Taiwanese Bread

I went back to the Merlion Asian Market to pick up some Taiwanese Bread.

Taiwanese bakery bread tends to be light and airy, with a touch of sweetness. I have memories of visiting a bakery in a farmer’s market in Shih-lin near our house in Taipei. After enduring the pungent aroma of live chickens and ripening papaya, we’d stop in the bakery to pick up some treats.

Photos follow!

I really liked the scallion bread for the bright green onions, fused onto the fragrant bun with a buttery glaze.

This is a bun covered with pork sung, which is one of those mysterious asian meat products that I (and others enjoy). Sort of like finely minced bacon bits in flavor, except sweet and sort of fluffy.

This odd football-shaped bread was kind of spongey, filled with some kind of light custard like a canoli. Not enough custard, though. At the time I took this picture, it was the day before the Super Bowl and this bread was labeled “Go Pats!”

A mysterious “pig in a blanket” bun. You can see the hot dog inside, which is of the Taiwanese sausage style: salty-sweet, with a hint of spicyness.

To wash all this bread down, I enjoyed a few tiny bottles of Yakult, the tangy-sweet yogurt drink from Japan that’s “good for your intestines”.

Yes, that’s tasty! The asian market has all this stuff every weekend; it’s just about time to go make my weekly pilgrammage.