Given that I've written about Taiwan before and the trip is so short this time round, I've took the opportunity to revisit some of the food I enjoyed and tried very few new food. Our first stop was actually a company dinner at Shin Yeh 101 at the top of Taipei 101. As it's a customized menu, I felt it won't make effective sharing. If you wish to see photos of it, visit instagram and search @bluntandfussyeater.
The highlight meal I brought my colleagues to was Wu Lao Elixir Health Pot. In my view, it's a must try when you are in Taipei! This is the original beauty in the pot. The experience is exquisite top down from the service, the value for money, the freshness of ingredients to the taste. 6 pax with an over-generous boss ordering freely only resulted in a $200 SGD meal.
Wu Lao Elixir Health Pot
No 143, Section 3, Civic Blvd
This Lu Di Handmade Shaved Ice is one of the unique experiences I had when I wandered around Taipei myself. The sun in Taipei now is very unforgiving. Treating yourself to shaved ice now will make it taste 10 times nicer than usual thanks to the scorching sun. In any case, Lu Di Shaved Ice isn't easy to locate. Searching for it on google, you need to type its Chinese name 路地冰怪物台北. Take note of the cute shop front to spot the shop!
The ordering process basically consist of the flavour of the shaved ice and 2 toppings. I settled for milk shaved ice with oreo cheese and red bean with dumpling balls. The milk shaving which looks like tissue paper on first glance tastes really good. I'm not sure if I'm bias because I was soaked head to toe with sweat by the time I found the shop. Creamy and sufficiently solid, I liked it that it doesn't melt easily so I didn't have to gobble it up. The eyes are made of cookies so you can eat it too! Toppings wise if I have to choose again, I'll do away with the oreo cheese. Cheese with ice cream doesn't match at all. The red bean with dumpling balls works fine but I prefer the shaved ice with none of them to be honest haha! The damage was about $10 SGD. Incidentally, some Taiwanese food bloggers were filming a vlog when I was there. It's the sort of thing you'd like to show you did something different and cool in Taipei on Instagram.
路地冰怪物台北
106, Taiwan, Taipei, Da'an District
I felt the content of this post must have something different besides what to eat there. I'd like to share some of the gifts I brought back from Taipei as well. One of which is Yu Chocolatier, winner of International Chocolate Award 2016. There's a mixture of alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavours. Being lazy, I asked the sales staff to select the award winning flavours for me. One interesting observation my colleague made was how the box was designed like a Rolex box. I guess it adds the premium shine to it. 1 box of 6 cost about $30. There's a bigger box of 12 that cost about $60. They offer a total of 14 flavours. They also have a dine in section where you can try the in-house cakes. Personally, I think this is a unique gift to bring home as everyone else would be busy buying sun cakes and pineapple tarts for friends.
Yu Chocolatier
No 10, Alley 3, Lane 112, Section 4, Ren'ai Road, Da'an District, Taipei 106
Given that I've been to Taiwan before and participated in the Sun Cake frenzy before, I did quite a bit of research to decide what to buy this visit. Sun Cakes has always been a fight between Li Yi, Chia Te and Sugar and Spice. During my last visit, I already bought Li Yi and Chia Te so this trip I settled for Sugar and Spice. It's a pleasant surprise to know Sugar and Spice won some awards before and the general feedback by those who tried all 3 felt that Sugar and Spice's version of Sun Cakes got the balance just right. Not excessively flaky, not too sweet and sufficiently addictive.
Sugar and Spice
No 158, Section 1, Dunhua S Rd, Da'an District, Taipei City 106