Cantonese dim sum, known in Taiwan as yam cha.

Courtesy Taiwan Tourist Bureau

Ma-po tofu, a Szechwan dish.

Courtesy Taiwan Tourist Bureau

To say that Taipei offers exquisite Chinese cuisine is the ultimate in understatement. In fact, the city’s restaurants offer the best Chinese cuisine on earth. First-time visitors to Taipei frequently discover that the “Chinese food” served back home is but a bland imitation of the real thing.

Continental China’s diverse geographical regions each developed a distinctive cuisine. As people from throughout the mainland came to Taiwan, they brought their taste preferences, cooking abilities, and traditions with them, and many started regional restaurants. This gives Taiwan, and especially Taipei, the unique ability to offer diners the entire range of Chinese cuisines.

The adventurous can sample all of China’s varied regional styles and a complete range of fare, from creative common foods to lavish banquets better than those once served to emperors.

Northern Delights
Northern cuisine is commonly called Beijing style, but in fact it encompasses most northern provinces. Here the principle crops are wheat, millet, sorghum, peanuts, corn, and soybeans. Noodles, steamed breads, and various buns or dumplings are the staples of any northern meal.

Beijing style meals usually include vegetable dishes, soups, tofu (soybean curd), and fish. The food is frequently fried, stewed, or braised. It is mild in taste, and is often slightly oily. Vinegar and garlic are common ingredients.

Some favorite snack foods, such as buns and dumplings, can double as meals. Round flat buns are stuffed with meat and pan-fried or baked with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Dumplings are filled with a meat or vegetable mixture and steamed, boiled, or fried.

Happily Shanghaied
Shanghai (also called Chiangche style) is the best-known branch of Eastern cuisine. Because of the city’s proximity to the ocean, major lakes and rivers, this style is renowned for superb preparation of both fresh and saltwater fish and mollusks. For the most part, Shanghai food is lightly spiced and relatively oily, and its sauces tend to be rich and slightly sweet.

Popular choices from Eastern menus include: fried prawns, “Drunken Chicken,” steamed crab, and the peerless “West Lake Vinegar Fish” (a whole carp, butterflied and lightly poached, smothered with minced ginger and sweet and sour sauce).

Taiwanese cooking is an interesting branch of the Eastern style, with a strong Japanese influence. Taiwanese food is light, simple, easy to prepare, and often liberally spiced with ginger; fried dishes are frequently cooked in pork fat. Like its Shanghai cousin, Taiwanese cuisine features excellent seafood. Good choices are poached shrimp or squid, grilled eel, fried shrimp rolls, frilled clams, and turtle soup.

Some Like it Hot
The Western provinces of Szechwan and Hunan are known for their hot and spicy dishes. Both cooking styles favor the liberal use of garlic, scallions, and chilies. Szechwan food is distinguished by its hot, peppery taste, while Hunan food is richer and a bit oilier, and may be either spicy and hot or sweet and sour. Chicken, pork, river fish, and shellfish are all popular items.

One standard Szechwan dish is ma-po tofu, a bean curd dish with spicy minced pork. A highly recommended dish is stir-fried chicken with dry chili peppers. You can wash them both down with hot and sour soup. Favorite Hunan food includes Hunan preserved meat, shrimp wrapped in lettuce, and bamboo cup chicken.

Dim Sum and…
Cantonese food (southern style) tends to be more colorful, less spicy, and is usually stir-fried, which preserves both the texture and flavor. Because most Chinese emigrants to other countries hail from the Canton region, this style of cooking has almost become synonymous, in the West, with Chinese cuisine.

Favorite dishes include whole steamed fish, roast duck, roast pigeon, poached chicken, Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, and a wide range of crispy green vegetables sautéed to perfection.

Dim sum are Cantonese snacks (known locally as yam cha), tasty little dumplings and pastries stuffed with meats or vegetables. This is perhaps the most popular form of southern cuisine, since a meal of dim sum is a great way to pick and choose a variety of foods, yet not feel overly full. Waitresses push around carts laden with small, freshly cooked snacks, and diners simply stop them as they pass and point out what they want.

Other Cuisines
As a tourist destination and international business center, Taipei also offers European and American cuisines, as well as other Asian fare. Most major tourist hotels have at least two dining rooms, one serving Western and the other serving Chinese cuisine. Major cities also have numerous restaurants offering Western or Asian foods, along with countless snack centers (generally in department stores) and fast food outlets. In general, restaurants hire only experienced native chefs, ensuring customers of authentic gourmet dining.