May 22-23 was spent traveling.
Left UK May 22 around 10pm and arrived in Taiwan May 23 around 6:30pm. Exhaustion caused me to sleep through the flight, but I watched Cars 3, 10/10, and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre 7/10. Shout out the guy at check in for giving mother and I an extra seat between for more space.
pre flight food:
where: heathrow t3 – spuntino
$$
top: potato pan hash ; bottom: spaghetti and meatballs
Both weren’t bad but nothing special. pan hash had pepper, egg, and pancetta. Spaghetti was a little over al dente. Meatballs were seasoned well with pork+beef but too soft.
5.5/10
plane food:
With a 13hr flight, we were offered two meals ; economy class obvs.
vegetarian:
left: “pasta” , it was super basic and boring. Pasta with a bit of tomato sauce and peas. 1/10 (mother isnt a fan of pasta and green peas)
right: potatoes & veg (tomato, spinach, mushrooms) 5/10
regular:
left: rice & chicken, it came with some kinda pasta side….? It was pretty ok for plane food, 5/10. The white wine is a no go though, 2/10.
right: noodles & pork, better than the chicken&rice. 7/10 (for plane food)
arrival to our stay:
Family picked us up at an MRT station and drove us to our accom. Then we got fed.
I wasn’t hungry but my gosh I missed these and ate. Going from the left, those circle things are Wheel Cakes. They are like a pancake kind of texture and taste but have a filling. They are made in a type of machine similar to those for making waffles. Typical fillings include red bean, taro, and mung bean. There are also savory fillings including shredded radish. These days, younger people prefer a cream filling. I’d say it’s kinda like a custard, but fluffy and lighter. The image on the right has red bean and cream.
The middle dish is a mix of different types of tofu (bean curd) with baby corn, seaweed, and pig’s blood cake. Tofu comes in many forms in Taiwan depending on the process and cooking style. Baby corn is so good here. With a tropical climate, many fruits and veg are very tasty and delicious. The type of seaweed in this dish is a thicker kind that has been rolled up. I would say the texture is similar to broccoli core…? Pig’s blood is another typical Taiwanese food. This one is mixed into sticky rice, pressed into a sheet, then cut into squares. Animal products in Taiwan have very little to no unwanted gamy smell and taste, so pig’s blood products don’t have any irony feel or smell.
The most right dish is another typical Taiwanese dish, beef noodle soup. This soup was so so good. The broth was rich with generous chucks of beef and thicker cut QQ noodles. Noodle texture in Taiwan is often described to be QQ. Similar to how Italians use al dente for pasta. This texture is where the noodles are boucy and chewy.
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