Indian Palace – Taipei 101 Food court

I tried this one. The curry is nice, but the rice is so so. The soup is ok too. Anyway it was 135 WD, and compared to the other restaurants in the food court, it’s cheap. So if you want some change, go for it.

Oyster Omelette

Yeah, i ate Oysters. I had to try one of the most typical Taiwanese night market food, so i did it. But that was the one and only time. I just hate it, because of oysters, so i can’t really say anything about it. Just put sauce on it, because it doesn’t have any taste without it. I think that’s the main point of the omelette. It doesn’t have any interest without sauce.

Almond cakes

I’m getting obsessed with almonds. Why? Because one of my friends told me that she had eaten a Taiwanese cake with ‘frangipane’ inside. I love frangipane and since this year it’s gonna be hard to find the most famous cake having it (the  Twelfth Night cake), i’m looking for it everywhere i see almonds.

However once again i was tricked by the mooncake, and the whole egg yolk inside. Too bad. I lost.

So i tried another one, not a mooncake but a plain one with almonds. Heavy, and with a weird taste. definitely not frangipane. I still have to look for it.

Tea egg

You can find them in 7/11. I wanted to try because it looks kinda scary i think. A dark egg all cracked…

In fact, it’s pretty much the same. A little too dry for the egg yolk, but the white was nearly the same (i barely taste a difference).

Japanese Restaurant – NCCU

Not really that good. Ok, but too expensive i think for what it has to offer. The fish isn’t that great and it’s not like a real Japanese Restaurant (at least compared to what i’ve tried in Japan)

Plastic Bag Food

Another typical thing here is that students often eat in plastic bags. I don’t know if they are aware that plastic bags are bad for the evironment, but they use a lot of them: for breakfast you can easily have 2 or 3 plastic bags, then for your drinks, then for your lunch that you bring to class, and then for your dinner. So usually you use at least 4 plastic bags per personn per day. Let’s say that there are 23 146 090 people in Taiwan, it makes 92 584 360 plastic bags used each day. That’s crazy. 

Anyway, i’m not here to talk about that. I tried some food in a stall, where you pick what you want, they cook it for you, and then they directly put your food into the platic bag that they close. So you don’t have any plate, you directly eat in the plastic bag with the sauce in it. Nice. But that’s the only kind of restaurant where you can find vegetables that are not too oily and still affordable. And despite its look, that’s not bad actually.

Curry at the Left Hand

Another try. Say “Ka li” for curry: fried chicken with veggies. Here curry is pretty famous but don’t expect the western curry: it’s mostly sauce with some rice.

Pumpkin Soup

Again a recipe to have some vegetables. However i don’t know most of the veggies here and i don’t speak chinese well enough to find the translation. And since there’s only one micro waves, the easiest thing to cook is soup.

Ingredients:
– chicken broth
– one little pumpkin (800g)
– 1 liter of water
– half an onion
– salt

Cut the pumpkin, the onion in small pieces and put into 1L of water with one cube of chicken broth and salt. Cook for around 15mn in the micro waves.

Alleycat’s

In lack of western food, i went to a famous pizzeria here. It’s a chain, call Alleycat’s and i’ve seen seeral reviews saying it was good and one of the best of the city. So i tried, expeting a real italian pizza. Hum, i wonder how’s the worse if that’s the best pizza…(i know i love to criticize).

I chose a chorizo and ham pizza. The dough isn’t right: not cook enough, and crispy, but crispy like a chips, not like a pizza dough. The tomato sauce was lacking and the pizza in itself was lacking taste. I had to put a lot of tabasco and chilly to eat something with taste, while i usually can’t stand spicy food (i wonder what kind of chorizo they put…). The filling is aoily like american pizza, but they tried to make a dough like an italian pizza, so it ends up in a weird mix between a pizza-tacos. And 10 inch: 473 TWD.

I felt quite bad. Even wore when i saw pizza hut just behind with free buffet for around 300TWD. For junk food, i’d rather to pizza hut and get my hawai pizza.

MRT Taipei Main Station M6

Sadaharu Aoki Taipei

When i start to get in lack of French Pastries, i become a real bother to people around me. So, i went to a French bakery get my shot of sugar (yeah despite the name, it’s French: a Japanese baker that studied in France and has his shop there).

I started with a “quiche lorraine” and a cold Mocha tea. A funny thing in Taiwan in general, is that when they say that you have salad with your dish, they mean ONE leaf of salad. Don’t expect a proper salad. It just doesn’t exist. Then i tried the “Tarte caramel au beurre salé” (salted butter caramel pie)and the “éclair au caramel”, to stay in the same taste. (and then i went to another bakery to eat other sweet things)

Quiche of the day: not that great, the egg taste is too stong i think. Then you nearly don’t have any “lardons” and potatoes are also lacking. So it’s more an egg quiche. However the pastry is really good.

Tarte caramel au beurre salé: that’s good. The caramel is really great, salted enough and the thin chocolate mousse softens the taste. The pastry is nice too and crispy enough.
The éclair au caramel: ok, they made a mistake. Not about the pastry, but the service. They gave me the pastry that just came out the fridge. I didn’t ask for a frozen éclair. They should at least know the basic knowledge of the 15 minutes out of the fridge before serving. When i first tried it, the cream inside was too cold and the puff pastry really hard. I had to wait a bit, but still i can’t wait 15 minutes doing nothing in front of the pastry. It’s ok but the “Des Gâteaux et du Pain” religieuse is a way better. The puff pastry isn’t really to my taste, i found it too dry and hard (maybe because it was still cold).
Mocha cold tea: so weird. I’m not a tea drinker, so i don’t know anything about tea, but this is really strange. A little bit sour, really green…I’m still trying to figuring out if i like it or not.

It was nice to find some good French pastries, but unfortunately those two were the only one i wanted to try, so i need to find something else for next time.

Count 800 TWD for this.

Sadaharu Aoki
Bellavita B2
MRT: Taipei City Hall