Crispy outside, soft inside
Posted by: Fats in: Takaw at Sursur!
The deep-fried tofu at a Chinese restaurant in Auckland is the best. I don’t know how they did it but they were blocks of silky tofu with really soft texture inside (like our own taho) and a beautiful lightly fried crispy texture on the outside. 
This lovely contrast of textures is also found in a night market food in Taipei. It’s cherry tomotoes (five of them on a stick) dipped in syrup - outside is this really glossy sweet and crisp layer of sugar and inside is this really soft, juicy and sweet tomato. For whatever reasons, the street food in Taipei is much tastier than those in Chungli, and I didn’t find any of these tomatoes in Chungli at all.
Way back the late 70’s there’s this bakeshop across the street in front of Sto. Domingo church along Quezon Avenue - you know, that old abandoned building that we see now. After church, my family would go to that bakeshop and I’d get my favorite - cream puffs! They were the best cream puffs ever, and I’ve never found anything like them - really sweet and soft cream inside and outside is this crisp syrup-covered surface. I don’t know how today’s Bearded Papa (was it?) cream puffs taste like (I haven’t tried them since they’re too expensive for me 
) but those near Sto. Domingo church were really unforgettable.
Actually, the other reason why my family went to that building across Sto. Domingo was because my dad’s suki who sells tropical fish has a sidewalk place there. I think her name was Sally, and she sold nice little guppies and other fishes in small plastic bags.
(Photo: Cherry tomatoes in night market in Taipei, capture from video by Fatima Lasay, 2004).
