Stopping by a bento shop is an everyday ritual for many people in Taiwan. Locals get light wooden lunchbox-style cartons filled with rice, a main and various side dishes. And every store provides soup and a complimentary iced black tea.

“People normally recognise bento as Japanese. I want to bring Melbourne Taiwanese bento – exactly the same as how people eat and how it looks in Taiwan,” Taiwan Village’s Jay Yi-Ming Huang tells Broadsheet.

Huang grew up in Kaohsiung, a city in southern Taiwan, and worked at a traditional bento shop for 10 years. He moved to Melbourne in 2018 and soon after opened his first venue, Jymmanuel Eatery, a Taiwanese restaurant in Ripponlea for hawker dishes and street snacks.

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In 2023, he opened Taiwan Village, a small breakfast and bento shop in the CBD. In February he relocated the shop to a larger venue on Lygon Street, Carlton, to provide more space for people to dine in.

The 12 bentos take centrestage here, each featuring a protein – which could be shredded chicken, salt and pepper calamari, black pepper pork chop, Taiwanese sausage or braised pork – served alongside three simple sides, such as stir-fried cabbage with garlic, and braised tofu.

But bestsellers are the four fried chicken bentos. Fried chicken – such as you would find at Taiwanese night markets – is either seasoned with salt and pepper, coated with beer batter, slathered in a sweet plum sauce, or served as popcorn chicken with basil and garlic.

“People [back home] focus on portions, big portions, instead of presentation, plating and things like that,” says Huang. “It’s about the satisfaction of feeling full. I want to bring these memories to Taiwanese people who are abroad.”

You won’t find breakfast dishes at the new location, but favourites from the original location that have made the jump include a prawn and pineapple summer salad that’s dressed with sweet mayonnaise and chocolate sprinkles, as well as mee sua, a silky bonito flake broth with vermicelli noodles, oysters and pork intestine.

There’s also a selection of Taiwanese street food that includes Taiwanese sausages, corn soup and a cheesy pork floss pancake. The newest addition is stinky tofu hotpot, a night market dish where fermented tofu is simmered in broth. Huang’s take was inspired by a stall near his childhood home called Fu Ju Stinky Tofu Hotpot, and has a tangy pickled cabbage broth, pork intestines, duck blood, mushrooms and quail eggs.

To drink, there’s Taiwanese milk tea, soybean milk and a fizzy guava drink, which, along with Taiwanese lollies, snacks and keychains are also available in the shops small pantry section. Plus, you can always pour yourself some complimentary house-made black tea from the dispenser near the counter.

Taiwan Village
116 Lygon Street, Carlton
No phone

Hours:
Daily 11am–9.30pm

taiwanvillage.au