Dear Taipei,

It’s been a tremendous month for my stomach – in between my regular gluttonous eating sessions, I recently went to Tainan’s Yujing district to feast on mango ice and chicken. And just a week later, I was invited back to Tainan to visit Tainan’s English Friendly Stores.

The English Friendly Stores project is an initiative by the Bureau of Economic Development, Tainan City Government, to help transform Tainan into a more welcoming and accessible place for English-speaking foreigners to visit. By assisting local stores to learn key English phrases and translate their menus into English, more foreigners can experience cafes, restaurants, museums, and other places of interest than they might have otherwise not been able to.

It’s in fact the third time I’ve been invited to participate in this project! You can read about the other two times here:

• 4 Local Food Spots to Visit in Tainan
• Taste Testing Tainan’s English Friendly Stores: Fu Lou Restaurant, Uncle A-shui, The Milkfish Palace and more

This year, there are 57 stores involved in the English Friendly Stores program. I visited 5 of the English Friendly Stores (in just one day, mind you!) to learn more. Read on to follow me on my food adventure through Tainan, and get some ideas for your next trip!

FUJIYA Pudding|福吉雅布丁

My first official stop was FUJIYA Pudding 福吉雅布丁. I say official, as in true sumo-style, I chowed down a big bowl of noodles before starting my tour of the five English Friendly Stores I was scheduled to visit.

It was the suggestion of Janet, the lead organizer of 2018’s English Friendly Program who joined me for the entire day, to first line my stomach in preparation for the day of eating ahead. I knew then we’d get along – I’m always excited to have an eating buddy!

We arrived at FUJIYA three minutes early, and to our surprise there was already someone waiting for their pudding fix! We were immediately welcomed by one half of the store’s owners, Vivian. Vivian is as friendly as they come – she sat with us and happily answered the many questions I had about her store, in addition to offering all kinds of tips about what to see in Tainan.

Her English was excellent, although she modestly said she still had room for improvement. She was such a pleasure to chat to we ended up staying for two hours! Fortunately, we had some sustenance by way of her famous homemade puddings.

The focus at Fujiya is on creating natural, delicious tasting puddings using high-quality ingredients. To this end, their recipe doesn’t use gelatin or even agar agar, and instead primarily uses egg and milk.

The milk used is from a local farm that has been operating for over 70 years. Fujiya also uses Taiwanese white sugar cane, which is notable as there are very few options to Taiwanese sugarcane in Taiwan, as most sugarcane in the country is imported from Finland.

Tainan is saturated with shops selling puddings, so it’s important to stand out. Today, there are more than 50 stores selling pudding in the city, with Tainan’s obsession with puddings going back to the period of Japanese colonization, when sugar, and subsequently desserts like puddings were a luxury reserved for the rich.

When I asked what makes her puddings stand out, Vivian said they are, “Just like what a mum makes at home.” It’s telling that the puddings are made with a humble Tatung electric cooker (大同電鍋), which can only make ten at a time. Vivian also uses a special technique to get the pudding out of the jar and onto a plate, which you can see above.

When I asked her if she thought increasing competition from larger pudding businesses was detrimental to her small shop, she sweetly said that she thinks competition is good because it means that, “If you want, you can easily find your dream pudding.”

If you can speak Japanese, you may have noticed Fujia sounds Japanese. While the characters in the Chinese name (福吉雅) mean fortune, luck, and elegance, the name is also a pun, as in Japanese it sounds like “不二家,” which means “the only store.” It’s an apt pun, given that there is this one and only Fujiya Pudding store.

Now, let’s get onto the fun part – sampling Fujia’s puddings! We chose four flavours to try, for research purposes of course…

The most popular flavour is the original, which is on the left in the picture above. I thought it tasted rather sophisticated – unlike many sickly sweet puddings, the taste was light and clean, with only a slight sweetness.

Next, we tried the Angel flavour, which is pictured on the right. What is Angel flavour, you ask? It’s an egg yolk-free pudding that was created by Vivian and her husband so that even customers with health problems, or those wanting to lose weight, can enjoy eating pudding. She mentioned that people with throat or stomach cancer often can’t easily swallow hard foods, which is why the Angel pudding is a great alternative.

The Angel cake was creamier and thicker than the original, and in my opinion, a bit heavier in flavor. The texture was also more dense compared to the smoothness of the original.

