This isn’t going to be the longest post ever, but there are a couple of facts that I need to point out.
A pineapple bun is a Hong Kong classic, and with good reason. If you’ve never had one before: no, it doesn’t have any pineapple in it. The name comes from the dome of the bun, which generally has pineapple-like ridges (though this particular one didn’t).
You wouldn’t necessary think that a French-style bakery would be worth your time in Taiwan, but pretty much everyone agrees that Wu Pao Chun Bakery is a must-visit in Kaohsiung.
They sell something they call a “croissant” at Jin San Xia. Other than the general shape, it has almost no resemblance to an actual croissant.
It’s quite good, however.
When you’re traveling on a budget, there’s nothing more satisfying than finding a cheap meal that’s actually good. A great example of this? A delightfully affordable pie shop in Edinburgh called Piemaker.
Seeing as how I’m a reasonable person who spent some time in Paris, I ate a lot of croissants. Do you want to hear about them? Every single one? No? Okay, here they are.
Tasty Treat Number One: I had a pork dish called schweinsbraten at Gasthaus zur Alten Press, and if that sounds extremely Austrian: yeah. The whole restaurant was extremely Austrian.
Cannolis aren’t exactly a Roman thing, but there was no possible way I was going to leave Italy without eating at least one. A quick “best cannoli in Rome” search led to a very conclusive answer: everyone seems to be in agreement that a Sicilian bakery called Ciuri Ciuri has the tastiest cannoli in the city.
This wasn’t something that I thought would be particularly blog-worthy; just a quick (and unhealthy) breakfast thanks to a random recommendation on the internet. “Hey,” the internet told me, “the napolitana de chocolate at La Mallorquina is actually pretty good!” Okay, internet, I’ll give it a shot.
The bakery turned out to be in a super touristy part of town, so my expectations weren’t very high, to put it kindly.
Then I took a bite and my whole life changed.
With all of the information available on the internet, it’s very easy to just plan out everything in advance and leave nothing to chance. But sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than just randomly wandering around and seeing what you find.