I’d love to bring some Taiwanese liquor, tea, and foodstuffs back home to the US as gifts for some friends I’ll be staying with (my friends are in their 20’s and early 30’s).
Can anyone recommend the best of the best stuff that won’t break the bank? I’m not too familiar with Taiwanese liquor, or even tea for that matter. For food I was thinking mooncakes, or pineapple cakes rather, because they are less likely to have full egg yolks inside of them. Any other thoughts? What’s really been a hit with your people?
Oh, and I’m a little worried about packing bottles of liquor and food into my suitcases, but it seems like the only option considering I won’t be able to take it on the plane. Guess I’ll just wrap it in bubble wrap and hope for the best.
You can pick up a 1L bottle of Gaoliang at the duty free shop past security checkpoint, but that stuff is vile and disgusting IMO. It’s pretty much distilled vodka out of rice grains or something weighing in at 60% alcohol.
I brought some mochi with me and that stuff had bean paste in it, which was okay to carry on and go past customs. I asked the agents working at the customs inspection and they said I didn’t have to declare it. Remember though if you got the freshly made ones be sure to buy them on the day you fly out and gift them right away because they don’t add preservatives in it and will get moldy fairly quickly.
[quote=“catfish13”]You can pick up a 1L bottle of Gaoliang at the duty free shop past security checkpoint, but that stuff is vile and disgusting IMO. It’s pretty much distilled vodka out of rice grains or something weighing in at 60% alcohol.
I brought some mochi with me and that stuff had bean paste in it, which was okay to carry on and go past customs. I asked the agents working at the customs inspection and they said I didn’t have to declare it. Remember though if you got the freshly made ones be sure to buy them on the day you fly out and gift them right away because they don’t add preservatives in it and will get moldy fairly quickly.[/quote]
Only true if the flights are direct. It can happen to you that you have to throw it away in transit (even if they are packed up “tamper evident”). Mochi just put it in the checked luggage and it will keep fresh (its nicely cold down there in the airplane’s belly).
I always take Kaoliang back with me. It’s tastes vile, but has novelty value. And it gets you pretty wasted.
You might consider a nice bottle of Sake. Not the putrid 7-11 stuff.
Again, for novelty value, take over a nice bag of “Lonely God” crisps or some sweet, dried octopus. Or those little dried fishies mixed with nuts.
I find wasabi flavored seaweed to be strangely popular as a gift.
Take things that, as jimi says, have novelty value – mwaji, dried squid, nut-fish mixes, seaweed, and an assortment of local teas in a gift box from a local tea shop, for instance. It doesn’t have to be expensive–just don’t buy the cheapest and it will be fine. Pineapple shortbread is good, too. As for mooncakes, there are now many varieties that don’t have whole egg yolks in them, although I don’t know how available they are at this time of year/
Tea, nicely packed or in decorated tins, is a beautiful gift.
Mochi, or pineapple cake, also in decorated bozes -and vaccumm sealed- is great and travels well. You can go to the new SOGO or Tien Re or any specialty store and but pretty touristy stuff folks back home will like. Pineapple cakes have always been a hit -people Do eat those.
Alcohol, as mentioned, is vile and better for cleaning engines. Unless it is in a fancy ceramic bottle, used for display, its use will not be worth the struggles, anguish and inconvenience to take it home. Even so, a ZIP LOCK bag is a MUST. Anything that can leak will leak under pressure… especially if set in your luggage with fancy clothes or anything that stains easily.
For novelty value I once brought home a flat duck and another time a pack of duck tongues.
Not for novelty value but just because they’re so damned good, every time I go back I bring a bag of these for each of my family members. My wife thinks it’s stupid, but I’m sure they all appreciate them. They taste great, are cheap, made in Taiwan, come in a handy resealable bag and are available at Costco.
As already mentioned, pineapple cakes go down well. This time of year you can get nougat candy, and it’s cheap and popular. (PM dragonbones to get some quality-guaranteed.)
There is a store near Kuting station exit 1 that sells collectible bottles of Taiwan spirits. You can go there and pick up some beautiful bottles. If you come from a hunting part of the US you could take back some rice wine and make “3-cup rabbit”. We used Kaoliung to make it for my dad but I think rice wine is probably a better option.
The Taiwan Handicraft market has some nice little tins of tea, priced at about 200nt each. Even if your friends don’t like the tea, they can keep the tins to display.
Totally not food related, but last year I took home a bunch of those magnetic bookmarks you pick up from stationery stores. They come in packs of 2 and have Chinese sayings in Chinese characters and English on them. They were really popular with the 20-30 yr old group.
I have a 24-hour layover in Seoul, so the flight is not direct. Then I go from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Southwest. When I lived in Korea and flew home to NYC (direct) I had bought a bunch of soju and snacks at the 7-11 INSIDE the airport past the security check-in point (literally 100 ft away from the boarding gate) only to have ALL of it immediately confiscated before boarding the plane (meh, soju is rank shit anyway). So I don’t want a repeat of that, I’m too cheap to handle it.
The good thing is I’ve been upgraded to first class, and of course they are a lot more lenient on 1st class passengers regarding security and bringing shit on the plane (I know, it’s really messed up, but when I flew 1st class over X-mas break to Oz they let me bring an assload of full-sized bottles of hair and skin products), but some dude did recently blow his balls off on a plane bound for the US, so who knows…
In light of the upgrade I think I will just go all out and try for everything! Booze, food, and bookmarks (I just can’t get down with dried fish snacks). The bookmarks sound like a great idea too since my friend is currently in a masters program, and is always bitching about a heavy reading load.
Just what it sounds like. A nice looking, brown, roasted duck, except that it’s had all the bones removed and has been splayed out and flattened so it’s about an inch thick, or so, and is then shrinkwrapped for sale. It’s actually not such a bad thing, as one can then very easily make nice slices of the boneless meet, but it looks funny – like it got run over by a truck.
My wife won’t let me buy them becuase she’s afraid it has chemicals or msg or something. It’s also, of course, very illegal to bring into most other countries, I believe, since all meats, fruits and veggies are forbidden, so you have to lie about it and pray you don’t get caught (I brought mine into the US pre 9/11, when it was easier/safer).
Just what it sounds like. A nice looking, brown, roasted duck, except that it’s had all the bones removed and has been splayed out and flattened so it’s about an inch thick, or so, and is then shrinkwrapped for sale. It’s actually not such a bad thing, as one can then very easily make nice slices of the boneless meet, but it looks funny – like it got run over by a truck.
My wife won’t let me buy them becuase she’s afraid it has chemicals or msg or something. It’s also, of course, very illegal to bring into most other countries, I believe, since all meats, fruits and veggies are forbidden, so you have to lie about it and pray you don’t get caught (I brought mine into the US pre 9/11, when it was easier/safer).[/quote]
Back in Guanzhou, China, I remember lots of stores were dedicated to this dried animal stuff. I had seen the dried goods here, where the most exotic thing was a duck, as it was mostly veggies, abalones, fishies, etc…
We are talking deers, birds, scorpions, turtles, starfish, anything you can imagine, in huge stores with high ceilings… Yes, it looks more like they’ve been run over by a steamroller, not like the piece of meat you saw in the pic above.
Go to Dihua Street, you should find some of the traditional stores that sell these dried curiosities.
I could shove some of the flat duck in my suitcase rather than carrying it on and play dumb if I get caught with it. It sounds/looks pretty frigging awesome.
