Shi Jie Soymilk King (世界豆漿大王), Yonghe Road @ Yonghe District, New Taipei City

There're a number of Yonghe soy milk shops around. The name of the location has become a brand, a hallmark of sorts for soy milk shops. Much has been written about them. Plenty have claimed to be of said branding and origins. 

Can't say that I know any better which are or aren't. It's not a topic I have familiarity with beyond some superficial knowledge. Right in the middle of Yonghe Road in the Yonghe District, is Shi Jie Soymilk King (No. 284, Section 2, Yonghe Road, Yonghe District, New Taipei City, tel : +886 2 8927 0000). A shop with a claim to being the original from back in 1955.

Tried a bunch of stuff. Like dou jiang with egg. 

And salty dou jiang - which was pretty interesting. I'm not entirely sure but I think I kinda like it. As a whole, I dig the smokiness in all the dou jiang here..

You tiao is hollow-ish. I thought these would be breadier which would make a better vehicle for absorbing the soy milk. 

That's radish cake with egg. The omelette was a tad oily.

Some radish pastry which has something else inside. Maybe preserved turnips. Not a fan.

Fan tuan/飯糰, or rice balls as described in the menu. They're actually shaped like a roll. Inside the glutinous rice roll is you tiao. Carbs in carbs. 😬 This one was the sweet version so it has sugar too.

My favourite thing here was their shao bing. Specifically this one, 燒餅油條夾酸菜, which has you tiao (carbs in carbs again), pickled mustard greens and sugared peanut powder. This package delivered some crunch from the breads with some chewiness amidst savoury sweet nuttiness. That and a tangy vegetal crunch from the pickled mustard greens. Loads going on.

This bao was amusingly named 'The monk wants to eat vegetable buns'. 儈想吃菜包 in Chinese. Don't think they translate accurately. Anyways, bao's stuffed with cabbage, vermicelli, mushrooms, carrot strips and maybe some other things. Pretty good tasting.

Note to self: Their xiao long bao has ginger.

劉山東小吃店 (Liu Shan Dong Xiao Chi Dian), Kaifeng Street @ Zhongzheng District, Taipei

劉山東小吃店 (No. 2, Lane 14, Section 1, Kaifeng Street, Zhongzheng District, Taipei, tel : +886 2 2311 3581), or also commonly referred to as Liu Shandong Beef Noodle is a beef noodle shop of no small repute in Taipei.

Saw the queue from a distance we did as we approached.

Menu's pretty straightforward.

We had dried tofu strips (干絲). Minimal seasoning in this.

And dried tofu (豆干). Pretty good texture.

Not impressed by the broth. It's kinda lightweight for the hong shao variety and I was hoping for more depth and intensity to the flavour. Maybe it's how they roll but my opinion is that Din Tai Feng makes better.

Adding a generous bit of pickled mustard green and fermented black bean spiced things up a couple of notches.

Their pickled mustard and shredded pork noodle had broth that was even...blander. I'm not sure if I'm tasting it right but there appears to be some beef flavour in the broth so I suspect it's the same one from their other Pure Braised Beef Noodle (清燉牛肉麵).

葡吉手工包子 (Pucci) at Songjiang Nanjing Station

Came across 葡吉手工包子 in the train station selling handmade buns. Bought from them a couple of times. Not all are great. I'm talking about you 花卷 with cheese. The ones with vegetable stuffings were pretty good.

This with cabbage and vermicelli (高麗菜包).

And this with mushrooms and some green vegetable (香菇素菜包) which I couldn't identify.

すしの魚君 (Sushi no Uo-kun Uni-President Times Department Store), Zhongxiao East Road @ Xinyi District, Taipei

The search for the address of this restaurant was a little complicated but I think I've gotten the correct one (B2F, No. 8, Section 5, Zhongxiao East Road, Xinyi District, Taipei). We stumbled upon it near Taipei City Hall Station or thereabouts and after some ChatGPT/Google-ing/asking for help, we've concluded that this was it. B2 of Uni-President Department Store next to Taipei City Hall MRT.

Earlier searches led to Sakanakun Don which seemingly are different branches of same business. Google wasn't definitive (I want to add that Googling for the same thing at different times can yield different results) about the address (even gave me locations in Singapore) and their reservation link points to B2, No. 16, Songgao Road, Xinyi District. Yes it was confusing.

Anywayss, pretty good quality Japanese food here. Wasabi's a blend of grated and paste. Plenty of ikura in their rice bowls.

Anikmo was chunky and yummy. If anyone was wondering, there's ponzu in there.

Minced crab, ikura, scallops, raw egg and kani miso. Loads of crabbiness from the kani miso!

Ebi tempura, salmon cubes, ikura and raw egg.

Mentaiko and tamagoyaki don. More ikura below.

Salmon belly was chunky and melty.

Unexpectedly tender gyu katsu sando. I liked that they did not overdo the katsu sauce.

Grilled fish.

Chubby Burger (恰彼漢堡), Keelung Road @ Xinyi District, Taipei

Chubby Burger (No. 165, Section 1, Keelung Road, Xinyi District, Taipei, tel : +886 2 2768 6060) came by way of recommendation. It's all smash burgers on the menu with a variety of toppings. Burger's kinda similar to what one can get from Shake Shack or BurgerLabo. Wouldn't mind coming back if I had the chance.

PBB Chubby with two smashed beef patties, cheddar, bacon, grilled onions and peanut butter. Not bad. Seems like peanut butter in burgers is a Taiwanese thing. Will not be the first time I'm seeing them.

Chubby Staff Special with smashed beef patty, hash brown, Swiss cheese, Chubby cheese dip, ham, pickles and aioli. This was good. Savoury and cheesy.

Fries were kinda like those from McD's.

Cinnamon apple fried pie. Not like McD's. Drier fillings but has a good cinnamon flavour.

Pretty decent banana chocolate milkshake.

Selfish Burger (自私漢堡), Zhuangjing Road @ Xinyi District, Taipei

Selfish Burger (No. 180 Zhuangjing Road, Xinyi District, Taipei, tel : +886 2 2345 0825) is in the game for burgers that are fun. Aside from one classic burger on their menu, most of the rest are more...progressive/experimentative and flavour forward. Not so much for purists. But what do I know.

There's a Smoky Cocoa burger for their fall/winter. Beef patty, bacon, caramelized onions, caramelized bananas, cocoa spread of sorts and rockets. Chocolate's assertive with this one, countered by a fruitiness from the caramelised onions. And then bananas, bacon and beef. Rockets fell by the wayside. I think it's not bad, interesting even.

Blue cheese burger. Blue cheese sauce, rockets and balsamic vinegar. I don't know if the intention was to keep the blue cheese intensity moderated. I mean, it's there but I personally feel more presence would be nice. 

Fried chicken with cream cheese and crushed honeycomb. That and a horizontal cut slice of apple beneath. The flavour combination worked. I liked this. I could come back for this. That fried chicken was outstanding.

There're options to upgrade burgers into a combo meals that comes with a side and a drink. 有點饿 (a little hungry) includes fries while 超級饿 (super hungry) tops those fries with onion rings and a fried chicken wing.

Fish sticks were much nicer than the name suggested. Those are real fingers of real fish meat, some with skin on still.

Their brown sugar whiskey milk shake was nicer than appearances suggest.