A tall glass of... whatever strikes your fancy

So our train of epicurean adventures made a pit stop in Taipei, Taiwan. Yours truly spent 3 days in Asia's food paradise, and came out with its beverages leaving the strongest impression. Taiwan, the birth place of everybody's favorite Bubble Tea, is where the many fruit and herbal iced teas first became a craze. Taiwanese people are more inventive and daring with their beverages, here are the English translations of the beverage names below: Kumquat Lemon Tea, Winter Melon Tea, Fizzy Grape Juice and Pickled Sour Berry Juice.

The only drink out of the four there that's not widely available in Hong Kong is 冬瓜茶 (winter melon tea), pictured below. Winter-melon is good for reducing the heat in your body, the heat in your body is what causes an acne break out, which I'm a victim of right now, sigh! Always happens in this heat, a lot of people will drink the Pickled Sour Berry Juice to reduce their heat too, which really helps a breakout. I'm not very fond of the taste, it was just plain sweet with a very vegetable-like flavor. Vegetables belong in soup, not in sweet drinks! And you can take that to the bank.

My brother Chris taking a sip before he reacted with utter disgust. Sadly, it was the same reaction from me. Winter melon really does belong in soup, let's keep it that way.


Now this is for the ladies: did your mother ever tell you eating papaya will make your bosom bigger? My mother sure did, and I always cleared the plate every time we have it at home. Sadly, the magical effects have yet to reveal themselves, but papayas are absolutely delicious. And the one thing even better than that is Papaya Milk (木瓜奶) in Taiwan, which grows some of the yummiest papayas. The ingredients are very simple: ice, milk and chunks of beautiful, reddish-orange papaya.

And now I'm thirsty for some lychee green tea with tapioca balls, Taiwanese-style. Although too many iced drinks is really unhealthy, not only does the sugar end up on your waistline, but it's no good to put something so cold into your body. On the rare occasion that Joey from Friends actually said something wise: One moment on the hips, forever on the hips. We should really just stick to plain lukewarm water, but at the same time we're all losing enough calories from sweating profusely in this searing heat, so serve up that cold beverage!

Bon voyage and quench your thirst,
Jenny Cheng

Sweet and Salty Sprite: an old school favorite

Here's a Delight Express fun fact: adding a dash of salt in a cake batter can enhance the sweetness. Us clever Hongkies took this idea and used it on refreshments. Sprite/7 Up with Salty Lime (咸檸七) is an old school favorite and can still be sold in Cantonese cafes (茶餐廳/冰室）. And I don't mean saltiness in a savory sense. It actually tastes even more refreshing than ordinary sprite with lemon. The lime, a specific type from Guangdong province in China, is pickled lightly to give it the salty zesty flavor. It complements the fizzy tanginess of sprite perfectly. I personally don't like overly sweet desserts, and always drink a cup of tea to wash out the taste. So I like that the salty lime makes the sprite less sweet, and it doesn't taste like someone just dropped in a tablespoon of salt. The flavors are delicately balanced. And don't compare it to seawater, it's nowhere near as extreme.

The saltiness is also good for replenishing fluids lost from sweating. Hong Kong is so dusty and sticky that one is constantly on a lookout for the perfect ice cold summer beverage. I met a Brazilian-Chinese girl the other day, and she told me Hong Kong is actually hotter than Brazil. Shocking, shocking, we're only sub-tropical! Imagine what it's like in Singapore, where it's right on the equator and a hot beverage is probably the most unpopular item in restaurants. Passengers, thankfully on Delight Express, we serve up four distinct seasons, giving you an equal dose of boiling point summers and brain freeze winters i.e. Syracuse, New York (where we station during the academic year). In Chinese, Syracuse (雪城）translates into Snow City. Look forward to our updates from Snow City arriving shortly later this month!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng