樂麵屋

If you read my blog a lot, you would notice that I LOVE ramen. Yums, eating ramen is so comforting when you find a place that make them good!

I found this place, 樂麵屋, in Taipei that makes very good ramen. What I love about this place is that you get to customize your own bowl. After you pick your soup base, you get to choose whether you like  thick/thin noodles, how you want your noodles cooked, how salty you'd like your soup to be, etc. I loved it! 

I picked the 豚骨拉麵. The soup was rich and flavorful and the pieces of meat were tender. I ordered thick noodles cooked not to thorough and that turned out so good as well.

Pattie ordered the Miso Ramen. This one was good too! The soup was slightly lighter than mine but still had a really good flavor. It wasn't too salty either.

I would definitely come back here again. I had a yummy eating experience and the waiting staff were wonderful as well!

Macau & Hong Kong

 I was in Macau for a few days last week. Macau is known for its outrageous gambling scenes. However, I am not much of a gambler, so I did what I did best- explore food!

Shark fin soup is considered a luxurious cuisine in Asia. They typically are only served for special occasions. However, my dad heard from friends that there are a couple places in Macau that offer great shark fin soup for a great price. We had to try it! 

The chicken based soup was quite good. It was rich and flavorful. Shark fin had a crunchier texture, the combination of the fin and the soup was quite delicious.

This is a Macau must! Portuguese egg tarts! Macau was a Portuguese colony for a long time therefore a lot of food that I saw were Portuguese inspired. The egg tarts are made of pastry crust and filled with egg custard. Of all the places that we've tried. This one located in the Venetian Resort was definitely my favorite-

 We waited 20 minutes for a fresh baked batch!

 Oh my gosh… the crust was warm and flakey and the egg custard was hot, creamy, soft and not too sweet! They were sinfully delicious.

We also tried the 燕窩 egg tart from another place. It is made with swallow's nest, another Chinese delicacy. This one tasted just okay to me since the swallow's nest does not have much of a taste.

We stopped at this traditional sweet shop for some jello and durian ice cream.

We got the original jello. It was light and refreshing!

Then there it is, durian ice cream. Durian is a very very stinky fruit, people hate it or love it. We happen to be ones who love it. The ice cream was full of flavor and actually tasted like frozen durians!

Last but not least, I found this in the streets of Hong Kong. It is called 山竹, mangosteen. Oh my god, I have been looking for these for the past 12 years. They used to be my favorite fruit when I was little but they stopped importing them to Taiwan! I literally almost cried when I saw them.

 When you open one, it looks like this. The fruit is juicy, sweet yet tart…

The trip was wonderful to my tummy. I was beyond a happy camper after all the cool and yummy things that I indulged in!

Night Market Street Food

One of the tourist attractions in Taiwan has got to be its awesome night markets. Night markets are very common in Taiwan and they are full of cheap goodies and yummy foods!

In this post I will be sharing some of my favorite night market snacks. Let's just let the pictures do the talking!

Here is 大腸包小腸. Literal translation being large sausage covered small sausage. haha I know… The big sausage is made with sticky rice and the small sausage is traditional Taiwanese sausage. The vendor slices the grilled rice sausage into a bun and stuffs pickled cucumbers, Chinese sauerkraut, as well as the Taiwanese sausage inside.

Here we have one of my favorites- 豬血糕 （pork blood rice cake). Oh whatever, I know you are "ewwing", but this is sooo good and it's been one of my favorite snacks since I was a little girl. The vendor covers the cooked pork blood rice cake with a peanut mixture and cilantro. It's chewy and flavorful, you would never know it's actually made with pork blood.

Red bean cake, another one of Taiwanese' favorites. They grill these cakes and fills them with red bean filling, cream custard, or even shredded radish if you don't like sweets. They maybe be small but they are very filling!

Ah, and here is my favorite- 蔥抓餅. They are pretty much scallion pancakes but they make it fluffier and chewier by "clutching" the pancakes with a tong. You can also add an egg, or top your pancake with kim chi, beef, Chinese sauerkraut, or anything you like.

 I like mine plain :)

This is the solution for Taiwan's hot summer nights- Chinese shaved ice. The bowl is covered in shaved ice and tops with your favorite toppings. Here we have tapioca balls, red beans, taro balls, yam balls, and grass jelly. It is so refreshing and can definitely cool you down instantly.

Crepes are pretty big here. Savory or sweet, you can choose anything you like in your crepe.

I got corn and ham. It is HUGE!

Obey your thirst by buying a cup of sugar cane juice. It's refreshing and absolutely 100% fresh. They make it from raw sugar canes right in front of you!

That's all for now. Can't wait to show you more goodies soon!

Ding Tai Fong

The most famous restaurant in Taiwan has got to be Ding Tai Fung. Ding Tai Fung is a tourist must! Everything they make is delicate, and they are best known for their yummy yummy soup dumplings.

There are currently three Ding Tai Fung restaurants in Taipei. The one we went to was the original restaurant.

It was 11:30 am and the place was already packed!

When you walk in, you can see all the chefs hard at work making our favorite dumplings!

Sorry, we ate most of the dumplings as soon as they came. I could only take a picture of one… but come on, how good does this look?

Here is another one of my favorite- vegetarian dumplings. They are sooo delicious!

And here is something a little more special, squash soup dumplings. They were refreshing!

And here we have their pork zong zi… the sticky rice melts in your mouth and the pork filling is tender.

I know that it's just fried rice, but it's not just any kind of fried rice. The rice is chewy and the flavor is light yet tasty...

A few days later, I went to another Ding Tai Fung. This time, I was able to catch a closer glimpse of chefs making their world famous soup dumplings-

I was amazed at how they weigh single piece of dough, and again after they put meat in it.

God I love this place.