taiwan trip- food-street snacks

here is a little post on the street food we tried in Taiwan, not much but it deserves a mention :)
sadly, we did not get to try the famous bubble milk tea or the oyster mee sua..
this was what we had...

at the shilin night market on the 6th day, we were all stuffed sill from the "banquet dinner" but i insisted on trying at least one thing..so we picked the cutest food...this is actually potato chips on a long long stick, flavoured with garlic (your choice of flavour) very interesting...

and this was at Tamsui Old Street, which we were give 30 miserable minutes..sad la :(

this is my sister with the super cute ice cream chocolate and vanilla BUT i wish it would taste as good as it looks. its a bit bland, like ice with fake flavouring. not milky and not creamy at all. well i guess that makes it healthier...it costs NT10 ( RM1=NT10.8) so do the math
my cousin with the grape and strawberry flavour, which (no surprises) tasted very artificial :(

some fried goodies. we tried the fried pumpkin (or at least i think it is) cakes on the far left. its crispy and sweet on the outside and creamy on the inside. quite good

and last but not least, on this street there was this aiyu drink. this deserves my award for best drink :) since i did not get to try the pearl tea :( i always buy this drink from the pasar malam in Malaysia. Didn't know its actually from Taiwan. really refreshing and the jelly pieces are just SO NICE!

next stop is JiuFen (on the second day) and since lunch was on our own (hurrah) we got to try more stuff! happy happy ^-^
jiu fen used to be a gold mine but has since been converted into a tourist place. there is lots of stuff there. very quaint atmosphere..loved it :)

lets start with deserts first. we had popiah ice cream. sounds weird? its actually ice cream on peanuts wrapped up in a popiah skin. it was good :)
candies! did not buy though. so a photo will suffice...Taiwan people seem to love glutinous rice alot. this lady is selling flavoured glutinous rice. naturally flavoured that is, with lots of beans..mum bought a packet of assorted flavours. it was sticky!! but nod bad..
this is what we managed to eat minutes before the bus arrived. my mum's absolute favourite. tau foo fah with yam balls. it was warm and very soothing.

and this is the taiwan version of ice kacang. very nice n refreshing.but this had lots of beans. taiwan people i notice love

1. ice desserts

2. all sorts of beans

3. glutinous rice...

this is what they put into the ice kacang, yam balls that are very elastic and chewy. gives the desert a nice bite to it :)
and at a food shop, they let us sample all sorts of weird and nice stuff..things that cannot be found back home.so we bought ALOT, mainly for friends and relatives. We had a HUGE box (the largest among the other tour group members) that was shipped to us on the last night in taipei

and beans beans and more beans...

real lunch was at this small cozy and super packed place. got seats pretty quickly but had to share a table with a group of local teens. we were so amused with all the food and all that the teens were looking at us "one kind" hahah

this is our very satisfying lunch...first is the rice (Taiwan rice is very NICE, like i have mentioned before) with a nice meaty topping with the most delicious gravy.. then is the cold cut drunken chicken drumstick which was tender (but not too soft) and very flavourful. then the noodles which was pretty good. last but not least was the assorted meat/fishball. the huge fishball had a nice meaty filling.absolutely SUPERB. simple but very satisfying lunch. it wasn't a high class dining area, but this place certainly has an old-school charm to it, nothing i have ever experienced before :)

taiwan trip-food-best lunch

2nd installment of my food post in Taiwan..

this time is a lunch we had on the 5th day in Taipei.

we had MONGOLION BBQ!
its a style of stir frying meat and vegetables over a large, round, solid iron griddle that is as large as 2.5 m in diameter and can cook at temperatures as high as 300 °C or 572 °F. Originally from Taiwan, it is neither Mongolian nor barbecue.so why do they call it such???

Mongolian barbecue first appeared in Taiwan in the middle to late 20th century. Although the stir-frying of meats on a large, open surface is supposed to evoke Mongolian cuisine, the preparation actually derives from Japanese-style teppanyaki which was popular in Taiwan at the time. "Mongolian" barbecue is not actually Mongolian at all; for examples of genuine Mongolian food, see buuz or khuushuur. A barbecue in Mongolia is prepared quite differently.
Notwithstanding the historic facts, BD's Mongolian Barbeque claims that soldiers of the Mongol Empire gathered large quantities of meats, prepared them with their swords and cooked them on their overturned shields over a large fire, while a German restaurant chain with the same concept claims that the Mongolian soldiers cooked their meals on a heated stone.

....hence the very misleading name..

Typically, diners choose various ingredients from a buffet of thinly sliced raw meats and vegetables and assemble them in a large bowl or on a plate. These ingredients are given to the griddle operator who adds the diner's choice of sauce and transfers them to one section of the hot griddle. Oil and sometimes water may be added to ease cooking and the ingredients are stirred occasionally.

The ample size of the Mongolian barbecue griddle allows for several diners' food to be cooked simultaneously on different parts of the griddle. When cooking is complete, the finished dish is scooped into a bowl and handed to the diner.

