Taraba crab feast

We celebrated a friend's birthday tonight at a long-overdue gathering.   The birthday girl loves crabs, and we were set for a feast which featured a red king crab (鱈場蟹) as the main event.  The venue, however, wasn't what I was expecting.  Seafood 89 (89鮮海產) is a typical local joint serving up fresh seafood - stir-fried or cooked over high heat (快炒) - at very reasonable prices.  A place like this offers zero decor or dining comfort, and at times the table spills out onto the sidewalks.  But it doesn't matter to the patrons, as long as the food is tasty.

I was kinda hungry, and decided to grab something while we waited for our food to arrive.  Patrons are free to help themselves to bowls of braised pork rice (滷肉飯), and I think I scooped a little too much of the braised pork on top.  There was a lot of red scallions in the mix, and a healthy balance between fatty and lean parts of the pig.  Not bad, although I probably should have had it towards the end of the meal.

Elves in my kitchen day 3: all day breakfast

Once again, I woke up to the sound of ruckus in my kitchen.  It was 7:30am and both Dyson 2000 and J were hard at work.  Dyson 2000 was chopping up water chestnuts, trying to make a water chestnut pudding (馬蹄糕) for mom without the right ingredients.  We had tried in vain to look for water chestnut starch around town, but ended up settling for tapioca starch instead.

After a few rounds of steaming in the oven, we had a product that hopefully will be reasonably close to the real thing.  We'll see in a few days when mom gets her hands on it...

Elves in my kitchen day 2: eating non-stop

I woke up this morning to the sound of something being slammed against a hard surface.  Thwack!  Thwack!  I opened the bedroom door and found Dyson 2000 hard at work, working one-handed on some dough.  I guess we'd be having some homemade bread for breakfast!

When I returned from voting in the presidential election, there were 3 little piles of dough in my oven, and the fragrance started the disperse through my kitchen to the rest of the apartment.  We could already see the large air bubbles...

Elves in my kitchen day 1: Keelung food crawl

Dyson 2000 and J are here in Taipei for the weekend.  I've set up a weekend of cooking lessons for them, and mom will show them some of her signature dishes.  I was really excited to receive my guest room's first visitors, and really looked forward to spending some quality time hanging with them.

After spending most of the afternoon in my kitchen with mom, my visitors met up with me for our excursion out of Taipei.  We met at Taipei Main Station (台北車站) to take the train up to Keelung (基隆).  Our destination?  The famous Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市).  My first visit here came only about 2 weeks ago, and apparently Dyson 2000 salivated at the picture I posted after my visit.

But first a little something to whet our appetite.  We had a little time to spare thanks to the trains being delayed, so I stopped at Maison Kayser to pick up a few canelés.  The ones here are big, but actually pretty decent.  A little crispy on the outside and moist on the inside - although slightly more custardy than I would normally prefer.  Slurp.

The cousin from the north

Dyson 2000 was in town on business, and was kind enough to stick around for an extra evening after traversing our little beautiful isle visiting clients in the space of a day.  I, of course, tried to be a good host and took her to a couple of local places.  The poor thing had nothing to eat but bentos (便當) bought at the various train stations!

Our first stop was at Lu Sang (呂桑), the same place I took David when he was in town a few months ago.  I decided to let the starving woman choose her own dinner, so didn't make any recommendations at first...

French, Cali or Scotch toast?

I've got more visitors in town from Hong Kong, and I was struggling to find a place that served good Taiwanese food and had decent wine glasses.  Turns out they don't exist, and the common solution was for people to bring their own glasses.  Upon the recommendation from ScubaGolfer - who suggested a few other solutions to my problem but attached a disclaimer regarding the their tastiness - I booked a table at Mao Yuan (茂園餐廳), an old establishment just a couple of blocks from my office.

I arrived first with two bags full of stuff, and promptly got started on the wine (self)service.  After taking the glasses out of the box, I proceeded to uncork two bottles of white.  Although I was sure that others had done the same before me, I still got a few curious looks from the staff as well as other diners.

