Travel: Taiwan 🇹🇼

This fish is actually not on the stall‘s main menu, but every single table we saw had a plate or more. Of course we couldn’t not order! The crunchy crust here was so good. The fish itself was boneless and not fishy at all. It’s lightly seasoned and plain looking, but just a drizzle of lime brings out the addictive natural sweetness.

📍珍珍蚵仔煎海產粥
嘉義市文化路與中正路交叉口(嘉義文化夜市內)
🕙 10pm to 4am Daily, Closed on Tuesdays

Walked all the way back to the night market to catch this stall that only opens at 10pm - was a little pricier, but the seafood porridge was shiok with fresh prawns, squid, oysters, etc. The bowl looks small at first glance, but it was filled with ingredients. Broth was clear and fresh with seafood sweetness. Also liked that the rice wasn’t the mushy sort. Remember to get a side of their fried milkfish to pair with!

📍珍珍蚵仔煎海產粥
嘉義市文化路與中正路交叉口(嘉義文化夜市內)
🕙 10pm to 4am Daily, Closed on Tuesdays

It came with a generous cup full of grapefruit bits (just look at it 😂) and didn’t have any of that bitterness you’d usually expect from grapefruits. While the tea wasn’t the strongest, it was a very refreshing cup to have. There was quite a bit of queue but they serve pretty quickly.

📍源興御香屋
嘉義市西區中山路321號
🕘 9am to 8pm on Weekdays, 10am to 9pm on Weekends

The brown sugar bubble milk here is the bombbb! Tried a few different ones in Taiwan and Chen San Ding was the BEST + it’s SO affordably priced. The super soft and chewy tapioca pearls are cooked on the spot and scooped into each cup warm. What I love best apart from their amazing pearls, is the very well balanced sweetness, so it’s not so heavy or jelak like other brands.

PS. If you’re here, please also head over to 藍家割包四神湯 Lan Jia Traditional Taiwanese Snack for their traditional gua bao (NT 55 • S$2.45)! You even get to pick the % of lean or fat meat you’d like in each.

📍陳三鼎黑糖青蛙鮮奶創始店 Chen San Ding
台北市中正區羅斯福路三段316巷8弄2號
🕚 11am to 9.30pm Daily, Closed on Mondays
🚇 公館站 Gongguan Station Exit 4

Back again in the land of milk teas!!! 🇹🇼 As always, the first stop upon landing is any convenience store for snacks HAHAHA. Got this based on the store helper’s recommendation for a stronger tasting milk tea, and it’s really not bad! Liked that it wasn’t too sweet yet fragrant, plus there was a discount if bought in a set with our favourite egg sandwich.

Name of this ice is “滿滿的草莓塞滿我的嘴”, which literally translates to “Many strawberries stuffed in my mouth” 😂 This was a winter special due to the strawberry season!

Not the smoothest ice, but we loved that they avoid using artificial flavorings, so you get the all natural sourish-sweetness. Lots of fresh strawberry chunks were hidden underneath, topped with strawberry mousse and strawberry jam! Each order of ice is also served with condensed milk (which went really well here) and a cup of hot tea. If you feel like you need more ice, they offer free top up too.

Note that like many other cafes in Taiwan, they usually have a minimum order per pax. For Ice House, it’s a minimum of 1 item per person.

📍冰屋 Ice House
高雄市前鎮區沱江街23號
🕛 12pm to 8pm Daily
🚇 獅甲站 Shijia Station

Really wanted to try this handmade muah chee after chancing upon the owner’s post! It wasn’t that easy to get hold of though, as they open for reservations and start selling their remaining (aka very limited) boxes from 7.30am till it’s all gone. Super happy that we managed to reserve one via Instagram (@atong.mashu) with the super friendly owner. We weren’t able to collect it early and she so nicely had it placed at another cafe for us to pick it up from.

