A Chinese gourmet dish with a life-saving history: tanghulu. The sugar-coated grapes glistened like jewels against the night sky. They were crispy and juicy, initially made with hawthorn but now featuring various fruits over centuries. The story behind it adds to its charm.
A must-try gourmet experience in Taiwan: asparagus juice. At first, my throat rebelled against the cultural shock of the sweetened asparagus extract. But gradually, I began to enjoy it. This unique and healthy flavor made my travel happiness peak.
Widely beloved family dishes are simple yet profound. I finally met the much-rumored "Lu Rou Fan" (braised pork rice). The sweet-salty stewed pork was irresistible, making the rice flow like tea in an ochazuke. Apparently, it’s easy to make at home. Well, I don't have a home, so I'll just have to go back to Taiwan!
When you want a filling dessert, Taiwanese douhua (tofu pudding) is a top recommendation! The silky tofu is rich in protein and filling yet healthy. One of the toppings, white fungus, is low in calories and packed with vitamins D and fiber, offering the best of mushrooms’ nutrients. You can eat as much as you want guilt-free!
An innovative Taiwanese beer with a twist: 18 Days Taiwan Fresh Beer. With a shelf life of only 18 days, it boasts a creamy, mild flavor with minimal bitterness. It offers a distinctly different taste from the sharpness and bitterness of Japanese beer, giving a foreign feel to the experience. Taiwan’s compact geography and efficient distribution system must be key.
A 50-year dedication to grass jelly. What a tempting phrase! The black jelly was refreshingly cool and perfectly balanced with a bittersweet taste, never tiring my palate. The shopkeeper holding my 20 NTD must have known it was a brilliant business move.
Taiwanese sausage (xiangchang) is sweet, but don’t underestimate it. The crispy texture and coarse, juicy meat were so sweet and delicious! Eating it with the provided raw garlic drastically changed the flavor, creating an addictive interplay of sweetness and garlic's spiciness. I crave it just thinking about it.
Overseas, surprising price differences can be found. In Taiwan, eel is cheap and delicious. At a night market, I discovered "Wolfberry and Eel Soup," with fried eel soaking up the sweet wolfberry soup, creating an unknown yet delightful flavor. At 80 NTD (about 365 yen), the cost-performance is fantastic!
Sometimes you need to vent, and sometimes you need to drink poison. I don't get the latter, but I did it! At a Taiwanese turtle and snake specialty restaurant, I ordered a set of snake meat, blood, liver, and venom. The snake meat tasted like white fish, the blood was easy to drink with alcohol, the liver was bitter like medicine, and the venom was refreshingly invigorating.
What syrup do you put on shaved ice? Melon? No, black sugar is the only choice! Enamored with the black sugar syrup on the towering shaved ice at "Hei Yan Hei Tang Bao Bing," with six delightful toppings for just 90 NTD (408 yen). Taiwan truly is the best!
