Taiwan has a lot of kinds of foods, soft, hard, salty, sweet, creepy, cute… and much more. Today it’s time to share all the delicious food that I ate from Taiwan. Here is a list of the most [….] thing I ate in Taiwan:
Cold
This was such a delicious dessert. Fresh sweet mango on shaved mango topped with a ball of mango ice. Drizzled with more mango sauce. It was mango greatness. Plus a small (milk?) custard which was heavenly. Smoothie House is famous in Taipei.
Chewy
There where a lot of chewy things in Taiwan, like tapioca balls, rice balls, but the dried meat was the most chewy. Thick layered sweet and salty beef jerky.
Creepy
Scary right?! This is not the first time that I am confronted with brain soup, but this was the first time that I tried it. It’s quite creepy to look at, but if I can eat chicken claws and pig’s ears, why not brains? The pig’s brain tastes very soft and dense. It’s like tofu, but more mushy. The taste is quite okay, but one small bite was enough for me. Maybe I will eat a bit more the third time… baby steps…
Crispy
Fried small fish. These were about 15 cm long fishes and the fish have a lot of eggs inside of them. You can eat the fish as a whole. The taste was like fish sticks, but with more crunch and a salty taste. It’s like a snack.
On the left you see the white/yellow balls. Those are the fish eggs, they are really nice.
Cute
Japan knows their kawaii. This is shaved ice from the Japanese dessert store: Roji Monster Ice. The interior was also very cute. Another fun thing was ordering your dessert. There is a wall with all the tastes. You choose an ice flavor by picking the flavor’s card. Then you stamp two side dishes on the card and you deliver this to the cash register and pay. You will get a buzzer for picking up your ice. Such a fun ordering service!
Delicious
Three cup chicken was one of my top favorite dishes in Taiwan. It’s very fragrant with lots of ginger, garlic and Thai basil. Thai basil really adds the delicious smell to the dish. In the photo you see three cup seafood + pig’s blood rice cake. Pig’s blood sounds scary, but it is really savory and chewy. I loved it.
Meh
Usually I am a big fan of seaweed, but this seaweed was very watery and it had a mustard sauce which gave my mouth a bad taste experience. This was not my favorite food. Maybe it would taste better with some soy sauce and sesame oil.
Soft
It’s a tough battle between the soft brains and this milk custard thing next to the mango ice. Because brains already got the title ‘creepy’ I am giving ‘soft’ to this delicious custard thingie. I think the mango sauce was perfect for the blob. When I go back to Taiwan, I will buy the mango ice again, just to eat this custard. So good…
Sweet
Lazy Bear is a big fan of bubble milk tea, so I have tried a lot of different brands. This one with brown sugar was really sweet and yummy. All the milk teas in Taiwan are so flavorful. You really can taste the quality of the tea. That really makes a difference for the taste buds.
Stinky
When you are walking around on a night market, you might smell some sewer stench. This is not the sewer, but stinky tofu. Stinky tofu is fermented tofu, but it tastes like normal fried tofu. In the past I didn’t want to try it, because of the ‘barfing’ smell. But then I toughened up and tried it. Not bad… not bad… Eating it with some pickled cabbage is really nice.
Memorable
These wild mountain greens, Bird’s Nest Fern, have a special place in my heart. I have never eaten such crunchy, savory and smooth vegetable in my life. In Chinese it is called 山苏嫩芽. I hope I can buy this in the Chinese store one day… Also I wonder if I can just grow the plant at home and eat the young sprouts.. mwuahaha… A nice story about the fern.
Delicious drink
Our friend suggested this guava juice, which was sweet and refreshing. It tastes like pear juice, but less sweet. A recommended drink if you can find this. I wonder of the Chinese stores in The Netherlands sell this…
I ate much more things in Taiwan, but these foods where extra special or new to me. Of course I had a good share of soup dumplings, beef noodle soups and scallion pancakes, but they already have had their story 🙂 I hope you enjoyed all this food with me and see you in the next post! Have a lovely weekend!
