Assorted Baklava from Naf Naf Grill - $2.99

1095 East Ogden Avenue, Naperville, IL - 630.904.7200

http://www.nafnafgrill.com/

Even though my description of this dessert won't sound appetizing, just know that I really do love this stuff. Anyway, whenever I sink my teeth into this delectable dessert, cardboard always comes to mind. I thought of cardboard when I tasted my dog's dry food too, but that was different. In the case of the baklava, the texture is what makes me think of carboard. It's heavily layered with the top part being thin and light, sort of like paper, and then bottom being thick and dense just like cardboard.

The flavor is really fantastic though. From what I can gather, underneath the top layers of thin, crispy dough is a layer of crushed nuts sweetened with honey or syrup. The second picture shows an overhead picture with the papery layer taken off to give you an idea.

Hualien Fare

Hualien City, Taiwan 

So the train after lunch at Mr. Brown’s coffee shop in Taipei, brought us to Hualien. Nice city / township, very small and quiet unlike Taipei.

It was dinnertime when we arrived, so we had a walk around the night markets to look for dinner. Stopped by a little restaurant whose name I’ve forgotten, and had regular Taiwanese food. They were advertising that they make their own noodles so we tried that.

To start I got us some century eggs. I love this shit, as you can tell from here. Apparently they are good anywhere around the world.

I had the seafood soup noodle. Not much seafood here, just a few squid rings and I don’t remember what else. Only so-so.

 

My friend had stir-fried vegetables with kimchi sauce on rice, I don’t know how that went. 

 

Some home-made noodle slices here in kimchi sauce, stir-fried as well. They’re probably not what you’d call noodles, just dough that’s cut into trapezoid slices. But this was good.

Then some stir-fried beef and vegetables to share, these were very flavourful as you can tell from the thick sauce. A tad too salty to be had alone but we all had noodle/rice so that’s fine. Not bad, I was satisfied.

Continuing on we had some dessert but I only have this one pic of hot Tau Fu Fa with peanuts. My friend had the other one, a black herbal drink that I didn’t try, and since it’s just a cup of black liquid I decided not to take any photos either.

While they were buying dessert I went across the street to the convenience store, Family Mart if I’m not wrong, to buy me some of my kinda dessert, the local brews. This was the only one left by the time we got back to the dorm. Seen here posing in front of the Laphroaig which I picked up at the airport on my way into Taiwan.

I am too lazy to go thru all my old posts to check if I mentioned this, but if not, another thing about Taiwan, alcohol there is so effin cheap, so cheap I want to move there. I’m serious too. I was totally entertaining that thought each time I step out of the 711 or bottle shop with a new purchase. This can? It’s 500ml, that’s a pint, and only $1.30.

DAAAAAAAAAAyyyyyyyymmmnnnnnnnnnnnnn……

Apple Crumble from The Big Bang - £3.95

124 Walton Street, Jericho, Oxford OX2 6AH - (01865) 511441

thebigbangrestaurants.co.uk

I liked this dessert a lot. The custard wasn't too sweet and I'm a sucker for that crumbly texture. What's not to like? Oh, right, the price.

Cannoli fom Tony's Cafe - $??

366 Possum Park Road, Newark, DE - (302) 737-2411

I'm not sure about the price on this one because it was given to us for free. We had a vendor visit us at work and they bought us lunch. Since the order was so large, Tony's decided to spoil us with a few freebies to "lock in our business relations." It worked - we went back there the very next day for some strombolis.

Anyway, regarding the cannoli itself, it's basically a lot of frosting inside of a flakey shell and dusted with powdered sugar. You'd think that this would be too rich or sweet with all that frosting. In fact, most of the coworkers didn't bother with it for that very reason, but for whatever reason, I was able to stomach it just fine. I don't think I'd pay much for one, but it's a pleasant treat on a rare occasion.

Shamrock Shake from McDonald's - $???

1401 Governor's Place, Bear, DE - (302)836-1308

My coworker introduced me to this nice seasonal dessert. People get pretty diehard about it and I think can see why. Instead of being overpowered with mintiness, it's a very subtle touch, and I believe I prefer it that way. My coworker says that it varies according to which store you to go though. Anyway, it comes out around March for St. Patrick's Day, if you couldn't already guess from the name so look for it then.

