Stinky Tofu
臭豆腐chòu dòufu
- Fermented
- Savory
- Umami
- +3 more
Taichung · North District
Yizhong Street
一中街商圈
Taichung's after-school snack street
- Hours
- Daily 12:00–22:00
- Crowds
- Busy
- Average spend
- NT$150–350per person, grazing
- Nearest station
- Taichung StationTaiwan Railway
The market
About Yizhong Street
Yizhong Street, named for Taichung First Senior High School, sits in North District and takes in Yizhong Street, Yucai Street, Sanmin Road and Taiping Road. By day it is a district of clothing shops, department stores and cram schools; when high-schoolers get out in the late afternoon, the stands selling stinky tofu, chicken cutlets, shaved ice, drinks and fried snacks come alive. The travel writer Nick Kembel calls it a much smaller version of Taipei's Ximending.
The food here is meant to be cheap and filling, with traditional flavors rather than novelty. It is about a 20-minute walk from Taichung Station, passing through Taichung Park on the way.
Best foods
What to eat
The signature dishes of Yizhong Street, with typical prices.
Typical price: NT$60–150 · per plate
Taiwanese Fried Chicken
鹽酥雞yánsū jī
- Savory
- Peppery
- Aromatic
- +3 more
Typical price: NT$60–300 · per bag, depending on what you pick
Mango Shaved Ice
芒果冰mángguǒ bīng
- Sweet
- Fruity
- Creamy
- +1 more
Typical price: NT$100–300 · per bowl
Eat your way through
Stinky tofu to plum ice: four stops at Yizhong
A suggested order for an evening here. Share what you order and linger where the queue is longest.
- About 1 h 30 min
- 4 stops
Stop 1: Yizhong handmade stinky tofu
At 21-2 Yizhong Street, open from late afternoon and closed two days a week, so confirm the day first. Eat it with the pickles and chili sauce.
- Stinky Tofu
- Yizhong Handmade Stinky Tofu
- Search on map(opens in a new tab)
Stop 2: Pangzi fried chicken bites
Fried chicken bites at 20 Yizhong Street, good alternated with the stinky tofu. For a whole cutlet instead, go to Angel Chicken Cutlet at 60 Yizhong Street.
- Taiwanese Fried Chicken
- Pangzi Fried Chicken Bites
- Search on map(opens in a new tab)
Stop 3: Shanghe Yuan braised snacks
A braised-snack shop at 4 Yucai Street, known for chilled chicken-feet jelly; several guides name it, and it is a short walk from Fengren ice.
Stop 4: Fengren ice
Finish with shaved ice: sour-plum ice with sweetened beans and ice cream, at the mouth of Lane 3 off Yucai Street, diagonally across from the school's main gate. Two guides from 2024 on give Tuesday as a day off, so confirm first.
- Yizhong Fengren Ice
- Find on map(opens in a new tab)
On the lanes
Stalls worth finding
A few stalls we know, with tips for spotting them. Line-ups change, so treat this as a starting point.
4 stalls
Yizhong Fengren Ice
一中豐仁冰
Fengren Ice is an old name in the Yizhong district, reported to have opened in 1946 and now run by the third generation. It is a street-corner stand at the mouth of Lane 3 on Yucai Street, diagonally across from the main gate of Taichung First Senior High School, with a green-and-red sign that looks like an old school exercise book. The star is 'fengren ice': sour-plum shaved ice with sweetened beans and ice cream. There is also a cheaper plain plum ice and a 'dry' version with more ice cream. People say it is so good that customers come even in winter, earning the nickname 'madman's ice'; that is only hearsay. It is old-school shaved ice, plum and sweet beans rather than the fruit ice that is fashionable now. Guides disagree on hours: opening times range from 10:00 to noon, two guides from 2024 on give Tuesday as a day off, and others list no closing day, so confirm before you go.
Known forMango Shaved Ice
How to find it: At the mouth of Lane 3, Yucai Street, a roadside stand diagonally across from the main gate of Taichung First Senior High School.
Yizhong Handmade Stinky Tofu
一中手工臭豆腐
Yizhong Handmade Stinky Tofu serves fried stinky tofu, crisp outside and tender within, with pickles and a house chili sauce, around NT$60 a portion. Several Yizhong food guides place it at 21-2 Yizhong Street. It opens in the late afternoon and closes on a couple of days a week, so check the day before you go. It is not the only stinky tofu seller on the street, but several guides name it, and it is often recommended alongside the fried chicken stalls nearby.
