Eat at Taipei

Many locals love travelling to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taiwan to eat and shop. As I am not a fan of tom yum soup, I prefer the special administrative region of the People's Republic of China to Thailand. And Taiwan would lie somewhere in between these two, for its cheap and mostly good street food as well as being a destination where I got to experience both the city and nature. With three branches in Singapore, Eat at Taipei brings to life Taiwanese distinctive and trendy street dining subculture by emulating the many fascinating characteristics of its night markets. Colourful signboards that characterise the contemporary capital combined with traditional back-to-basics dining of wooden tables and chairs to exude the buzz of nocturnal street food culture without the crowd, smell and noise. The first opened along the perimeter of JCube's ice skating rink, followed by the ones at Chinatown Point after its renovations and Raffles City Shopping Centre (not in sequential order).

Its menu offers a variety of classic Taiwanese snack offerings and dishes such as Vermicelli with Oysters & Pig's Intestine, Spring Onion Pancake and Tainan "Coffin" Toast as well as Braised Minced Pork Rice and Railway Bento featuring Crispy-fried Pork Chop among others. Other street delicacies include Bubble or Pearl Milk Tea, Shaved Ice, "Jiu Fen" Taro Balls and Bean Curd. Was in Raffles City Shopping Centre on a weekend when I was looking for lunch. Decided to try Eat at Taipei, located at the basement where Xi Men Ding, also by Creative Eateries, used to be. My order of Vermicelli with Oysters & Pig's Intestine had a nice aroma from the coriander and shallots. Silky smooth and thin vermicelli in a soup that might be too watery for some but just right for me, with oysters and braised pig's intestines I could neither rave about nor fault. While it was priced twice that of another chain in Singapore, the portion was bigger with more ingredients and I liked that it was not too salty.

Update: The branches at Chinatown Point and Raffles City Shopping Centre have closed while another two have opened at Kallang Wave Mall and Tampines Mall.