After walking around the Taipei 101 I decided I needed a snack in the mall. I really just wanted to sit for awhile since none of the tea shops I’d been to had had seats. I ended up walking past Dreamers earlier on my way to the Taipei 101 and thought it might be a good place to get a cold drink and rest, but then after doing a quick walk through the food court I saw that they had a small army of bagels and quickly got in line.
Korea doesn’t really do bagels. They have them, a couple flavors like plain or onion or blueberry but outside of that you’ve got to go to Costco. And even then there aren’t a lot of flavors. I miss bagels, mostly because there were so many options when I lived above a Panera in Chicago. I just miss the creative options. So I quickly grabbed a metal tray and tongs and looked around at all the flavors. They all had these little signs in front of them with their titles. I picked two. One sweet. One savory.
I got a chocolate peanut butter bagel and a garlic onion bagel with cheese. They were each about 65NT$. Essentially they have two ways to do things. You order a plain bagel and they’ve got a large selection of cream cheeses to try and go with it. But if you order a flavored bagel like the two I ordered the flavor it turns out, is on the inside. So you can’t get a cream cheese with it, because it’s already on the inside. If you want drinks or other snacks they sell those but on the other side of the cafe. So I bought my two and then sat and ate the garlic onion bagel with cheese. It was really good. The peanut butter bagel I took home and ate at home. These really aren’t meant to end up on a flight with you and eaten a day or two later. They’re great in the moment or stored properly but I didn’t store it properly so it was a bit stale.
Dreamers Coffee Roasters has a couple locations. The one I went to is located in the basement of the 101 mall near the food court. They also offer a lot of other things and have some seating available. It’s a good spot for a break.