Poor service ruins the fun

I was meeting up with some friends who I haven't seen for a long time, and they suggested going to Chef Show Time (阿正廚坊).  The restaurant had moved to a new location, and the design of the space seemed better.  Somehow my vague memory tells me that I didn't like this place so much after my last visit.

My friends ordered a bunch of dishes while I stuck to just three.  We decided to share the first few dishes, which were mostly appetizers.

A taste of the mountains

My second group of visitors were in town from their new home in Shanghai, and they were desperately craving some local food.  They were already booked for a few Japanese meals, so I took it upon myself to get them some Taiwanese fare.  Since many local restaurants are closed on Mondays - and it also happened to be Father's Day in Taiwan - I eventually decided to make the long trek back to my own neighborhood for Mama Tu's Puli Restaurant (塗姆埔里小吃).  My previous visit left a good impression on me, and I was looking forward to something a little different.

A quick bite of Yilan

David from On Lot 10 is in town for a short trip, and very kindly allowed me to show him one of my favorite places for local Taiwanese food.  Lu Sang (呂桑食堂) sits on a corner along famed Yongkang Street (永康街), a neighborhood with such luminaries such as Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) and the current incarnation of the famous mango ice shop.  It's a typical homey eating establishment, selling delicious cuisine from Yilan (宜蘭) at an affordable price.  I figured this would be a good place to show my guest.

We stepped through the door and came in full view of the restaurant's signature dishes and daily specials.  We did the ordering right then and there, then found ourselves a table in the back and waited for the food to arrive...

Not your average noodle shop

At about 5:30pm today, as I was contemplating packing up and heading home for dinner, I received an unexpected call from uncle.  His reputation for going out to dinner on the fly is well-known to me, but I guess I just didn't expect him to call me directly, at least not so soon after my arrival in Taipei...  He was already in the car and coming to pick me up on the way to dinner tonight.

The last time I had dinner at Tainan Tantsumien Seafood Restaurant (台南担仔麵) was towards the end of 1998.  I brought together a mix of my friends from Taipei and Hong Kong, and even opened a bottle of Latour from the early 90s.  It was kinda the thing to do at the time...

This is a rather kitschy place, as the claim to fame here is the setting - everything looks bling around here.  Then there's the place setting - Wedgewood porcelain, Christofle silverware, and crystal wine glasses I forget from where...  They may not look like much today, but go back in time 20 years and you can probably count the number of restaurants in Taipei with that kind of silverware on one hand.  It was said at the time that the setting for a full table (of 10 or 12) cost TWD 1 million.  The juxtaposition from the restaurant being located in Snake Alley (華西街) - one of the oldest tourist areas in town, with shops selling live snakes and licensed brothels dotting the area - is part of the attraction.

Gizzard, milt and other goodies

It's kind of weird to be having dinner in Taipei with friends from Hong Kong, but that's what I did tonight.  A friend who I'll be seeing in a few days back in Hong Kong was in town, and very kindly asked me to join him for dinner.  A local wine merchant had chosen Ming Fu (明福餐廳), a local institution serving Taiwanese fare that I'd never been to.

The place is in an old part of town, and the setting is just as I expected - no decor, crowded tables, and I had to sit on a cheap stool and squeeze in.  There was a company hosting a dinner next to us, with 3 tables making lots of noise (25 or so female staff and 2 men...)  I can see why it's popular with some and not with others.

Wok with Froggie

Ever since she saw the episode of Wok with Nana where Nana was making her Taiwanese beef noodles, our Resident Froggie's been asking me about sourcing the proper noodles for it. On my last trip back to Taipei, mom was kind enough to buy a bunch of hand-pulled noodles (拉麵) for me to bring back to Hong Kong.  I think Froggie was pretty happy.

In return, I was invited to a "Wok with Froggie" lunch today where she tried to follow Nana's recipe for the beef noodles.  Coincidentally, I got to try Nana's stewed beef shank at her Teakha session yesterday.  It's not a very traditional recipe, and was a little on the sweet side, but I happily munched on the delicious beef.

