[Taipei Gourmet Tour] Street foods

One of the most famous nightlife is going to night markets.

There are at least one night market per a village, small or big.

I went to several of them, Shirin, Sida, Tamsui.. But the best was in Keelung!

Below are the street foods that I had in Taiwan.

Rouwan : pork & shrimp inside

Skewed meats of all sort.

Fried and seasoned crabs

Stirred pork served with red chilis 

Shuijiao

Pork soup

Steamed sticky rice & crab soup

Siangchang : sausages eat with raw garlic

Congzuobing : pancake will be the best but worst explanation.  Hmm.. Kneat with flour, onion and leek, fry both sides, then poke on the every corner of it, then add egg or cheese or whatever you would like to !

Wrapped up Icecream + ground peanut taffy + cilantro

The best part is that I still have not tasted half of their street food ;)

[Taipei Gourmet Tour] Hot pot : LaoSiChuan

Well, this is not a Taiwanese dish, but you may see hot pot restaurants everywhere.

I love hot pot and eat it almost twice a month even in Seoul.

But this place is the best ever -- unique oriental herbal medicine flavour added to the hot and spicy soup.

Fistly comes the sichuan glass noodle made of mung bean in spicy sauce.

Then the soup divided in two.  The red one is hot and spicy with numbness giving spice.  The taste as a while is called Ma-La.

Beef to be shabushabued

Lamb to be shabushabued

And put vetetables, mushrooms whatever you like to eat!

Now enjoy with your beloved :)

[Taipei Gourmet Tour] Traditional Breakfast

I have a lot to say on this.

One of my best friend's family is from Taiwan, and I learnt survival Chinese from her sister.

The food I was recommended (several times) is unbelievably taiwanese traditional breakfast:

A bowl of hot soybean milk and a bread.

I found a shabby but authentic place where the local people come by to take away their breakfast (very common in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan).  They make everything from the scrap! Oh, I mean flour and soybean.

I ordered a bowl of Doujian (hot and sweet soybean milk) everyday giving it a variety of breads.

1. Youtiao : fried long bread

2. danbing : thin pancake with egg

 

3. Shenshubing : a kind of baozi, cold (but cooked) minced meat in it.

4. Xiaobing : pastry like but not sweet

5. Xiaobing with egg in it

After waking up in a cold aired room, drinking the soybean milk, eat the hearty bread and seeing old papas and mamas making bread, 100 year old looking oven and everything .... Simply love the place.

[Taipei Gourmet Tour] YongKang Beef Noodle (niuroumien)

The best memory of my taipei trips is a simple meal at YongKang Niuroumien (Beef Noodle).

The first time I went there, I was awed.  How can a boiled beef be this tender?  How come the soup be this deep not thick, spicy not hot?

<Spicy beef noodle>

This is the very taste I remember as THE taste of Taiwan.  Well, the locals would not think the same as me, but as a foreigner (the word which gives you immunity in certain cases) I do love it.

Qingtang, which is clear and not spicy in the picture above was excellent as well.

But you should not miss the dumplings here!  Spicy but peanut-butter like sauce gives you inexplicable flavour.

So this is my recommendation set for one person :). Seems too much for a meal?  You wouldn't say so after having tatsted.  I am definately going back to Taiwan for a bowl of spicy beef noodle's sake.

[Taipei Gourmet Tour] Prologue

Taiwan was a second option until I arrived there.

The island was unknown to me even it takes only 2.5 hours flight.

It should be similar to Hong Kong, which had been leased to Britain for 100 years and now became a part of Mainland China.  The history of Taiwan in my mind was not very different from it : colonised by Japan and then dominated by Chiang Kai-shek.

But all was my prejudice.
My first visit to this beautiful island with a variety of mixed culture and culinary in April 2012, I literally fell in love with Taiwan.  On the second trip, I pretended to be a local person and now, I am looking forward to a very short third trip in next month.

Let me share their food I enjoyed.

[Sanuki Udon Tour] Day 4 _ Nagata in Ka no Ka

The last stop for the Udon bus on that day, as well as the last stop for MY Udon tour was :

Nagata in Ka no Ka, well known Udon-ya as they serve the Noodles right out of the Kama, the big cauldron - in more modern word, pot - even serves in big basin for 6 or more people.

