CantaloupeAlone

I like to keep up with Taiwan's food-spotting app,  愛食記 , or in English, ifoodie. It's a feed of photo-centric food blogs reviewing the newest and oldest spots around Taiwan. It is usually overwhelmingly cute. Ifoodie is driven by waffles covered in hearts, strawberries, cookies, marshmallows and pastel two-toned smoothies. Every now and then I give into cute. 思考吧 Thinking Bar appears to be nothing but cute, offering parfaits topped with dolls, flowers, and butterflies. I was delighted to discover that the ingredients in their parfaits are nothing but high-quality. The pineapple mango parfait I ordered ($190 NTD/$6US) was layered with raspberries, mangoes, crushed cookies, panna cotta, sorbet, and a very creamy and tart plain flavored frozen yogurt, topped with a slice of dried pineapple. It looks like an adorable sugar bomb, but it's a very thoughtfully crafted dessert with balanced flavor and texture. The parfaits are huge, maybe around 600-800 grams and ...

You know pearl tea . It's a big thing in Taiwan. It is also called bubble tea, boba, tapioca. Sometimes the chewy, or as we say in Taipei "QQ," dark orbs are spooned into other drinks, like milk. Sometimes the pearls are made of brown sugar. Chen Sanding Brown Sugar Pearl Milk 陳三鼎黑糖青蛙撞奶 in Taipei's Gongguan night market serves just that. They have some other drinks, more QQ jelly drink. The name of the stand is 黑糖 (hei1tang2) which means black sugar, so just order that. Ok? Ok. Its been around for a while, at least 15 years claims my boyfriend who says it was a regular treat in high school. I'm not finding much information to confirm or deny it. Eater's Taipei 38 calls it a, "hard must." There is always a line at the Chen Sanding Brown Sugar Pearl Milk stand, but do not be afraid. The line moves quickly. We waited for about 3 minutes behind 10-12 people. The words hanging vertically from the sign are the menu. If it is your first time, jus...

Taipei has been having a "sandwich moment" for the last year or so, and I have been very supportive. Of all the great food joys to be had, a humbled balanced sandwich can be the most satisfying. The sandwiches at Japanese Shao Bao are promising. Offering a menu of two, high quality, BBQ pork or beef  on "handmade bread" sandwiches is a great plan. From the order window, customers can watch the action in the entire kitchen. It looks and smells like they are putting the time in to put out good food.  What I received was an ok piece of pork belly/loin, lettuce, and apple on nice bread.  I'm jaded. My standards are higher in Taiwan than in America. A few $NTD go a long way and have a lot of competition. 稍飽, you are doing a good job, but for $90 I need more than half pork belly sandwich on nice bread. Thinking about the ingredients I can only imagine that the price of that sandwich is going to labor, rent, and possibly bread and something (important) has...

Starbucks is a joke in Taiwan. Sure, you maybe need syrupy, chocolate sprinkle, whip cream thing every now and again, but since 2012 Taiwan has an enormous, and evolving coffee culture. Felice Cafe 享樂咖啡 in Taiwan has a tiny seating area of about 3 tables and one outside, but its convenient location makes it a great stop in the morning. I've noticed a lot of great coffee shops, in Taipei, aren't open in the mornings. Felice has you covered all day. On a humid hot cloudy day I opted for an iced latte. They asked if I wanted to "heavy or normal" and I'm not coffee nerd enough to understand.  It was rich and milky. A deal for $60 NTD, or about $2 USD. They do breakfast sandwiches too.  Coffee roaster takes up 20% of the room. This is clearly a serious operation. Felice Cafe is a simple tiny shop making complex delicious coffee. The menu in Chinese. There is an English menu on the counter too. Felice Cafe 享樂咖啡 台北大安區復興南路二段13號 No. 13-1, ...

Today's "new food" came from the North China Breakfast Shop 北方大陸餅, are you seeing a pattern? Many food shops in Taipei are named after the area their cuisine comes from. It seems that many places skip coming up with a name and just differ to using a description of what they serve. This particular breakfast shop is very near my home, but I've been ignoring it for 2 years. A friend who studies at TaiDa recommended it. They offer lots of traditional Taiwanese and Chinese breakfast items. I grabbed an egg pancake (dan1bing3) for $25 NTD, roughly 90¢ USD. A thin crispy scallion pancake surrounding a simple omelet.  It was salty, crunchy, sweet (why?), a touch greasy and just the right amount of food for a weekday breakfast.  The North China Breakfast Shop does not have an English menu, but there are photos of items above the counter of featured menu. Foreigner friendliness is just ok.  North China Breakfast Shop 北方大陸餅 台北市大安區辛亥路二段171巷12號 #12, Lane...

