Taipei – Giant Bubble Tea

What do you get when you put tapioca pearls into milk tea?  You will get what is known as bubble tea, one of the most popular drinks for Asian youths.  The whole phenomenon started in Taiwan.  This bubble tea drink has not diversified into many other teas as well as fruit juices.  There are lots of bubble tea joints in Vancouver but while in Taipei we had to visit this one called “Chun Sui Tong'” which loosely translates into Spring Water Place. 

This place claims to be the first to serve bubble tea sometime back in the mid 80’s.  Naturally we ordered the most basic bubble tea to compare with what we usually get in Vancouver.   We both ordered a large because we were thirsty.  The neat thing is that you can ask them to adjust the sweetness by percentage.  We asked for 80% sweetness.   When we received our order, both of our eyes bulged out because it was served in a gigantic cup!

 

Like other foods and beverages in Taiwan, the price was very very reasonable compared to Vancouver.  The tea was not very sweet though which made us wonder if the 80% meant that they would hold off 80% of the sugar?  Anyhow, the tapioca bubbles tasted really good with just the right degree of chewiness.  Too bad we can’t get bubble tea like this in Vancouver with Taiwan prices.  Overall, large value size, good bubbles but this one lacked sweetness.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Taipei – Misterdonut

Misterdonut in Taiwan is like Canada’s Tim Horton’s because there are lots of locations around the city.  It is a Japanese company operating the franchise in many parts of Asia.   

 

Misterdonut does not have such a large selection like in N.A donut shops but the flavors available are unique to serve Asian taste buds.  For example, they have a few different shapes and sizes of green tea flavored donuts. 

 

We tried the green tea donut and strawberry donut showing below.  We spent 7 days in Taipei and I think we visited Misterdonut 4 times because we just kept craving for a green tea donut!  We gotta say, the green tea icing tastes really cool, somewhat like a bitter sweet taste.

 

Across from this Misterdonut location is a Dunkin Donuts.  Dunkin Donuts has a bigger selection and the donut styles are more like North American donuts. 

 

Mmmm…. donuts everywhere

SFDD gives 5 out of 5 Delights.

Taipei – Giant Fried Chicken

Another giant food item to post about from Taipei.  This time it  is a giant fried chicken cutlet from the Shilin Night Market.  It is really huge!  Bigger than our face.  It was another featured item from our Taiwan book so the line up was quite long with first timers.  They were quite efficient since we waited only about 15 minutes.  By the time we got to the front of the line we saw that the chicken just kept on coming from the fryer so you basically just pay and get your giant chicken right away once you get to the cashier.

This was well worth it as it costs the equivalent of CAD$2.  You get a choice of regular or spicy. We ordered the regular and it was crispy on the outside while the chicken meat was juicy and flavorful.  The batter was thin so it was not too heavy.  From our best guess, we think dark thigh meat was used to make these.

Just seeing the picture while posting this is making us crave for a piece of this giant chicken.  Overall, a delicious value at CAD$2.

SFDD gives 4.75 out of 5 stars.

Taipei – Giant Potato Skin

Taiwan’s Shilin Night Market is best known for its delicious food.  There was plenty of vendors to choose from including BBQ skewers, buns, desserts, oyster omelets and of course, bubble tea.  During our trip, we tried out different cool looking foods which can only be found here.

First were these giant potatoes.  These resemble giant potato skins which you can choose different toppings and flavors much like ordering pizza.  The line up was so long at this place that an employee had to come out to keep things calm and under control.  It was featured in our travel booklet so a lot of tourists were in line wanting to try out these potatoes.

All of the potatoes come with a gooey cheese sauce.  There were different toppings available such as corn, ham, octopus, green onions, seafood.. etc.  We went with a combo Hawaiian flavored potato. It came with corn, ham and pineapple and a giant ladle of cheese sauce.  The cheese was kind of like melted Cheez Whiz except it was not as thick.

The potato was well cooked but it had too much cheese sauce.  It can be eaten like a meal since it is quite filling.  They are quite generous with the toppings.  It was fun to try but I can’t imagine who would want to eat this on a regular basis.  Overall, a neat idea to say the least.

SFDD gives 2.5 out of 5 Delights.

Taipei – Tonkatsu

Taipei seems to have a lot of cultural influence from Japan.  A lot of foods served in Taiwan look like Japanese food.  We also lots of Japanese restaurant chains in Taipei.  This place we visited specializes in Tonkatsu which is Japanese breaded pork.

There are many variations of the breaded pork on the menu.  The meals are all served with shredded cabbage, a bowl of rice, dessert Jell-O, edamame beans and miso soup.  The cabbage, rice and miso soup is unlimited!  We first ordered the curry Tonkatsu meal.  The pork is lightly battered and boneless.  The pork was very lean which gave the tonkatsu its firmness.

We also ordered a non pork meal.  This one is breaded shrimp cakes which came in threes. It used the same batter as the tonkatsu.  The shrimp cakes seemed to be more oily than the tonkatsu so it felt very filling after eating a few pieces of it.  Tartar sauce was included  with this meal.

Overall, the look and taste of the meals closely resembled the Tonkatsus we tried in Japan a few years ago.  The only thing missing was sesame and a sesame press.  We saw these when we were in Japan which is for you to grind sesame together with your favorite sauce to use as dip for the tonkatsu. 

These meals were kind of heavy for us since it’s fried.  The best part of the meal was the unlimited miso, cabbage and rice.  Overall, an interesting meal to try out if you are in Taiwan (or Japan).

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Taipei – Pepper Lunch

For our first ever lunch in Taipei, we visited a restaurant called Pepper Lunch.  This place specializes in sizzling steak served on a hot pan.  According to wiki, this Pepper Lunch is a franchise with over 200 locations in Asia.  The location we visited was conveniently located on the top floor of a shopping centre, so it was not too hard to find.

There is a quite a variety of set lunches on the menu with all sorts of different sizzling meats that will fit many tastes.  The set lunches all came with a salad with sesame dressing, a bowl of rice and a choice of beverage.  Both of us ordered a different set lunch, but both were beef.  I forgot what the name of these dishes were called but here are the pictures.

Mine came with the rice on top of the sizzling plate with the raw beef on the sides.  The waitress taught me to mix it all up like a fried rice and keep the beef on top once it is at the right color.  I tried to keep it medium rare since this is how I like my beef.

 

The other dish included an egg and bean sprouts.  The main difference was the rice was served in a separate bowl.

The meat was very delicious especially with the flavorful aroma from the sizzling beef.  Service was friendly and the price was awesome!

SFDD gives 5 out of 5 Delights