Food Trippin' -- Orlando/Taiwan/Japan/Texas Edition

Hey strangers -- way overdue on this one.  This was probably supposed to be several different posts, but life happens! Anyway, there are too many pictures and too many meals to go over from my past three trips, so I'll try to only include the highlights (but really, in Taiwan/Japan, isn't it just a continuous, gluttonous, glorious highlight? Yes.).



First up -- Disney World! The Happiest Place on Earth.  I try to go back every year, and this time was special because it was to celebrate my little nephew's 3rd birthday!

Typically, when my sister and I go, we usually try to snack as much as possible -- yes, a turkey leg is considered a snack.  Preferably followed by a Dole whip -- but this time we actually ate at several sit down locations.

Some of my favorites include the character dining breakfast at Cape May, located at the Beach Club resort and Akershus, the Norwegian restaurant in Epcot that does Princess dining.  Mickey-shaped waffles will always win my heart, and the Norwegian place had a "salad" buffet that accompanied every entree.  I put that in quotes because salad sounds lame, and this buffet was anything but.  It had goodies like smoked salmon - another heartwinner - and cold cuts and awesome cheese..oh my!


We also went to Beaches & Cream to try the kitchen sink, but they wouldn't take us since it was late and we had no reservation.  We got the Mickey sinks instead, which was almost better since we got to keep the little sinks.




Now, for the Taiwan/Japan trip.  I could go on and on about the food, but I'll just hit some of my favorite meals.

OF COURSE, the MUST HAVE meal in Taiwan -- Din Tai Fung.  I dream about those 18-folded little beauties.  I could eat xiaolongbao every day.  And if for some reason, I were ever to get tired of it, any of their other dumplings or noodles or side dishes would do just fine, as well.

By the way.  Japan has the most expensive fruit I have ever seen.  But, it's also the most delicious fruit! I don't know what causes these grapes to be $30 a bunch, but it's worth it.  It didn't even taste like a green grape, it tasted like the sweetest muscadine ever. 

We did a hot spring tour, so we stayed mostly at onsen hotels.  Which was amazing and incredibly relaxing, as we just walked around in our yukata.  It basically is the life I want to live -- neverending Japanese food and no pants, ever. 

I really enjoyed our sukiyaki meal, and the funny thing is, it was at some water park.  It was my first time, usually I eat hot pot shabu shabu style, where you can drink the broth.  Sukiyaki is where you put raw veggies and meat in a broth that's too salty to drink, but it flavors the ingredients really well. We then dipped it in fresh, raw egg and ate it over rice.  YUM.

Also, in Sapporo, the piggy part of my family decided to, after our scheduled tour dinner, go for dinner #2 at Ramen Row.  We walked back and forth and ended up choosing the one with Anthony Bourdain's face outside, and of course it was delicious.  I was the only one to finish my bowl -- it was painful, but worth it :)

And, finally.  For the Texas trip, I'm just going to post up this picture of all the fried goodies we ate at the Texas State Fair.  Luckily, there were four of us, so it was generally pretty easy to try everything we wanted to try!....Until I wanted to get the BACON WRAPPED TURKEY LEG (so good).

Going clockwise: fried spaghetti and meatball, fried red velvet cupcake, mangonata (mango drink with chili powder), sriracha balls, bacon wrapped turkey leg, fried PB & J (favorite)

Going clockwise: fried Thanksgiving dinner, buffalo chicken, fried gulf shrimp boil, fried pumpkin spice oreos, luau chicken, amazeballs (chocolate cake balls with maple syrup and bacon)

Sigh, so hungry.  Hope you all have a delicious and wonderful Thanksgiving!

CRAVINGS: Taiwanese Food

Happy early Thanksgiving all! Hope everyone is getting stoked for the eating and the family time and the loose pants :)  I, personally, am taking this day to mentally and physically prepare for the food party (explosion) that will be starting tomorrow afternoon and continuing until Sunday night.  There will be no pauses.  There will be no in-betweens.  It's going to be food food food, and I cannot wait.