The soup was prepared separately, and since the noodle was right out of the Kama, there was the water beneath the noodle.  The soup to put the noodle in - in other words, Tsuyu - was too delicious.  That's why there is only one picture left, after eating scene.

Usually the tautness of the noodle is additionally given when it is rinced thoroughly with ice-cold water, however this has the same tautness as those rinced in water without the same process.  Which eventually means that they were kneaded very carefully - with a micro control accordingly to the temparature and humidity.  This is the art of human and food combining.  That's how I would define the culninary of Udon.

[Sanuki Udon Tour] Day 4 _ Tsuruya Udon

The standard of Bukkake udon can be tasted here.

On the cold noodle, it is topped with 'flower shrimp'  tempura, sliced laver sliced leek and lime.

The harmony of lime flavour and Flower shrimp tempura was exceptional.  A must go place in Kagawa-ken.

Also the interior was unique!

[Sanuki Udon Tour] Day 4 _ Udon Ipuku

They have the most variety of Tempuras ever.  RTher than Udon, I would like to recommend lotus root tempura -- the texture is amazing.

The simplest goes well this Tempura - Zaru.

Can you see the size of lotus root? It is huge!! 

[Sanuki Udon Tour] Day 4 _ Nakanishi Udon

The only one true self type Udon-ya I visited.

I cook noodle by myself!

Then pour the soup by myself (again) from a huge hot water bottle.  Add sliced leek, it's ready now !

But it seems a bit simple, then take some Tempuras to eat together.

[Sanuki Udon Tour] Day 3 _ Nagata Udon

No specific memory here, other than the udon was delicious but too small for my dinner.

I mean... I'm saying that this was rather plain compared to other Udon-yas I've visited in this trip.

  

just one note :  eggs in Japan are very fresh, unlike in Korea!  

I went to the Udon school where I could experience kneading, and brought it with me to Korea, made Kamatama (fresh egg on the hot noodle so that it can be cooked little and season with soy sauce, top with sliced leek) by myself the very day I got home.  It was a total failure due to the fishy smell from the egg.

[Sanuki Udon Tour] Day 3 _ Yamauchi

Do you remember my posting on December 2 years ago, the inspiring source of my trip to Shikoku -- Udon the movie ?


One of the most impressive Udon-ya in that movie was Yamauchi.  Up in the mountain (not the Sanuki Fuji, which looks a lot like the Fuji mountain), there stands (or collapses) a shabby house with two-hundred-year-old-looking sign 'handmade Udon' in Japanese.  It is the symbol of the Udon lovers searching more thatn 900 Udon-yas round Kagawa-ken, a hidden gem.  Just like this picture here.

Surprisingly the inside was spacious (compared to the outside) and clean.

The chefs seem fairly much practiced, quick and exposed many times to camera.

In this authentic looking Udon-ya, there are 3 types of Udon.

1) Atsu-atsu (hot noodle in hot soup)

2) Hiya-atsu (cold noodle in hot soup)

3) Hiya-hiya (cold noodle in cold soup)

My choice was Hiya-atsu, and the noodle here was softer than other Udon-ya but not without the tautness and the soup was crystal clear.  Cool.

[Sanuki Udon Tour] Day 2 _ Yatai

Yatai is a snack & bar stall inside Lion shopping arcade (by the way, in Takamatsu there is the longest shopping arcade throughout Japan and Lion is one branch of the main arcade) and serves one of Kagawa specialties -- Honetsukidori.


Honetsukidori means chicken leg with the bone attached, I mean, not pulled out.  It is
more common in Japan to cook chicken without bone.

And yes, there is NO English menu in this stall of course.  You need to ask using body language.  But only with a passion to eat this dish, I found there are two types of Honetsukidori -- tough one and soft one -- and I choose tough one.

With a glass of Whiskey Highball.  Highball is a liquor based cocktail and this glass is made of Suntory Whiskey and fizzy water.

Along with a Yakitori set: 5 sorts of grilled chicken parts including liver.
(I see in the picture only 4, so one is in my mouth, right?)

Finally here comes the famous Honetsukidori, with tough flesh and BIG bone served with fresh uncooked cabbage.  It goes well with drink (not soft drink, you know) and smells very savage with lots of pepper.  Yum-yum!