We love Taipei: Hang Zhou Xiao Long Tang Bao 杭州小籠湯包

This post is long overdued as this was the holiday to Taiwan a few months back (Yes again, if you realise the last trip we made there was last year). So it was go go Taiwan 2 years in a row and still loving it. Impulsive you may say but who can resist as we managed to get the sale ticket from Singapore airline at a budget airline rate! Too good to be true as this meant more food hunting in Taiwan! :)

Picky Girlfriend was sorting the pictures and decided this has to be shared!




















This store came to Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend's attention as it was labeled as 穷人的鼎泰丰 in Taipei on the guide book (Ding Tai Feng is the famous place for Xiao long baos) so this literally means this place sells xiao long bao but at an even more affordable price! Which is really good as this will be less taxing on pockets especially when you are travelling!

And when we were there, it was really crowded. I think we had to wait for about 15-20 mins before it was our turn. Yes business was really brisk!

We saw the menu and can't resist but to order more as it was really really very affordable! (Greediness took the better of us and we really wanted to try everything!) It's like a basket of xiao long bao only cost NT100 which is equivalent to like less than SGD5! really live up to the name as a similar one would have cost much more in other restaurants.




















So we ordered, xiao long bao, their signature prawn siew mai, sour and spicy soup, dumplings and spring onion pancakes. Yes and it was just for the 2 of us! ;)




















Sour and spicy soup was served first and we totally love it! NT50.

There were so much ingredients in it (mushrooms, beancurd, bamboo shoots, meat, eggs etc) which was evidently missing in most of the sour and spicy soup we tried that is only sour and gluey. This bowl is really peppery and gives you the extra kick and oomph! The level of sour and spicyness is just right. Highly recommended (and totally missing it now as it's like the best soup you can have on rainy days!)

And all other steam items arrived shortly after. And we were expecting small servings (well, didn't expect much since it was so affordable. Cheap and good wasn't really on our mind, but this store proves us wrong!)

Check out our xiao long baos!














Xiao long baos! NT100 per basket, we ordered 2! and there are 8 pieces in each! (we were expecting 5 or so, so this was a good surprise!)

The soup inside the xiao long bao was flavoursome and sweet. Love it! Just be careful when you sip the soup to prevent scalding yourself (we almost did!)

The prawn siewmai was another stunned as the serving was huge! and their siewmai version was not quite we expected (expected the usual yellow ones found in dim sum menu) as it was still made up of meat dumpling but topped with prawn on top of it. The skin was a little too dry and thick for our liking but prawns and ingredients was fresh and yummy.














Prawn Siewmai NT150




















Pan fried dumpling with a special home made sauce. Sauce was quite refreshing and the meat in the dumpling was fresh and juicy. Again skin was a alittle too thick so ended up we peeled open the dumpling and finished the meat instead. At this dish, it was quite clear that we had overordered! haha!















Spring onion pancake which we had to pack it back as we were really too full from all the xiao long baos!

and Tada! this was what we had. Yes, ALOT for just both of us but it was a good meal and worth every cents. A value for money option if you are craving for xiao long baos!















Hang Zhou Xiao Long Tang bao 杭州小籠湯包
No.17 Er Section, Hangzhou South Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan
台北市中正區杭州南路二段17號

Opening hours: 11.30am - 9.30pm (Opens daily)

How to get there:
Nearest MRT: Chiang Kai Shek MRT (Exit number 5) and walk approx. 5 mins

Wu Shi Lan Bubble Tea 五十嵐绿茶连锁专卖店

The bubble tea craze is back (For awhile already!) with famous brands such as KOI, and Gong Cha etc, Premium bubble tea seems to be back is popularity and consumers are willing to pay more just for these beverage.

That reminds us of the one bubble tea which we have tried during our Taiwan trip, 五十嵐 which is really where KOI originates from! (anyone who visit KOI you will notice of 五十嵐 on the signage!)




















五十嵐!

We had this when we visited Dan Shui (淡水), very very nice place, a must go when you go Taipei! :)




















The Menu all in chinese!

And of course we will order the usual that we always have locally, Red Pearl Milk Tea (珍珠奶茶). When we ordered that it was then we know that 珍珠奶茶 in Taiwan is Red Pearl Milk Tea (with mini pearls) and only 波霸奶茶 is our version of red pearl milk tea with normal size pearls! Interesting!

And as usual you get to choose your sugar level for your drink..




















We chose 70% sugar level!





















And this bubble tea is awesome! Taste the same as KOI but even better as the price is SO MUCH cheaper. We bought one Medium cup like this and it costed only NT30 (approx $1.30 only which is less than half the price of the same drink locally!). And the pearls are very "Q" too!

