Taiwanese Stinky Tofu - The Best of the Lot @ Shenkeng 台湾深坑徐家臭豆腐 [Taiwan]

I had to be honest here. 

The main reason for planning my virgin trip to Taiwan is attributed to a dish that many of my personal friends abhor (often by pinching their noses); the smelly tofu!

I don't understand why people hate deep fried smelly tofu so much! If you can take in stuff like congealed pig blood and innards that actually transport real waste materials, why not a few pieces of soy based food?! 

Whatever the case, i was determined to have a true plate of authentic Taiwanese stinky tofu and hence, intentionally planned a trip to Shenkeng, the undisputed capital of tofu!  

There were quite a number of stalls / restaurants / eateries offering smelly tofu and i was in a headache inducing dilemma on where to have it! Rescue came from the nice lady manning the fragrant tofu skewers and it was eventually Hsu Chia (徐家) that was picked.

Nestled right at the start of Shenkeng old walking street, Hsu Chia (or Xu family)'s shop would be hard to miss, especially when it is right next to the immensely popular shop selling the fragrant tofu skewers i mentioned in the paragraph right above. 

Besides selling smelly tofu in the deep fried version, Hsu Chia also has it in other styles like spicy (mala), duck blood and (yucky) intestine. If that's not your cup of tea, you can further consider their braised meat rice and braised pork skin! 

I shall not have anything except for my deserving deep fried smelly tofu (truth is, i was too full for anything else)! As far as smell was concerned, it was comparable to the stench aroma at pasar malams in Singapore whenever a Taiwanese smelly tofu stall is present. 

The taste was a different matter altogether; that acrid stink literally caught me by surprise when i bit into the crispy cube! The expulsion of hot oil and the dense, silky texture insides coupled with the special, unforgettable fragrance were pure bliss to my taste buds! 

Even Alex could not help stealing a bite and he was immediately hooked!

Despite our full stomach, we could not resist ordering another plate! Throughout the rest of our Taiwan trip, i had to endure Alex's constant harping on the smelly tofu in Shenkeng!! It's a pity though that we didn't have sufficient time or i would have made another trip down to Shenkeng for the best stinky tofu i ever have! 

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Location Map

As above. 

Price

Smelly Tofu - NT$50 (roughly S$2.00)

Additional Information

Pssst, i received reliable information that the best in that area is supposed the one two shops away (next to the fragrant toasted tofu) but it was sadly closed for business that day when i visited. 

For an overview of my 9 Days, 8 Nights Taiwan Trip [Cingjing (清境) - Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) - Taichung (臺中) - Taipei (臺 北)], click HERE.