Apple Kuchen from Riva - $6.00

2020 Calamos Court, Naperville, IL - (630)718-1010

Unfortunately, I don't remember everything that was in this dessert. It's ice cream atop a little cake (kuchen means cake in German), and the cake was stuffed with some sweet stuff like caramel and warm apple bits.

Without the dressings around it, the cake would've been fairly tasteless so it reminded me a lot of a scone. But overall, the dessert was very yummy.

Fried Oreos from Johnnie's Dog House - $2.00

3401 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE - (302)477-1440

I've heard people rave about fried Oreos for a long time, and now I finally understand what all the fuss is about. There's something magical about the crispy fried batter outside with the soft, oil-soaked cookie on the inside. Perhaps "magical" isn't the word I'm looking for... more like... diabetic. Yes, that's it. Diabetic.

You get eight of these in a single order, but each cookie is saturated with so much sweetness that I have troubles eating more than two at a time. Try to eat them while they're fresh so the outside is still crispy. I made the mistake of waiting until I got home forty minutes away by which time the cookies had already gotten soggy from the condensation in the closed container.

Mint Chocolate Chip Milkshake from Wawa's - $2.29

1 Salem Village Square, Newark, DE - (302) 738-6070

Here's another summer treat that I like to indulge in. Admittedly, it's not as good as a well-made DQ Blizzard or a Rita's gelati, but it's available 24x7 and you can find Wawa's all over the place.

The shake comes frozen solid in the cup and then you use one of the mixers in the store to blend it at the press of a button. Unfortunately, the machines are often broken, or mix too violently and splash a bit, but it's a tasty treat when it's working correctly.

They have other flavors, such as strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, and even coffee. My favorite was the strawberry banana smoothie, but for some reason, they haven't carried that flavor this summer and the mint chocolate chip seems new. So perhaps the flavors are only available for a limited time.

Chocolate Extreme Blizzard from Dairy Queen - $3.69

200 Buckley Blvd, Bear, DE - (302)328-2200

Even though I'm lactose intolerant, I love my dairy products and ESPECIALLY my ice cream. That's why when the Dairy Queens in Delaware fuck up my Blizzard, I have to bitch about it.

Of course, my friends think I'm exaggerating so yesterday, I actually went to Dairy Queen to get a picture of what I mean. The picture on the left is similar to what it SHOULD look like if they make it correctly - at least that's my experience in Illinois. The other two pictures show the melted mound of shit that they hand you in Delaware both with and without the spoon.

It was 75 F and very windy outside so there's no reason for my Blizzard to be that melted. I ended up throwing away about an inch or so of brown liquid so its value is nowhere near the $3.69 they charge. This is yet another reason why Rita's is so popular out here.

Gelati from Rita's - $3.65

Rita's is a summertime favorite in these parts. That generalization is due not only to the fact that jailbait that typically runs these shops, but also because the water ice is actually pretty tasty.

To my surprise, the water ice is very flavorful and on top of that, the flavor doesn't immediately sink to the bottom as you eat it. Combine that with some gelati to top it off and you've got yourself a winner.

The picture below is for a large gelati with Georgia peach water ice. The available flavors change from day-to-day and from location-to-location and the mixing and matching of flavors is entirely commonplace, so Rita's deserves multiple visits even at different stands. After all, it took several visits before I learned that certain flavors include tiny chips of real fruit mixed into the ice. Mmmm...

Hi-Chew by Morinaga - $12.99 for 10 packs

www.circlered.com

If Starbursts and Bubbalicious could have sex and make babies, their offspring would be Hi-Chews. Hi-Chews have a waxier taste and texture than Starbursts, but the fruit flavor is much more prominent - similar to Bubbalicious within the first 20 seconds of chewing.

I was impressed enough by the candy that I went ahead and bought 100 packs for $150 at circlered.com. The individual price is probably closer to $1.29 per pack, but I can't find a local store that sells them so I had to resort to paying shipping and handling charges.

I've tried grape, green apple, mango and strawberry with mango being my favorite so far. But my Japanese friend told me that certain flavors are only sold in certain locations, so it's doubtful I'll get to try any more of them.