Sunday, May 13, 2007

Surprise Treats in Taipei

So, Taipei is known, among other things, for their delectable cuisines, thanks in no large part due to the blooming presences of shops locally like Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks and its many clones.


Having gone to Taipei recently, I, of course had to check out the local fare there and what an experience it was. Of course, most of you readers would probably already know about the most famous foods like the orh jian mee sua (oyster vermicelli), the fried chicken (quite different from the Western style ones) and their own version of tempura, but Taipei also has a lot of other small surprises, perhaps common food to their own people, but which are not oft mentioned back here in Singapore.


Of course those well-known foods are great (and they really are quite fantastic there), but here are my three favourite lip-smackers from my sojourn:

1. Lu Rou Fan

Lu rou fan is, to put simply, a must-eat of every tourist who goes there. Tasty and affordable, this little bowl of fatty pork meat (I think) with rice and gravy can be found everywhere, with good reason.

Despite being cooked with oil and having lots of fats, at no point during the meal did I feel overwhelmed by the oiliness or fattiness of the meat. Rather, it was just the right amount of tasty (with a tinge of saltiness but not thirst-making-ly so) and, served with the hot, full grains of rice, made for a delicious and deceptively filling (despite the small size of the bowl) meal.

To top it off, one bowl only costs NT20 (which is about S$1) and can be complemented with a large number of soups and other side dishes. Fantastic and great for a quick, cheap and supremely satisfying meal.

Lu rou fan can be gotten from several shops littered throughout the streets of Taipei. The best one I had, though, was from a shop very near the hotel I stayed at (Royal Castle Hotel), on Cheng Du Road.


2. KFC Egg Tarts

Before I went on the trip, a friend had advised my friends and I to try out the egg tarts from the Taiwanese KFC outlets. Despite my skepticism (how could a fast food restaurant specialising in Western fried chicken serve something so distinctly non-Western as egg tarts?), I went ahead and tried one. Boy, am I glad I did.


To put it simply, the egg tarts that I had from there are the best I have ever eaten.


The crust of the egg tarts are crispy and sweet, yet not overly flaky or leave unsightly crumbs all over and, when served hot from the oven, are a tantalising treat in and of themselves. The egg section, done in the Portugese egg tart style, had a thin membrane of coagulated egg (I assume) which were soft to the bite and, once bitten, opened up the treasure of the treat – a surprisingly voluminous amount of softly beaten egg tart filling. Unlike most egg tarts I’ve eaten where the filling is diluted and runny, the filling in these tarts are soft and gooey but still leave a distinctly tangible feel on the tongue.


If only we had these in Singapore.


The egg tarts can be found in any KFC outlets in Taipei. The tarts come either singly or in a box of six.

3. Yakult ice blended

After gulping down the sumptuous lu rou fan and delectable egg tarts, what better to wash them down with than an ice-cold, extremely tasty cup of drink.


Hidden in a little corner in Shih Lin (the shopping district and not the food section), there’s a stall which sells only Yakult ice-blended, a stall which I almost didn’t notice except for the fact that I was in desperate of a drink after wolfing too much in the food part of Shih Lin.


While not a Taiwanese native food (I would guess), the drink is definitely one of the little surprises from my trip, a hidden gem that I was not expecting.


I guess I don’t have to explain what Yakult is or how it tastes like (it’s the original flavour I’m talking about here), but, when it’s blended with ice and comes in a cup of almost twice the usual volume of the little bottles we get from the supermarket, it makes for a tasty, cooling (and healthy, if you believe the ads) thirst quencher.


The stall (the only one I saw) is located somewhere near the entrance of the shopping district facing the MRT station and is located next to a shoe shop, if I remember correctly.


So, next time you go down to Taipei for a quick holiday, do remember to try these on top of the usual fare!