Taro (Eddo)

Taro is a lovely root veg just like pototoes but the texture is quite different.
Some taros have a strong taste with a viscous texture.

The one here is an Eddo taro native to China.

I decided to add it in my African Okra soup with chicken and it came out nicely.

Nestle 150 anniversary taro drumstick icecream

Kowloon dairy ube icecream cone

Microwaved taro

I love taro but it seems too bothersome to cook because it is similar to a potato where you have to peel off the skin.
What's worse is that the Taro skin is muddy and uneven.

Just for fun I microwaved dry it to see if it was a possible solution.

After microwaving it for 6 minutes, the results were quite good, the skin on the outside became dry and separated from the taro and it was easy to peel off.

However some parts of the taro were really dry, but the moist part was edible.

(For bigger taros, longer microwaving time may be required.)

I ate them plain, so there was not much taste but the texture was quite viscous.
For more flavouring, I am just going to add salt next time and maybe I will try turn it over halfway through and then microwave it again to see if it helps reduce the dryness.

KOWLOON DAIRY Mochi Ice - Lychee , Ube flavour

Tried the Mochi ice which is icecream inside chewy mochi pastry, there are quite a few flavours, taro is my favourite and the lychee was new so I tried it as well.

The lychee one tasted weird and artificial and I couldnt figure out why the mochi on the outside was red because lychees are white, perhaps the red was meant to be the exterior of the lychee.

The lychee one had vanilla ice-cream in the centre with lychee flavoured mochi whereas the taro one was plain mochi with taro ice-cream in the middle.

If the mochi skin was slightly thicker I reckon it would taste nicer.

CROLEY FOOD's ButterCream Ube crackers

These crackers were sweet and extremely buttery as stated, however the ube taste was weak.
The crackers were lightly dusted with sugar.

The size of these crackers were about 4cm x 13cm which were quite big, but the thickness was really thin about 3-4mm.

There were three crackers in each individual pack inside the large pack.

McCafe and McDonalds: Taiwan

McCafe in Taiwan
http://www.mcdonalds.com.tw/mccafe/
McDonalds in Taiwan
http://www.mcdonalds.com.tw/

The McDonalds website for Taiwan was extremely boring and there was nothing interesting on the main menu.
However the menu for McCafe in Taiwan was slightly better.

The items I would like to try would be Taro vanilla cake and the raspberry mousse cake!

C'est bon taro cake

The packaging looks Japanese, but it is from China.
Slightly greasy and too sweet.
You can taste and smell chlorophene in the cake.

Taro OTAP, Filipino crunchy puff pastry

The otap is an elongated puff pastry that is about four to six inches long and about two inches wide.
It has a flaky, brittle and crumpled surface that is sprinkled with sugar.
Eating this pastry would entail a lot of cautiousness, as fragments and bits of sugar may fall on the floor as you take a scrumptious bite.
The native delicacy is especially common in the province of Cebu where it originated.
However, the otap is also a popular snack in other provinces in the Visayas region, like Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental.
The native delicacy is usually composed of flour, shortening, coconut, and sugar.
In order to achieve the distinctive texture of the otap, it usually undergoes a two-stage baking process.
The first stage is to partially cook the dough and then sprinkle the top with sugar.
The second stage involves baking again the dough, but a little bit over the usual baking time in order to create an oval-shaped, flaky pastry that will become the otap.

The Otap was wrapped in fun crisp tracing paper instead of the usual plastic.


It was rolled to that shape and there are so many layers of pastry!