Taiwanese street food fair in Chicago

This morning I took my kids to the de facto Taiwanese consulate for a street food festival. It was so much fun and a great way for us to try food we can’t normally get in restaurants here. My friend Rachel told me about it and we met her there when it first opened, but the crowds were large and it was impossible to get seats together.

Even before the opening speeches began, people lined up at the different stalls so they would be able to start buying food when the stalls opened. The signs were all in Chinese, so luckily I could read enough to figure out the food at each stall. And thank goodness I learned traditional characters.

My kids sat at a table while I went around getting their food. They started with these vegetable bao (which I lived off of the week I spent in Taipei 25 years ago) and Jake had this glutinous rice dumpling with meat and mushrooms.

Next up were these pork bao. Jake ate both.

My little ones had these pork, pumpkin, and vegetable noodles.

And Jake and I ate these beef, asparagus, and pumpkin rolls. Honestly, this was enough for me. It was so filling.

But the kids wanted dessert and something to drink, so I got Taiwanese ice for the little ones (they each had their own bowl).

And Jake had milk tea.

With enough tickets left for one more dish, Jake got this sticky rice filled with peanuts, tofu, and mushrooms.

Then it was on to the games! We missed this one, in which someone would poke a chopstick through the wrapping paper (notice it says Happy Channuka!) and would receive the prize in the box under the paper.

There was also a ping pong toss game that my kids didn’t want to try because they didn’t think they could make it. With a limited amount of tickets, I was okay with that.

They flocked to this goldfish game, which was much more difficult than it looked. Each kid received three fish nets, which were actually lined with thin paper. If they could catch a fish before the paper tore, the fish was theirs. Both my little ones couldn’t catch any fish (apart from one dead one), so we walked away empty. That was a huge win in my book!

They played this cool Chinese pinball game.

And this other ball game.

When they finished these games, they received a red ticket and were able to redeem prizes for their tickets.

It was a fun and action-packed morning/early afternoon. If you live in the Chicago area, it’s an annual event in Westmont at the Taiwan Culture Center, which is would be a consulate if Taiwan were allowed to have them in the US.