Taiwan Trip 1

Taipei 101: Was the tallest building in the world up til a few months ago until Dubai took over

I'm finally back in L.A. where I can recap my past week of travels and it was definitely filled with some intense eating! Let's start! This was Day 1 of our Taiwan travels. Day 1 was spent entirely in the city of Taipei. Loads of fun. I haven't been in Taiwan for years.

But wait! The party didn't start in Taipei. The pre-party was in the VIP Lounge we got to stay in before our flight there even started! Check our the fish ball noodle soup and chicken with red rice on the right!

Everyone knows that when you go to Taiwan, you must visit the orginal Ding Tai Fung. I went last time I went to Taiwan and I just can't justify waiting in 2 1/2 hour lines. I present to you the amazing and better alternative: 點水樓! They also get super crowded so it's best to make reservations. Plus, their food is even better than Ding Tai Fung's!

Left is their melt in your mouth xiao long bao and right is their crispy sesame shallot bread. So good!! Especially that bread! Wow!

Left was our Pork gravy noodles. I seriously licked my bowl because it was so good. I think Right is their veggie dumplings. yum, yum, yum!

And for dessert- red dates stuffed with sticky rice! It was delicious! I'm drooling right now just thinking about it.

But as you should know by now... meals don't end just with dessert! There's always more! This was 東區粉員 on 216 street. This place is pretty small but their desserts are amazing.

They have the biggest choice of tapioca and other toppings. Everything is made fresh. Though both the bowls of dessert look the same in the picture, they both have different things inside. Left is my mom's order of lemongrass jelly with yam balls, tapoica, aloe, etc. Right is my order. The orange ball is the yam ball. They are delicious. I also added red beans and the rainbow tapioca to my dessert. They really have the best and most delicious toppings at this place. You can't go wrong!

What did you think we were done? Oh no... We wanted more carbs so we headed to the most awesome bun place ever! That's momma on the right checking out all the various possibilities of buns at Chaozhou baozi. They are made freshly everyday. Our favorites are the black sesame bun, the pork and veggie bun, & the yam bun. They have all the flavors you could ever want. This place is so good, my aunt has boxes of these buns brought to Hong Kong on a monthly basis. They even have a website if you want to check out what they have here. Here's the secret. Ask them for unsteamed buns. Pack them in a box and throw them in the freezer when you get home. Then steam them when you want to eat them. They'll taste like they just got out of the oven!!! Bun Heaven!

Ok so by this time, we were beginning to feel it. Turns out your stomach can only hold so much. But that doesn't mean we couldn't eat just a little more... Here are cranberry and pineapple pastries from the famous Chia Te. They make the best pastries-especially their Wife Cakes.

This is a Taiwanese fruit called lian wu. It's called pu toe in Cantonese. You can sometimes find this fruit elsewhere but it's the best in Taiwan. Yum!

And then we finally called it a night. More updates to come!

Happy Eatings!