What to Eat @ Jiufen Old Street • Fishball Bozai 九份老街 • 魚丸伯仔

A day trip to Jiufen Old Street 九份老街 is one of the obligatory excursions for most tourists to Taipei.

Jiufen boasts views of Taiwan's scenic northern coastline. We weren't so lucky that day as it was raining quite heavily throughout the time we were there.

Jiufen was a picturesque gold mining town built on a lush green hillside. When the gold ran out, the town went into a slumber before re-awakening as a tourist attraction. Its quaint narrow old streets are now lined on both sides with cafes, tea houses, local food stalls, restaurants, knick-knack, trinket and souvenir shops.

There are plenty of snacks like this grilled wild boar sausage to keep our tummies warm and full on a rainy day.

Ice cream, cilantro and shaved toasted peanut roll 冰淇淋春卷. Lots of gimmicky and fun to eat things in Jiufen 😄

I usually go for what the locals eat as the taste of local food is part of the memories I want to take home with me.

魚丸伯仔 was founded in Keelung 基隆 nearly 70 years ago. This is the household name's Jiufen outlet which is run by second generation boss 陈青松 for nearly 30 years.

Making tau kwa pau 豆干包 at the stall. Fried tau kwa is stuffed with minced lean pork and onion, then capped with a seal of minced shark meat.

The fried tau kwa pau is kept simmering in a pot of fish broth. It is scooped out and served on order.

魚丸伯仔 fish balls are hand made at the stall with shark meat.

We had all of 魚丸伯仔's dishes - shark meat balls, tau kwa pau and mung bean glass noodles (tang hoon 冬粉).

The fish ball soup is made with just run off water from making the shark fish balls. Just a sprinkle of cilantro provided a bit of zesty accent to the slight tasting savoury salty broth.

The shark fish balls have a nice bounce to the bite. A bit of seasoning and sugar gave the subtly sweet shark meat an overlay of slight savoury sweetness.