A local gourmand’s daily excursions through Taipei’s old streets offer a guide to traditional street food flavors sure to give tourists and foodies a gastronomic treat.

Dadaocheng first earned its reputation as a commercial Old Street district in Taipei; Chris Chang is a local who grew up in a well-off family, but loves street food. A sensitive palate and food-conscious upbringing, plus a background in food processing and the food import/export trade, encouraged his passion for food and made him curious. As he got to know the owners of the area’s many small eateries, he observed their day-to-day operations and gained in-depth knowledge of their dishes. Chang and co-author Ema Fu have drawn on their shared culinary passion to create this guide to Dadaocheng’s representative eateries and food culture.

The book includes roughly thirty old shops, many of which Chang grew up eating in, and divides them into four categories based on their specialty: rice, noodles, soup, and snacks/side dishes. In the case of Chinese sticky rice alone, several of the shops offer unique charms, and the book explains how the glutinous rice, ingredients, and flavorings used in each shop are different. In addition to the various flavors and cooking techniques, Chang shares fascinating stories – some shops still use cooking methods inherited from their predecessors, some look local but have a Japanese owner, some are run by different people in the morning and afternoon, and some have sold only one dish for decades.

In the old street district’s commercial heyday, street food had to satisfy the discriminating palates of wealthy merchants and fill workers’ stomachs. Accustomed to getting up at 4:30 a.m., Chang has a healthy appetite, and his breakfast choices are similar to those of people who used to get up early to go to work. The delicious food in this book may seem simple, but the meticulous craftsmanship the shop owners have preserved over many years is in fact difficult to replicate. It’s clear that Chang is feasting on a spirit of craftsmanship as well as many decades of stories and memories.