JANUARY: Taipei Eats

For my January post, it's gotta be about my trip to Taiwan! It's been 5 years since I've been back... Which is crazy! Cuz before that, I went back every year! I definitely missed it. 

The food this time around was a bit disappointing though. Since I was there during Chinese New Year, I didn't realize most of the restaurants/businesses would be closed! T_T We still had some pretty good stuff though. Here are my top 5 bites or meals! (In no particular order.)

ManTangHung Spicy Hot Pot
Inside Bellavita Mall by Taipei 101.
B2, No.28, Songren Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City
Phone: 02-2723-6300

AYCE spicy hot pot! There are different menu packages to choose from. We did the cheapest which is NT$799 I think and it was already more than enough options. My parents have done the more expensive options and said it's not much better. They even gave us complimentary seafood platter. This is a fancy hot pot place. The decor was very modern. They had several private rooms for larger parties. And they have not one but FIVE self serve ice cream stations.

So good! They also have other dishes to supplement the hot pot. Like Lu Rou Fan (braised pork on rice)... one of my all time favorite Taiwanese dishes. Hot pot in Taiwan is one of the best imo. Quote me on that!

Ming Yue Tang Bao (Soup Dumplings)
No.40, Lane 171 Tonghua Street, Taipei 106 Taiwan
Phone: +886 2 2733 8770

One of my must visit places in Taipei. I'm so happy this place is within 5 min walking distance from my Grandma's apartment so we'd been going here for most of my life. We almost always never have to wait and my family and I think it's better than Ding Tai Fung. Yea, I said it. I think DTF is overrated and overpriced and why wait in line if I have a better option!

Soup Dumplings

Sauteed Cabbage

Sauteed Water Spinach

Black Sesame Mochi (with peanut powder). OMG, so yum!

Tsujiri
Inside SOGO Food Court
106, Taiwan, Taipei City, Da’an District, Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, No. 45 B1
Phone: +886 2 2721 6863

I'm pretty sure I've seen a shop with this name when I was in Japan. It's probably a chain but also maybe just a popular name?

I got a ceremonial matcha (matcha with water) and a matcha cheesecake. It was a combo so I saved some money! The matcha was beautifully green and so good. The unsweentened tea paired well with the cheesecake, even though the cheesecake itself wasn't too sweet. I loved the layers and the bitterness of the matcha. One of the best desserts I had on this trip.

Thai Town
Inside Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Place A9
7, No. 9, Songshou Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
Phone: +886 2 2723 9987

Thai Green Papaya Salad. Great flavors and textures!

Special Rice. So pretty! I'm not really sure what the red specks are in there... I didn't taste anything particular. But I love that it was served in a silver container... kinda made it feel like fancy rice.

Yellow Curry Chicken. Super tender. So tasty.

Stir Fry Water Spinach. My most favorite vegetable!

This was one of our more expensive meals. It was just me and my mom so typically we'd just go to the food court and get something for way cheaper. But we saw this and she said it was good, so we went. Funny though, it's STILL inside a department store!! Wow! One of the best meals of my trip. We ordered a lot of food but we ate it all!!! 100% would go back to this place.


The Who Cafe
110, Taiwan, Taipei City, Xinyi District, Zhuangjing Road, No. 214 2F
Phone: +886 2 2758 6512

On my last day, my parents and I went to this cute little cafe recommended by my cousin. I told her I wanted to go somewhere with 3D latte art and she found this place online. It turned out to be kind of a cat cafe. All the decor were were of cats as were the cups and saucers. They even had a resident cat walking around the cafe.

I got a matcha latte (unsweet) and it came with a cute kitty 3D latte art. The mug was saucer and spoon were also TOO CUTE!

We got dinner as well. The prices for food were a bit expensive compared to what other options we had but the portions turned out to be pretty big and they were really delicious! I love that there were multiple veggie options on each plate. You order the protein and it comes with whatever vegetable options they had that day. I LOVED all of them! Cabbage, creamed corn, spinach. And the protein was served in a super cute mini cocotte (dutch oven). Very filling meal... I didn't have room for dessert. I wish I had discovered this place earlier cuz I would've gone back for more drinks and dessert!

Extra entry ~~
2nd favorite dessert of the trip. Two Day Souffle Pancake.

Inside Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Place A8
No. 12, Songgao Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
Phone: +886 923 312 545

Inside another food court. Lol. The Chinese food courts are just on a whole other level. You'd never need to go to a free standing restaurant. There are SO many options and the decor is always on point. They make the American food courts look so so sad.

The fluffy Japanese pancakes are quite common in Taipei now. I saw several places that did this... although they all looked slightly different. My dad and I wanted dessert after lunch so we just went to the first one we saw. SO FREAKING SOFT! This wasn't nearly as tall as the one I had at Gram in Tokyo but I haven't seen one as tall as them anywhere. This was even softer than Gram. It was almost like eating clouds. Topped with a dark chocolate sauce, it was almost unsweetened chocolate. I really liked it. Not too sweet at all, so pillowy, and cute in its little box. I think I like the one from Japan better, but this was also a good experience. If you like sweet desserts, this would not be a good choice.

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

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 ~~