The breakfasts of Zhong Hua road

My absolute favorite thing to eat in all of Taiwan (and maybe the world) is breakfast, specifically the salty soy milk soup. This is a breakfast dish that you will find in many places throughout Taipei, and some are better than others. Places that serve salty soy milk also serve the accompanying foods, like sweet soy milk, fried dough, taro pastry, and bing.

On this trip I decided to catalog all of the breakfast restaurants I tried near our home on Zhong Hua road.

Many of them are traditional soy milk shops, and a few others are western-style breakfast, which sell sandwiches and burgers. These few shops are only a small sampling of the dozen or so breakfast places within 5 blocks on this one street.

If that  gives  you a sense of the sheer amount of restaurants in Taipei….

We tried this shop on the first morning in Taiwan because the one closest to the house was very busy. It was alright, but I ended up finding another place I liked more so this was my one and only visit. 

the entrance to the shop

taro cake and salty soy milk

salty soy milk with fried dough

This was my favorite place to eat salty soy milk, and it also happened to be the one closest to my house. Once I discovered this place, I only had the motivation to try two more on the same street, before I made a commitment here and returned every morning. 

the best salty soy milk

a great jian bing

This is another breakfast place that intrigued me. It specializes in America-style sandwiches, which sounds boring, but when you order one with ham and egg, you find out it's pretty different from an American sandwich. I also ordered sweet soy milk as a drink and a jian bing.

My American ham-and-egg sandwich

sweet soy milk drink

jian bing

This restaurant is on the corner by the elementary school and is super popular in the early morning.  Again, they specialize in sandwiches, but instead I ordered soymilk, jian bing, and a taro cake. 

my sweet soy milk drink

jian bing, very simple version

taro cake