Why It is A Wonderful Idea to "Food Trip" In Taiwan

I'm back from one of the best place to food trip - TAIPEI, TAIWAN!

After non-stop eating (well, you can see that on my IG Stories on Taiwan Highlights), I'm bound to say, if you are into food, you better visit Taiwan because the foodie in me and hubby were happy and contented!

Why?

Let's start with ---

MILK TEA

What's the best place to enjoy milk tea?  The place were milk tea was born!  You see stall after stalls of milk tea from various brands and I randomly tried a couple (6 to be exact) and they are all consistently good!  Not as sweet yet you have the right "bitter taste" of the tea!  That's how I like my milk tea to be.

And guess what?  I also tried their Brown Sugar Milk from Xing Fu Tang and it's the best I've tried to date! 

Xing Fu Tang located at Shilin Night Market

Milk Tea from the shop at Children's Amusement Park

And here's the best part, Taiwan product yummy milk tea even those that are sold at convenient stores tastes just as good! 



While you're at it, try their Lay's Seaweed flavor, Egg Pudding and Coffee drink!

I challenged them with their cooking skills by trying out random "carinderia" style restaurants.  Nearby our hotel there are around 2 restaurants that are called "BUFFET" in a sense that you just line up, hold a box or plate and just point the dishes you want!  I was just pointing randomly and was shocked to see my bill - It was only around 200-250NT for 10 dishes and 2 cups of rice!  That is so inexpensive!  And the best part?  They get sold out by 8:00pm so the restaurant closes pretty early (Philippine standard).  And the verdict?

They tastes even better than some expensive restaurants I've tried!  We love it so much we went for 3 nights take away and ate inside the hotel!  Even Kyle ate the whole cup of rice which he usually don't!  

We also found a random dumpling restaurant and we took out pan-fried pork and cabbage dumplings for only 5NT each (less than Php10.00)!  

We also tried a restaurant recommended to us by a random bystander!  It was a bit posh and expensive if you compare the price to the buffet-style restaurant we tried.  For this whole set, we spent around 700+ NT or Php1,000 which isn't bad still!  

But truth be told, I enjoy the inexpensive dishes more than these!

Restaurant menu just in case you're interested!

Chinese pancake with shredded beef is what I originally ordered because I've missed a similar dish I've tried in China but this was totally different ! It's not bad but I definitely go for the ones I've tried in China!

This noodle dish with a huge slab of pork chop is nice.  The soup doesn't have much flavor so you have to put in the pork just to add more flavor to the meal!

The Chinese Pancake Beef Shank Roll is the winner!  Kyle loved this so much he ate 6 pcs! 

Now, a visit in Taipei won't be complete without food trip at one of their famous night markets.  The Shilin Night Market is the closest from where we stay so we opted to go there after a nice trip at the Astronomical Museum and Children's Amusement Park.  My research wasn't enough as I was shocked on how BIG the area was!  Thankfully, we had a stroller for Kyle so we don't have to carry him as we got really tired after several rounds!  The place is huge and you have to visit there with empty stomach!  Because serious, we were in FOOD COMA after that night!

Please keep in mind that the place opens earlier on weekends, they start around 4pm onwards while weekdays, they start operation comes dinner time or later in the evening.

We did a bit of an ocular first before we start stuffing our mouth with food!  :P

Thankfully, we did a couple of research on what we really want to try before going to Taiwan so we don't get swayed easily from lines!  Yes, it is very tempting to line up too if you see a stall with long lines, I mean long lines will always equate to good right?

Not in this case!  Mr. AMW wanted to try Fried Milk for the longest time, the line was long so it took him around 5 minutes to line up in the middle of a very busy street.  It wasn't something "to die for", it was just regular milk with a thin crust on the outside.  I don't know but I'm not that impressed! :D

(that's just me guys!)

Sausages were okay, though there were a lot, I like sausages in China more!  (again, that's just my personal preference!) 

The beef cubes are also well-known in the area, they "torch" cook the meet on spot and put spices but I went for no spice because I've had enough of Taiwan spices from the chicken!

More sausages, Garlic flavor is what I like! 

And a whole lot of cheese on their seafood too!

And this lechon deserves a photo because I felt like I'm back in the Philippines!

If you are in Taiwan, you HAVE to try their Peppered Pork Buns!  People are lining up for these and I love the bread!  I seriously LOVE the bread I can throw the meat!  I'm not into peppered meat as I can't eat spicy food nowadays (hello acid reflux!)  but yes, the bread is just out of this world!

55NT each

And if you are into sweets, you may want to try their Crispy Milk Donut which I find really nice and refreshing!  It's not too sweet!  I love that everything isn't too sweet in Taiwan!

Then they also have an area intended for "pasalubongs" (gifts).  This is were I bought Pineapple cakes and I've tried a LOT of Pineapple cakes in the past so I know which are the good ones - so far, I was not disappointed!  

And I also purchased their Milk and Almond Nougat!  These are really better compared to the ones you can purchase inside the supermarket - I can attest to that as I bought from 2 locations and these won be big time - the milk nougat is softer and easier to chew!

And just in case you are lazy to food trip on streets, you can just go to random food halls inside a mall  and you can definitely try authentic Taiwanese dishes in no time!

And if you catch upon this custard brand, shucks YOU HAVE TO BUY FROM THEM!  ANG SARAP and I'm not into custard! 

So crunchy on the outside, cool and really yummy (almost like ice cream na) on the inside!

 I think I gained 10lbs just by staying and eating in Taiwan for 5 days!  I can't wait to go back with better stomach situation as I wanted to try a lot of food pa but my stomach just don't have the space anymore!

Another must try are Taiwan Beef Noodles!  Your standard for Beef noodles will set up to a high notch after trying it in Taiwan!

Hay, I am hungry again after typing this post! 
Thanks so much for reading and let me know if you have any Food Related questions!

Keep smilin'

Stay happy!