🍽️ Ding Bian Cuo

Rice slurry scraped into broth, night-market soup.

Ding Bian Cuo is a classic soup of Keelung's Miaokou night market, its name coming from how it is made. The cook pours rice batter along the rim of a scorching iron wok; the batter instantly sets into a thin sheet against the hot edge, then is scraped down into the boiling broth—cuo means scraping. The broth usually includes shiitake, dried shrimp, daylily, celery and a little shredded pork, yielding slippery, springy rice sheets in a savory, faintly seafood-flavored soup. The uneven, broth-soaked pieces are smooth and refreshing. As a port city with a rich fishing industry, Keelung naturally leans on seafood, and this dish grew from a local snack into a night-market icon. Cooked to order and eaten hot, it is the warming staple of a stroll through Miaokou and a nostalgic favorite for old Keelung residents.