TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An analyst from a Washington, D.C. think tank has attracted attention with his Twitter posts about food during his visit to Taiwan.

Gerard DiPippo, a senior fellow with the Economics Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has shared photos of delicacies he sampled during the past week.

In a post about the iconic soup dumplings, or xiaolongbao, at the famed restaurant Din Tai Fung, DiPippo joked, “This is why I'm here. The CSIS delegation is just a pretense.” He also described a unique dessert, the peanut ice cream roll with cilantro, at Taipei’s Ningxia Night Market as “interesting.”

The CSIS delegation was led by James Steinberg, dean of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Among the members are former U.S. government officials and experts on the regional developments of the Indo-Pacific, according to the Presidential Office.

Its visit was hailed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as a boost to bilateral ties.

What an interesting dessert. Cilantro...with ice cream? It works though. pic.twitter.com/BhZBdmj8H9

— Gerard DiPippo (@gdp1985) December 17, 2022