Eating palatial treasures

I flew back to Taipei today to celebrate mom's birthday with her.  I had long heard about Silks Palace (故宮晶華), the restaurant at the Palace Museum (故宮博物院), as they have created a few special dishes inspired by a few of the museum's prized national treasures.  The dishes sure looked pretty in the official pictures, but I wondered if they tasted any good.  Given that the restaurant is managed by the Grand Formosa Regent (晶華酒店), I figured it couldn't be too bad...

Neighborhood eats

I'm hanging out around my parents' home today, and dropped in on Mama Tu's Puli Restaurant (塗姆埔里小吃) for lunch.  It looked like just the rustic, country cuisine type of place that I love so much.

I knew we were in good hands when the amuse bouche - vegetarian chicken (素雞) - arrived.  These tofu pieces might look simple, but it's the balance of flavors between the coriander, chopped garlic, chilis and thick soy sauce which ended up as a complete symphony in the mouth.

Heaven, earth, you and me

I lunched at 四知堂 today.  When I was last in town, we had tried to do lunch here on a Monday, not knowing that they don't open on Mondays.  There seems to be somewhat of a buzz surrounding this place, so I was pretty happy to check it out.

The interior of the place looks like a rustic farmhouse, and there is some greenery immediately in the wraparound corridor right outside our window.  All this made for a pretty nice and relaxing dining environment.

There were a couple of starters on the table when I arrived, one of which consisted of strips of baby corn and okra.

The first to arrive was the steamed chicken (蔬菜香草雞), covered in a heap of salad.  The meat was succulent and juicy, and you can taste the flavor and the chewier texture of the free-range chicken.

The stir-fried gold-banded lily with pork (山百合炒肉絲) was a novelty to me.  It basically looked like asparagus to me, although the taste was certainly different.  Alas, the shredded pork was overdone...

The stir-fried shredded tofu with chili peppers (糯米椒炒干絲) was pretty decent, but again the pork was overdone...

Wax gourd with Venus clam in white wine (白酒山瓜子絲瓜) - pretty typical Taiwanese fare, using the yummy wax gourd in season and very delicious Venus clams.

Stir-fried beef with leafy mustard (福岡高菜炒牛肉) - the varietal used here is 高菜 from Fukuoka (福岡), which was marinated not unlike what Chinese does with its cousin 梅菜.
The beef was actually tasty and reminded me a little of what I'd get at Yoshinoya (吉野家).  The tofu skin was also good.

We shared bowls of noodles with sesame sauce (麻醬麵), which also had a little peanut sauce as well as ground pork and garlic.  The handmade noodles had plenty of bite and were yummy.

The owner Superman (超人) treated us to some herbal soup with pig intestines (四神湯).  The intestines were chewy and yummy, and the barley were very soft.

We finished some some herbal jelly and red beans (仙草紅豆) and capped off a pretty good meal.

Father's Day feast

It's rare that I'm in town on Father's Day in Taiwan (August 8th in Mandarin rhymes with "dad"), and I got to celebrate it with the extended family.  Two of mom's cousins are in town from Shanghai and it was good to see them again.  Naturally, we wanted to let them sample Taiwanese cuisine - so we went to Shin Yeh (欣葉)...the original location, not the outlet on top of Taipei 101.

We left the ordering to my uncle, and in typical fashion we found ourselves with a real feast. 

Buddha jumps over the wall (佛跳墻) - the classic soup of Hokkienese cuisine is full of ingredients, and uses lots of taro, tripe and (supposedly today) shark's fin.  I was never really a fan, and what we had today didn't seem to make the grade in uncle's book.

Poh piah (潤餅) - this un-fried spring roll (also found in places like Singapore, hence I'm using the familiar name) is made with strips of cooked radish, various veggies and peanut powder.  Not bad at all.

Fried peanuts and whitebait (小魚花生) - fried with dried scallops and chili.  This was absolutely wonderful and possibly the best dish of the evening.  In fact, we asked for another plate to go along with the sweet potato porridge (地瓜粥) at the end of the meal.  Lately, though, there seems to be a bit of brouhaha about boycotting the consumption of these babies...  I think I should study the issue a little more.

Deep-fried oysters (炸蚵) - Taiwanese love their little oysters, and deep-frying them together with basil is pretty classic.

Pan-fried pig's liver (煎豬肝) - definitely failed in the execution tonight, as it was way overdone and no longer tender.

