Taiwan March 2015: Desserts!

This is going to be my favorite post for Taiwan. We had some awesome food, but the desserts in Taiwan are insane! One is more epic than the other.. haha.

Ice Monster

This was highly highly recommended by a friend. And we just happen to walk by one day! We had to go in. The specialize in snow ice, which is this super fine shaved ice, in different flavors with different toppings. I believe the original snow ice place was in the Shilin nightmarket. But Ice Monster took it to another level. The snow ice was even more fluffy and delicate than I remembered. We went there twice during our 2 week trip.
Pearl Milk Tea Snow Ice NT$180~ 

 

Freaking humongous. And freaking amazing. It's like a deconstructed pearl milk tea. The ice was the tea, the white pudding looking thing was the milk, and pearls came on the side in a bowl of syrup. Eat everything together and it tastes like a frozen pearl milk tea. The ice is so ridiculously fluffy. We had this both times we went. Definitely a winner.

Strawberry Snow Ice NT$280~ 

2nd time we went, we also got the strawberry one. Strawberry overload!! Strawberry ice, sorbet, diced strawberries, and milk pudding on the side. It was good, but easily trumped by the Pearl Milk Tea ice.

Jamling Cafe

My parents had discovered this place and wanted to take us there. My mom says their pancakes are so airy and light. For someone who doesn't eat dessert/sweets, that was a big deal coming from her. So we decided to take them there to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The specialize in pancakes, but in Mandarin, it translates to "waffle". I thought that was a little weird. It's a small place, super cute decor. 

We decided to try a variety of things. They had sweet and savory pancakes. The savory ones sound interesting.. I didn't know what to expect with those.

Chocolate Strawberries (chocolate cream, strawberry sauce, vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries) NT$260~ This was a featured special. 2 fluffy pancakes loaded with chocolate cream and strawberries, topped with ice cream. Pretty epic eh? The chocolate was awesome, semi-sweet so it wasn't overwhelming.

Jamling (crunchy honey butter) NT$180~ This is the "original" and probably the best sweet one because it was the most fluffy of all and not excessive. The other sweet ones were much denser because it was loaded with a bunch of stuff. It was almost like a souffle pancake. My fiance didn't like it as much though because he thought it tasted more egg-y. I'd agree, but I love eggs in any way so it make me like it even more!

Apple Cinnamon (apple, cinnamon, vanilla ice cream, slicedalmonds) NT$220~ My fiance's favorite. Also very good. 

Okonomiyaki (bacon, cabbage, egg, bonito flakes) NT$240~ I was hesitant on the savory ones but this one turned out to be my favorite. The flavors and textures with the pancake worked beautifully. And they had a nice thick slice of bacon on there. Makes everything better!

We also got some drinks. Can't be afternoon tea without some tea! (and coffee.) hehe. Plus if you get a drink and pancake, it becomes a set and you get a discount for the combo.
Cafe Americano (hot) NT$110~

Japanese Green Tea Latte (hot) NT$150~

Earl Grey Tea (hot) NT$120~

18 Cafe. This was another recommendation from a friend. She said their cakes were so light. Afternoon tea set: 1 cake plus a drink for NT$250~
I got the Hazelnut Chiffon Cake. 

 

With the Taiwanese Green Tea.This is the one my friend recommended. Initially I didn't see it in the display so I almost missed it! It was awesome. Super light and so fragrant. 

He got the Black Tea Cheesecake. 

With the Taiwanese Black Tea. The black tea cheesecake couldn't compete with the hazelnut chiffon, but it was still good. You can actually taste the black tea flavor which made it interesting.

Now for the grand finale!
This was one of the highlights of the trip. I took my fiance to the Dazzling Cafe. I had gone 2 years ago and it was epic!! So we skipped dinner to go here. I thought we were going to order one dessert and share but he wanted 2! Ambitious! And we flew all this way to Taipei... why not!

Caramel Honey Toast (topped with whipped cream, ice cream, white chocolate, peanut brittle, caramel sauce, and honey to drizzle on top) NT$240~ 

 

 

Just look at it!! Did your jaw drop?? haha. It's basically half a loaf of bread. :P The presentation is amazing here. And the waitress comes to your table and carves this for you. (I will post the video on my CHOMP! facebook page if you want to watch some food porn. hehe) So she carves the sides and rearranges everything. And it's not a simple block of bread, every piece inside is individually toasted squares. Wow. Quite labor intensive it seems. We got additional honey to drizzle on it. So good!

Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast (with hazelnut spread, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries) NT$290~ 

 

I've had this before and it's awesome. Not only are the pieces individually toasted, they also inject chocolate sauce into it. This one isn't carved tableside though since it comes in stacked slices. My fiance loved it. And we made it through 1 and a half, which I thought was very impressive! :P

I got a pot of Darjeeling Tea NT$160~

My fiance got the White Chocolate Matcha Latte NT$150~ We were surprised when we tasted coffee, since most matcha lattes are just matcha and milk. But this was so good. I don't even drink coffee and I loved it!

I love this place, I will go back in the future cuz I saw some waffle dish that also looked really good! ha!

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~