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.

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!