Taichung Braised Pork Belly Rice (Kong-rou Fan)

Kong-rou fan is a classic Taichung braised pork belly rice dish, made by slow-braising skin-on pork belly slices until the skin turns chewy and the meat tender, then ladling the rich braising sauce over white rice — available around the clock at different shops across the city. The representative shop, Yejianbu (Night School) Braised Pork Rice on Jingcheng Road in the West District, was first selected for the Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand in 2023 and has remained on the list through 2024 and 2025.

Yejianbu Braised Pork Rice is located at No. 109, Jingcheng Road, West District, Taichung, and operates from 17:00 to 02:00. It was first selected for the Michelin Guide Taiwan's Bib Gourmand list in 2023 and has remained on the list in both 2024 and 2025 — three consecutive years. Taichung's kong-rou fan culture is known for round-the-clock availability, with early-shift shops running from dawn to noon and late-night stalls open from evening into the small hours.

What is Braised Pork Belly Rice (Kong-rou Fan)

Kong-rou fan (khòng-bah-pn̄g) is a Taiwanese rice dish in which pork belly is slow-braised in soy sauce, sugar, and aromatics, then sliced and served skin-on over white rice with the braising sauce. The Taichung version insists on skin-on pork belly cut into "slices" rather than "chunks" — about a centimeter thick — braised until the skin is chewy, the fat translucent, and the lean meat tender without drying out. It comes with blanched cabbage, pickled or salted mustard greens, braised egg, and braised tofu, making it a complete set meal that works equally well as breakfast or a late-night snack. Compared to the Changhua style that tends to use block-cut meat, the Taichung version's "flat-cut, combined fat-and-lean slice" is the most recognizable difference.

What makes Taichung's kong-rou fan culture distinctive is its "all-day availability": early-shift shops open from before dawn until noon, lunch-dinner shops and bento stalls, late-night stalls glowing past midnight — each serving a different group of workers and night owls. The West District around Jingcheng Road and Second Market are classic clusters. Among these, Yejianbu Kong-rou Fan was first selected for the Taichung Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2023 and remained on the list in 2025, making it one of the shops that brought Taichung's kong-rou fan culture onto the international stage. Shanhe Lu Rou Fan inside the market represents the old-market lineage from Second Market. The two styles coexist and can be compared in a single day.

How to eat it like a local

Local knowledge

Data compiled from the Michelin Guide, Taichung City Government Tourism Bureau, and a large volume of public reviews. Sponsored content has been filtered out. Photos will be replaced with Dio's own channel footage after on-site shooting.