Nougat Museum

Sunday, we went to the Nougat Museum, a few stops form where we live on the blue line. Five minutes on the train and we had entered a different world. The streets were no longer lined with restaurants and shops, but with betel nut booths and repair shops surrounded by huge car dealerships and factories.

Walking towards the museum 

The Salico Foods cow lead the way, pointing to the museum at every turn

Salico Foods specializes in nougat candies, wedding cakes and cookies, and pineapple tart cakes. Here is the old fashioned method for making peanut nougats:

shelling and separation of peanuts

Mixing of brown sugars

stirring milk mix, sugar, and peanuts

cooling of the nougat mix

flattening of the nougat bar

setting of the nougat bar

cutting the nougats

Old nougat boxes

Wedding poem "you love me with a passioned grace, which gives me ecstasy. And there within your warm embrace, my spirit wanders free. For soft the hours repeat one story, sings the sea onestrain divine, my clouds arise all flushed with glory; I love and the world is mine!"

In China and Taiwan, wedding cookies and cakes are very important gifts. They have many kinds of cookies and cakes, as well as fashionable means to transport them:

wedding cake boxes

 wooden cake and cookie molds

Taro and pumpkin wedding cake

flaky layered taro cake (these are not wedding cakes, but eaten during the time of the Moon Festival however, they can be found anytime of the year- they are delicious and in high demand!)

On another note...

In Taiwan, you can fish for your own dinner right at the restaurant! Here is a group of people fishing for shrimp. After you catch your desired amount, they will be cooked as you like and served.