Pan-fried milkfish belly (煎虱目魚肚) - another classic Taiwanese dish.  Milkfish is popular and is often eaten as a soup for breakfast. 

Deep-fried chicken roll (雞卷) - this is pretty much the ngo hiang in Southeast Asian cuisine... and actually not made of chicken but pork.  The original name, pronounced in Hokkien, means "leftovers", as it was supposed to be a way to wrap up leftovers in tofu skin, fry up the roll and make it look like a new dish. 

Steamed mud crab with glutinous rice (紅蟳米糕) - happily took down half of the shell containing the roe.  We have a tableful of Shanghainese so everyone clearly prefer the hairy crab (大閘蟹)...
Stir-fried loofah with garlic (蒜炒絲瓜) - they actually used pretty big ones tonight, which was a surprise.

Stir-fried sweet potato leaves with garlic (蒜蓉炒地瓜葉) - sweet potato leaves are common in Taiwanese cuisine, and purported to have health benefits.  Tonight there were some basil leaves mixed in... perhaps by accident?

Omelette with pickled radish (菜圃蛋) - another comfort food classic... the omelette is made with chopped bits of pickled radish and some basil leaves.

It's been a while since I was last here, and it was a pretty decent meal.  Glad to have had the opportunity to spend this day with family...

The $100 bowl of noodle

It had to be done.  I'd been going to 688 Beef Bowl (牛爸爸牛肉麵) for my beef noodles (牛肉麵) for the last few years, and had always been curious about the exorbitantly priced noodles on the menu.  Granted, nothing on the menu here is "cheap", but paying NT$ 1,000, NT$ 3,000 or even NT$ 10,000 for a bowl of noodles?  That's simply unheard of elsewhere.

A couple of years ago I had tried a bowl of the NT$ 1,000 beef noodle, and went back to getting my regular bowls of noodles priced at a more modest - but still expensive by local standards - NT$ 300.  Stepping up to the next level has been an itch I've been wanting to scratch, and today was the perfect opportunity to do so.

We put our bags down and I immediately asked to see the kitchen, as I knew that would be on top of the elves' agenda.  Mr. Wang the owner claims his is the "cleanest restaurant in the country", and judging by the kitchen I'd say he's not wrong.  I had previously had a conversation with Mr. Wang, where he clearly stated the philosophy behind the restaurant. I got to find out a lot more on this visit.

There are numerous different pots of beef stock, one for each type of noodle on the menu.    The stocks are made with a minimal amount of spices so all the flavors come from cooking the beef for a long time, and any chili powder is added just prior to serving.

The peanuts - which I love so much for their sweetness and flavors - are cooked for a short time at low temperature in the stock from the braised pig trotters, chilled in the fridge overnight in the stock, and the process is repeated for 3 days.  The end result speaks for itself... just about melts in your mouth like candy.  There's passion in 'em peanuts!

Mr. Wang said that the NT$ 3,000 price would be worth it after I've drunk the soup and had a piece of the marbled beef.  Well... I'm not sure about that, but he probably meant that the rest of the ingredients cost next to nothing...  The soup was good. I didn't ask him about the time it took to get this, or the amount of beef that was consumed in the process to get it tasting like this.  The elves and I joked about needing to finish the whole bowl of soup, and even one drop spilled onto the table is "worth NT$ 1".

Was the beef good?  Yes.  Most certainly the best bowl of beef noodle I've ever had.  The two different cuts of Japanese beef were well-marbled and melted in my mouth.  You could see the strands of muscle fiber and the pockets of half-melted fat.  Definitely good stuff.

The Canadian beef was yummy, too.  There were interesting cuts such as where the shank meets the tendon near the hoof.  Very tender all lots of collagen goodness.

The noodles in the bowl were also different from the cheaper bowls, and they were thicker, hand-pulled noodles (拉麵) with a lot more bite. 

The elves ordered different versions of noodles so they could dissect/analyze them.  I think they had fun. 

