Bento is a concept originated in Japan, consisting of a packed meal for one person. It's composed of the usual - rice, meat, vegetable - all in single portions, neatly packed into a box. In Taiwan, bentos are a popular lunch item. You can choose a few "side" items with a main protein.
Pictured below is the grilled pork bento. My four side items were cauliflower, slivered cucumbers, chicken hearts, and some sort of sliced bean curd. The grilled pork was really good - it was well-seasoned and tendered, and the sesame really added a great final touch. The side dishes were all very good except for the bean curd, which I found slightly odd. I think it was the fact that it came with dried anchovies - the two flavors didn't mix well together or something.
Bento 烤肉便當
Another popular lunch item that I tried was the soup dumpling (小籠包), which originated in Shanghai. They are not your typical baozi (包子, or steamed bun) - thus, the word dumpling describes them more accurately. They are, however, steamed in a bamboo basket, just like baozi, and their shape somewhat resembles baozi, so they are called "xiaolongbao" - little steamed bao. They are filled with not only the ground meat, but also soup - so that the whole bao becomes super juicy.
I'm not too big a fan of these soup dumplings in the first place, but I tried them since the Taiwanese are quite obsessed with them. I must say, out of all the soup dumplings I've tried, these are not the best.. they were not the juiciest I've had.
Soup dumplings 小籠包
The soup dumplings also came with a bowl of soup, and I chose corn chowder. Taiwanese corn chowder is not the same as American corn chowder, which adds cream to make it very thick. I like the Taiwanese style more... yum. Although from this photo, I guess it looks just like egg drop soup, haha.
Taiwanese corn chowder 玉米濃湯
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