Taiwan Bento Soymilk: When it comes to beverages, the Taiwanese just do them better. Classics like Apple Sidra and Hey Song are much less sweet than American sodas, taste crisper, and are simply more interesting. What I'm rating today isn't a bottled or canned product, but it's representative of the same qualities. At Taiwan Bento, a shop close to the 19th street Oakland BART station that specializes in Taiwanese street food like gua bao and five-spice fried chicken, they make an excellent housemade soy milk. ... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended drinks taiwanese taiwanbento soymilk 4.0Kuan Sheng Food Seaweed Thin Crackers: These are specialty crackers from Taiwan that are bright matcha green. They contain a kitchen sink of Asian ingredients, from buckwheat to glutinous rice, mung beans, green tea powder, black sesame, and, of course, seaweed. Altogether, though, it somehow works, creating thin, buttery cookies that taste earthy yet faintly sweet and has a slight medicinal quality to it (it contains some mixed Chinese herbs as well). My mom brought this home as a gift from one of her students, so I’m not sur... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended cookies asian taiwanese kuanshengfood seaweed thin crackers 4.0Hsin Tung Yang Sesame flavored dried bean curd: Dried bean curd is one of my favorite Taiwanese snacks and is not quite like anything I've had from American grocery stores. Fried bean curd, saturated in sesame oil, is wrinkled almost like an enlarged raisin, but comes in large strips like beef jerky. It has an intensely savory sweet chili-garlic flavor and leaves your fingers and tongue slick with a (unhealthy) coating of grease, which undoubtably adds to its deliciousness. I can't say exactly where this bag was from as my parents had i... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended taiwanese asian tofu hsintungyang sesame flavored dried bean curd 4.0Yifang Matcha Brown Sugar Bubble Tea: I was delighted to come across the Taiwanese bubble tea shop Yifang in Shin Okubo, the Koreatown of Shinuku in Tokyo. I wish I were able to read the menu of fruit tea options, but I had to go by the pictures and decided to try their matcha latte with brown sugar, a drink that has a fixed amount of sugar (unlike some other menu items, where you can adjust how sweet you'd like it to be). I did find the drink to be sweet for my taste, but the combination of bitter matcha with sweet brown suga... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended drinks tokyo taiwanese boba bubbletea yifang matcha brown sugar bubble tea 4.0I-Mei almond choco wafer roll: Despite its name, these are flat wafers, rolled similarly to a flat crepe. The snacks come individually wrapped. Wafer exterior is thin and flaky, while chocolate interior is not overly sweet with a sprinkle of chopped almonds. Texture of the almonds doesn't quite carry through because of the crispness of the wafer. Overall, a pretty good snack. 3.5/5.0
chocolate imei wafer almond sweets asian taiwanese hmart choco roll 3.5