Taiwan

A Taiwanese noodle soup of thick, chewy wheat noodles submerged in a long-simmered 紅燒 (red-braised) beef broth built on dark soy sauce, doubanjiang, and aromatic spices, topped with tender braised beef shank slices and pickled mustard greens.

A Taiwanese everyday staple of steamed short-grain white rice topped with slow-braised, finely minced or diced pork belly cooked in a soy-dark-soy, Shaoxing wine, rock-sugar, and five-spice braising liquid until the rendered fat and collagen form a glossy, clinging sauce.

A cold Taiwanese sweetened milk tea, vigorously shaken over ice and served with chewy black tapioca pearls through a wide-gauge straw.

A Taiwanese street snack of a thick slab of deep-fried toast hollowed out and filled with a creamy seafood or chicken chowder, then capped with the cut-out lid.

A Taiwanese snack of small eggs repeatedly braised in a spiced soy-sauce stock and air-dried over days until they shrink, darken, and turn dense and chewy.

An assortment of offal, tofu, eggs, and vegetables simmered or steeped in a soy-based aromatic master stock (lu) and served sliced, hot or cold.

A southern Taiwanese rice porridge cooked with fresh milkfish, ginger and scallion, eaten as a breakfast staple — distinctly the loose Taiwanese 'fan-tang' style of cooked rice in broth rather than long-simmered gruel.

A griddle-fried pancake of small fresh oysters and egg bound with a sweet-potato starch slurry, yielding a gelatinous chewy interior with crisped edges, served with a tangy-sweet chili sauce.

A Taiwanese street food of thin hand-pulled wheat-flour vermicelli (misua) served in a thick, sweet-potato-starch-thickened pork broth with fresh small oysters and braised pork large intestine, finished with cilantro and a drizzle of sweet chili sauce or black vinegar.

A Taiwanese individually-portioned pastry consisting of a buttery, crumbly shortbread shell pressed around a sweet-tart caramelised pineapple or pineapple-winter-melon jam filling, formed into a compact rectangle and served as a gift confection or tea accompaniment.

A Taiwanese breakfast of a thin, chewy wheat-batter crepe cooked together with a beaten egg and scallions, then rolled up.

A pan-fried unleavened wheat flatbread made from rolled and coiled dough laminated with oil and chopped scallions, crisp outside and layered within.

A Taiwanese street breakfast of a flaky pan-fried scallion flatbread griddled together with a fried egg and rolled or folded around it.

A Taiwanese tonic soup of chicken simmered with abundant aged sesame oil, old ginger, and rice wine into a deeply aromatic, warming broth.

A chilled dessert of finely shaved ice sweetened with syrups and topped with ingredients such as fruit, red bean, and condensed milk.

A pungent fermented tofu, brined in a fermented vegetable-and-herb liquid until strongly aromatic, then most commonly deep-fried crisp and served with pickled cabbage and chili sauce.

A short, plump pork sausage cured with a sweet-savory seasoning and a hit of rice wine, grilled over charcoal and eaten with slices of raw garlic.

A savory glutinous-rice dish in which steamed sticky rice is tossed and cooked with fragrant shallot oil, pork, dried shrimp, and rehydrated shiitake mushrooms.

Soft glutinous-rice-flour balls, often filled with sweet black sesame or peanut paste, served warm in a lightly sweet ginger or fermented-rice broth.

A Taiwanese braise of bone-in chicken pieces cooked down in roughly equal parts sesame oil, rice wine and soy sauce with ginger, garlic and a final flourish of Thai basil.

An ultra-silken, barely-set fresh soy curd served in sweet ginger or sugar syrup, eaten warm or chilled and topped with soft accompaniments such as tapioca pearls, red beans, or peanuts.