No regrets at all because these were so good! They are made fresh daily and packed in individual packs for easier consumption. We thought we had to take them out to dip into the separately packed peanuts, but all you have to do is to pour in the peanuts into the pack, shake it up and it will magically be evenly coated! The muah chee was soft but retained a nice slight stretchy-chewy bite, while the finely grinded peanuts were fragrant and not overly sweet. They tasted fresh even after a day!

📍 阿桶嬤糬
宜蘭縣羅東鎮公園路126號（娃娃機旁）
🕣 7.30am till Sold Out (by morning) or by reservation

One of my favourite noodle shops in Kaohsiung is 大胖豬油拌麵 and because they were closed for New Year, we ended up looking for another around the area. That’s when we chanced upon 353 汕頭香Q麵 just down the road! Don’t know why we’ve never noticed it before but it’s one of this area’s most famous noodle shops as well - they had a very consistent flow of customers even during odd hours.

While the 餛吞湯 (NT35, S$1.60) was average, their noodles was so good! They weren’t kidding when they named themselves “Q麵” because their thin and slightly curly noodles were super q and springy. Toss them well and each strand would be evenly coated with their lard and shallot oil mixture. Plain looking but very fragrant and flavourful! Unfortunately the prices of pork were dry and a little tough, but I was extremely satisfied with the noodles that it didn’t matter.

Also went back to takeaway a bowl for supper another night but it didn’t do as well as the noodles turned soggy quite quickly - go for 大胖豬油拌麵 as their noodles stay impressively springy even after it’s left aside a while.

📍353 汕頭香Q麵 (鹽埕總店)
高雄市鹽埕區新樂街221-1號
🕔 5pm to 12am Daily
🚇 鹽埕埔站, Yanchengpu Station

FamilyMart launched a Lotus Biscoff Ice Cream Cone and Ice Cream Stick in December 2018 and it’s available across Taiwan till it’s all sold out. We went with the cone and it was not bad! It was a milky ice cream base generously topped with lots of lotus biscoff biscuit crumbs. It was a little sweet though (felt like there might have been white chocolate in it), but if you’re a fan of biscoff, you’d probably like this too!

📍全家便利商店 FamilyMart (Taiwan)

Wanted something sweet but the cafe we wanted to try was packed. With only 3 hours in Hualien, we quickly went to another place with a cute shop name, 西瓜大王 - literally means Watermelon King. Saw lots of good reviews about their fresh and sweet fruits and with a shop name like that, how can we not go for their watermelon juice right?! It came chilled in a huge cup with little ice and it was so naturally sweet, so refreshing! They don’t add sugar or water, so you get a full cup of pure goodness. Not sure if the sweetness depends on the season but we loved this and think the fruits they have were specially picked out. Regretted not getting another cup of juice (they have others like papaya, pineapple, apple, orange, etc.) and the fresh fruits but we’ll be back the next time we’re here!

📍西瓜大王
花蓮市中山路301號
🕙 10am to 10pm Daily

This was just downstairs our accommodation in Taipei and we didn’t know it was a tourist attraction until the queue grew sooooo long so quickly! But because of their never ending long queue, you’re sure to get your pancake piping hot as they churn them out constantly. I liked that it was nicely fluffy and not as oily, while the cheese was oozy too! That said, we didn’t really think it was worth the wait (we waited for about 15-20 minutes) - you can get other similar ones in other breakfast shops or night markets.

📍天津蔥抓餅
106台北市大安區永康街6巷1號
🕘 9am to 10.30pm Daily
🚇 東門站, Dongmen Station Exit 5

I’ve never really been a fan of 蛋餅 / egg pancakes but I was craving so badly for something cheesy - specifically, the stretchy mozzarella kind! A quick search on Instagram led us here to this no signboard breakfast place. I haven’t had that many but this is one of the best ones I’ve had so far! Loved the crisp exterior and the generous stretchy cheese inside. It wasn’t too overly salty or sweet, and they have their traditional sweet pancake sauce on the side for you to add on. It was surprisingly very filling too!

📍萬川早餐店
高雄市三民區熱河二街193號
🕢 5.30am to 11am Daily, Closed every first Sunday of the month
🚇 高雄車站 Kaohsiung Main Station