Kooka Coffee

Address: No. 5, Lane 57, Dàzhí St, Jhongshan District
Telephone: (02) 8509-5859
Hours: Mon - Sun 8am to 10pm
Price: $ to $$

So as I mentioned last month, I paid Kooka Coffee a brief visit. I noticed they had free Wi-fi and quite an extensive food menu, so I made a mental note to come back when I had some studying to do.

A week or so later, I took a seat at a table near the windows (and a power outlet) and ordered a glass of iced rose tea ($100 NT). Located next to Shih Chien University, the cafe attracts many students looking for a cheap cup of coffee, free Wi-fi, and a quiet place to do work. Unlike the Starbucks down the street, Kooka has a plethora of seats and rarely are all of them taken. Side note: Kooka is a reference to the Kookaburra bird. ... It's not colloquial Italian. In case you were wondering.

The rose tea arrived and was light, crisp, and flavorful. If you've never had rose tea, I highly recommend it! What miffs me a little about the tea prices in Taiwan? Restaurants are purchasing these tea packets for pennies on the dollar, then charging their patrons $100 NT for a glass. They must be making money hand over fist at this rate... still, I purchase the tea so I really only have myself to blame.

After an hour or so (during which time I discreetly refilled my tea glass with complimentary water), I ordered Kooka's special ice coffee ($120 NT) and chocolate stuffed waffles ($180 NT). Yes. That's right. Kooka sells waffles stuffed with chocolate sauce, Nutella, mochi, peanut butter, and jam and honey. Served with a side of Meiji ice cream. Lord, give me strength.

The "special" Kooka ice coffee tastes as though it's been transformed into an Irish ice coffee. I've had this feeling before with Fong Da's special ice coffee, but perhaps I'm hallucinating? It tasted like a "virgin" Irish coffee; there was a hint of liquor flavor, but it wasn't the real deal.

Now on to the glory that was the chocolate stuffed waffle! I could smell it before I could see it. Yesyesyesyes! As the barista put the plate down in front of me, I saw the waffle (bigger than I imagined) oozing chocolate. The plate was decorated with peanuts (who cares?) and delicious Meiji vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce and topped with peanuts (again, who cares?!).

The waffle was hot, crispy, and not cake-like! The chocolate sauce was omnipresent. I wish I had thought to grab a spoon! That was probably a much more necessary utensil.
You felt as though you were eating solid chocolate, until you reached the edges of the waffle. Perfect ratio and marriage of chocolate and waffle. I want to try the Nutella stuffed waffle, but feel as though I should start reviewing salad places or something.

I topped off the waffle with the Meiji ice cream and was immensely pleased. There was nothing they could do to improve this dish (in a good way). I highly recommend Kooka as a cafe to visit on the northern side of the city. You feel as though you're in Portland (I'm obsessed with this neighborhood); it can be cheaper than Starbucks; there's ample seating (maybe not during finals); and if you don't like it, there are plenty of other places nearby. You'll be practicing your Chinese for sure. The menu is in English, but the waitstaff really want you to practice your 中文. Nothing wrong with that.

Lastly, Kooka is a very "do it yourself" kind of place. You need to grab your own utensils, water, and menu. And you also need to place your order with the cashier up front. The trade-off is that there's no service charge. You can check out their FB page here. They have a lot of photos of their food and detail their summertime food specials.

Yogurt Art

Address: No. 14, Alley 8, Lane 216, Section 4, Zhōngxiào East Rd, Daan District
Telephone: (02) 8771-5366
Hours: 11:30am to 10pm
Price: $ (depending on size and weight)

Delicious, cold, nonfat, calcium packed, and just a third the calories of normal ice cream, frozen yogurt is the perfect summer treat. I've visited several "froyo" joints in Taipei, but there aren't many good DIY places with reasonable prices. A friend suggested Yogurt Art and now, I'm hooked.

There are a variety of different flavors at Yogurt Art (40 to be exact), though there are only eight available at any one time. The flavors change with the season and when I visited a couple days ago, the choices were country vanilla, cable car chocolate, ripe strawberry, Oreo, cinnamon apple pie, summer fruit, berry tart, and plain tart. Because you're paying by weight ($56 NT per 100 grams), there are no rules or stipulations concerning mixing and matching yogurt flavors. How about equal parts Oreo, chocolate, and strawberry? Sounds like a delicious twist on a Neapolitan to me!

Every froyo machine has two different flavors, and there's a middle lever that will swirl the two flavors together, making your job of creating the perfect dessert even easier. After thinking about it, I decided I really needed some cinnamon apple pie in my life (sorry Neapolitan). Filling my cup a little more than I should have, I headed over to the toppings.

 There are over 20 toppings and I'm not going to name them all, but some memorable ones are kiwi, mango, granola, gummy bears, Oreo pieces, waffle cone pieces, chocolate chips, sprinkles, strawberries, mochi balls, marshmallows, M&Ms, and Fruit Loops. I sprinkled some Oreo pieces, chocolate chips, and granola onto my cinnamon apple pie and went to weight and pay. 

Yikes! Almost 300 grams! My total came to $134 NT; not bad, but I couldn't believe how quickly all those grams added up! Digging in, I was reminded of Mixx in Boston. The yogurt is really flavorful without being overly sweet. There's no hint of tartness, but you're not going into a sugar coma either. The toppings actually went together quite well (I was a little surprised). The Oreos and chocolate chips were as mouth-watering as I imagined, and the granola really brought out the cinnamon apple pie flavor. It was a little like eating a chocolate apple crumble. 

My only complaint concerns the raisins in the granola. They were rock solid. I definitely thought I might need dental work after that first twinge-inducing bite. Afterwards, I was careful to sift through the granola and pick out the offending raisins. 

With delicious yogurt, varied toppings, DIY freedom, no service charge, and a rewards card, Yogurt Art will certainly become a fixture in my life. The reward card lasts for four months and, within that time limit, you must purchase nine cups of yogurt to reap the reward. Reward: the tenth cup is discounted ($100 NT off the price of the tenth one). What with the money saved and the calories a third of ice cream, walk over to Uniqlo and go crazy! Visit their website for more info and other locations.