*interesting facts from Wikipedia*

so this is all our food! its a all-you-can-eat style, and sadly i did not get to sample everything cos i got too greedy at our previous stop in Tamsui old street and indulged in some street food! but i did try out the mongolian bbq. my very first time, it was so fun!!

there were some typical Chinese food and some weird food, I'm also not sure what they are. not that adventurous to try and also not enough stomach space..
these are the ingredients for the steamboat, fishball, meatball, foo chook and all
inside the restaurant
this is how it looks from the outside. sorry i don't have the address...
and one of Taiwan's most popular desert, shaved iced with lots n lots of toppings! From beans to jelly! its totally up to you. i even added some fruits (dragon fruit ) into my concoction
they also serve food like fried noodles and fried rice, which was only so-so but the chili was super good!
and sushi! unfortunately it tasted funny. not nice at all :( don't know what filling they put inside but its definitely not the usual kind...
steamboat. one side is sichuan soup which was super hot & spicy! and the other was normal chicken broth...perfect for rainy days.but Taiwan was sooo hot...but it was good anyway

here is the real deal. the mongolian BBQ.

first get the meat
some vege..
drizzle some sauce
and give it to the cook which will stir fry, teppenyaki style for you...

and you will get this. every dish is different, depending on the ingredients you use.

a very unique lunch i have to say...and a very good one as well..

next post will be about Taiwan street food, a short one because we did not really get to try out much cos they feed us so much so everytime we go for pasar malam or some shopping area we're most of the time stuffed, nevertheless i shall post up everything we had :)

taiwan trip- food-best dining experience

since there are too much stuff to blog, i shall do it slowly over the holidays (or whats left of it-less than 3 weeks sob sob :( sad la)

this post will be about the best dining experience in Taiwan.

a short info about this very unique place..

Shr Jeng North Third Road (near Wenshin Rd., sec. 2)
(04) 2254-5678, 2254-6789;
Hours: 10 am-12 midnight


This amazing establishment is arguably Taichung's most unusual restaurant, thanks to the creative fancies of owner Hsieh Li-shiang, who has already gained widespread attention with her four other eateries in Tainan and Chiayi. Miss Hsieh uses big, weathered pieces of driftwood, Chinese stone sculptures, antiques, welded metal, and chunky, rough wooden tables and chairs in her restaurants. The Taichung restaurant is her largest and seats over 500 on three levels. The cave-like building resembles something that might have been dreamt up by Antonio Gaudi, or out of a science-fiction movie, with brownish concrete lumped in all shapes and directions. A large basement, fish-filled lagoon, surrounded by nooks and crannies containing tables. The filling Chinese/Taiwanese food includes various "Simple Meal" selections (NT$280/person), from lamb chops to Hakka-style pork, which come with bowls of rice steamed with sweet potato, vegetables, soup, drink and dessert--fresh cream "mochi" glutinous rice cakes. There are also table-menu specials for four or more people (NT$500/person), and the NT$1,000/person, 10-course lobster special meal. Food is served 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m., with coffee, tea, beer (NT$120) and other items available at other times. Heading southeast on Wenshin Road, section 2, turn right onto Shr Jeng North 3rd Road just after the Taichung (and Foreign Affairs) Police headquarters and the restaurant is on the left, on the back side of the Chaoyuan (Lin Garden) Restaurant.

source from:http://www.taiwanfun.com/central/taichung/dining/0305/0305wnFIVE.htm


we had dinner here on our 5th day..

the entrance of the restaurant. something very eye-catching. it was breahtaking all the way...

guess where this place is..THE TOILET!! thats the wash basin...

don't laugh at me!! there was also another girl snapping photos with her camera. its just too unique not to take photos ^-^

the doors to the toilet

the toilet. hahahha

and downstairs they had this place for diners to take photos. so cool right??? there were mainly driftwood furniture, weird statues and this lake...wood and water elements..just perfect!

with mummy and poser sister. she is so gonna get me if she sees this photo>.<
the staircase.


the dining area downstairs. we sat on the first floor.

this is our dining area. the table on the far right is our table. the eight of us plus a couple with their little girl (from the tour group) joined us as well.
me with my cousin

the second most important thing besides deco...the food. it was just as impressive as the deco!

first up is the rice. something so basic but deserved to be mentioned. you see, the rice they serve in Taiwan is slightly different from the rice back in Malaysia. its much nicer. hehe. its softer and cuter, round and plump. somewhat like sushi rice. my mum even bought rice back home from Taiwan (cost 200 Taiwan dollar for a 2kg pack!)for starters, we had muachee. it was super good! soft and silky with a peanut coating. yummy!

here are the main dishes!

this is the squid. quite nice, but had a slightly burnt taste...
this is the kung po chicken. one of the best! hehe. its spicy and the peanut really compliments it. had juicy flavourful pieces of chicken.
prawns. they seem to have an abundance of prawns. we ear prawns almost every meal (lunch and dinner) this is cooked with STONES!! not much of excess seasoning, so could taste the original taste, it was pretty good cos the prawns were fresh
oooooo. this wins the best "fish dish" award. some of the other fishes we had were either

1. too bony

2. had "muddy" taste

3. had thick n stubborn skin n flesh

btw, this is COD fish. thats why it was sooo good! never had cod fish for a very long time, simply cos its too expensive! so this was a real treat.

and the most common vegetable goes to....
the cabbage! no surprises here! haha
well, its not so bad as cabbage is one of the vege that is classified as "i don't mind eating that" group to me :P

and the weirdest drink award goes to....the sour plum juice. can't exactly describe the taste, took one sip and thats it! its sourish and bitter and super weird!

this is a vege dish also. not sure what it is but it was quite good.

bamboo shoot soup. the weirdest soup I've ever tasted. well, in Taiwan its either this or miso soup. i don't like both, sadly :(
this is yummy too. mussels cooked in sweet sour style with a bed of vege. very appetizing, the mussels were huge and fresh and the sauce was very good. two thumbs up :)

overall, the food was good and the ambiance was superb. i don't think there is anything quite like this...this dining experience is the best I've ever had so far. in both Taiwan and Malaysia.

if you ever get a chance to visit Taiwan, this place is definitely a MUST!!