Scottish Meat Pie

Meat pie in Edinburgh, Scotland at Auld Jock's Pie Shoppe. It's a small restaurant in Old Town Edinburgh not too far from the main tourist area. Seating is limited, but the meat pie was delicious!

Auld Jock's Pie Shoppe, front view

inside the shoppe and the menu

Angus steak pie, served with mashed potatoes and covered in gravy.

Haggis meat pie

Forgot which type of pie this is

Angus steak pie

小籠包 (xiao long bao)

小籠包 (xiao long bao) from 鼎泰豐 (Din Tai Fung), a Taiwanese restaurant famous for xiaolongbaos which has now branched out internationally. These pictures are from the SOGO location in Tienmu, Taipei, Taiwan.

Xiaolongbaos, sometimes called soup dumplings though they're not actually dumplings), are small thin-skinned buns filled with pork and soup. Other meat fillings are usually available too. The name xiaolongbao literally means little basket buns, and comes from the bamboo basket that the buns are used for steaming the buns.

The xiaolongbaos are eaten with ginger dipped in vinegar and soy sauce. The xiaolongbaos are placed in a soup spoon with the ginger and then eaten.

Chef's making xiaolongbaos in the kitchen

Shrimp filled xiaolongbaos

Other dishes served at Din Tai Fung. The xiaolongbaos are traditionally just a snack, so they're not enough to fill you up for a whole meal. That's where these additional dishes come in.

Even more dishes... I don't remember what these are called...

Dessert xiaolongbaos filled with sweet red bean paste

Hot Pot in Taiwan

Maybe this wasn't a good time to start a traveling blog. My originally planned travel is postponed because of unforeseen medical expenses. So I need to plan some cheaper, more local trips.

In the mean time, here's a post from previous travel. Taiwan!
Hot pot in Taiwan to be specific. This restaurant is from the night market (夜市) in Pingtung (屏東) though we went during lunch.

Hot pot consists of a large, boiling pot of stock in the middle where everyone at the table cooks various ingredients such as thin-cut meat as well as vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, fish balls and pretty much anything. This particular restaurant is one of my favorites and has some of the best hot pot meat and sacha (沙茶) sauce.

Hot pot with stock and vegetables.

The raw meat before being cooked.

Sacha sauce and raw egg yolk. The raw egg is mostly only in Taiwanese hotpot and is mixed together with the sacha sauce and used as a dipping sauce. And yes, the egg is eaten raw ^_^

Tofu

Fish balls (minced fish meat, formed into a ball shape).