No, no I didn't travel to Chishang  in South East Taiwan today. I just found this delightful, clean, bright, and busy Chishang style bian dang restaurant near my job in Yonghe. A bian dang (便當bian4 dang1) is a lunchbox of rice, meat, sides, eggs and veggies. There are tons of variations, and for a working person it is an easy, reliable, fast, affordable lunch option. If you are visiting Taiwan or living here I think learning how to order a bian dang should be one of your first food priorities. There is ALWAYS a bian dang shop in every neighborhood and you will always be satisfied. One final word on this, never eat a $50 (crazy cheap) bian dang, that's just not right. What you see up above is the 招牌便當(zhao1 pai bian4 dang1), which means the restaurant's suggested meal. Its includes roasted pork, cabbage, broccoli, a slice of sausage, half an egg, Korean rice cakes, and glass noodles with ground pork all nestled on a bed of white rice in a wooden b...

Taiwan has seen an explosion of craft beer in the last 3 years in both imports and locally brewed. However the original is Le Blé d'Or which opened in 2002. Le Blé d'Or (LBO) has a restaurant where you can drink fresh pints, or pick up bottles at a finer grocery stores such as Jason's. 
 I fell in love with the LBO Porter which I find flavorful but not heavy. I jumped at the chance to try their Basil Pilsner 辦桌皮爾森, and it did not disappoint. Crisp, light, effervescent carbonation, and a tiny hint of basil at the end. This bottle of pilsner ended up at KTV with friends, but I imagine it would be best paired with three cups squid. Le Blé d'Or Basil Pilsner 辦桌皮爾森 Check out their Chinese website , or a great article in English on Tricky Taipei

Today's "New to Me" came to me from my excellent boyfriend, who is wonderful and I feel thankful for every day. A fewVietnamese places have been popping up around the neighborhood. 台越美食 caught my eye right away as there always seem to be people coming in or out. This place doesn't have an English name yet, so I'm calling it Taiwan Vietnam Delicious Food, because that is exactly what the name means Chinese. I haven't traveled to Vietnam, yet, and I am no expert on the cuisine. I get the sense that most Vietnamese food in Taiwan has been "tweaked" to meet the Taiwan palette. By that I mean more sweet than salty, and never aggressively spicy. BBQ pork on rice with a fried egg, green papaya salad and cabbage. The sides are better than the meat, but it was ok.  Green papaya salad is always my favorite at Vietnamese restaurants, crunchy, sour, spicy. This one had a few little shrimps too. Green papaya salad is always welcome in my home...

How can you possibly consume all the tea and coffee in Taiwan? Glass by glass, let's see if I can! This morning I ventured slightly outside of my neighborhood and found a nice cup of green WenShan tea at Bog Tea shop right at next to the Da'an MRT on South Fuxing Rd in Taipei. Ordering tea in Taiwan can be a little overwhelming, but there are plenty of good resources to help beginners . I usually take my tea with half ice and half sugar. Even so, this green tea was a little on the sweet side. A few bitter notes linger which I like. The English, Japanese, and Chinese menu is very foreigner friendly. Click the images for a larger version. Bog Tea Shop Da'An Branch; 波哥茶飲大安區 台北大安區復興南路一段321號 No. 321, Sec. 1 Fuxing South Rd, Da’an District, Taipei Bog Tea Shop Da'an  Facebook page

How many nights can you eat broccoli for dinner? Too many. I've been eating broccoli for years. I'm shaking loose. I'm going nuts. I'm challenging myself to try one new restaurant, food or beverage item a day. Taiwan is an awesome place to be eating out, and I need to take advantage. To stay accountable I will try to post what I'm digesting here in daily briefs.  Tonight, Thursday, September 29th: The lovely understated entrance and logo of Origines Table Francais bistro restaurant in the Da'an district of Taipei off of Dunhau Rd and around the corner from a whole collection of other hip and boundary pushing restaurants. My friend and I went split-sies and shared three appetizers and one main. This Salad Nicoise was full of delightful bites including an expertly roasted cherry tomato and some red pepper puree. I loved it. Next up was some amazing bone marrow, which was demolished before I photographed it. Take my word, it was great.  ...