Ma you ji is the winter Taiwanese tonic soup: chicken pieces fried in toasted sesame oil with ginger and rice wine, simmered into a deep amber broth.
Sesame oil chicken is a Hokkien postpartum confinement food (yue zi), traditionally given to mothers in the month after childbirth. Black sesame oil is heated until smoking, the deep ginger fried in it gives the soup its characteristic warmth. Now eaten across Taipei in winter (November to March), often at night markets and home kitchens. Shin Yeh and Mountain and Sea House both run the dish on their winter menus.
2 editor picks for Sesame oil chicken soup in Taipei, ranked by editorial score. All Taipei signature dishes · Sesame oil chicken soup across every city.
Mountain and Sea House ★ 4.7
zhongzheng · No. 94, Section 2, Ren'ai Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City 100
Mountain and Sea House revives 1930s Taiwanese banquet cooking inside a restored Ren'ai Road heritage mansion. One Michelin star plus a deep wine list.
Shin Yeh Shuanglian ★ 4.4
zhongshan · No. 34-1, Section 2, Shuangcheng Street, Zhongshan District, Taipei City 104
Shin Yeh opened 1977 and writes the menu for textbook Taiwanese home cooking. Bib Gourmand, sweet-potato congee on every table, round-table family portions.