Wow, we have had the most amazing trip to Taiwan. We have travelled from Taipei in the north to Kending in the South and all the way on the west coast to visit family and friends. We have eaten everything from exclusive seafood dinners with the best tuna sashimi I have ever had to night market foods, eating meat, and other interesting items, on stick surrounded by crowds of people. I had an encounter with stinky tofu that will not be repeated. The taste was alright but the smell was awful and almost made me sick, so from then on every time we came anywhere near a stinky tofu booth I felt the sickness coming back and I had to pass by as fast as possible through the crowds.
We visited some of the most popular places to get the original pineapple cakes, which there were at least five stores right next to each other claiming that they were the original store, so I don’t really know what to believe, but they were good. One of the days in Taipei we went to Longshan temple and had lunch in the area. The lunch place was famous for their taro cake, so of course we had to try that along with sticky rice, thick soup with fish and pork balls. I have to admit that I have been a little sceptic eating in some of the food places because of their lack of cleanliness. However the food has been great in all the places we have eaten and no one has gotten sick, but it took me a while to get used to eating in different conditions than I am used to.
My absolute favourite food item, although it is not a dinner dish but dessert, is egg tarts. We had them whenever possible and some were better than others, but when we went to Lukang on the west coast around Taichung area, and walked through the Old Market st. I found the utmost best egg tarts that you could ever dream of. They were amazing and not only did they make them with the original filling, which I absolutely love, they had also experimented with different flavours such as coffee, red beans, and chocolate. The coffee was ok and the chocolate was great but I have to say that the original is still the best. They were in fact so good that we had to get another box of 6 tarts to take home, and I tried my best to convince Bob to ask the owner for the recipe but she just laughed and said she couldn’t give it to us. So now it is time to experiment in the kitchen to re-create the best egg tarts possible.
Any tips are greatly accepted!!
-Ayoe