Known forStinky Tofu
How to find it: On Yizhong Street.
Angel Chicken Cutlet (Yizhong branch)
天使雞排（一中店）
Angel Chicken Cutlet is a chicken-cutlet chain, and its Yizhong branch at 60 Yizhong Street sells thick, fried-to-order cutlets for around NT$100. Nick Kembel names the Yizhong branch among the stalls on his Yizhong Street list and Bobby Travel includes it too. It is a branch of a chain rather than a one-off old stall, but picking up something fried to eat on the move is a normal way to walk Yizhong Street.
Known forTaiwanese Fried Chicken
How to find it: On Yizhong Street.
Pangzi Fried Chicken Bites
胖子雞丁雞排
Pangzi sells bite-size fried chicken with a house seasoning and is described as a Yizhong fried-food shop of more than twenty years. It is at 20 Yizhong Street, directly across from the handmade stinky tofu stall, and two guides both give Tuesday as the closing day. The Camping Map guide suggests alternating a bite of stinky tofu with a bite of chicken, trading savory for tangy and spicy, which is easier on the palate than eating just one.
Known forTaiwanese Fried Chicken
How to find it: On Yizhong Street, directly across from the handmade stinky tofu stall.
Plan your visit
Where and when
Find the market on the map and check the weekly hours before you set out.
Press Tab to move through the destinations. Use the arrow keys to move to a neighbouring destination, Enter to open its card and Escape to close it. Plus and minus zoom, 0 resets the view. When nothing is selected the arrow keys turn and tilt the map.
Around Yizhong and Yucai streets, North District, Taichung
Opening hours
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday |
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| Tuesday |
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| Wednesday |
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| Thursday |
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| Friday |
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| Saturday |
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| Sunday |
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Yizhong is not a night-only market: most shops open around midday and close between about 21:30 and 23:00, some stalls open only from 16:00, and some close one day a week. This is a rough window drawn from individual shops' listed hours, not an official one.
Stalls set their own hours and close on their own days. Confirm before you go.
Know before you go
Visitor information
- Best time to go
- Weekdays after about 17:00, when school lets out, are the liveliest and most crowded; for shorter lines go in the afternoon or avoid weekends.
- Crowds
- Busy
- Average spend
- NT$150–350 · per person, grazing
- Payment
- Cash
Good to know
- Hours differ by shop and many close one weekday (Monday and Tuesday are common; guides give Tuesday for both Fengren and Pangzi), so check first.
- Portions are big and prices low, so two or three people sharing can cover more stalls.
- Fengren ice is a roadside stand at the mouth of a lane diagonally across from the school's main gate, not on the main pedestrian street, so head toward Yucai Street.
- By day this is cheap clothing and cram schools; the crowd visibly thickens when students get out in the evening.
How to arrive
Getting there
- 20 min walk
Train
Taichung Station
Taiwan Railway
One English guide gives about a 20-minute walk through Taichung Park; buses also run the route.
- 5 min walk
Bus
Stops along Sanmin Road
Chinese Wikipedia calls Sanmin Road one of the busiest roads in Taichung for traffic and bus routes, so many parts of the city have a direct bus.
History
A little history
According to a summary on Chinese Wikipedia, Yizhong's beginnings were ordinary: early on there were only a few scattered cram schools, and students' need to eat produced a handful of self-service canteens, stationery shops and second-hand book stalls. In the 1980s the Shuili Building and the Lailai department store opened and more than a dozen large cram-school chains moved in, which is when the district took shape; the Zhongyou department store came later and widened the area.
Media coverage and city planning then positioned the district as a hub of youth pop culture. That summary lists no references, so treat the details as the usual account rather than settled history.
Keep exploring
More markets in Taichung
Night market- Taichung
- Daily 16:00–02:00
Known forTaiwanese Sausage in Glutinous Rice (“Small Sausage in Large Sausage”) · Egg Crepe (Danbing) · Stinky Tofu
Photo credits (7)
- Yizhong StreetPhoto: Lordcolus · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab)
- Yizhong StreetPhoto: Lordcolus · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab)
- Yizhong StreetPhoto: Cheng-en Cheng · CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab)
- Stinky TofuPhoto: takuma mori · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab)
- Taiwanese Fried ChickenPhoto: 玄史生 · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab)
- Mango Shaved IcePhoto: Allervous · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
- Fengjia Night MarketPhoto: Chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)