Hailing from a long-established shop with over 60 years of history—soft, chewy, and aromatic rice cakes you can enjoy in Taoyuan too

Text & photos /Three Highs Eat Han

Ever since I had the famously renowned, over 60-year-old Mifengjia rice cake in Douliu, I deeply felt that a good tube-shaped rice cake should be just like this. Back then, I already knew that the founder, “A-Jia Bo” (Uncle A-Jia), had five sons who inherited his craft and opened their own shops separately, two of them in the north—in Xinzhuang and Taoyuan. This time, returning to Taoyuan, I came to check it out. Actually, I’d been saying I wanted to try it for a long time. Parking on Zhenfu Street isn’t easy, and I gave up after passing by a few times before. The shop is small, and the selection is equally simple and focused.

The reason why Mifengjia tastes so good becomes apparent just by looking at its shape and surface. The commonly steamed and inverted tube-shaped rice cake, if not properly cooked or handled, will have too much moisture that ruins the texture, making it sticky and mushy. Some, due to careless preparation or otherwise, even collapse in shape, and with added humidity, the texture becomes quite unpleasant.

Mifengjia’s rice cake has just the right level of moisture—the glutinous rice is soft and chewy, with an appropriate firmness, and there's no mushy feeling from the first bite to the last. On top is tender minced pork with a decent amount of crispy fried shallots, delivering a strong aroma upon the first taste. The original flavor is simply drizzled with a bit of special soy sauce made to pair with the rice cake, with no cilantro or anything else, offering a purer kind of fragrance.

The Taoyuan branch has a similar texture to the one on Zhongzheng Road in Douliu, but I found the flavor in Douliu more to my liking. The toppings also include shrimp and dried small shrimps, which I remember had a richer taste and aroma. That said, the Taoyuan branch is still very delicious. The portions are small, so having two in a row is definitely not a problem. With the second one, I added mashed garlic and a bit of sweet chili sauce, then paired it with a bowl of fish ball soup—so comforting~

(Second piece, spicy and garlicky heavy flavor version)

(Swordfish ball soup)

(For comparison: Douliu Zhongzheng branch—just look at those toppings, the flavor is richer and definitely worth trying~)

Douliu Mifengjia (Taoyuan Zhenfu Branch)
Address: No. 42, Zhenfu Street, Taoyuan District, Taoyuan City
Business hours: 9:00 AM ~ 7:30 PM

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