So, was the bowl of noodle worth the price?  I'm still debating about this one...  I've already said it was the best bowl of beef noodle I've ever had, and I really did enjoy it.  There were certainly chunks of expensive Japanese beef, and I believe Mr. Wang actually gave me extra chunks of them.  Judging by the cost of the ingredients alone?  Well, it's kinda like the Apple iPhone... the sum total of the material parts is a fraction of the actual selling price, and the rest of the price is what you pay for R&D/design/branding...etc.  I see Mr. Wang's passion very clearly, and I guess I don't mind paying the premium.

Trippin' with the elves day 2: pork and dairy run

Got up this morning after a few hours of sleep, and pinged the elves about getting breakfast.  No reply.  Pinged again.  Still no reply.  After a while I decided to leave the house and head into the city center, as we would meet up before noon anyway.  The elves finally woke up and got in touch after I arrived at Taipei Main Station (台北車站), and we made plans to meet up for our first stop of the day.

There are two places in town where I go for my braised pig trotters - A Shui Shi (阿水獅) and Fu Ba Wang (富霸王).  Both are very typical Taiwanese in style, in that the trotters are still somewhat chewy in texture.  Since the elves have already hit the former, I decided to take them to Fu Ba Wang.  We met just after they opened, since the most popular item would sell out quickly.

The mid-section (霸王腿節) was pretty good, and is always a favorite.  No real meat here... just skin, fat and collagen.

Braised bamboo shoots (滷筍乾) is an acquired taste, as the shoots were slightly fermented.  I used to hate it as a kid...

Braised tofu (潤油豆腐) had a great, spongy texture...and was a tad spicy.  Always on my list of things to order.

Finally, the upper section (霸王腿扣) arrived.  This is the part that sells out quickly, and there've been a few times when I've been here and wasn't able to order this.  It's the only part where there is a mixture of lean meat and fat/skin.

Of course, you can't have the pig trotters here without a bowl of rice with braised meat (魯肉飯)!  And what you get here is my favorite... There are many versions of this Taiwanese classic, with variations on the amount of lean/fatty pork served over the bowl of rice.  And here... you get nothing but skin!  No lean meat, only pure fatty goodness.  The rice grains are slightly chewy and don't stick together.  The best way to consume this is definitely to pour the leftover sauce - along with a few bits of fat and skin - from the plates of pig trotter onto the rice.  Mix thoroughly.  Open mouth and shovel the rice in.  Instant happiness.

We proceeded to our second stop just after 12 noon, for some beef noodles.  The second part of lunch deserves its own, separate blog post and shall be the very next entry.

I'm very full after the bowl of noodles, and pause for a while in terms of food.  We head over to Ximending (西門町) for the next few stops.  The elves take in a bowl of rice flour vermicelli with intestines (大腸麵線) at Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodle (阿宗麵線).  The guy who was serving it today wasn't doing it as impressively as some of the others, so I pass on the opportunity to capture the motion on video.

We revisit my favorite ice cream parlor in the city - Snow King (雪王冰淇淋).  This place is a Taipei institution, having been around for over 60 years, and is in every guidebook on the city.  I was first introduced to their ice cream 15 years ago, and have loved it ever since.

The shop boasts a range of 73 flavors, grouped in broad categories such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, alcohol...  and even has a few flavors in the "other" category.  Years ago I tried out the pig trotter (豬腳) and curry (咖喱) flavors, and yes, they do taste like they're supposed to.  I vividly remember the little bits of pork in my scoop of savory ice cream... Years before any Michelin-starred chef thought to do so, this family was already serving basil, wasabi and cinnamon ice cream to their customers.

We ordered a total of 7 flavors covering 6 different categories, which I thought was a pretty impressive lineup.  Custard apple (釋迦) has always been my favorite flavor, since I love the fruit itself and no one else makes this flavor.  I found myself really enjoying the Oolong Tea (凍頂烏龍茶) for its intense flavors where the fragrance lingers in the mouth.  Taro (芋頭) was excellent, one of the best I've ever had.  I love watermelon (西瓜) so it's not hard for me to like this.  Black plum wine (烏梅酒) was pretty cool.  I never expected us to finish the scoop of sesame oil chicken (麻油雞) despite it being a very accurate representation of the soup itself, because savory ice creams are just too weird.  The runner bean (大紅豆) flavor was the biggest disappointment for all of us, as somehow it was just a little too milky and the flavors didn't jive.

