[Taichung, Taiwan] Chun Shui Tang//春水堂

I like coming to Chun Shui Tang/春水堂 because of the pearl milk tea. I have been drinking pearl milk tea since I was in 6th grade, when my aunt brought back a bag of drinks after grocery shopping. I remember thinking how odd it looked, with little black balls at the bottom. My cousin was excited; she loved it. I was the last to grab one. One hesitant sip and choke later, I was hooked. I downed mine and instantly regretted it. My cup was empty and I wanted more. Sadly, I watched everyone else enjoy theirs slowly. From then on, during every visit to Taiwan, I would request this magical drink daily. On a good day, I would be allowed to sit on the back of the scooter and buy the drink also. Watching them mix everything and manually shaking it into frothy perfection was a joy (I also used to sit in front of the glass partition at Cinnabon and watch that magic happen while my mom went shopping at the mall). 

Chun Shui Tang is hailed as the originators of pearl milk tea. In Chinese, it's called either 珍珠奶茶 or 泡沫奶茶. Thus, it's referred to as "pearl milk tea" or "bubble milk tea." Now that it's become mainstream, everyone and their mommas seem to like calling it "boba." My Taiwanese friends and family don't. My Singaporean and Malaysian friends tell me that it's never called "boba," always "bubble." I've only heard Americans and Cantonese people refer to it as boba. There's another story circulating wherein the "boba" nickname came about because one guy wanted to make his drink stand out more by making his tapioca balls bigger. He used bigger tapioca balls and slang for "boobs," and it grew from there. 

Either way, I prefer the smaller tapioca balls and the non bewby name. Here at Chun Shui Tang, you can order either the small or large tapioca. Every time I've been there, the texture has been the perfect QQ:

Egg rolls made from tofu skin:

Crispy chicken wings:

Shu mai//燒賣 two ways. The rice ball looking ones were my favorite. It gave it a different texture and taste compared to the regular wonton skin that they come in:

Fried daikon cakes ("carrot cakes")//蘿蔔糕. One of my favorite things to get at dim sum. It's only good if it's done well. This one was pretty good, even if there was no XO sauce to dip it in:

King oyster mushrooms: 

Onsen egg//温泉卵 which is  slow cooked in hot spring water. I was a little surprised that it was served cold, but it was definitely interesting: 

Braised chicken feet. Very flavorful: 

Beef noodle soup. I was surprised at how good it was. We ordered it on a whim, in case we didn't have enough food. The broth was flavorful and the noodles, while not homemade, were very good. It had just the right amount of spice. I wouldn't give up my normal beef noodle place for Chun Shui Tang, but if you only have time for this, don't forget the beef noodle soup here!

Fried mantou with condensed milk//香煎饅頭片. It's a bread that is slightly sweet and then fried. On the side is condensed milk. Dip and enjoy! Perfect with coffee or tea. Or in this case, pearl milk tea:

For locations, check out their Website.