Vegetarian Travel - Taipei: Around Gongguan MRT 公馆

I guess the average tourist is unlikely to venture to Gongguan MRT （公馆） area. However, there is a night market around Gongguan MRT. If you find yourself in the area, there are some vegetarian options.

From the MRT station, take the exit towards the Shuiyuan Market 水源市场 (which is in the opposite direction from the night market).

Just in front of the market, I found a Salty Crispy Chicken (盐酥鸡)stall. Salty crispy chicken is a popular Taiwanese street food. I was quite excited when I first saw it. Then I discovered that the "chicken" is just the usual TVP chicken we get back in Singapore and was quite disappoint. However, besides the TVP stuff, there are mushrooms, vegetables and tofu as well. I ordered a portion of mushrooms (NT$40 for one portion, which was about 4 big pieces of shitake mushroom. I discovered that I could have ask for a mix of 2 type of mushrooms later when I saw someone else asked for a mix). The mushroom was chopped, dipped in a batter and then deep fried. It was serve with a salt and pepper sprinkled on it. If you want it spicy, chilli powder will be added. However, I am used to a plainer taste and found it too salty for my liking. I also order a stick of "meat balls", which turned out to be quite delicious. I came to Gongguan twice and was not able to find the stall the second time.

(I did not take any picture of this stall. The picture is taken from a Chinese vegetarian website
You can identify the stall by the red swastik you see in the picture).

If you walked into the Shuiyuan Market from the entrance just behind this alley, you will see a stall with simple and plain sign with just 2 characters declaring it a vegetarian stall (see picture).

This is a simple stall offering a variety of noodles, plus dumplings and rice.

Unfortunately, there is no English menu and I don't think the owner (a middle age old lady) speaks English.

On the counter of the stall, there are several stewed side dishes. You can order of few of these (beside tofu and seaweed, most of the stuff are gluten) and ask for a bowl of rice. (Sides are NT$20-NT$40 I think. And flavoured rice is NT$25)

I ate here twice. First time I had an order of dumplings (水饺）. There are 10 in a portion for NT$40. That's pretty cheap though in terms of taste, it was nothing special.

The second time, I came with an empty stomached and ordered 3 dishes (see picture).

The dish on top was another variety of dumplings, more similar to wanton ("chao shou in hot oil" 红油抄手). NT$35. This was very good.

The dish on the left is stewed tofu (卤豆干). NT$40. Ordinary stuff.

The noodle dish on the right is Noodles in Zhajiang sauce (炸酱面). Quite good.

Besides noodles, fried rice and fried noodles are also available (NT$70). Basically, you get good local food at very cheap price (price is same as roadside stalls, but this is an a market)

As for the rest of Gongguan Night Market, I did not find any vegetarian food. However, I found a steam bun shop (it's a shop, not a roadside stall, along a street that leads to the junction of Xinsheng South road with Rosevelet Road). It's called 蒸功夫 (literally it means Steam Kungfu, with a pun on Real Kungfu). It's not a pure vegetarian shop. It sells meat buns, but I saw on that it also sell Vegetarian buns. (Just a side note: vegetables buns are not necessarily vegetarian buns, because meat is usually added. But this shop indicated that the buns were vegetarian). I loved steam buns, but I was too full when I passed by the shop and so did not try. I did not know if it was really good.