The third flavour we tried was Vivian’s favourite, the orange pudding. It was the sweetest of the four we tried, but was still light. I even found an orange peel in the pudding! The pudding is made fresh using real oranges, as well as orange alcohol (which is evaporated in the cooking process).

Lastly, we tried the milk tea pudding, which Vivian shared that many boys and men come to buy for their girlfriends. The pudding had a rich early grey flavour, which as a regular milk tea drinker I loved! If I must choose, I think it was my tied favourite flavour with the orange.

Fujiya also offers goat milk puddings, which use goat milk sourced from a farm just besides the store. One of the many things I learned from Vivian is that Tainan is the second biggest producer of goat milk in Taiwan. As you can see, going to Fujia not only expanded my mind, but my stomach too!

FUJIYA pudding|福吉雅布丁 Contact Information

• Address:
  No. 235, Nanmen Road, Zhongxi District, Tainan City
  台南市中西區南門路235號
• Telephone number:  06-213-5818
• Opening times: 13:00-18:00 from Thursday to Friday; 13:00-17:00 from Saturday to Sunday
• Want more info? Visit their Facebook page or homepage.

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Black Bridge Sausage Museum|黑橋牌香腸博物館

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been to a sausage museum. So the opportunity to visit Black Bridge Sausage Museum 黑橋牌香腸博物館 was one I eagerly anticipated.

If you’ve been living in Taiwan, perhaps you’ve noticed Black Bridge sausages at your local supermarket, or the scattering of stores around the country.

If not, Black Bridge is perhaps the most well-known of all sausage manufacturers in Taiwan, and it all began in Tainan.

You might not think there would be so much to learn about a sausage company, but go to the museum and you’ll be proven wrong. There, you’ll learn all about just how far Black Bridge has come since it began in 1957, as a stand alone shop near Tainan’s famous Hayashi Department Store.

If you want to make the most of your visit, I recommend booking a free guided tour of the museum. You can either book on their website or by calling up. Our guide was an energetic woman called Weiting, who shared that she loves sausages so much she eats two a day!

She passionately explained interesting tidbits about the company’s history, from how the sausages used to be sold on the back of a bicycle, to how the sausages were dried before the advent of the drying machines they use now. We also learned how to play a traditional sausage gambling game that you’ll find you can still play at some local sausage sellers!

Basically, you make a bet with the sausage seller that you’ll roll more or less than them. If you win, you’ll get your sausage for free. I must have had beginner’s luck, as I won against Weiting!

While I could go on and tell you all I learned, I don’t want to ruin all the fun, so you’ll have to go yourself to learn more! Entry is free, so it really is a novel experience if you’re in Tainan. You can even book yourself in for a tour of the factory, located right next to the museum, where all of Black Bridge’s sausages are made to this day.

After touring the museum, we went back to the first floor to eat some sausages. We tried the garlic sausage and the spicy one.

I’m sure everyone has their reasons for liking Black Bridge’s sausages, but personally I love their stickiness! You’ll know what I mean when you try one for yourself.

If you’ve never tried a Taiwanese sausage, you may be surprised by just how sweet they are. I loved both flavours, but I preferred the spicy one as I have a penchant for spicy food. I was honestly sad to just stop at two sausages… but we had a lot more eating to go!

Next to the sausage vendor is a gift shop where you can buy all of the Black Bridge sausages your stomach can handle. There are also other items like pork jerky, noodles, jams, and biscuits.

Weiting told us that the gift shop is especially popular around Taiwanese holidays, as people will come to pick up some goods to share with their families.

Incidentally, sausages are a traditional gift in Chinese culture to give your husband or wife’s mother, as when tied together they are said to symbolize longevity. Who knew there were so many sausage facts to learn?

Black Bridge Sausage Museum|黑橋牌香腸博物館 Contact Information

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Fat Cat Coffee|肥貓咖啡

Fat Cat Coffee 肥貓咖啡 is located at the end of a popular street called Shennong Street. The street is frequented by locals and tourists alike for its abundance of hip cafes, bars, and restaurants.

While there are many places to choose from, I imagine people love going to Fat Cat Coffee for its low-key and calm atmosphere, expertly made coffee, and killer cakes. Well, that’s at least why I would go back!

True to its name, Fat Cat Coffee has a cat who roams around the store called Bin Bin. And as if to welcome us to the cafe, as soon as we sat down, he hopped up onto our table!

I adore cats, so I wa