New friends

We made some new friends today courtesy of some old ones. A more warm and hospitable Christian couple and their super charming 4 kids you couldn't find elsewhere in Taiwan. And Taiwanese are generally a friendly lot. Despite us calling on them with pretty much no notice (and our protestations), they insisted on taking us out for a quick sightseeing drive, dinner, dessert and then to their home. 

Yen Ping Road in the An Ping district. The first street ever built in Taiwan, yes Taiwan, built by Dutch colonists in the 17th century.

Pre dinner snack of dou hua (dou fu pudding) at An Ping's top dou hua shop. It's pretty massive place just selling one item, and we're told it's packed on weekends. TGIF.

Their dou hua comes with various toppings and flavours in syrup. This was a lemon flavoured bowl with tapioca balls (zhen zhu).  The unusual dark color of the dou hua comes from adding the ashes from burnt bamboo. Sounds strange but doesn't affect the taste.

Dinner was at a ma la huo guo (spicy hot pot) restaurant. Unlike Szechuan or Cantonese hot pots, these come with a spicy and sour broth. Just the thing for a cold winter night! No pics due the extreme crowds!

Dessert. This is a xing ren (almond) jelly place, which serves up really wonderful iced or hot bowls of almond jelly with a variety of toppings and other extras. And again, really nice. (The shop on the left)

Cold almond jelly with sweet yam, peanuts and red beans, enough for 2. 2 thumbs up.

Almond jelly with warm black sesame (zhi ma) soup.

These little food gems are tucked away among the hundreds of places to eat in Tainan, and we would never have found them on our own. Thanks guys!