A pity we discovered this stall a little too late (just 1 day before we came back to SG), if not we would definitely have drank more!! :) So remember to check this bubble tea shop out when you drop by Taipei!

Dan Shui Old Street (淡水老街）
台北系淡水镇中正路145号

(There are other outlets too but this is the only one we saw! Check out the yellow signboards and the blue words!)

We love Taipei: Raohe Hu Jiao Bing 饶河街胡椒饼

Still at Raohe Night Market - this is something that you will not miss as this is located directly after the east entrance of the market!

And definitely not missed it because of the LONG queue as well. Picky Girlfriend had to queue for about 10-15min before it was her turn to order! And while queuing, Fussy Boyfriend was busy exploring what the stall holders are doing and more importantly to take pictures too!

































Hu Jiao Bing means "Pepper Biscuit" when translated literally. So does it really taste like pepper biscuit you may wonder? The first impression of this word, was that we thought it would be something plain and has a strong taste of pepper, but we were wrong!

It was actually something like a crispy peppered bun with meat filling. Main ingredients of the dish - Flour, meat and LOTS of spring onions! And of course not forgetting the traditional tandoor oven used and the buns will be placed at the inner side of the oven and scrapped off once cooked.







































Mountains of meat and spring onions waiting to be wrapped in a bun!

The stall helpers were very fast and efficient in making each bun and this is the product that you'll see before sending them to the oven. Is really amazing to see how they wrap the bun and you'll also be surprised how much spring onions were used in each bun.




















Very pretty looking buns glazed with layer of oil before cooking

And of course after the long wait, our bun is finally ready! :)

Looking super yummy and topped with sesame seed to give it an extra level of crispy-ness! The bottom of the bun was also slightly charred also gave it a stronger flavour to it on the whole.




















And it was almost impossible to take a bite was this was really piping hot and the meat sauce would ooze out if you are not careful! We had to wait for it to cool before really tasting it.




















And our verdict? It was a yummy bun with crispy crust and juicy meat fillings! The hu jiao bing was not as peppered as expected but good enough. Worth the queue as this is really something different that is not available locally. But guess for people who do not like spring onions, this may be a challenge to eat this, but still worth trying and maybe your perception may change after this :)

Raohe Hu Jiao Bing 饶河街胡椒饼
Raohe Night Market

We love Taipei: Raohe Yuan Zhu Min Taiwan Sausage 原住民山猪肉香肠

And on Day 2 of our Taiwan Trip, we headed to the Raohe Night Market (饶河街观光夜市）for more street food! Interestingly, Raohe Night Market is the also first night market in Taiwan so both Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend were excited to see how is offered here.




















There were really SO MUCH to try and we have heard that food offered in each night market were slightly different. And indeed we spotted a few stores that we couldn't wait to try! We haev tried Taiwan Sausages before in Shilin marker but this really attracted our attention as this is Taiwan Sausage but made of wild boar meat!














We cannot recall how much it cost exactly, but this wild boar version of the Taiwan sausage was slightly more expensive than the usual ones.







































While waiting for our orders, we were surprised to see that there was a basket of garlic placed in front of the store and wondered what it was used for. There were 2 friendly locals who were queuing in front of us who probably saw our puzzled face and shared with us that the correct way of eating sausage is to have a bite of the sausage together with a bite of the garlic. This is supposed to bring out the fragrance of the sausage.




















Real pretty looking sausages!

The meat was sweet and tender and the moment you bite it, the meat sauce will ooze out. This really tasted better than the normal sausages.We love it and it was SO GOOD that we can't help but ordered another one (which is out of usual as our agreement was to try as many variety as possible, so quantity must be limited).

So this is a MUST try! :)

Tips:

• Raohe market is located near the famous Garment wholesaler for clothes, Wu Fen Pu (五分埔. So it is about 10-15 mins walk to reach there
  

Yuan Zhu Min Taiwan Sausage 原住民山猪肉香肠
Raohe Night Market
For more information on Raohe Night Market, click here.

We love Taipei: Shilin Xiao Zhuang Coffin Toast 士林小莊官财板

Not sure if anyone guessed what we are going to blog this time just by looking at the sneak peek picture in the previous post.

So this post will be about coffin toast! We blogged about this previously when there was a Taiwan fair back here locally so we were excited when we saw this at Shilin Market!

Long queue and there is a choice of different fillings too (ie: Chicken, Pork, Beef etc) which is something different since what we had before was a standard.




















So we chose the one with chicken filling and watched the store owner prepare the coffin toast where the thick toast that is fried till golden brown. Very pretty!














