Keen Eye

Best Dish at Yongkang ...

---

... still a far cry from the wonderful wontons at DTF, these were still quite good. The wonton wrappers were perfectly al dente, and quite nice with the interesting spicy peanut sauce.

Tea Time at Wistaria ...

---

... we never did a traditional tea in Japan this time, so made a pointed effort to do it Taiwanese style. Wistaria seems to be another of Taipei's institutions, so they charge accordingly - about $13 per type, though you can get a significant amount of tea drinking out of that. It almost seems that the pricing is based on the time spent drinking - to fully use up the tea leaves, you'd be there for an hour or two. Charging only a couple of bucks for that wouldn't make any financial sense.

Regimented Tea Drinking ...

---

... I wondered if this might have been a Japanese influence, as there was quite an involved process at Wistaria. Before even brewing tea, the pot needed to be warmed with hot water, then the large clear pitcher, then the two drinking cups. Different teas required different brewing times, as well. It was all a bit complicated, but still thoroughly enjoyable.

Not Your Typical Tea Time Accompaniments ...

---

... the best mochi by far was the peanut version, followed by the black sesame, and then the red bean. The mochi's skin was substantially thicker and chewier than the Japanese versions that we salivate over. The other items are coconut balls, which were a bit too dry for our liking.

Not Your Typical Tea Time Menu ...

---

... there ain't no cucumber sandwiches or scones and clotted cream here! The selection included all types of cakes, cookies, nuts, and dried fruit.

Dessert Bomb on Dihua Street ...

---

... in typical Asian style, some of these iced desserts are overflowing with different elements - a massive portion of lemon sorbet topped with red bean, glutinous rice balls, matcha ice cream, and waffle cone chips, along with a side of dry banana bread and oddly, a small cup of condensed milk. The lemon sorbet was pretty awesome, especially refreshing after a fair bit of walking, and the matcha ice cream wasn't bad, either. But overall, this type of dessert just doesn't do it for me.

Japanese Curry ...

---

... funny that we had left Japan, yet we still craved the food! A nice, rich curry served with crispy (but dry) pork katsu, served with a cup of soup that can only be described as corn soup without the corn.

Somehow, Someway ...

---

... we ended up with another whole cheesecake from Uncle Tetsu! We immediately gorged on half as dessert after dinner, and saved the other half for breakfast the following morning. A little too late, but we realized that Uncle Tetsu had a second branch in the main train station that served different flavours and types of cheesecake - the branch we had been frequenting only served this plain version.