This is second part of the guest post by Jun Hoe, one of the cofounders of Snowflakes, located in Selayang Mall and The Sphere, Bangsar South. What is Snowflakes? Find out more here – http://www.meluvsnowflakes.com/

One of the most satisfying dishes I had in Taipei was this little set that consisted of a bowl of soup, some veggies and the Taiwanese version of Loh Mai Kai. But without the Kai. Whoever thought of putting minced pork on veggies is a genius.

The soup was OK but the sticky rice was out of this world. The fact that they doused it with a yummy sweet and sour sauce with minced pork had me sold but the kicker was the minced garlic they spread across the top of the rice. There was a burst of flavor with every bite I took. Plus the soup and veggies complimented it very nicely. I ordered this in the food court of Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building behind Dubai’s Burj. Another thing we ordered at the food court was this Tau Fu Far (soft beancurd) thing with stuff in it. There were lots of little extras you could put in but we ordered the one with peanuts and some kind of tiny sago. It was a cold dish and instead of the usual syrup it was flooded with some sort of sweet soup. It was a good change from the plain old Tau Fu Far. I think some of the dessert shops here in KL have started offering this though I’ve yet to try it.

Check out this handy little meal. We found this wandering around the area near our hotel. It’s a simple meal with just noodles and some kind of fish paste, a mushroom and spring onions but it comes in a little wooden box! I like it because you can eat it while walking around. It’s like having a snack that could also be your lunch/dinner. Convenient and filling!

This next snack we found in Shilin Night Market. Probably the most famous of all the night markets and for good reason. It was HUGE. Imagine all the night markets in KL combined. That would be size of Shilin night market. Let me briefly explain the difference between the night markets in KL and in Taipei based on my observations. The night markets in KL open once a week in different areas and more often than not, they’re just the same group of vendors that move around on a rotation basis. And even though they’re open only once a week in a certain area, they’re reasonably packed with people. In Taipei, the night markets are open every single night in every single location and they’re all jam packed with people every single day. Especially at Shilin. Check out this stall we found there. It sold baked potatoes drenched in cheese sauce with macaroni, ham and corn. It was really good but it made me feel like throwing up after awhile. Must be all that cheese.

One of Tawan’s iconic streetfood was the mee sua with oysters. Having tried the mee sua at the Shilin night market kiosk at the Gardens, I have to say that they’re the same and yet different. They don’t taste that much different but the ones in Taipei have a bit of an edge maybe because they’re stuff are fresher or they’re more generous with their ingredients. I don’t know. This is a must try for people visiting Taipei.

This next shop had by far the weirdest thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. I came across it on a blog while I was researching on stuff to eat before we got there. Situated on the outskirts of Ximenting, it took us awhile to find the place. It was an ice cream shop that had 73 flavors to choose from. At a glance, nothing seems weird about anything but check out the menu and you’ll find out. I’m not sure if you can read the menu in the picture but here are a few of the flavors they had to offer: Carrot, Honey, Mustard, Curry, Chilli Pepper, Tomato, Basil, Bitter Melon, Ginger. And those aren’t the weird ones. Under the salty selection they had Ginger Chicken, Fluffy pork and pig feet. Hmmm. Pork ice cream. I had to try it even if it made me puke. Mind you it almost did. I had a scoop of the fluffy pork ice cream and it was the most difficult thing I have ever tried to finish. Imagine eating cold, creamy pork floss. It was pure torture. In case anyone has ever wondered what salty ice cream would taste like, well, I’m here to tell you as a survivor, it’s horrific. It made the plum wine ice cream that my friend ordered taste like heaven. The wine and beer flavored ice creams had actual alcohol content in them so I thought it would be funny if there were kids who go there all the time thinking they like ice cream when in fact they’re raging alcoholics. The prices per scoop weren’t cheap too. Different flavors had different prices but on average a scoop would cost like Rm11-13. The store has a “no sample” policy, so if you want to try anything, you have to buy a scoop. Otherwise they’d probably go out of business giving away samples to curious visitors.

After the 5 days in Taipei I’d have to say that Taiwanese street food has lived up to its hype. It’s definitely a place I’d recommend to anyone who loves food. All the food we tried was probably only the tip of the iceberg.

Given more time, and more stomach space, I’m sure there are lots more interesting things to try. Guess I’ll have to go back there some other time!

This is a guest post by Jun Hoe, one of the cofounders of Snowflakes, located in Selayang Mall and The Sphere, Bangsar South. What is Snowflakes? Find out more here – http://www.meluvsnowflakes.com/

A while back, me and some buddies journeyed to Taipei, Taiwan to experience for ourselves first hand, what the big fuss was about with Taiwanese streetfood. We stayed at a location that was about a 10 min walk away from Taiwan’s Central Station. The moment we arrived, we dropped our bags in the hotel room and rushed downstairs to start our 5 day long food tasting adventure. Right there to greet us, directly next to our hotel..guess what? A bubble tea shop! Our adventure had begun!

