Thanks to 888 reader M, I am happy to report that "frog eggs" are not actually frog eggs. After I read her helpful comment, I went to confront my mother on why she didn't correct me when I told her I was drinking frog eggs with boba, she just laughed. Turns out my whole family sucks and thinks it funny to toy with my emotions when it comes to frogs when they KNOW it's a senstive subject for me after my sister screwed me over many years ago. Asses. Props to me for actually trying it though. in my defense there were minuate things of frogs all over this place. I thought that the milk was made with frog eggs and they just added boba. Boba does NOT look like frog eggs, weirdos.
Yum... same rule of the night markets applied to random street carts. The longer the line means get in line! Quick! Here's some freshly steamed yummy pork and cabbage buns! I love street food! Too bad right after we got to the front of the line and finished eating our bun, it was already time for dinner. Wow, eating so much is really a hard job I tell you!
We went to Dou Xiang Cun for dinner, best known for their old school hot pots that still use coal. (It was super hot that night so we didn't get that though) Instead we got the cold noodles on the left and the beef pancake thing on the right.
Their ong choy was pretty good but their spicy pork was bleh. Pity cause that's one of my favorite dishes.
And we finished our last meal with real sweet & sour soup. Panda got nothing on this! One word- LEGIT.
This was our last meal in Taiwan, or so we thought. We were awakened really early the next morning by a phone call for us to grab lunch with a family friend. The mother and I weren't planning on eating that morning until we got to the airport since EVA Airline's lounge in Taipei has the best food. Freshly steamed yam, buns, cakes, etc. But... how could I turn down just one more meal right? I mean so what if I happened to miss our flight? Right?
This is the very well known Lao Deng. It may be a small shack with a very limited menu, but this place is delicious. You also have to be able to eat spicy to come here. The food is not for the weak! Even their side dishes were spicy!
2 different flavors of spicy rice baked to perfection and spicy enough to burn your tongue off! It was like a happy meal. There was surprise yam at the bottom!
Left is some spicy dan dan noodles, a Taiwan speciality and must try! Right is some hong you chao shou aka basically spicy wontons.
And for dessert, we had some doufu hua aka tofu pudding.
And with that our last supper finally came to an end. It was a nice time being back in Taiwan after so long. Can't wait to come back. If you are going to be in Taipei, I have a list of helpful tips you should look over to better allocate your time.
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Skip the Ding Tai Fung craze and go for some place with better food and no waits. I recommend going with 點水樓 or with or Kao Chi.
- Make sure to go to at least 2 different night markets to check out what each place sells. Every night market is different. I liked shilin and Tongyuan.
- Do make sure to allocate at least one entire meal to eating on the street. That's where the best food is.
- Do go visit Dongque fenyuan for their amazing boba and go 3 doors down to check out the most amazing buns you will ever have. See this post for details.
- Do try real Taiwanese fruit tea. It's amazing.
- Do try Two Peck and the most amazing crispy chicken you will ever have. Here
- Skip Mr. Donut. I don't care how famous it is.
- Do try Taiwan's famous pepper pork buns and their shallot drabing aka just go eat in the street and you will find a stand.
- Do try real Stinky Tofu, fried or steamed!
- Skip the malls. The brand names are all the same and just head to the street!
- And last tip, try to take EVA Air. They have this class called Deluxe class where you get more space and leg room than economy. You also get to go into their amazing VIP lounge area! It's a Taiwanese airline so they are really good especially in Taiwan.
Oh yeah so I did not take pictures of the VIP room food I stuffed down my stomach because I didn't have time since we were way behind and late since we decided to grab lunch before we left. But!!!! Good news is that we got upgraded to Business Class on the ride back to L.A. which meant... MORE FOOD!
Pate, salad, Ding Tai Fung's Beef Noodle Soup, Steak, etc. They even had abalone! Not bad as a return to the States present to me!
Happy Eatings! See you again soon Taiwan!
