In terms of Chinese cuisine, I am most familiar with Cantonese food. So for my first visit to Taipei and Taiwan, I booked Taipei Eats' Iconic Food Tour (aka Xinyi District Backstreets Food Tour) as an introduction to their cuisine. The 4 hour tour was informative, fun and tasty. We had 2 tour guides: Jean from Toronto and an apprentice whose name I can't recall, but she was raised in the US and went to Cornell.
The tour had many stops and took us through "backstreets" of the Xinyi District, where the iconic Taipei 101 building is located. We traipsed through a classic wet market, where food of all kinds (raw, cooked, dried, still alive, etc.) are on offer alongside non-food items like clothing. The most memorable stops for me were the Taiwanese beef "burger" gua bao, stinky tofu (some taste like bleu cheese), a boba tea place, Taiwanese pancakes, and a sorbet place. Jean purchased bottled water for those of us in need. We also stopped at a betel nut dispensary, but I declined to try this carcinogenic stimulant than you chew like tobacco and then spit out, turning your saliva orange!
Our tour was altered a bit because we happened to go on Election Day, and 2 of the usual stops, including one offering Taiwan's iconic dumplings, were closed so the proprietors could go vote. We also stopped at the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall and were able to see the changing of the guards.
Overall tasty, informative and recommended.