brazilian cheese puffs

i was mindlessly browsing my facebook feed one day when i clicked on a recipe for brazilian cheese puffs that popped up from a friend of a friend.  if you have ever been to an allyoucaneat brazilian steak house, you've probably had these breads, served with a bunch of sides.  they are delicious and addicting, and i always find it hard to save room for the meat to come.

i have made these puffs no less than three times, with resounding success.  extremely simple to make and super delicious, the hardest part is finding the tapioca flour, which isn't all that difficult.   i recommend bringing a batch or two to a potluck-- i did a couple of times and they were devoured quickly.

the recipe is from my new favorite food blogger, kirbiecravings, who, coincidentally, also lives in san diego.  browsing through the rest of her blog, i've found myself developing a huge blog crush as her restaurant reviews and recipes excite me to the point of salivation (think i'm going to have to buy nutella in bulk from costco now).  from what i can surmise from her posts, we have fairly similar tastes in food-- and while it may appear from the general content of my blog that i am more partial to crafting and traveling as hobbies, i really love food above all else.

i think i want to make this next.  or this!  or this... oh boy. 

kiwi? berry?

have you ever seen these before?

have you ever tasted one? 

have you ever tasted one??

my mom is forever introducing me to new foods, and this has been the latest treat:  KIWI BERRIES.  apparently you can get them at sam's wholesale club.  they are grape-sized but taste exactly like kiwis.

delicious.

i ate my way through taiwan

i had a few objectives during my trip to taiwan:

1) spend quality time with relatives
2) sight see (for once)
3) eat as much great food as humanly possible

if given a letter grade for how well each objective was met, i'd give myself a B- for numbers one and two, but a solid, golden A for number three.  i have to thank my cousins for my triumphant grade, as they absolutely excel at eating.  in fact, i had forgotten how much more they love food than i do- something i think most people who know me would find difficult to believe.

almost everything that passed through my lips during the trip was delicious (and really, no exaggeration here).  i think it was a combination of my family's good taste, my genetic predisposition to love taiwanese food (if there is such a thing), and the icky asian food that i've had to put up with since our move to boston.  hearing me proclaim that i planned on gaining twenty pounds on my trip, my cousins accepted the challenge  seriously.  they did quite a bit of strategic planning, that often called for random stops on the road so they could wait in an absurdly long line for an interesting beverage or other street vendor food.  we would then all share a portion to ensure that we wouldn't get too full before the next food stop.  

one of the best places to eat a wide range of delicious goodies is at the night markets.  i also really enjoy being able to watch as my food is prepared.  here's a brief glimpse of some of the goodies we devoured.

hot hot hot scallion pancakes

i watched in fascination while this man made incredibly thin wraps (ours had a variety of vegetables inside) with just the twist of his fist.

i tried one of these for the first time - a thin crepe like shell with a red bean filling. we also tried ones with  cream filling and vegetable filling. mmm. so. good.