Gastro Monkey // 美食家

I am having serious Taiwan withdrawals, so I guess that means it's time for me to finally catch up on my posts that I should have been doing for the past year. Lately, I have been feeling a bit uninspired by just blogging about one location at a time. The travelogues have been more interesting to me because there's usually a story involved. I suppose I will figure it out eventually. For the few who have been following me, thanks for bearing with me! If you have watched any Zimmern or Bourdain specials, or even any YouTube videos dealing with Taipei, I'm sure you've heard of YongKang Street. It has some great stuff on this street/in this vicinity (See also Tianjin Onion Pancakes/ 天津蔥抓餅 , Din Tai Fung/鼎泰豐, Du Xiao Yue Danzi Noodle/度小月擔仔麵 (great if you don't have time to go to Tainan to get it from the original location), Kao Chi/高記, and a bun cart that is there until they sell out for the day (go early - I've always had luck when I go for breakfast... ju...

If you are a milk tea fan, this is a must go spot. It's one of the oldest tea milk tea shops in Southern Taiwan, and from the looks of it, do everything the same as they always have. This post is only about the original location. They have many other locations around the island, but this was the first. I'm told the other locations aren't that great and some people even told me not to try it. But, I like trying the originals, and I have loved milk tea since the summer of 1992 so no harm in throwing down 30NT for one, right? When I mentioned to the local milk tea shop owner that I was going to Kaohsiung, he said I have to try Huada also, so that was definitely good enough for me! Located close to the Yangchengpu KMRT station and in a smaller road, remember to watch out for those scooters! They have a good variety of drinks, but I ordered the original milk tea. They shake it with ice so it's cold, but probably not cold enough for American standards. This milk tea is d...

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 Chine...