When researching what goodies to buy from Taiwan, pineapple tarts and sun biscuits always comes up as the top 2 items on the list. There are 2 traditional shops where most tourists love to get their pineapple tarts and sun biscuits either as gifts or for their own consumption. One of the famous brand is Li Yi Cake shop which is a hundred year old brand originating from Kee Long. The current shops are managed by the 4th generation and there are various shops throughout Taiwan. The initial famous items are from the shop is curry biscuits, pineapple tart and green bean biscuits but they have since added many new flavours like butter sun biscuits and have gained popularity from new fans.
There is only 1 Li Ye Cake Shop in Taipei and it is located at the underground mall of Taipei Main Station. This is where the confusion starts. Under Taipei Main Station, there are up to 3 underground malls connected to the metro station. The Taipei city mall, Taipei Metro mall and the Zhongshan metro mall.
The Station Front Metro Mall (Letter Z exits) runs under Zhongxiao West Road heading west towards Taipei Old North Gate Beimen (台北府城北門, 承恩門) past the Kuo-Kuang Bus Station. The Taipei New World Mall is also an underground mall located in the southern part of the station grounds (Letter K exits). Li Yi Cake Shop is located within the Z area which is the station front metro mall.
From the exit of the Taipei Main station, go out from exit 5 and look out for the sign of station front metro mall. Do not go into other underground malls. Once you are in the station front mall, you will see that the unit numbers are smaller and you can look for 11- 2B which is near to exit Z3 and Z6.
As the shop is in the center row of the mall, you can see that the cake shop has 2 sales front and no matter which side you are on, you will be served by their friendly staff who is ever ready to answer any of your questions or let you try out any of their biscuits.
They have tasting plates of all their biscuits at both side of the shop for customers to try their products before buying. Some of their famous items include the butter Tai Yang cake, curry biscuit, green bean biscuit, salted egg yolk biscuit and pineapple tart.
The tai yang biscuits are all separately packed and is good as gifts and costs TWD 300 for a box of 10 biscuits. Different from other sun biscuits, their version is less sweet and with a much more buttery crust.
The pineapple tart also comes in 2 different versions; the normal which is just plain and the Phoenix version which comes with half a salted egg yolk inside the pineapple tart. The pineapple tarts comes in different quantities, different box packaging and different combinations and all are of a different price tag. Generally, the pineapple filling tend to be slightly more dry although the crust is quite buttery.
I also brought home their popular green bean, yam, red bean and plum paste biscuits with salted egg yolk insides which is extremely delicious and really pleases the older family members. It was all gone as my parents ate one everyday before I had the chance to take a photo of the box or the biscuits.
There is only 1 store in Taipei so you can only travel here to get your biscuits if you like the Li Yi brand.
Address: Taipei Main Station, Underground Mall, Unit 11-2B, near Z3 and Z6 exit
Operating hours: 10.30 am to 9 pm
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