Taiwan Eating Trip Vol I

I went over to Taiwan for a short holiday in mid February and loved it there. The people were really friendly and helpful. Their underground railway system was really efficient too, people actually obey the rules and queue up to get on the train!

Street food and night time market stalls were really good too, but I wasn't that impress with the more famous Taiwanese restaurant. Xiao Long Bao at Din Tai Fung was awesome too!

Our plane touched down at Taipei around 7 pm and by the time we got out of the airport, it was around 8 pm. Since the food on the plane wasn't too appealing, we decided to go to Din Tai Fung for supper. We had to go straight there as the restaurant closes at 10 which was quite easy for us as we hired a driver with a van to take us around.

There was only a slight queue when we arrived as it was already past their peak hours. The waitresses here are very efficient, friendly and polite. While we were waiting for our queue, I saw this little stall in front of the restaurant and decided to try it out.

It was some sort of traditional snacks made out of rice flour with different fillings in the center. The ones I got were peanuts and black sesame. It was actually quite bland to what I had expected, so I was quite disappointed.

While were were waiting for our queue, the waitresses also gave us our menu sheet so we can made our orders first. This saves time as the food arrived quite promptly after we were seated.

Beef Noodles
I was a bit disappointed with this dish as it wasn't as good, compared to its price.

My long awaited Xiao Long Bao!


This is my favorite Xiao Long Bao Restaurant Ever!

Check out the skin! It's nice, thin, transparent and delicate! However, it's so stretchable that you can pick it up with a chopstick without tearing the skin and lost all the precious soup!

Here's a guide on how to enjoy Xiao Long Bao

We also ordered several stir-fried vegetable dishes to balance out the meat and vegetables proportions.

I must emphasize that the service here is really efficient. There was a waiter who was responsible for filling up our little dishes with julienne ginger pieces. It was like a free-flow ginger festival. We ordered 4 steamers of Xiao Long Bao in total, and it's very thoughtful of them to deliver it 2 at a time. This prevents the Xiao Long Bao from turning cold.

After our satisfying dinner, we went to the hotel to check-in to our rooms. It was around 10 pm, so we decided to take a walk around the hotel. Since the hotel we stayed at was next to the popular tutoring areas in Taipei, there were a lot of students around.

Guess what I found! Cold Stone Creamery! I think I've read about this in someone's blog before, so I was quite happy to try it out.

The lady mixing the ice cream with the ingredients of your choice on a cold stone.


The end product! The ice cream was really rich!

This ice cream was not cheap, I'm quite surprise that a lot of young students can afford it!
I realized Taiwanese girls can eat quite a lot too, compared to Thai girls.

Anyway, this would be the end of my Taiwan Eating Trip Vol I. Vol II should be coming up soon if I'm not too busy.