Something that is slightly different from what we tried previously was that they topped up the chicken sauce with shredded lettuce and some special sauce. Not sure whether the vege is the norm but we are sure the special sauce is their secret recipe!




















Skillfully and carefully cutting the toast to insert the creamy chicken sauce in.




















and when you lift it open, this is what it looks like! Filled with creamy sauce and shredded chicken.




















The toast was yummy and really crispy on the outside with generous serving of the shredded chicken. The addition of the lettuce gave it a lighter taste so at least you would not feel too sick of eating the fried toast. So turned out to be quite a good combination afterall!

Would prefer the sauce to be more creamy like the one we have tried before and that would be perfect :)

Shilin Xiao Zhuang Coffin Toast 士林小莊官财板
Shilin Night Market
(Just behind the Aiyu store)

PS: There are still ALOT more of Taiwan food to blog about! But we know you'll miss yummy food in Singapore too. So we will slot food from SG and TW in between to have a good mix :)

We love Taipei: Shilin Lao Jie Zai Lemon Aiyu 士林舊街仔柠檬爱玉

Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend would remind each other to drink all sorts of drinks so other than bubble tea, another drink which is a must try is the aiyu drink which is equivalent to the our ice jelly locally, but over there is a drinkable version!

Still at Shilin, we saw this store that looks quite interesting as the signboard has a vintage feel and it sells a variety of Aiyu + other combination.














Eg: Iced Aiyu, Mung bean with aiyu, Aiyu lemon juice, aiyu with pearls etc etc.














LARGE pool of aiyu, almost all the stores selling aiyu have this! and believe lemon is used to keep the aiyu more refreshing!

and we saw this that really caught our eyes. Fresh milk with aiyu! and we ordered one normal aiyu and another Fresh Milk with Aiyu
















and this was how it was prepared. The lady used a ladle together with a small butter knife and began to slide the aiyu into smaller pieces and before filling the up with fresh milk.

so the final product looks like this!



















PS: Pardon the picture (Picky Girlfriend was cropped out) as this was the only one we have with a full cup! All other pictures were almost half gone as we just couldn't stop drinking the moment we started! That only shows how good the drink was! ;)

See what we meant when we were left with less than half cup and started taking photos!




















The drink was awesome! the Aiyu jelly was so smooth that it would easily glide down your throat. The fresh milk was not too milky and in fact surprising light for such drinks. Also has a special sweetness to it which made us wonder whether that came from the fresh milk or was it their secret recipe!

Very very refreshing :)

We loved the drink so much that when we headed for Shilin a few days after, we bought the same drink again :)

Last look at the store and a sneak peak to what we will have in the next post. Can you spot what it is?



















Shilin Lao Jie Zai Lemon Aiyu 士林舊街仔柠檬爱玉
(Located next to a store that sells yummy peanut candy!)
Shilin Night Market

We love Taipei: Shilin Sheng Xiang Chang 士林昇香肠

Still at Shilin Night Market since there were really SO MUCH to try and we really wanted to try as much as we could! Picky's girlfriend colleague has told her this is one of the must try food which is named "大肠包小肠"














if the dish is being translated, this literally means "big intestine wrapping a smaller intestine". However interestingly there is not form of intestine used at all! And we actually found out that for this dish, the big sausage refers to glutinous rice shaped in a white sausage and will wrap with an authentic taiwan sausage!

as we walked along, we found this store with quite alot of people queuing. Just check out the variety of sausages that are sold here!














and a closer look!




















Sausages are huge and those that are placed in front that look like satays are actually..... 七里香！ (aka: chicken backside!) which we really didn't dare to try.

This is the store with a history of 43 years so must be something good!














So we ordered our share of 大肠包小肠 and it costs only 50NT! Some snapshots while they are preparing the food and so we made it the "大肠包小肠 collage"!




















it's really interesting how glutinous rice can be presented similar to a sausage shape. after slicing the glutinous sausage into half, some special sauce were added in together with some pickles and shredded cucumber before completing the dish with a Taiwan sausage on top of it!

and we just have to twist it at the end to roll up the sausage. is very very yummy and we were surprised at how good the combination was! the pickles and cucumber certainly brought extra crunchiness to this and the sauce leaves a tangy feeling after that.

the taiwan sausage was BBQ to perfection over charcoal. no wonder this particular store has been in this business for 43 years (and counting)!




















Twist it to have more!

Picky Girlfriend was so hooked to this that we came back here again to buy this a few days later! Very very yummy! MUST TRY! :)

Shilin Sheng Xiang Chang 士林昇香肠
Shilin Night Market
Stall 308

We love Taipei: Hot Star Large Fried Chicken 豪大大鸡排

And we headed to Shilin Night market (sometimes spelled as Shihlin) for more food! However when we looked at the map, we realised that the place where the majority of the food are sold is known as Shilin Food Square instead. Seemed like is a misconception by many (but do correct us if we are wrong!)

