Food Photos

When we first arrived we ate a few times at New York Bagels, because they have a place in our building. Ethan ordered hot chocolate, and I thought it was picture-worthy:

I ordered a latte, or cappuccino or some such coffee-drink. It's presentation was equally nice. I didn't like the flavor though. For a few weeks we had Friday breakfast at NY Bagels, but then our last trip they were out of plain bagels, grapefruit juice and milkshakes. We've since taken to buying our own bagels from Costco. And making pancakes. LOTS of pancakes.

When we were in KenTing (was that really just last week? Seems a long time ago!) Eric and the kids ordered milkshakes. They came with knotted straws and colorful marachiano cherries. (did I spell that wrong?) The kids ate the cherries so fast I couldn't get my camera ready. So I made Eric wait until I had taken a picture.

Once again, pretty presentation but lacking in substance. These were apparently nothing more than flavored milk - no ice cream. A huge disappointment to the ice cream lovers in my family. I don't get excited about ice cream so I had ordered milk tea. It's taste is growing on me.

There is a blog about food which is proving very helpful for us. It's called A Hungry Girl's Guide to Taipei . On Thursday night Rosa, our babysitter, came over so Eric and I went to try a new Mexican restaurant that "The Hungry Girl" recommended. It is called Oola Mexican Grill.

Since I don't normally blog about food, I didn't think to take pictures of the food before we ate it. Most of my salsa was gone by the time I took this picture.

This was without question the best meal I've had in Taiwan. You get to choose what you want and they assemble it in front of you. I chose tacos and and had one with chicken and one with barbacoa. I'm told the barbacoa is beef and I choose to believe it. The barbacoa was absolutely wonderful. The chicken was good; it probably would have seemed better if I hadn't eaten the barbacoa first. They have 4 types of salsa that you get to pick from, and you can have them mixed. Mine (pictured above) was a mix of corn salsa and mild salsa, which is like pico de gallo. It was good, but next time I would mix in one of the chili salsas for more kick. We will definitely go back to Oola. It was so wonderful to eat something good and, for the most part, familiar.

On Friday we rode the Maokong Gondola. I will do a separate post with scenic pictures. It was a wonderful day. Once in Maokong everyone was hungry so we stopped at a restaurant. While waiting for our food to arrive Anna was trying to teach me how to use chopsticks. (She's already a pro!) She had it down to such a science that I took pictures.

Step 1. Bend 2 fingers.

Step 2. Rest the chopsticks on your bent fingers.

Step 3. Wrap your other 2 fingers around the chopsticks.

Step 5. Put your thumb on one stick and push it back and forth.

I tried. And tried. And TRIED. Until Anna gave me up as hopeless. I couldn't make it work. Eric says her method is not the method he learned, but it works well for her.

Meanwhile, our cokes arrived - in glass bottles!

(Maokong is famous for tea, and I think you are supposed to order tea in these restaurants. We did order Oolong tea along with the cokes.)

The proprietor brought us these lovely little cakes. Again, I began eating before realizing I ought to take a picture! Just one bite this time. I asked what these were called, but the lady could not think of a way to explain it in English. I am guessing this is something fairly common in Taiwan. I hope so, because I wouldn't mind eating more of this. It seemed a bit like a cross between cake and shortbread, and it had a filling of some fruit. It tasted rather like pineapple, but not too strong. (I don't actually like pineapple, but I liked this.)

Finally, our infamous chicken foot lunch. I felt bad for not eating most of the food, but this sight just pushed all of us over the edge. Bon Apetite!