I recently made a trip to Taipei for a short holiday. Since I have been there a couple of times already, it was mostly a do nothing trip.
We made a day trip to Taichung, visited a museum, but mostly it was just wandering around for food and coffee.
Since we were staying in the Ximending area, we spent a fair bit of time exploring the shops, and buying gifts for people back home. There were many shops selling pastries in Ximending, and in many parts of Taipei. This business must be very lucrative.
One of the most popular pastry is Pineapple cakes or 鳳梨酥. There were many brands to choose from. I understand from my research that the most well known brands are Sunnyhills, ChiaTe and LiChi.
Of these 3, ChiaTe is the easiest to get. We bought ours from a shop in Ximending and it is not cheap. NT$360 for a box of 5 or 6. It has an egg yolk inside. Quite tasty. We also saw it being sold in some of the 7-11 shops.
We bought our Sunnyhill pineapple cakes from Taipei101. NT$1,250 for 25 pieces. Comes with a bag.
Besides these 2 brands, there are many other pineapple cakes being sold in the Ximending area. Some can be as cheap as NT$100 for a box of 10. There are also many others that cost as much, or even more expensive than Sunnyhills and ChiaTe. These expensive ones will tell you that theirs are handmade, while using the best pineapples in Taiwan, with no preservatives.
Of all those we tried, we still like Sunnyhills best.
