Smith & Hsu

Alas, my camera is still back in the US of A, but thankfully one of Luke's mom's friends is coming to Taiwan this week, and we should have our camera back soon! Hurray.

Anyway, I was going through some of my old pictures, and here's one from Smith & Hsu. Located very conveniently practically right next door to us, Smith & Hsu is a small cafe that serves tea, cakes and sandwiches. When it first opened, we were convinced that it'd be gone by the end of the month, since real estate prices are pretty expensive in the area and their business didn't seem to be that good. But nowadays, Smith & Hsu seems to be doing well, perhaps even prospering. It's not our favorite cafe, as their prices are a bit more expensive than average (think Starbucks, and Smith & Hsu is in about the same range), but we do like to pop in once in awhile when we're in the mood for some tea and scones with homemade jams.


If you're feeling particularly ambitious, or if you're with a few people, you can order a set meal that comes with a couple of sandwiches, your choice of three cakes, and four scones (two plain, two raisin) with your choice of jams. It also comes with two teas that you pick from the wide variety of choices - I prefer their fruitier teas, but there are also a lot of green, red, and milk teas as well. It comes to around 600NT, and it's definitely more than enough for two people - in fact, we could only eat one of the cakes and had to bring the rest home.

The cakes aren't anything great - you'll find better at 85° C Cafe - but I do like the scones a lot. And the sandwiches are pretty tasty, but the portions are pretty small. Nevertheless, it's still worth the trip, if just once in a while.

Smith & Hsu
www.smithandhsu.com/en/intro.php
Zhongxiao East Road, Section 5, No. 33
(02) 2459-5899

Chocoholic

The Chinese palette’s sensitivity to sweetness has its pros and cons. On the one hand, at least I’m not going to give myself diabetes and/or have all my teeth rot and fall out of my head when consuming desserts with the frequency that my husband and I do here – which is every single night. On the other hand, sometimes you just can’t taste anything, especially things that are supposed to have chocolate in them. Mocha cappuccino tastes exactly like regular cappuccino to me. In a blind taste test, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a chocolate cake and a vanilla one.

Well, at least there’s Chocoholic to the rescue for whenever you’re craving some chocolate-y goodness. My husband and I like to go here to read and indulge our sweet tooths (teeth?). There’s all kinds of hot chocolates, iced chocolates, chocolate cocktails, chocolate milkshakes, and the last time I was there, they had even added chocolate chicken to the menu. That fat kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – I forget his name; you know, he’s the greedy one who falls into the chocolate river and then gets stuck in a pipe because he’s so fat – he’d be in heaven here.

We went today and I had the Sicilian Iced Chocolate (NT 135). It was smooth, creamy, chocolate-y deliciousness. The only complaint I had about it was that I wish it were a little bit colder. If I lived in a chocolate factory and had a special room made out of candy with a chocolate river flowing through it, that river would be made out of this drink.


Right now my husband is in the middle of playing video games, so I am having a hard time getting him to tell me about his drink. So far in between grunts, I’ve heard the words “chocolate,” “ice” and “French crispies.” When I asked him what “French crispies” were, he said, “I don’t know, they’re crispies from France.” Well, here’s a picture at least:


Anyway, I definitely recommend Chocoholic for whenever you need a good shot of chocolate to your system.

Chocoholic
www.chocoholic.com.tw
Dunhua South Road, Section 1, Lane 187, No. 66
(02) 2711- 2600