thin, when the hot soup in, you just wait and stir it for a second, letting it absorbs the soup, and it is ready.
Both dishes are usually eaten with Rouzaofun (rice with minced pork) which provides saltness from the sauce on the rice, making it a wonderful complement to the soup.
Here are the links to my favorite vendors of beef soup and fish soup.
Fish soup: https://goo.gl/maps/N143cePs7TbjiG4E7
Beef soup: https://goo.gl/maps/qFhu1GXbwJcVvdUn9
The other special dish I recommend is the hot pot. Essentially, you will order the flavor of the soup you like, and then order the ingredients and just cook and eat them. There are all kinds of ingredients, and some frequent ones are beef, pork, chicken, tofu, cabbage, fish dumplings, shrimp dumplings, and squid balls. The essence of the hot pot is soup and sauce. After the food is ready, you can add up some shacha sauce with peppers, scallion, and garlic which gives more flavor to the food. The hot pot is very suitable for a gathering of family or friends.
Here are the links to my favorite vendors of the hot pot
https://goo.gl/maps/qVSG8icc3RUe9L5x8
This time I suggest some dishes that you can’t miss in Tainan, and next time I am going to introduce snacks and desserts that you can’t miss in Tainan. Thank you for your reading, until next time.