Guan Zhi Lin Sticky Rice Sausage

Review

Guan Zhi Lin sits at No. 20 Fengjia Road, right where Fengjia Road meets Lane 20, and has been trading at Fengjia Night Market for more than 15 years. Several reports credit this stall with popularising the idea of tucking a pork sausage inside a sticky rice sausage, a craze that swept Taichung and later grew into a chain brand. It remains one of the classic stalls tourists queue for.

The handmade sticky rice sausage is pan-fried until its skin turns lightly crisp, split open and filled with a pork sausage grilled until slightly charred, then packed with pickled radish omelette, pickled mustard greens and cucumber sticks, plus garlic slices, onion or chili depending on the flavor. It looks a lot like a Taiwanese hot dog. There are five flavors: original, spicy, garlic, wasabi and black pepper. Reports describe the sausage as faintly herbal, with sweetish juices and a good balance of fat and lean, while the rice sausage carries a fried-shallot aroma with no gaminess and gets tastier the more you chew. One costs about NT$70 to 75 and is filling on its own.

Media and bloggers almost unanimously recommend the garlic version, while black pepper is limited to about 100 portions a day and draws people who come specifically for it. One blogger notes, however, that a similar stall stands near the same corner: the author prefers Guan Zhi Lin, but local friends recommend the other one, so it comes down to taste. Most coverage found consists of night-market roundups with little criticism, though nearly every piece mentions the queue.

Sources disagree on opening hours: some say it opens at noon, others at 11am. It generally runs until midnight, until 0:30 on Fridays and Sundays and until 1am on Saturdays, so check before you go. Arrive early if you want black pepper. It is mainly a takeaway stall, ideal for eating while you stroll, and a well-known mung bean milk slush shop sits directly opposite if you want something to cut the richness. Sources say nothing about parking; walking is the easiest way to explore Fengjia.

It suits first-time Fengjia visitors who want one classic night-market snack. Garlic is the safest first order, and the limited black pepper is the one to try for something different. Two people can split one and still have room for other stalls.