Taiwan Trip Continued... Back to Taipei from Taichung

(Old School grinder and door)

So at this point we were back in Taipei meaning that Grandma could finally have her "real" Taiwanese food. Whatever that actually means. SO we pull up to eat her favorite Chi Chia Chuang. Our car door opens and literally the people inside run out and yell/greet my Grandma by name. Seriously... I guess Grandma left them with a really good impression or something cause the last time she was there was over 10 years ago.

Left is sweet potato porridge and right is the 3 different types of chicken. You can't see the black chicken from this angle. Darn.

Left is another order of veggies with those little fish thingys. You should all know by now how Grandma take her veggies seriously. Right is my favorite fried pork intestine. yay

Left is what sweet and sour pork is actually supposed to look like. Take note Panda Express! And right is our yummy order of eggplant. Delicious!

And of course Grandma needed more veggies. Left is digua ye & right is some pork leg.

And to end off our meal... ta da!!!! Flan. The mother was raving about how this place had amazing flan. Yeah... it was good flan for a Taiwanese place but has she never had bomb Vietnamese/French Flan? Orange County or Vietnam will also do the trick.

So after this delicious meal... we had an amazing dinner at a very expensive and authentic Japanese restaurant that is very close to Taipei 101 called Peony aka 牡丹園. Food has such an amazing power. Have you ever had to sit through a 2 hour dinner with tons of people you didn't like? Well... I can say the food at Peony was almost good enough to make up for bad company. Almost. But food was amazing though. Let's start!

Omg... how amazing does this look? Our table was of 10 and each person got individual dishes served to them. No family style crap. Thank god cause I was not willing to share! Here's our sashimi. The little glass cup had dry ice making it smoke. It was sea urchin. Yum. 10 points for presentation & yumminess. Bonus points for my mom and grandma passing me some of their food as well!

Here's fried rice with sea urchin. Yum!

Japanese shark's fin. Came in a little individual clay pot too!

All mine! Order of pork. =)

Fried Blowfish! It tasted like chicken. I was definitely bummed that it was fried. Trying raw blowfish has always been one of those things on my bucket list to do especially after I've heard how awesome it is from someone else that's tried it. Death by blowfish or death by boba choking are always the 2 ways of dying for me that I think would be totally worth it. The latter would just be hilarious since it would give my friends somethings to laugh at during my funeral.

Some very tasty soup.

Somewhere during the night, the restaurant owner came in to suck up to our table and threw in free dessert for us. She even exchanged business cards with some douche at the table I was sitting with. She was hardcore sucking up. She told Grandma how beautiful and young she was (which btw is totally true) and told the "businessmen" at the table how great they were. The lady was hot. Obviously had some sugar daddy buy the joint for her. Whatever woman... just give me my dessert. Thanks! Left was our amazing pumpkin dessert. It was baked with flaky crumble-like crust. Yum. Right is my order of green milk tea. It was super bitter but I liked it and I also had some regular tea as well.

Happy Eatings! More from Taipei & Singapore to come!

Taiwan Trip 1, Days 2,3,4

(Temple in Taichung)

DAY 2 in Taipei, Taiwan.

My uncle who lives in Taiwan half the year and the other half in L.A. wanted to take us out. Apparently, my uncle is a bore. All he does is golf, watch his stocks, and repeat. He doesn't go out eating at all. Blasphemy! How could he live in such as awesome place as Taiwan and not eat in the streets? He's obviously too high class. So I was sad when he said he would be taking us to a restaurant located in a hotel. How dare he? Well turns out this restaurant is pretty well known for having authentic Taiwanese food and snacks so I was fine. But seriously why do they put good food in a hotel? Anyways, 福華 Hotel was awesome. I just wish it was a little more dirty & a little more hardcore just for aesthetic purposes.

Left was our order of dan dan noodles-a must to have in Taiwan and right is our yam porridge. You get to decide whether you want plain steamed rice or yam porridge to go with your meal as your substitute. I personally think it's weird to use yam porridge as rice. I prefer to eat it as it is.

Left is our order of (hai guazi), which are mini sea clams and right is pickled mustard with mushrooms and other veggies.

I'm very picky when it comes to eating veggies just because I'm used to my family forcing me to eat them when I was young but the veggies on the left are one of my favs. It's called digua ye and can only be found in Taiwan. They are available at the farmer's market I go to in L.A. for much more though! Right is our fried egg with radish. Yum!

And this was definitely one of my favs. I'm so glad they had it here. Sounds gross but it's really worth a try. It's fried stuffed pork intestine.

And for dessert... peanut mochi and fried taro!

