Zhongli Beef Noodle Soup 中坜牛肉面
Zhongli Beef Noodle Soup is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Zhongli Beef Noodle Soup (中坜牛肉面) is the beef noodle soup of Zhongli (中壢), a district of Taoyuan (桃園), Taiwan. The Zhongli District Office describes the local bowls as well loaded and full of flavour, and notes that some people group them with peanut brittle and the sickles the town was known for in earlier times as the 'Three Treasures of Zhongli' (中壢三寶).
Where it comes from
Chinese Wikipedia puts Zhongli's standing as a beef noodle town down to its livestock trade: in the mid-20th century the largest poultry and livestock market in northern Taiwan was there, and some traders also ran cattle ranches in Zhongli. The town's whole-beef cooking started on Zhongping Road (中平路) beside the First Market, while its beef noodles took off at Xinming Market (新明市場).
In the 1970s the beef offal soup and beef noodles sold on Zhongli's streets were known well beyond the town as good food at low prices; Hsieh Tung-min (謝東閔), then governor of Taiwan Province, asked for a bowl with the workers when he toured a Zhongli factory. People from other counties who wanted to open restaurants came to Zhongli to learn beef cooking, and the Zhongli city office held beef noodle contests in 2009 and 2010 to promote the town's food.
Flavour and texture
The district office notes that each of the town's many beef noodle shops has its own flavour, with both spicy Sichuan-style and light Hakka-style bowls. The beef offal that street stalls once sold is now served in these noodle shops.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- A common version of Zhongli Beef Noodle Soup · 中坜牛肉面常见做法参考照片。Photo: Bahnfrend · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited.
