Our Favorite Activity In Taipei: Eat The Delicious Food (and Desserts!)

Our latest First Friday Feast is a bit different than normal as we were in Taipei, Taiwan and wanted to spend some time enjoying some desserts.

Cute food background at Taipei Main Station

First Friday Feast is a monthly series debuting on the first Friday of each month and elaborates on a recent dining experience. For avoidance of doubt, this post was in no way sponsored by the restaurant.

We’ve been trying to have a date night each month this year (and post about it on the first Friday of every month). Sometimes we bring the kids along for date night and sometimes they stay at home. But that’s fine by us–the kids are more than welcome to tag along if they want. This time, we’re going to change it up a little more by reminiscing about the excellent treats we had in Taipei.

Arrival to Taipei Main Station

We dropped off our bags at the lockers near the TPE In-Town Check-In and had a few hours to kill. While I had plans originally to go to the local zoo, turns out the zoo was closed while we were in town. Oops. So, instead we decided to do what we always do… go eat.

About a 10-15 minute walk is all that’s really needed to make our way over to Hanzhong Street, where there’s a nice collection of shops and desserts. But first, the kids wanted to stop off and see the very colorful entrance to the Taipei City Mall attached to Taipei Main Station.

Brief stop at 7-Eleven

Street address: 1樓, No. 41號, Section 1, Zhonghua Rd, Guangfu Village, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100

Did you think that 7-Eleven was just a convenience store? While that might be true anywhere else in the world, in Taiwan, some stores have intricate collaborations. Aviation fans might enjoy the STARLUX-themed store also in Taipei. On top of that, you could even purchase an inflight apron branded with a 7-11 logo. Other collaborations include Peanuts / Snoopy, Pokémon, and Lay’s Potato Chips (yes, really).

Here, along our path we just stumbled across a Sanrio collab. Given the oppressive combination of heat and humidity, it was as good an excuse as anything to step inside.

Inside you’ll find Sanrio decorations and even some themed food items to purchase. Stay cute!

You’ll also generally find unique gear and merch here if you want a souvenir. We told our daughter Char that she already bought too many stuffed animals on this trip, much to her disappointment. We thought about grabbing something to eat here but held off for the promise of better sweets.

Ximen Mango Shaved Ice

Official link to Ximen Mango Shaved Ice: https://www.mango-ice.com.tw/index_ch_01.htm
Street address: No. 17號, Hanzhong St, Wanshou Village, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

Our main goal was to make it somewhere to eat mango shaved ice. Why mango shaved ice? It’s a popular dessert in Taiwan that Jenn and I have been eating almost every single visit to Taiwan since our first in 2014. And the kids wanted to partake. When Jenn did some research in Taipei Main Station, we determined that this spot specifically had some pretty positive reviews in the area, though this is far from the only option.

The shop is quick-service and when we arrived on a hot Wednesday, there was no wait. There was a larger menu besides the options listed across the top, but we already knew what we wanted.

What makes shaved ice so good is the thousands of layers of thin ice that makes it so soft and fluffy. It’s imperative to also start with high-quality ice (that’s a thing) and a machine with sharp blades. The mango shaved ice we chose contained plenty of fresh fruit around the edge and some mango ice cream on top. It’s very sweet and this one fully satisfied our craving. It’s simply an excellent choice on a day like this one.

Shaved ice with mango, strawberries, and kiwi

Xingfu Tang

Official link to Xingfu Tang: https://xingfutang.com.tw/index.php?lang=en
Street address: Xing Fu Tang, No. 101號, Hanzhong St, Ximen Village, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

After that sweet feast, we headed down the cute shopping district of Hanzhong Street right around the corner. We had some time before our walk and burning off some of that sugar by doing some shopping seemed like a good move.

Our 10-year-old son Alex is all about boba so finding Xingfu Tang down the road a couple of blocks from us was incredibly fortunate for him. We hadn’t been to the tea shop before, but Jenn had heard good things.

Alex took one look at this giant cup and was immediately intrigued. He doesn’t like caffeinated drinks but the brown sugar milk drink doesn’t have tea in it. Sometimes being able to speak Mandarin helps in Taiwan for asking the employees a question. Who knew?

