Quoting from their website: " The name Baodao in Mandarin refers to Treasure Island which is often known as a substitute name of Taiwan."

Taiwan is situated across the Taiwan Strait to the east of China's Fujian province.

Because of its close proximity to Fujian, the dialects and food from Fujian and Taiwan are very similar.

My parents are from Fujian so Taiwanese food is home / comfort food for me and one of the reasons why we enjoy visiting Taiwan.

Bao Dao Taiwanese Kitchen has a few locations and I've listed the two which I've visited.

When you go into the restaurant, you get the very familiar Taiwanese "welcome!" from the staff.

It's almost like you are in Taiwan, although, we've recently found that they've hired some mainland Chinese staff who don't understand the Taiwanese culture and tradition.

I have, however, reflected this to the owner who's going to look into it - a sign of brand and quality protection.

Taiwanese (and Fujian) food are relatively not complex, unlike their Cantonese counterparts.

But the beauty of this is that the food may be simple, but delicious. You can eat this every day.

Let's take a look:

Think of the Gwa Bao as a mini Chinese hot dog - bun opened in half, a slice of pork belly, pickles, coriander and crushed peanut candy.

Take one bite of the Gwa Bao and you taste sweetness, saltiness and tartiness in a mouthful of softness. Yum!

I actually hadn't tried this but my family had and they said it was delicious.

What can I say? I'm not that much a veggie person.

Anything with "滷" basically involves stewing in soy sauce.

The tofu in this case were deep fried hence the golden brown outer shell.

Very typical of Fujian / Taiwanese, generally called Min Nan (閩南) food.

The ingredients and preparation may be simple, but if you are from that region, this is comfort food.

This is a Taiwanese specialty. The name literally translates to "salty crumbly chicken".

The "酥" in the name means "crispy", "soft", "crumbly" so think of it as like chicken nuggets but much, much tastier:

A bit of crispy and crumbly on the outside, hot and soft chicken meat (not processed like chicken nuggets) on the inside.

This is a famous snack in Taiwan, readily available at their famous night markets.

Another "滷" product. In this case, soy eggs.

This gives the egg a bit of favour so no salt (or ketchup) needed.

Like I said, comfort food (if you like eggs).

The mother of all Beef Noodles Soup - the Combination!

This includes the brisket, tendon and tribe - all in one bowl. Three different types of texture.

Beef Noodles Soup is probably one of Taiwan's most famous national dish. They even hold annual cooking competitions around the island island to find the city and state's best beef noodles soup champion.

You can also order in "all beef brisket", "all tendon" or "half brisket / half tendon" variations.

But if you want a bit of everything, then this is the one to order.

Another one of Taiwan's famous snacks, is Smelly Tofu (臭豆腐).

Smelly Tofu consists of tofu, supposedly going bad, hence the smelly part, deep fried to give it a crispy outer shell.

You add pickled cabbage with crushed garlic and chilli and it's the delicious Smelly Tofu!

Smelly Tofu, by its name, means you can smell the stink from far away, but funnily enough, when you eat it, you don't smell the stink and it tastes wonderful!

What's that got to do with Crispy Tofu with Pickled Cabbage?

Everything in Crispy Tofu with Pickled Cabbage is exactly the same except the tofu isn't smelly.

I suspect this is their attempt to provide us with Smelly Tofu without complaints from nearby residence and visits from the Health Department.

This is the all tendon variation of the Beef Noodles Soup. The tendons are very soft.

This vegetarian noodle dish comes with sesame sauce, shredded cucumber and carrots. The aroma of the sesame makes me drool just thinking about it.

You can have it as a vegetarian main meal, or you can order it to go with other dishes or condiments, like the braised eggplant, crispy basil chicken etc.

In a way, this is quite an ordinary dish - spicy wontons.

On the other hand, I like that it is spicy and I would be more likely to order this than just plain wontons.

Must be the spicy sauce that gives the wontons just that extra flavour.

This is also a very popular noodle dish. It's so simple: tasty clear soup, noodles and some condiments - seen here with one piece of tofu and half an egg - already very market.

Many of these dishes are snacks and in Taiwan, they would be small, cheap and simple - fit for a snack.

The boring stuff:

Bao Dao Taiwanese Kitchen has a few locations and I've listed the two which I've visited.

When you go into the restaurant, you get the very familiar Taiwanese "welcome!" from the staff.

It's almost like you are in Taiwan, although, we've recently found that they've hired some mainland Chinese staff who don't understand the Taiwanese culture and tradition.

I have, however, reflected this to the owner who's going to look into it - a sign of brand and quality protection.

Parking is not a problem at these two locations.

They have a new store in the CBD on Liverpool Street, which means parking is a bit of a problem but there are parking stations close by.

Have you had food from the Treasure Island? If not then you have to try Bao Dao (in Sydney). https://t.co/80j4lJr4T2#ilovesydney #baodao #foodporn #Foodie pic.twitter.com/wuGlUWqj5T
— Bevan Ting (@BevanTing) February 7, 2018

Tags: Beef Brisket, Beef Noodles, Beef Tendon, Chicken, Eggplant, Sesame Sauce, Soy Egg, Tofu, Wonton