Since none of us could read Chinese (well except for one of us, though not that well), we thanked god for pictures and I pointed at the most normal looking one which turned out to be Milk Tea with Pearls. Boring, yes, but it was the best bubble tea I’ve ever tasted in my life. The milk was fresh and so were the pearls. Really soft and chewy even to the core unlike the ones we have in Malaysia. As we progressed on our journey we found it peculiar that every single bubble tea shop used exactly the same brand of milk. Anyway the cup came with a cute little sling and an individually wrapped straw.

Chinese Pancakes

Our next stop wasn’t far away. Actually it was just right next to the bubble tea shop. It was a donut shop that didn’t sell donuts. Instead it looked like they were selling Chinese pancakes. It was basically fried flour with egg, lettuce and a choice of filling, folded up and cut into squares. We got tuna and pork. Both delicious.

Next we headed for the nearest underground train station. Unlike in Malaysia where retail possibilities at a train station would normally consist of 1 stall selling corn in a cup and some packets of cold nasi lemak, Taipei’s central train station was a whole shopping arcade with a myriad of shops and restaurants spanning hundreds of meters of underground tunnels. Kind of like Sungei Wang meets KL Sentral but with everything underground.

Another thing about Taipei that I noticed was that there were people EVERYWHERE. Everywhere you go at anytime of the day, its jam packed with people. You cant go anywhere without 500 people walking in front of you. From dusk till dawn they’re in malls, night markets, on the streets, even in a deserted alley you will find a group of teenagers break dancing or something. Which by the way, is a good thing because it made finding good food easier. We just looked for the shop with the longest queue.

Ice Cream Popiah

There are six major night markets in Taipei. The first one we visited was called the Snake Alley (Longshan) night market. Apparently there were places there where you could order snake blood and meat however, we did not come across any such stall. Which was good because we weren’t planning to be a food taster on Bizzare Foods (there’s probably a reason why that guy has no hair). Instead we found something even more interesting: Ice cream and peanut popiah! The lady starts off by shaving a huge block of peanut brittle, then sprinkles it on top of pineapple, yam and peanut ice cream, adds some cilantro (yes. Cilantro) and wraps the whole thing in a popiah-like wrap. It sounds weird but it didn’t taste all that bad. Its ice cream but the rest of the ingredients gives you something to chew on at the same time.

Ice Juice

The next thing we came across, we knew we had to try because there was a super long line outside the shop.

The signage said ice juice but on closer inspection, they were selling ice kacang. But this aint your ordinary ice kacang shop. One serving looked like it could be shared among a whole basketball team.

They shaved the ice on to a huge plate then shaped it until it looked like a cake. Next they pile on to the ice whatever you chose from their selection of probably more that 30 toppings. And guess what, they piled it on good. There were all kinds of stuff you could put on, like varieties of beans, yam, different flavored sago, pearls, jellies, custards, fruits, nuts, etc. It all looked so appetizing and a little overwhelming to me.

In the end we settled for just plain mango because it was crowded and everyone was in a rush and it was the easiest to order. The mangoes were super fresh because I saw them cut it right before they piled it on (fastest I’ve ever seen anyone cut a mango by the way). Super sweet too. Mind you I like sweet stuff but this was really sweet. I guess they were really generous with the condensed milk too.

Anyway four of us shared one dish and could barely finish it. Meanwhile at the table next to ours, everyone had their own plate.

A lot of stuff we found in the night markets was more or less the same stuff you can find at the night markets here in KL. For example the fried chicken, fried fish/meatballs, dumplings and sausages. However, the one thing that I assure you you will not find in KL is this: Individually, I have no clue what the heck it is but on the whole I’d say that’s a whole cart-load of pig! I know for a fact that William dreams about a cart-loads of pig every night and really I’m proud to be the one to inform him that his dream has become reality.

Anyways, another interesting thing we found was this super high soft-serve ice-cream! Check out the kid trying to eat it. He literally has to hold the cone down to his zipper to reach the tip of the ice cream.

Besides the usual vanilla and chocolate flavours you could also choose a variety of fruity ones. There was this guy who ordered a long chocolate one and was enjoying it a little too much until it just looked obscene. This shop’s location is in Ximenting. Which is basically the shopping district where all the cool kids hang out. Kinda like the Shibuya of Taiwan.

Part 2 of this post will be published next week, so stay tuned for more…