Food Intelligence

One of the specialty dishes along the Danshui boardwalk is Age, pronounced Ah-gay (not eye-gay, they may look at you funny, …or not!). Some signs will say Arcade. Because it is like an arcade in your mouth when you eat it. We stopped by this stall for lunch, and had to come back here for dinner because the kids and parents both loved it.

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Meet Fresh, or Xian Yu Xian, is a dessert chain in Taiwan that I think has cropped up only in the past few years, or maybe it just finally made it up to Taipei lately. Their specialties are taro balls, grass jelly, and dou-hua (bean flower). Teas are also their specialty but I don’t drink so I can’t speak on those. Everything else there is amazing, though. I have tried different combinations, with beans, with yam balls, with tapioca, with a couple scoops of ice cream, with ice, with condensed milk, with various jellies. ALL GOOD.

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I must blog about this place. Master Hong’s Beef Noodle Soup. Mr. Huang brought me here my first night in Taipei in 2009, and it was an instant hit. First of all, come on, the signs all over the store saying which soups they have won awards for during the Beef Noodle Soup Festivals?! That makes it easy for a first-timer in deciding what to order. And if you didn’t see it all over the walls, they put it on the ordering checklist next to the item in parenthesis. Of course you’ll need to read Chinese. If you don’t, just look for the parenthesis or just point to what’s on the wall.

Read more on Master Hong Beef Noodle Soup and Beef Jerky…

While conversing with my mother, reminiscing over all the wonderful food we’ve had over the years in Taiwan (and what we can’t eat too much of now…yet still do), she mentioned that the infamous Ice Monster at Yong Kang Street in Taipei had closed. I couldn’t believe it. I had just set this picture aside to write all about how awesome Ice Monster is–really. The store owner saw my pregnant wife and pregnant cousin-in-law (not pregnant by me, by my cousin, sheesh!  Who, I might add, has a beautiful little boy similar age to Ellee here) getting into the long long line, and quickly flagged them to a table, cleared out whoever was waiting there, sat us all down and took our order before everyone else. So that’s a lesson learned for next time you go. Bring someone pregnant. Anyway. Yes. Closed. Because the owners had a divorce, now, Mr. Lo, left to run the store AND pay alimony to his ex-wife, had no other choice but to close shop because he couldn’t do both. He would have had to pay half the store’s revenues to his ex-wife. Ouch.

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One of my favorite fruits I’ve only found in great abundance in Taiwan. Lian Wu. English term is wax apple. Does have a waxy coat to it, and the crunchiness is almost like celery, but the taste is subtly sweet.

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My good friend Brian and I used to joke about eating the Choco Taco all the time back in the high school days. Not sure if we ever ended up actually trying it, but every time we see an advertisement for it we’d share a few laughs. Imagine Beavis and Butthead (yes, grew up with it, and proud), but on a nerdy an intellectual level.

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Hate getting those pesky fingerprints on your beautiful iPhone’s capacitive touch screen? Too cold to use your fingers on the iPhone? Need to play Taiko Drums but don’t want to use your fingers because you’ll bruise them or you’re a hand model and can’t afford to harm them? Try CJ Snack Sausages. They’re supposed to represent meaty fingers. Just don’t think about that when you eat them. Link to the post of the post here.

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Another snapshot of the large fried chicken for size reference. This one has chili powder. Are there chickens this big? Boneless. I don’t want to see what this chicken looked like alive.

Read more on Hot Star Large Fried Chicken, Shihlin Night Market…

I need to share with you some of my staple foods that I absolutely must get every time I go to Taiwan. My mom grew up in Shihlin, so after she moved to the states and had us there, every time we went back to Taipei, there were a few certain places we would always frequent in the area.

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You know it’s bad when you’ve had so many beef noodle soups that you can’t remember where or what you had. This was one image I cannot remember ANY details for. I’ll have to ask Mr. Huang, my trusty friend and Taiwan food guide. Unless any of you have any idea? It was good enough to take a picture!

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