Then like the good tourists we were, the mother and I headed over to the famous 誠品 Bookstore that's right across from Taipei 101. It's the biggest bookstore in Taiwan filled with floors and floors of any book imagineable. And they are cheap too since Taiwan does their our printing. You can buy those SAT Prep books for under $10 US.

So after the mother bought a feng shui book, we headed down the huge building only to find a food court on the bottom floor of the plaza. There was a Tian yan Tea Booth so I had to try it. They are pretty good in L.A. so of course Taiwan had to be better. I got their Jasmine milk tea with boba and momma got their hot kumquat tea.

DAY 3: Taichung, Taiwan
On day 3 of my Taiwan trip, the mother and I headed to the airport where we were to pick up my grandma to head over to the city of Taichung to go to the temple in the picture above. Love the Grandmother, but going on vacation with her aint no walk in the park. She travels with an umbrella to protect from UV rays and the sun, brings her maid with her, requires 5 specific fruits she has to eat everyday and is a bore when eating. She needs at least 2 vegetables for herself at every meal and refuses to eat anything exciting. Boo. Big clash. Grandma definitely is not cool with sitting in the street or eating at any place that is not a restaurant in a 5 star hotel.

Grandma insisted we go to a 5 star hotel to grab some afternoon tea after we were done with the temple. Unfortunately and fortunately, the hotel didn't have the coffee she wanted. I suggested the amazing looking 2 story McDonalds that was right next to the hotel with huge sofas, AC, & good food. Stupid me... how could I ever think that Grandma would be down with McDeezy's? We finally settled on Starbucks, which was a pretty good choice since they have specials that we don't have in the States. Left is my Green Tea Black Sesame Latte. Yum! We returned back to our hotel in Taichung and of course I spotted a boba stand. Right is my Passionfruit Green Tea with Aloe.

So dinner meant that we ate in our hotel because Grandma didn't want to have dirty outside food. -_-. I was sad. Left was our lamb dish with rice vermicelli and right was grandma's order of veggies.

Above is 2 orders of veggie dumplings. When Grandma wants veggies, she gets veggies.

Left was our order of lamb and veggie soup and right was our panfried noodles with pork.

Left is grandma's order of digua ye veggies. You see the white thingys on top? They are actually small tiny fish. Looks creepy like white tadpoles or something but quite delicious. Right is our order of kung pow frog. Personally I don't mind if it much as long as looks and tastes like chicken. I just try to stay away from frog in general because of a childhood traumatizing experience. One time when I was little, my family was eating at a chinese restaurant where there was a dish called "Tian Ji" or "Teen Gay" in Canto. So yeah literally translated meant field chicken. I heard other family members whisper that it was frog but I thought I just heard wrong since my sister assured me it was chicken. Sucker. That piece of "chicken" was fried but I could taste the sliminess and see the actual frog leg. From that day on, I have tried to stay as far away from frog as I can. I'm been scarred for life.

DAY 4: Taichung, Taiwan

So once again we were traveling with Grandma so it was all up to her. Upon her friend's recommendation, we went to this old Taiwanese restaurant that obviously spent a lot of money to renovate the restaurant with all these old Asian antiques. Grandma knew what she wanted-Taiwanese dishes. So all 5 of her entourage got seated at the restaurant and were given appetizers. It was then Grandma looked through the menu and announced that this restaurant did not serve "real" Taiwanese food. The servers were baffled because well... it was real Taiwanese food-just not the dishes that Grandma was looking for. So Grandma made everyone get up and leave to search for another restaurant. Yes, Gma is hardcore and the servers have never had anyone do that. She then proceeded to complain that the lights were so dim, they made her lose her appetite and that the fan inside spun too fast and made her dizzy. I was sad... that place looked awesome. So Gma and entourage roamed the streets of Taichung looking for "real" Taiwanese food with none to be found. Literally every single restaurant was Japanese food, which I was totally up for. Not Grandma though. Tomorrow night we were having Japanese food so she refused to have it back to back. *Sigh* We ended up going to another 5 star hotel to eat.

Left is our XO Chili sauce and snack. Right is what real sweet and sour pork is supposed to look and taste like.

Left is our Grandma's tofu and veggie bowl. *Yawn* Boring & healthy. Right was our fried rice with shallots and chicken.

Left was more veggie dumplings & right was our honey ham with buns, which is a classic Taiwanese dish.

Left is another order of a lamb stone pot & right was my favorite part of our boring meal. It's called Zaozi. It's a type of date. You can find them in L.A. but they are super small. Over in Taiwan they are super big, sweet, and the size of a pear.

I guess not all your meals can be exciting and awesome when chilling with Grandma. A lesson learned. Make sure Grandma's entourage doesn't include you!

Happy Eatings! Better eatings to come!