This is getting a little repetitive and tiresome but I ate so much in Taiwan that I have to finish this. Finally the last part!

Ice Cream and Peanut Wrap @ Ah Zhu’s, Jiufen Old Street (花生捲冰 @ 阿珠雪在燒, 九份老街)

We’d seen this a couple of times at the night market already but I never really wanted to try it because it just seemed gross. It’s a crepe-type pancake with peanut brittle shavings, taro ice cream, and cilantro inside. I’m not a huge fan of cilantro, which was why we never got it – but here they didn’t put the cilantro inside at all.

Stef still thinks it would have tasted really different had it had the cilantro inside. But it definitely tasted better than it looked!

There is apparently a good tasting one at Jiufen and a bad tasting one; I’m not sure which one we got, but our store had a line and it tasted absolutely fine to me!

Ice Cream Dorayaki @ Jiufen Old Street (冰淇淋銅鑼焼き @ 九份老街)

You can choose what ice cream you want inside, and since dorayaki typically has red bean inside we went for the red bean milk ice cream. It was good !

Crispy Almond Pork Paper @ Jiufen Old Street (豬肉紙 @ 九份老街)

Stef’s never had this before so we had to give it a try. It’s just like a chip, really thin and easily breakable, and tastes like pork. They had different flavours, and it was so good that each time we passed by we got one!

Taro Mochi Balls @ Lai Ah Poh’s, Jiufen Old Street (芋圆 @ 赖阿婆芋圆, 九份老街)

Having previously done some research on taro mochi (after all I do work at a dessert store) I decided that I would try the ‘most famous one’ in Jiufen.

They were a lot bigger than I expected, and there were a lot of flavours/colours too. The sweet soup itself was warm (you can also get it cold) so it was really nice since it was quite cold that day. The mochi was chewy and delicious!

Malkist Candy @ Jiufen Old Street 

I do know the Chinese word for this but I don’t know how to write it. There were a lot of different flavours we could choose from but we just went with the original one; the woman was nice enough to give us a frozen one to eat, so it was like a popsicle.

Red Bean Wheel Cakes @ Jiufen Old Street (紅豆車輪餅 @ 九份老街)

I’ve had wheel cakes back home before, but I always get the one with cheese inside. My mom likes the red bean one though. (Side note: only the wheel cakes at Public Market taste good; do NOT get the ones at the Richmond Night Market)

This wheel cake was double the thickness of the ones I get back home. It was delicious!

Hot Star Chicken @ Shilin Public Market (豪大大雞排 @ 士林市場)

Hot Star Chicken is apparently famous all over the world; I was surprised to find out that there’s one in Canada, but of course it would be on the East Coast and not in Vancouver. There was a short line when we went (probably not a peak hour) so of course we lined up.

       

It was a lot better than the one we had at the Raohe St. Night Market. Less battery, the chicken was moist, and it was really hot for a long time. No wonder there’s always a line!

Mango Shaved Ice @ Smoothie House, Shilin District (超級雪酪芒果雪花冰 @ 思慕昔, 士林區)

I work at a mango shaved ice place so I really had high expectations for this. Like really high. But unfortunately it fell short of expectations… they used frozen mangoes! At our store even if the mangoes are sour we use fresh ones, and not frozen ones. Plus, they weren’t even that sweet. The ice wasn’t flavoured ice either, so it took some flavour from the syrup. But otherwise it wasn’t anything that special.

Egg Shaped Popsicle @ Pingxi (雞蛋冰 @ 平溪)

It might have the word ‘egg’ in it but it definitely doesn’t taste like an egg; just a normal popsicle in an egg shape. They have different flavours to choose from, so we went for the soda/ramune flavour. It’s cool because the popsicle is made in those plastic Easter eggs, and they take off the top so you can eat it first and then you deal with the bottom later. Also, they ate these in the famous Taiwanese movie ‘You Are The Apple Of My Eye’ (那些年，我們一起追的女孩). A must watch movie!

Corn Dog @ Shi Fen Old Street (十分老街)

I’m not sure what a corn dog is in Chinese so I’m not even going to try. I had this before at the International Summer Night Market from a Korean food stall but this couldn’t even compare to that one… the sausage tasted weird ._. and Asian ketchup just doesn’t taste like the one in America as well.

A random street dog really seemed to want my corn dog though.

Rice-Filled Chicken Wing @ Shifen Old Street (糯米雞翅 @ 十分老街)

There was a huge lineup for this, and we still had time before the lantern festival at night so we decided to get one. There are 2 flavours of rice you can get – the normal ham egg fried rice, or the stinky tofu rice. Even though Stef and I like stinky tofu, it seemed a bit strange so we just got the normal fried rice.

I’ve had these types of chicken wings before at dimsum places back home and it definitely didn’t disappoint!

And there you have it, all the things Stef and I ate in Taiwan. I’m really glad we decided to share all of our food (with the exception of the first bowl of noodles) because it meant we didn’t stuff ourselves until we exploded, and we got to try a lot more things than we would have had we eaten alone. And listing everything out really made me realize how much we ate this trip… I’m surprised I haven’t gotten a lot fatter (maybe it’s all the walking we did)!