How to mentally prepare for such a feast, you ask?  Easy -- look at delicious food pictures! Which I do on a daily basis anyway...but...no, for such an intense eating experience, you have to get HUNGRY.  And the one thing that will get me in a state of all-caps-hunger is looking at pictures of Taiwanese food.  Otherwise known as that delicious stuff I can only eat (DEVOUR) once a year at most.  Nothing I've had in the States even comes close, except maybe my mother's braised pork belly over rice, because, well, it's my mother and she literally has made it once.  My family doesn't ever schedules things to do in Taiwan when we go, we schedule what we have to eat.  There are never just 3 meals a day in Taiwan. Never. 

So let's get to it.  Some of my favorite eats in Taiwan! These are not in order, because, well....they're all number 1 in my heart.

1. Ding Tai Fung

I could just say I miss soup dumplings, but let's be real.  Who eats soup dumplings anywhere else? Yes, Ding Tai Fung always have some sort of wait.  But it's always worth it.  Best food and best service.  Everything you order here is good!  Those noodles!  Those veggies!  Those taro buns!!! 

2.  Mister Donut

Similarly to above, I don't miss donuts in Taiwan.  I miss Mister Donut. Which is so much better than just a regular donut.  Though to be fair, it was started in Japan.  Listen, I don't know what they put in their donuts - crack? - but they have this amazing chewy texture and they're not too sweet, and basically sometimes my stomach physically hurts whenever I think about them because I am so sad these are a once a year treat. 

3. Braised Pork Rice - 滷肉飯

OK, maybe I can say this is my favorite Taiwanese food, if we consider it in terms of volume eaten.  Braised Pork over Rice is like my fuel, my energy.  I can list off a couple of different meals that are must-haves for me mainly due to the inclusion of really amazing lo-bah-png.  Those $4 department store food court meals? Oh my tummy.  

4.  Oyster Omelette - 蚵仔煎

Chewy, eggy, oystery, savory...delicious.  And that's really all there is to say about the oyster omelette.   

5.  Other Street Food

There's no way to numerically go through this and list off all the things I like.  Just off the top of my head...Sausage wrapped in rice sausage, Taiwanese spring rolls, thick intestine/oyster soup, black pepper buns (plural, always), fish ball soup, kumquat juice.  Cuttlefish! 

6. Shaved Ice - 剉冰

Pretty much the best summer dessert ever.  Condensed milk.  Chewy little balls of goodness.  Mango.  Fruit.  Syrups.  Red Bean.  More condensed milk.  You really can't go wrong.

7. Tea Shops/Stands

If I lived in Taiwan, I'm pretty sure I would just turn into one huge human Boba.  I love that bubble tea is so inexpensive and so readily available, though my siblings and I have to drink it on the down low now after the whole thing about it containing chemicals and causing cancer came out and my dad got worried -- though, I would like to point out that nobody has said anything about oyster sauce, soo.... But also, I am a huge fan of the coffee shops there, since they have great mango and green tea drinks.

8. 7-Eleven.....

....is my heaven.  To the point that I get really excited seeing them in the States for like 2 seconds before I remember that they do not sell the almond milk, Supau Supau, or salmon onigiri that is essentially my snack food when on the go.  

9. Beef Noodle Soup - 牛肉麵

Isn't it an everlasting quest to find the best beef noodle soup?  It's a competition that everybody wins, because I haven't had a beef noodle soup in Taiwan that I didn't like (though there was that time I mistakenly ordered one that came WITHOUT beef...and that came pretty close).  

10. Stinky Tofu  - 臭豆腐

Oh man.  The first time I visited, I literally thought TW must be the dirtiest place, since I couldn't escape the sewage smell at night.  What? That's not human waste? That's, in fact, the smell of something that people consume? It took me a while to warm up to stinky tofu, and even now, I can only handle the fried kind.  

11. Japanese Food

Sit down restaurants, conveyor belt sushi.  This might sound silly, but I do, I do miss Japanese food in Taiwan.  Everything is so cheap, so plentiful, and so fresh! 

12.  Family Meals

Nothing beats hanging out with family in TW and sitting around the lazy susan.  And the more people there are, the more dishes you can try! 

Maybe I was a little insane to think I'd be able to fit in all the foods I like in one post.  This is definitely a condensed version.  But I am now sufficiently hungry, and I hope you are, too.  So happy eats, all! And...I'll be needing to plan a trip to Taiwan pretty much ASAP.

I leave you with, not something I miss from Taiwan, but definitely one of the funniest meals I've had...

Curry at the Toilet Restaurant!