Taiwan Food Mashup

Sweet potato caramels are really good and a really good idea.

Hey look! Its all the really interesting food I ate, laughed at, choked on, or generally marveled over while in Taipei, Taiwan that didn't find a real place in any of my blog posts. This also marks the last of my month long trip photos. After today I will switch to holiday baking and my winter CSA.

Mos Burger is Japan's idea. They ask why not use grains of rice to make a hamburger bun. The answer is yes rice should be a hamburger bun. At Mos Burger, a fast food chain, you can get all kinds of hamburgers, and fried chicken is a side dish like French Fries.

Pumpkin ice cream. I saw it, but didn't try it. Ice cream stuffed in little pumpkins. Sounds right to me.

Another essential Taiwanese snack. Sweet waffle/crepe batter filled with bean paste. Often made from the small stands on the street in cast iron molds, much like squid balls.

Beitou, famous for its hot springs also has a very impressive food market. Here you can see all the usual suspects: squash, carrots, diakon, persimmon, onions, greens, mushrooms, peaches, papaya and more. You never seem to find brussel sprouts, cauliflower, beets, or tomatoes. There are sad orangey-green tomato look-a-likes, but nothing that compares to a real tomato.

On any main strip there is usually one bakery with loads of flaky European style pastries, cakes, tortes, sandwiches, and stuffed rolls both sweet and savory. I have a hard time eating at normal times, so around 4 if I found I still hadn't eaten lunch I'd step into one of these spots for a new mystery item. I was never disappointed.

Here I picked a pile of different sweets to share. Top right was a dense nut roll thing, middle right a pineapple cake, and lower left an almond croissant made up of hundreds of flaky layers of extra thin dough. Just barely sweetened, the almond thing was the best.

Roll filled with tuna fish. Not your average tuna sandwich. Very delicious.

The english name for this, which I imagine is the Chinese translation is ground pork in pig intestines. Yes, that is what a hot dog is. Chew on that. This hot dog's bun is a split rice filled hot dog. Another great asian innovation. Wheat's not all that anyways. It came with onion and cucumbers. It was some mean good street food.

KTV karaoke is just one of many karaoke shrines in Taipei. Its an entire building with floor after floor of private karaoke rooms. The ground floor has an all you can eat buffet of better than expected food and drinks. There is also dessert, sushi and dim sum snacks you can buy with tickets.

Remember the "if its black it probably contains blood rule, and that's okay" rule? It applies here. This is a blood cake with rice and either sesame or peanut. It was nice.

If I could go back in time I would have taken better pictures of Seven Eleven. Everything happens at Seven Eleven. You can pay your electricity bill, buy beer, send a package with FedEx, get some tea eggs, bananas, or millions of other snack I took for granted by the end of my trip. You can also pay with your subway card. Very nifty. This was a bag of special edition plum flavored chips. They didn't taste a single bit like plum, but it illustrates the higher purpose Seven Eleven stands for. More quality, more flavors.

Comments

  1. Hate to break it to you but that first one, the caramels? Those are from Japan. Japanese label. The Taiwanese may not be too excited about that little factoid. Doesn't make them a bad idea, however.

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  2. @ anon Taiwan was occupied by Japan for a long too, so indeed they probably aren't unhappy at all. Lots and lots of food and cultural stuff is Japanese. For example Mos burger, photographed below is Japanese. I also listed products from 7-11, also not a Taiwanese brand. The pastries are European style. So many international options, imagine that!!

    Also I'm sure the people in Taiwan can tell the difference between a Japanese and Chinese language label, even if I can't. Good for you recognizing it, and breaking it to me.

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