Stuffed with seaweed, seafood, meat or vegetables, the dumplings are steamed and served piping hot. Desert dumplings are stuffed with sweet red bean paste. (Kate Dubinski/QMI Agency)

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Steamed dumplings bursting with juices and stuffing.

Sticky Rice inside a fresh bamboo tube.

Seafood soup boiled using heated rocks.

For adventurous eaters -- or even those who might want a little something that looks and tastes familiar -- Taiwan's diverse cuisine offer a lot of tantalizing treats.

In Taipei, the lunch crowd flocks to the Din Tai Fun Dumpling House, where men pack the dumplings with meat, red beans, spinach, shrimp and seaweed, and servers rush around to make sure diners are never without green tea.

The dumplings, eaten with a spoon so the delicious juices that are steamed inside them don't leak out, are a treat and a healthy departure from the deep-fried dumplings usually associated with Asian cuisine.

Many of the tourist attraction in cities also offer fine dining. Not to be missed is Silks Restaurant outside the National Palace Museum. After taking in the artwork on display, hungry visitors can order off a menu that reproduces the art work in delightful and delicious edible form.

Taiwan's aboriginal tribes have retained much of their traditional cuisine. Many of these dishes can be sampled at restaurants nestled in the mountains along the country's east coast.

The hungry traveller should stop into the Leader Village Taroko, near the Taroko Gorge and National Park, where rice is steamed in a bamboo tube and meals are served with a rice-wine served in a glass shaped like a pig.

Another aboriginal tribe, the Amis, serves soup made in a pot of cured betel (Areca) tree leaves. A fish broth is brought to a boil by adding rocks straight from a red-hot fire to the pot, a tradition passed down for generations.

In Taiwan -- like in China -- the custom when dining out is to order several dishes that are served on a large "lazy Susan" in the middle of a round table, giving everyone a chance to sample everything that has been ordered.

It makes for a friendly, communal eating experience. All kinds of rice, fish, seafood, lotus roots, bamboo, grasses -- usually steamed or boiled -- make up most of the diet.

Although recommended only for those with a very solid stomach, street food is also commonplace in Taiwan, especially in bigger cities at night markets and in seaside rest areas. Delicacies include all kinds of meat and the aptly named "stinky tofu," prepared using a meat and vegetable brine that is fermented for many months.