Breakfast In Taiwan Is All About Street Food

As the bustling streets of Taiwan come to life each morning, you'll see vendors with carts and strollers set up shop on their little corner of the street. Workers begin making their way out into the city streets for a long day, hungry for a hearty, warm breakfast to fuel their day. From traditional eats like turnip cakes and salted soy milk to more Western-familiar offerings like variations on porridge and fluffy scrambled eggs, Taiwanese breakfast is not just an important meal of the day, it's essential.

Any visit to a new country is incomplete without venturing into the world of iconic street foods. Visiting Taiwan, specifically the capital city of Taipei, is no exception. Lucky for you, there's breakfast popping up on nearly every corner, and you'll be hard-pressed to stumble upon a bad spot. Hit the streets and look out for these street food items to experience breakfast like never before: Fast and convenient, but uniquely delicious.

One of the most popular must-try Taiwanese breakfast items is a turnip cake. Despite its name, it is not made of turnips at all. Rather, it is made of radishes, typically daikon. Turnip cakes, or luo buo gao, are also savory cakes, not sweet. Combining rice flour with radishes and other savory ingredients like dried shrimp, these cakes are pan-fried to a golden brown crisp and often served in slices with a sauce. Although they're pan-fried, they're still known for their soft texture on the inside.

If you'd like to chow down on the go while sightseeing, scallion pancakes are a perfect option. These fluffy, savory pancakes are fried to golden perfection with fragrant scallions bursting with flavor in each bite. Take a pancake in hand and you're free to bite it as you sightsee for the day.

You're going to want to wash all these mouthwatering carbs down with a delicious glass of soymilk, or doujiang. The Taiwanese soymilk can sometimes be sweetened to pair with your other food or salted to hold its own as a breakfast. Typically served hot, you can even dip some fried Taiwanese breakfast creations, like youtiao, a deep-fried bread, into the glass for soymilk-soaked goodness.

Noodle soup? For breakfast? In Taiwan, absolutely. Tasting beef noodle soup any time of day in Taiwan is a must, but many love to enjoy this hearty soup for breakfast as a filling, fueling meal to start the day. With a rich, juicy broth, tender beef melting in your mouth, and perfectly bouncy and slurpable noodles, you'll be glad to start your day with a bowl of beef noodle soup and wonder why you haven't had it for breakfast before.

American classic McDonald's nuggets are surprisingly also a popular breakfast item in Taiwan. Taiwan was majorly influential in the invention of popcorn chicken, making McDonald's take on crisp chicken a savory hit at breakfast time. You can give them a try at a Taiwanese McDonald's to compare to the nuggets back home, or you can find more authentic Taiwanese versions of fried or popcorn chicken from street food vendors. In the end, you're going to have no trouble finding an exceptional breakfast meal all over Taiwan. Be an early bird and wander the morning Taipei streets so you don't miss out on the delectable breakfast foods you can only find in Taiwan eateries.