So Shilin Night Market is the opposite the station and sell a mixture of food and other random stuff like clothes, accessories etc. This place is really very crowded despite we went on a weekday. And we were spoilt for choice when we saw this...
















we-so-wana-try-everything! :)

Something that everyone should be quite familiar and would have tried when you go Shilin Night market is the 豪大大鸡排! located just at the first row of the food street, so you definitely won't missed it due to the super long queue too!














The famous 豪大大鸡排 which serves their fried chicken cutlet in a whole piece. NT 50 only!

But be prepared to queue! Picky girlfriend and Fussy boyfriend queued for at least 20 mins before it was our turn! The staff handed us plastic bags in advance which Picky girlfriend thought was quite a smart way as that means you won't want to leave empty handed!



































Chicken that is fried, just out from the pot and left to cool before served. And the person will ask you whether you want it spicy/non spicy. So natually being chilli lovers (ok, picky girlfriend only!), we chose the former and the end product is this!














Topped with pepper and red pepper powder

Savory, tasty, crispy on the outside and firm chicken meat in the inside, in a super large serving all for only for NT 50! SUPER GOOD DEAL! We loved the fact that this is deep fried yet did not feel oily for some reason.

A must try! However we didn't finished this as this was really too large a serving and we really wanted to save some of the space to try other food :)

Hot Star Large Fried Chicken 豪大大鸡排
Shilin Night Market
No actual address but you wouldn't miss it with the huge crowd queuing in front of the store!

How to get there:
5 mins walk from nearest MRT - Jiantan station

PS: We have more food recommendation from Shilin! Stay tune for subsequent posts! ;)

We love Taipei: Ximending Extra Large Soft Serve 巨无霸霜淇淋

Another one we spotted while walking along ximending that looks very interesting: Soft serve ice cream! extra large version!




















The flavours that are offered - Chocolate, Vanilla, Mixture of both and another machine has mango, yam or combination of both. Which they named it the 综合口味.

Small serving 15NT and large serving is 25NT (which is about SGD$1 only for the big serving!)

and so we created a collage while the ice cream is being created! Check out the increase of the height of the ice cream in each picture.




















We call this the "XMD XL Ice cream collage" :)

the end product?




















an extra large serving of soft serve! We were a little too greedy cos in the end we ate till we had a brain freeze and still didn't manage to finish the ice cream and it started to melt! So we would actually recommend the smaller one if you really want to try this. Otherwise it would melt easily and make a mess after that.

But overall it was still a good deal and a good experience. The ice cream was not too sweet and tasted like the ice cream we have eaten during our childhood days :)

Ximending Extra Large Soft Serve 巨无霸霜淇淋
No actual address, simply walk along XMD and you should be able to find this.

How to get there:
Nearest MRT - Ximen station

We love Taipei : Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodle 阿宗面线

As promised, both Picky Girlfriend and Fussy boyfriend are back from our long awaited Taiwan trip and can't wait to share the good food that we've tried to all of you :)

So for the very first day we headed to Ximending for some shopping and of course to try their famous 阿宗面线 (vermicelli) which we are really excited about trying something we have read so much about! It has been in business since 1975 so must be something good :)














and we found it! Not too difficult to miss it as the iconic place always has alot of customers sitting outside the store holding on bowls of piping hot mian xian.














Mian xian are served in either a small (NT 45) or big bowl (NT 60)














We ordered a big bowl since we are sharing it :)

When we took the bowl from the counter, we were very surprised that there were no oysters / shredded chicken like those we have tried locally. So mian xian with oysters is really our biggest misconception as Ah Zong's version is without them!

And instead they have chunks of chicken skin! we skipped that but the mian xian tasted really yummy! the gravy is thick and has a strong taste. and together with the coriander leaves, it makes the mian xian much more fragrant! the mian xian is also slightly broader than what we have here which makes it tastier.














if you like it spicier, there are also extra sauces (chilli and garlic sauce) to go beside the store! but beware, the chilli sauce is really hot! think they put in mala sauce instead of chilli. we tried the extra sauces after finishing half the bowl which is a good choice as the sauce is really spicy despite only putting a little!

Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodle 阿宗面线
Ximending Headquarter　西門町總店
No.8-1, Emei St., Wanhua District, Taipei City (台北市峨嵋街8號之1）
Opening Hours: 11am - 10.30pm (Mon - Thurs), 11am-11pm (Fri - Sun)
More information here

How to get there:
Nearest MRT - Ximen station

PS: More post on Taiwan to come. Stay tune :)