We were running tight on time and decided to skip the other 2 stops in the area.  We headed south to the Experimental Farm of the National Taiwan University - specially the animal husbandry section.  The farm is right next to the university campus, within city limits.  The purpose?  To pet and feed some dairy cows, and to drink some fresh milk!  I was told that fresh milk is sold daily in the morning and at 3pm, so we rushed over to get some.

Unfortunately for us, I was not informed of the full picture.  They only sell fresh milk in the morning on weekends (twice a day on weekdays), and of course they had already sold out of today's allocation.  So we decided to spend some time with the cows and fed them grass.  The younger calves were fed grass that was more tender and that had been cut into shorter lengths.  They definitely enjoyed the attention we were giving them.

After our failure to get any fresh milk products, we left the university and headed for our next stop.  Lan's (藍家割包) is famous for their steamed pork sandwiches (割包), and I'd never had an opportunity to sample it.

One has a number of choices here in terms of the exact mix of fatty and lean pork, and of course I chose the fatty-only version...  I do have to admit that it was pretty good... the fatty pork, the preserved vegetable and the ground peanuts creating a symphony of flavors.  Loved it.

I needed a break while the elves hit Yung Kang Street (永康街) area for stops like Ding Tai Fung (鼎泰豐).  We split up and I killed some time while waiting for them to finish touring the area.  Unfortunately, communication lines went down and we never managed to meet up again...until they've already finished their night market run much later in the evening.  I guess it was just as well, since I probably didn't need any more calories for the day...

Trippin' with the elves day 1: plus ça change

I flew into Taipei for a long weekend, partly to play tour guide to the elves.  This is their first trip to Taiwan, and they seem intent on eating their way through the island.

We started our journey together at Da Shan Wu Jia (大山無價), as I want to introduce them to the simple yet wonderful cuisine here.  I know they'd be hitting the night markets and numerous little eateries, but for a nice sit-down meal that we can enjoy together, I can't think of many other places that would be better.

This is my third time at the restaurant, and I wondered how much of the menu would change.    The answer is: not much at all.  I like the food here, but it IS getting a little boring...  I don't think the restaurant changes their menu as often as the waitress claims...

We always start with the red wine jelly, made from some sort of local wine, as an amuse bouche.  Seems to do the trick of whetting the appetite...as if we weren't all starving by now...

Peanut tofu topped with wolfberry (枸杞), pinenuts and wasabi, bamboo shoots and shrimp roe - the tofu was pretty much like it has been, with real peanutty taste.  The bamboo shoot was nice, and this time came with tiny orange shrimp roe.

Poached scallop in burdock (牛蒡) soup, garnished with tomato with a sprinkle of thin paprika strips - pretty much the same except for the garnishes, and the scallop was still soft and tender.  The soup, though good, was a little bit less impressive than I remember.

Assorted sashimi with salad - the usual amaebi (甘エビ), mackerel/herring roe (鯖/数の子) combination as well as two  over-sized pieces of tuna and salmon.  I don't really like oversized pieces of sashimi but I guess they do it to make it look impressive...  The salad had lily bulb and same faux crab inside.

Some black date vinegar to cleanse our palates...

Poached fatty pork neck with scallions, cucumber and topped with fermented red bean paste (紅粬) - I thought the pork was definitely a little overcooked, although the fat compensated for it.

Yilan gaozha (宜蘭高渣) - probably the one dish that I don't get tired of having here... I just love the texture of the "deep-fried chicken soup", and of course the vegetable purée is always excellent.  Thank you, sir....may I have another?

Grilled tiger prawns with grilled eggplant, green beans, pumpkin and deep-fried sweet potato - the prawns were nicely done, seasoned just lightly.  It's pumpkin season so it was really delicious...

Rose vinegar to cleanse the palate again.

Mushroom gomoku rice with deep-fried mullet roe (烏魚子) - the mullet roe was pretty good, but the rice was somehow not as good as I remembered.