What’s most interesting to us is the ability to see the art that goes into making fresh boba live. The kids enjoyed watching them work the tapioca dough into the correct size and shape. In some ways, this reminded me of seeing Cinnabon at the mall back at home but with far less frosting.

When it’s done, you’ll end up seeing it in this menacing-looking black stew. This is where the boba waits until it’s added to your cup.

Here is where I admit that I am personally not a fan of boba. Something about the need to interrupt the drink to intermittently chew doesn’t appeal to me. That’s especially true when the drink is generally what I purchased and the tapioca pearls don’t add much for me. But the boba here? Absolutely worth a try even if you don’t normally like boba. When it’s freshly made, there’s more flavor and springiness to it that makes it a more interesting drink. I’m not sure I would be interested in a whole drink to myself, but it worked in at least changing my default impression.

After we ordered, one of the employees told the kids they could draw a stick from the corner. Having traveled to Asia before, we were familiar with the concept of drawing to see what your luck that day is. While I would like to dismiss it as a silly game, I know others out there might take it far more seriously.

You draw a stick, read the number on the stick (there are English numerals in case you can’t read the Chinese), and open the drawer to receive the manifestation of your luck.

Both kids just had “average” luck that day, which seemed about right. I’m glad it wasn’t a bad reading because flying out later that day might have been more adventurous than I would prefer! The friendly employee also gave some stickers and a fan to both kids. That was nice of them.

3 Siblings Snowflake Ice

Street address: No. 23號, Hanzhong St, Wanshou Village, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

This is where we officially jumped the shark. You’d think on a short walk down a street full of shops would lead us to just heading back to the train station and we’d be on our way. But the kids kept complaining it was an oppressively hot day (and it was because of the high humidity). They got Jenn on board with one more stop to… another mango shaved ice place. That said, there was some apprehension about going back to the same place we just left a short while ago. Something about it being weird that the employees would recognize us and laugh. Thus we went to a place right around the corner from it.

Immediately, we could tell this place is more popular than the original place we visited, but I think the price is the main driver. There are also more choices of both toppings and ice cream here. Just look at the menu to see for yourself.

Plus there’s a backside to the menu too.

It’s so crowded here that we ended up sitting in the downstairs area, which was full of graffiti. It’s mostly just messages from past customers in pretty much any language that exists. At first, it felt a little strange coming down here when no one else was here to start and seeing all the writing on the walls because it seemed normal upstairs. But it stopped feeling out of place once we got settled in.

Kids waiting downstairs for their dessert

I feel embarrassed to say we ended up ordering two. So not only did we just eat one not long ago, but we got two more. And it’s really just because the kids wanted one in the same style that they just had and Jenn wanted a red bean and green tea version.

But having just had one before, it was easy for us to directly compare. The ice quality was not as good here as it was at Ximen Mango Shaved Ice. It also tasted a bit drier by default, something that seems odd to say when you’re talking about frozen water but stick with me. I believe it’s because it’s missing some condensed milk standardly in the dish, so you need to use the ice cream as a sort of lubricant. You can add condensed milk to it and that might help, but quality of the ice did seem lower here. Between the two, we’d vote for Ximen Mango Shaved Ice unless you really want a flavor they don’t have there.

Green tea shaved ice with red beans, and a shaved ice with mango, strawberries, and kiwi

Recommendation: We have no regrets

Here is normally where I would spend some time arguing for or against you coming to the restaurant to try the food. And while I could do that, I also know that having so many desserts within a short time feels a bit odd. Instead, I’d phrase it this way: when we come to Taiwan, we always have grand ideas about what we want to do while in town. But as soon as we walk around a bit, our plans morph into food. On occasion, that means we go on a dessert frenzy like this.

We only had a brief overnight stopover in Taipei, Taiwan, so to make the most of it, we needed to cram things into a tight window. Eating a full-on meal didn’t appeal to us at the time because we just had a huge breakfast at the hotel and we would be eating again shortly on the flight. So everything lined up for us to pig out on desserts. And thus we have no regrets about our choice.

food.wada.travel

experiencing the world via gastronomy with our children

Our Favorite Activity In Taipei: Eat The Delicious Food (and Desserts!)

Arrival to Taipei Main Station

Brief stop at 7-Eleven

Ximen Mango Shaved Ice

Xingfu Tang

3 Siblings Snowflake Ice

Recommendation: We have no regrets

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