I (heart) Taiwan

2:09am Friday 27 August 2010 Sydney (gmt+10)

I was meeting Sheila for dinner but I got to Chinatown 15 minutes early so I wandered around Dixon Street and ended up at the Emperor's Garden Cakes and Bakery. And the first thing that came to my mind were Mooncakes! I love Mooncakes! Not only are they yummy... but they also played an interesting and important role in world history. And they also come in nice little tin boxes. So I bought a couple and put them aside for after dinner.

We then went to I 'love' Taiwan, or I (heart) Taiwan. Even before we went in we were already drooling at the sticks of food on the grill. Yummy!

The ordering system is quite cool! Every table has a touch screen and you get to order everything without talking to anyone. Like the Rice Tube Pudding... all the stuff that we ordered looked like the picture on the touch screen menu... but the size is a bit deceiving. They look a lot bigger on the computer! But that's okay 'coz they're cheap and having small portions meant that we can order a lot of different stuff without becoming too full!

The Wagyu Beef in Satay sauce was very tasty. And so was the Papaya Smoothie and the Mince Pork and Sausage Rice. Once again, it looks ginormous, but in fact it's just a tiny portion. But very flavorsome!

While watching the monitor I realized that if the stuff you ordered hasn't turned up yet there's a "cooking chef" animated image next to it. And if it's a plate then that means you should've already received it, or it's already on its way to your table. Like the Five Spice Tofu Skewers.

Then there's the Ginger Pork Skewers, and the Rice with Pork Chop. I think it's cool that they have the pickle because they go really well together. Then Sheila ordered Pork Cake Noodle. We were expecting it to come in a tiny cup, but instead we received this HUGE noodle bowl! In comparison to the other stuff that we received it seemed a bit out of place. It was yummy, but it was simply too big and we couldn't finish it. Geez!

The last item was the Stewed Pork Intestine, which I think is my favorite! It smelled a bit, but it is offal after all. But I really love the taste, and it was so succulent. Yum! I wanted to hang around and ordered some more but we were both too full. I'd like to come back and try the other stuff on the menu, and more Pork Intestine. Cool!

After that we walked around the shops and looked at stuff, including oversized stuffed toys. Then we had coffee and we cut up the Mooncake into quarters and tried to find a hidden message, if there's any.

I (heart) Taiwan

52 Dixon Street

Chinatown Sydney