Who would have thought a whole neighborhood could be devoted to stinky tofu? But that’s the case in the town of Shen Keng, not far from Taipei.
My inlaws are visiting this weekend, so yesterday we all made a trip out to Shen Keng. I had never been there before, so I was very curious when my wife said, inaccurately, that we were going to a famous stinky tofu restaurant. Actually, I would describe it as halfway between Yong Kan Jie and a night market. Lots of respectable looking restaurants specializing in tofu, a bunch of street vendors selling barbecued stinky tofu on a stick, and shops selling all kind of cool trinkets and food products.
I wanted barbecued tofu from a street-vendor, but we went in a restaurant and had a five course meal – four tofu dishes and a fried fish. It was actually very good and I’m looking forward to returning.
Sounds awesome! I absolutely LOVE stinky tofu! I must eat the stuff at least once a week. (I’m strange, I know) I’ll make a point to go up there sometime.
Today Peter and Marlboro took me and Inger to “Stinky street” here in Taipei, I call it that because its THE STREET in Taipei for stinky tofu.
Since I dont know that many places here i Taipei yet I didnt understand what he meant when Peter asked me if we wanted to tag along so I just sayed Yes sure we’ll go.
But when we got there I imediately understood where we were since Ive read an article and I remebered the tree I now was facing. Under this tree is the best stinky tofu in Taiwan ,they say…[/quote]
Taipei Day Trips II does a good writeup on Shenkeng’s tofu street including a number of good hikes in the area. One nice destination is a waterfall not far away where you can stand underneath and take a shower. The water comes from an undeveloped ridge and so is very clean.
There is also a well-preserved traditional brick villa just up on the main road as you head back to Taipei. I believe it is only open on weekends.
Looks like you need to take the bus of the beast - number 666.
Take it from Muzha MRT Station (not the zoo station).
Your destination is Shen Keng Lao Jie (Old Street - 深坑老街). You’ll want to get off at Shenkeng Post Office stop 坑國郵局), or Shenkeng E;ementary School stop (坑國國小).
However the bus is 20 minutes peak, and 60 minutes non-peak apparently, so you may want to taxi it form the MRT if you don’t want a longf wait. It’s not too far.
Also the #16. But Bu is right. Take a taxi. It’s only a 10-15 minute ride. Try to get the driver to take the 106 spur route that runs south of the Jingmei river and not north of the river through Shenkeng town itself. You can approach the tofu street from the bottom so to speak. Traffic is always light on this side.
People taking a scooter should also approach from the other side of the river.