Waterlily chicken soup (蓮花雞湯) - I could see that the waterlily was already half-opened when it was brought to the table, before we had put it in the soup.  There were the usual ingredients, which easily took up half the pot.  Very filling.

Waterlily tea - very nice and floral.

Fresh fruits and mango yogurt - there was definitely some disappointment at the table that the dessert wasn't the sweet taro mash.  We were surprised by the yogurt, however, as it was very rich and creamy.  Not bad, but a little too much for me at the end of this big meal.

A pretty good meal, but I'll need to schedule my next visit only during the winter season.  Three meals with the same menu, over the space of 2 years, tells me that the chef's creativity level has gone to zero.

We make our way back to the city, and I tag along while the elves hit the touristy Shihlin Night Market (士林夜市).  We hit both the indoor section as well as the sprawling street section, and ended up getting kinda wet in the rain.  They went through a number of famous street food items such as Hot Star Fried Chicken (豪大大雞排), but I was still too full to eat anything.  Eventually I succumbed to temptation and got myself a baked pepper bun (胡椒餅), which was not bad but certainly not what my stomach needed at this point in time...

The elves were soldiering on, but I had no more capacity for food, so I left them and agreed to check in tomorrow morning about meeting up for breakfast...

A little taste of Yilan

I'm spending some time with family in Taipei, and we decided to have a casual meal around "my" neighborhood.  Lu San (呂桑) is a casual place specializing in cuisine from Yilan (宜蘭), so we thought it'd be interesting to try it out.  We ordered up a storm, sat down and the food started arriving in no time.

First on the table was the pig intestine in miso (味增大腸).  I didn't taste any miso but it didn't matter...it's intestine and it was really tender!

Then came the shredded duck (宜蘭鴨賞) that tasted a lot like one of mom's dishes during Lunar New Year.  It's basically dried/seasoned duck served with garlic shoots and chili peppers.  A little chewy but very interesting.  It's called "moon-gazing duck" because the ducks are hung outdoors and moon beam shines upon them during full moon, so the locals quip that the ducks are actually moon-gazing (賞月)...

Fresh oysters in garlic sauce (蒜味鮮蚵) - the oysters are lightly blanched so that they're not fully cooked...and mixed with the classic garlic sauce and shredded ginger...

Sliced pork with red lees (紅糟肉) - the pork was just too lean and uninteresting...like those really lean char siu (叉燒) that I hate.  The red lees of Shaoxing wine made the dish look interesting, but that's about it.

Sweetfish with roe (有卵香魚) - the fish roe took up most of the space inside the fish, and there was only a very thin layer of flesh on the outside...but it was sweet and delicious.

Marinated okra (秋葵) - with some vinaigrette and bonito (鰹) flakes.

Sliced pig's liver (粉肝) - very, very soft and tender...cooked just enough and retains all the moisture.

Yilan gaozha (宜蘭高渣) - not having been to Yilan before, the only times I've had this was at Da Shan Wu Jia (大山無價).  The version here is obviously a lot more down market, but still very good nonetheless.  It's basically deep-fried chicken soup, with some starch to solidify the liquids a little.  Grandma kept eating this since it requires almost no chewing effort...

Marinated eggplant and Chinese yam (茄子拌山藥) - this was OK.

Steamed chicken (白斬雞) - pretty nicely done.  There was just enough seasoning, and they dunked the chicken into ice water to make sure the skin has bounce.

Liver flower (宜蘭肝花) - basically chopped pig's liver with water chestnut, spring onions...etc wrapped into tofu skin and deep-fried.  Pretty good actually...

Japanese deep-fried tofu (日式炸豆腐) - basically 揚げ出し豆腐... Very juicy inside so that when I bit into my piece, it squirted all over the place...

The two desserts were pretty interesting... The pan-fried kumquat cake (宜蘭棗糕) was made with...you guessed it...pieces of preserved kumquat (金桔/棗).  Needless to say it goes very well with the preserved kumquat tea they've been serving.

The last item was deep-fried longan rice cakes (桂圓米糕).  Basically a rice ball with pieces of dried longan (桂圓), coated with a layer of flour and deep-fried.  The flavors were subtle and nice.

It's always nice to come home and get a taste of Taiwan...