Taiwan Misc. 1

It's been a few weeks since I have been here. It is impossible write detailed posts on every single thing I eat, it's just too much. So once a while I will be posting pictures with short captions of what I have been indulging. It's probably better that way… pictures are always better :)


Here we have egg covered rice (蛋包飯）from Tokyo Curry located in Hankyu department store.
I got their chicken curry-

Pattie got curry with pork cutlet-

 The dishes from Tokyo Curry were just okay. I thought they were a bit too greasy.


Here we have Zong Zi… guess where they were from?!

 Starbucks! Can you believe it? They were 冰粽，dessert zongzi. One with a coffee filling, and one with sweet potato filling.

Here, we went to one of my grandpa's favorite restaurants that specializes in Yunnan (one region in China) food. This was 大薄片（thinly sliced pork topped with cilantro, peanuts, chili, vinegar  & soy sauce)… really good!

 And now we have Yunnan style fried chicken… on top of thinly sliced cabbage. YUMS!

Pattie and I went to Dazzling Cafe, a popular/trendy place for dessert. We got one of their specialties- Honey Toast- it's called Party in My Mouth (I kid you not).

The buttery loaf was topped with strawberries, raspberries, ice cream, custard, a macaroon, and more berries… it really is a party in your mouth… hahah

Last but not least, my parents and I made dumplings at home. Guess which one was mine?!

 Yup, the most pathetic one in the middle… I'm working on it!

Hot Pot

Hot pot is a big deal in Taiwan. You can find all types of hot pots here. Individual, family style, Japanese, all you can eat, etc. Whether it's a cold rainy day or a hot summer night, it's a perfect meal to get together with your friends and family. The other day, I went to 聚 (Literal translation of "get together"). This is a Japanese style hot pot. The set menu includes a broth, veggie plate, meat plate, plum vinegar drink (to clean your palate), a side dish (also to cook in your hot pot), and a dessert.

Here is their English menu.

What I liked about this place is that their food is light. I got the Chinese herbs broth and Pattie got the milk broth. ( they might sound and look weird but they were absolutely delicious)!

Here is my plate of veggies-

Beautifully displayed, right?

Here are our side dishes- a variety of dumplings to cook in our broth.

It was a wonderful meal, Light yet filling. The service was wonderful. I love hot pot!

Traditional Chinese Bakery

Bakeries are very common in Taiwan. There is at least one bakery within a 100ft radius. There are all kinds of bakeries; most sell all varieties of bread, but there are ones that specialize in French bread, ones that specialize in healthy wheat bread, etc.

My mom took me to an old school bakery the other day in Taipei.  It is located in the Yuan Lin Street area in Taipei. It's called Olympia…

The bakery not only sells bread, they also have all kinds of traditional Chinese pastries…

Here is a closer look of 綠豆椪 (Mung Bean Pastry)… flakey crust with a mixture of mung beans and a little bit of minced meat.

Here are some Chinese dim sum snacks… fried dumplings, meat filled gluten balls, sesame balls, taro pastry, and more...

Here we have steamed dim sum- shumai, dumplings, meat balls...

Here is something else that you don't see at most bakeries today- 滷味 (Brined food). Basically these food were cooked in a salty broth. It is a common snack in Taiwan. In this picture, we have tofu/bean curd, fish cakes, eggs, chicken wings...

And here we have pork's blood rice cake. It may not sound too appetizing but it was actually one of my favorite snacks growing up...

Interesting, right?! I love it. I love the diversity of food that this old school bakery still offers. Yes, even the pork blood rice cake!

Toyko Narita Airport

Hey All!

Sorry for the hiatus! I just settled in Taiwan, my home for the next 4 months!

During my long 20 hours of travel time from Newark to Taiwan, we stopped at Tokyo. I had planned to get ramen at Tokyo long ago since it is the origin of ramen.

This is the place I picked-

I got the miso ramen-

Broth was good, thick and full of flavor. The noodles were even better, thick, chewy, and tasty. The only thing that I was a bit disappointed about is that it was a bit too salty.

Pattie got the soy sauce ramen-

 Definitely lighter than mine. Really yummy, I would get this next time.

Since we had a 3.5 hour layover, we walked around the airport and found the famous Banana Cake that Tokyo is famous for!

Cute packaging, right?

The cute cakes-

Pattie was excited to try them-

I tried the banana cake as well. I actually didn't like it. The texture and the flavor was weird to me… I probably wouldn't get it again...

Bread!

Who doesn't love bread?! Who doesn't love fresh baked bread? 
I tried this basic bread recipe twice; once with red bean filling, and once with a milky custard filling called naisu. They both turned out delicious! 


This is the red bean filling loaf...

and here is the loaf with milky custard (naisu)… you can't really see the filling because it's yellow but it's there!