2016 Mid-Autumn Festivals' Mooncakes

Happy celebrating Hari Raya Korban and Mid-Autumn Festival, people!

As some of you already know, the Mid-Autumn or Lantern Festival is one of my favorite festivals of the year! And speaking of lantern festival, Mooncakes are a must have! This year I bought quite a number of mooncakes to try, mainly from Purple Cane and Tai Thong!

Purple Cane's Mooncakes

 

I got the Rose Tea Bamboo Charcoal Lotus Paste & White Tea Purple Potato Lotus Paste ones! They tasted really sweet but super good! Really love these!! Recommended to try, people!

Divided this mooncake into 12 pieces to share with my colleagues. I only had one tiny piece LOL.

I also got these three traditional mooncakes in the shape of Takoyakis. The packaging is so cute, though if I'm not mistaken Purple Cane's packaging is the same every year.

I thought they all tasted pretty normal and blend except the Green Tea one. The skin is thicker than the past too so that explains.

Tai Thong's Mooncake

 I have actually been wanting to try Tai Thong because the flavors look interesting so I got myself the Snow Skin Yam Paste Single Yolk, Snow Skin Black Sesame & Green Beans with Cheese and Sesame Paste Lotus Yolk.

I tries a slice of the Snow Skin Black Sesame & Green Beans with Cheese and started having this coughing frenzy. I didn't like it at all, the Green Bean with Cheese is a total failure and no, I totally didn't enjoy the snow skin yuckkk *thumbs down*

After that I was a bit hesitant to try the other snow skin yam one so I cut a tiny piece to try, definitely don't wanna give myself anoter bad surprise. Thankfully, this didn't taste as awful, the yam paste tasted mild and credit to the salted yolk too. Still don't like the snow skin, though.

The traditional lotus paste one tasted the most normal, not too sweet so I'm guessing our older generation would appreciate it.

Went shopping for these after hanging out with my friends at PJ, took this video too. Just look at all the mooncakes!! So tempted to get more!

That's it for today~~ See you guys again in my next post!

Taipei Day 4 (Part 2) : Miaokou Night Market

Back~! Let's get back to where we left off last time. From Shifen, we opted for taxi to Miaokou Night Market as it was getting really late and we didn't want to miss the last train back to Taipei.

Taxi drivers in Taiwan are superrr friendly and chatty. In most of our rides, we took our chances and got recommendations for where to eat and you bet we tried them all! More on those pretty soon!

This one the driver was showing us directions to get to the train station.

 

First lil' eats we had was this fried red eel with soup. Delicious! I wanted seconds but was saving it for other stuff and we got super full I did't get any... Would love to go back for more!

Funny thing happened, we thought we paid for this as the food was served but obviously we didn't. Almost left without paying but the shop attendant reminded us or at least one of us. OMG. So embarrasing!

A huge bowl of yums!

Next, we searched for the steamed butter crab, which was also recommended by the taxi driver. Didn't take us long, it was just close to where we dined and just beside the temple.

Truthfully, it wasn't so impressive, just alright. If it is crab, my dad cooked the best tomato crab!

In the same shop we ordered this Chinese fried sausage which was good. Yum yum!

Right after leaving the restaurant, my friend noticed an interesting shop right opposite the crab restaurant and so we went over to try. In case you're wondering how we can eat so much, we didn't LOL. Aside from the crab which we ordered two servings, the rest we ordered a bowl each.

While braising the crowds, we browsed around for food, my gal friends now want dessert, some bao bao ping or shaved ice, again the taxi driver recommended. Oddly the one who found the stall first was me, not my Chinese-educated friends LOL. Thank goodness for Japanese!

So off we went to order our shaved ice. Mango and melon flavored ones if I remember correctly.

The dude didn't get his shaved ice but wanted tofu dessert, so we let him have it. Of course we nomnomed some as well LOL

Along the way we passed by a number of stalls selling seafood (it's Keelung's specialty because it's located beside the harbor) and skewered meat and vegetables.

Then, something caught my attention. Froggssss!! Fat, balloon-ey frogs!!! So I eagerly asked my friends if we can have froggsss and they're as excited as I am LOL. Off we went to get ourselves seated. And yet once upon a time my dad had to convince us to try frogs by telling us it is 'jumping chicken.

In front of the restaurant are a mini stall displaying their seafood.

The menu. Everything looks good. Had we stayed there longer, I would've wanted to try some of these. Gahhh next time I guess.

 

When our dish arrive, I was a bit disappointed because the frog wasn't fat LOL. Guess it was just a ball of air HAHAHHAHA. It was good, with a lil' bit of spicy-ness which I like.

Looking at the leg is kinda scary too, I've had frogs but never with a feet like that LOL. Even the skin is still there! Yea, Malaysia ones are usually have been skinned. One time when I was a child I witnessed the skinning process and it was kinda creepy.





Back to braising the crowds after that. This is what the night scene is like.

  Woahhhh look at that

And then, I spotted this BBQ Pork with spring onions, super tempted!

Bacon fan, anyone. Sorry tak halal to some of you people.

Woah even with chilli YUUMMMMM!!!!!

That's pretty much what pictures I got for the day before my battery ran down. Our last snack from Miaokou Night Market was a fried sandwich which we eat had one. It was simple but pretty good. This too was recommended by the taxi driver LOL, so you geddit. Ask taxi drivers if you want to know the good food around night markets in Taiwan.

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Read my other posts here!

Day 1: Airport ⇒ Shilin Night Market ⇒ (Shrimping)

Day 2: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall ⇒ (Lin Family Mansion & Garden) ⇒ (Longshan Temple) ⇒ Ximending ⇒ K-Underground Mall ⇒ Shida Night Market

Day 3: YongKang Street ⇒ Taipei Zoo ⇒ Maokong

Day 4: Jiufen ⇒ Shifen ⇒ (Attractions along the Pingxi Line) ⇒ Miaokou Night Market & Part 2

Day 5: Tamsui ⇒ Bali Island ⇒ Shida Night Market

Day 6: Addiction Aquatic Development ⇒ YangMingShan ⇒ Beitou  ⇒ Qing Guang Night Market

Day 7: Loco Food ⇒ WuFenPu ⇒ Raohe Night Market  & Part 2

Day 8: National Palace Museum ⇒ Taipei 101 ⇒ Raohe Night Market