Plan the trip around the food.

The formats worth knowing

Night markets. Every Taiwanese town has one and the cities have several: Shilin and Raohe Street in Taipei, Fengjia in Taichung, Ruifeng in Kaohsiung, the Garden Night Market in Tainan. Eat as you go, in small portions, following the smoke and the queues. Most run from late afternoon until late, and each has its own famous stalls.

Breakfast shops and lunch specialists. The single-dish specialists are the glory of Taiwan eating: one family, one recipe, perfected over decades. Soy milk breakfasts start the day, beef noodle shops own lunch, and many famous places close when they sell out, often by mid afternoon.

Old streets. Taiwan's old streets (Jiufen, Daxi, Lukang, Anping and a dozen more) are snacking streets by design: peanut ice cream rolls, taro balls, rice cakes and tea shops in the old shophouse rows.

Tea and sweets. High mountain oolong from Alishan and Lishan, Dongding and Oriental Beauty teas, pineapple cakes, sun cakes from Taichung and mochi from Hualien: the edible souvenir culture is serious, and the best shops are old names in their home cities.

The regional dishes worth the trip

Taipei: beef noodle soup at the famous lunch counters, xiaolongbao, and the Yongkang Street eating quarter. Taichung: sun cakes, bubble tea in the city that claims its invention, and the Fengjia market's inventions. Tainan: the old capital of snacks: danzai noodles, milkfish, oyster omelettes, coffin bread and douhua, eaten in that order across a day. Chiayi: turkey rice. Kaohsiung and the south: seafood at Cijin and the harbour, and Hakka cooking inland in Meinong. The east coast: indigenous flavours, millet and flying fish on Orchid Island in season, and the railway bento boxes sold on the platforms.