This is a collection of foods I had in Taipei, which I think is excellent in terms of authentic international (well Asian) fares and great variety of the local cuisine. There are a lot so take it easy on reading especially those of you who like reading in the middle of the night!I had a great lunch at a packed little lunch place for Unagi Don (Japanese eel rice), went to a tight little cafe called Domo for an excellent espresso (which was the last good espresso I had on the trip), had a few quick dinners at night markets, went for a dance shoe shopping frenzy (and this had anything to do with food??) and filled my luggage with more food than clothes.
Ah satisfaction.
And of course I also had time to go to NICE restaurants and cafes and performed the "don't touch the food before I photographed it" ritual - and that's what I'll share in more details. I should describe it as a degustation rather than separate events, just so it flows. Emphasis - the following was not consumed on the same day/meal. If you actually thought I'd consumed all that in one sitting (or one day), I shall declare war on you!!
Lets start with entree - Deep fried tofu stuffed with fish liver - it was fantastic, tofu was crispy on the outside and very silky on the inside, and the flavour of the liver was creamy but not rich. It was supposed to be dipped in a light soy sauce dipping sauce but I didn't bother coz it was just nice enough as it is. It was followed by "rice in
soup" - if you often have Japanese noodle soup, you might know the type with sesame and seaweed strips. To have cooked rice in the soup meant the rice soaked up all the nice flavours of the soup and it was satisfying on its own. Then we had a nigiri sushi (with what fish I'd forgotten), fish was tender but not falling apart (like cooked cod does), and the charred bits were fantastic. Char-grilled calamarigreat with just lemon (or nothing at all) - it came with a salt and pepper for dipping, which was finely ground and very fragrant, but again I didn't really need that 
because the charred bits on the calamari was enough. Salted plain-grilled sanma fish was full of the flavour of the fish, and really char-grilling is the best way to appreciate it. Sanma (or Pacific saury) has heaps of fine bones but the flesh is very tasty. But if you accidentally broke the liver it will leave the flesh very bitter - some people like the bitterness, not me not I.Hot pot. YUM. I know it was still summer in Taiwan but who cares when
air conditioning keeps my cool... A vegetable pot with soy sauce stock, and additional serve of wagyu beef. Oh wagyu beef - thy beauty, texture, high content of saturated fat... not that I care about that last point, of course. The soup base eventually got a bit salty for us though.
BURP. Excuse me!!! Now I move on to desserts. Haagen Dazs ice cream sound Ok with you? Of course. And what's dessert without coffee? Try an iced coffee - literally ICED coffee, because it was made from melting ice dripping over ground coffee, extracted overnight. Apparently this slow and cold extraction does not extract caffeine, but either they used crap coffee, or the lack of pressured steam just doesn't extract the elements that give a good espresso its depth and body. The waffles 
at the same cafe was incredibly popular and well deserve their fame - hot off the waffle plate, served with fruit and vanilla ice cream. Simplicity is best.There, that concludes my foodie experience in Taiwan. I certainly enjoyed it... hope you hated me for it too!
