Days of chewing carefully: Don't Go

Pin It

We have a visitor staying with us for a few days, and this was her very first trip to Taiwan. Naturally, we were eager to introduce her to some good, authentic Taiwanese cuisine. We were sitting in a taxi en route to our go-to casual Taiwanese when I suddenly thought of the delicious braised pork rice (滷肉飯) at My灶. It's a very popular place and normally not easy to book on short notice, but I picked up the phone to call them anyway. Much to my surprise, they had a spare table available. I immediately asked the taxi driver to turn around.

Stir-fried white water snowflake (炒水蓮) - this is always a good idea in Taiwan. I love this fibrous and crunchy veg, and pretty nice stir-fried with some mushrooms.

Braised pork rice (滷肉飯) - BABY, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR! I wanted to be a good boy, so I got myself a small bowl. It wasn't as satisfying as a larger bowl with more pork, but I was happy nonetheless.

Just look at that! No lean meat whatsoever, just pure skin and fat. That's the way it should be.

Wok-fried baby squid (乾煸小卷) - our visitor really enjoyed these, and I'm not surprised.

Loofah with clams (絲瓜大蛤) - the loofah was very sweet, and we've got some shredded ginger to go with the clams.

Deep-fried pork roll (小二雞卷) - no, there is no chicken inside the 雞卷... It was so named because of its resemblance to the neck of a chicken.

Wrapped inside the deep-fried tofu skin was some soft and delicious minced pork, with sweet, caramelized onions.

House specialty sausage (秘制香腸) - this was very nice and soft, too. It's got more depth than expected, sweeter than the average Taiwanese sausage, with more fermented flavors.

I was really happy to have introduced our friend to some proper Taiwanese cuisine, but moreover I was just happy to have gotten another bowl of my favorite braised pork rice. I gotta remember to go back more often!