The fourth day at Taiwan started out with a morning run, and then a long queue at one of the most popular soya bean places in all of Taipei.

We parked at one of the many tricky parking lots down town – tricky as in underground parking in Taipei seems to always only have one ramp for both directions. If you’re going down, do make sure no one is coming up, and vice versa. They also utilize a lot of number plate recognition technology, so that was nice.

Fu Hang Dou Jiang, yes there's a long queue
Fu Hang Dou Jiang, yes there’s a long queue

Fu Hang Dou Jiang was the soy bean place we went to. The queue was all around the building and took us about 45 mins to get our food, and apparently that was an “easy day”.

We ordered a yutiao, a soy bean porridge, some soy bean drinks, and a couple other pastries for breakfast. Everything tasted pretty nice as they were all freshly baked and piping hot, they were also kinda mild and not overly strong tasting, as most food in Taiwan tend to be.

soy bean, soy "porridge", bread, yutiao
soy bean, soy “porridge”, bread, yutiao

However, they were not “45 min standing queue” nice. It was an interesting experience but I’d not want to do it again unless the queue was maybe less than 50% as long.

Address:
Fu Hang Soy Milk
100, Taiwan, Taipei City,

Zhongzheng District,
Section 1,
Zhongxiao E Rd, 108?2?
GPS: 25.044437, 121.524929

Dong Guan beef noodle
Dong Guan beef noodle

Jean took an opportunity to meet up with a work colleague who’s stationed in their Taipei office, who then brought us to a nearby beef noodle place for lunch. You can’t visit Taiwan without ever trying their beef noodle, so this was our opportunity.

perhaps we ordered too much for 4 pax
perhaps we ordered too much for 4 pax

The restaurant she chose was a pretty quaint little restaurant by the name of Dong Guan beef noodle located in an alley across the small Fuhua Park. Small tables & mini chairs, with Jeff Chang’s music from the 90s playing in the back ground, certainly the kinda vibe that agrees with my age group.

These were the dishes we ordered:

  • braised beef and tendon noodle soup (250 NTD)
  • clear stewed beef noodle soup with tendon (250 NTD)
  • 10 pork and chives dumpling (9 NTD each)
  • minced pork with soy bean paste dry noodle (100 NTD)
  • beef brisket on rice (160 NTD)

the beef were super tender
the beef were super tender

As expected, these were excellent! The beef were super tender and soft, soup had a decently strong taste with plenty of spice as well. Personally I liked the thin noodle over the thick type as they were easier to work with and soaked up more flavor. Perhaps I’d like the brisket on rice to have a thicker broth instead of soup, but that’s just nitpicking to be honest.

Interestingly, this restaurant does not serve water, and indeed that seems to be a recurring theme in Taipei, do people always bring their own tumbler or tapao a bubble tea after?

Casey at Taipei Zoo
Casey at Taipei Zoo, hoppoooo

We went to the Taipei Zoo after lunch, after all, that’s what you’re supposed to do with a toddler in tow, right?

Entrance fee was only 100 NTD and we paid with credit from EasyCard that I won upon arrival, great deal. We also rented a stroller as the boy was getting a bit heavy to be strapping on us after walking for so much the past few days.

excellent zoo, and very cheap tickets too
excellent zoo, and very cheap tickets too

The zoo is huge and houses impressively huge amount of different species of animals. The usual suspects of large mammals including tiger, lion, elephants, giraffes, hippo, rhinos, and so many different types of 4 legged animals with horns were all there. Of course, the crowd favorite were the pandas, which we were fortunate enough to see.

This was my third time seeing panda and they always looked like it can’t be a real wild animal that looked like that. Nature is weird.

Jin Ji Yuan at Yong Kang Street, Taipei
Jin Ji Yuan at Yong Kang Street, Taipei

Our dinner on day 4 was Jin Ji Yuan at Yong Kang Street, a pretty hip area for dinner spots, I think. Parking was a bit of a challenge around the area, as usual, but alas we managed to find a street side parking after a bit of go-around.

The full name of the restaurant is Hao Kung Tao Chin Chi Yuan (Da’an), which also means “fairly priced golden chicken farm”. They specialized in dumplings and has a Michelin thingy on their name, which explained the crowd I suppose.

onion roll, sesame paste noodle, three delicacy soup, taro pudding
onion roll, sesame paste noodle, three delicacy soup, taro pudding

We ordered the following:

  • siu mai (200 NTD)
  • xiao long pao (150 NTD)
  • yam dessert (50 NTD)
  • onion biscuit (30 NTD)
  • san xien noodle (120 NTD)
  • sesame paste noodle (60 NTD)

As with the previous restaurant, there’s no drinks on the menu, but I think they do serve beer.

siu mai & xiao long pao
siu mai & xiao long pao

While the xiao long pao was indeed as good as advertised, my favorite dish for the night went to their siu mai. It was the best siu mai I’ve ever tasted, thin, silky smooth skin with a whole fresh prawn on top of minced meat filling. The taste profile was just spot on, no condiment needed.

The pastry was quite interesting as well, while taro pudding (yam dessert) was also quite a (not so) sweet treat. The “san xien” noodle came with pork, liver, and prawn soup that’s quite subtle and comforting, while the sesame paste noodle though required quite a lot of getting used to, it was like a dessert paste on savory noodle, I didn’t really enjoyed this.

Address:
Hao Kung Tao Chin Chi Yuan (Da’an)
No. 28-1, Yongkang St,
Da’an District,
Taipei City, Taiwan 106
GPS: 25.03075, 121.52951

KY travels – Taipei Family Tour Day 4 – Beef Noodle, Taipei Zoo, and the best Siu Mai
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13 thoughts on “KY travels – Taipei Family Tour Day 4 – Beef Noodle, Taipei Zoo, and the best Siu Mai

  • February 3, 2025 at 12:38 pm
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    lol lol @ dong guan noodle beef. Must be dish with everything, leaving you satisfied with happy ending. Yes must be, must be.

    Reply
    • February 3, 2025 at 5:24 pm
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      kekeke: you got that right!

      Reply
    • February 6, 2025 at 9:59 pm
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      Choi Yen: gong xi fa cai to youuuuu, yess lots of food is always great.

      Reply
  • February 10, 2025 at 10:06 am
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    still waiting for TW pork lard rice and TW XXL fried chicken reviews ah sirrr

    Reply
    • February 10, 2025 at 2:52 pm
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      kekeke: every place has TW pork lard rice!

      Reply
      • February 12, 2025 at 12:35 pm
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        ohh ok ok lah, plus it’s a dangerous non halal post hehe. And XXL TW fried chicken???!! Bro sure to get millions of views #foodpr0n

        Reply
  • February 10, 2025 at 11:02 am
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    lol no way I wait that long for food while on holiday. Time is so valuable. This one time I only queue for 10mins for a Bourdain-approved eatery in Singapore, it was top notch. I did go during off peak, non-lunch hours.

    Reply
    • February 10, 2025 at 2:52 pm
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      kekeke: i completely agree with you.

      Reply
  • February 10, 2025 at 11:25 am
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    ah uncle KY watched too much Kung Fu Panda. Will never get used to seeing a real panda the same again

    Reply
    • February 10, 2025 at 2:53 pm
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      kekeke: hahaha, i’ve watched a total of zero kungfu panda movie in full.

      Reply

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