40種著名台灣小吃(3)

外國人眼中的40種著名台灣小吃(3)

21. Fish ball soup (魚丸湯)

What is better than fresh seafood? Why, fresh seafood made into balls, of course.

Look for handmade fish balls in Taiwan as the process incorporates more air into the ball thus allowing more broth to be soaked up. They also have a bouncier chew.

Jiaxing is a popular purveyor in Taipei best known for its specialty shark meat balls.

Cpmp: 新竹貢丸(combined with fish & pork)- Editor

22. Ribs stewed in medicinal herbs (藥燉排骨)

Medicinal herbs gives us an excuse to feast on ribs.

This is Taiwan’s version of baik kut the, the Chinese meat soup that is also popular in Singapore and Malaysia.

In Taiwan, the soup is slow-cooked in Chinese medicine, extracting the essence from pork bones and more than 14 nutritious herbs, roots and dried fruits. It's yum and good for you too, especially for keeping warm in winter.

There isn't much meat on these lean bones, but the point of the dish is the soup. Don’t be shy to pick the bones up with your hands and suck the juices off them. In fact, it’s odd not to do so.

23. Goose (鵝肉)

                 

              聞名全台的嘉義民雄鵝肉亭 (整隻$800N.T.; 半隻$400 N.T), cheap?-editor

The whole goose and nothing but the goose on Taiwan's best tables.

Geese, proudly bred on Taiwan farms, are never wasted. From the skin to the blood, they are made into delicious dishes.

The salted or smoked geese in Hou Yi are revelatory. Every bite of the juicy goose meat with slightly smoked goose skin is a celebration of poultry.

Or try one of Bistro Le Pont's bowls of steamed rice topped with goose, chili oil and x.o. sauce. The grains of rice are a vehicle for goose fat and flavor.

24. Ding bian cuo (鐤邊趖)

Painting the wok with rice slurry to make ding bian cuo.

Ding bian cuo is a bowl of slippery rice flour pasta.

Rice flour batter is poured along the side of a huge wok. It slides and spreads along the heated wok and forms slices of rice flour noodles.

When dried, the sheets will be cut into smaller pieces that become the very thin and very chewy noodles when cooked as ding bian cuo.

Wu Jia ding bian cuo is a century-old family business. Their ding bian cuo are served with handmade pork cakes, shrimp cakes, cabbage, daylily and bamboo shoots.

Wu Jia ding bian cuo (百年吳家鼎邊趖), Keelung Temple Street Night Market, Taipei City

25. Taiwanese sausage with sticky rice (大腸包小腸)-Taiwanese Hotdog!

Taiwanese hot dogs are made with sticky rice buns and cured sausages.

Taiwanese pork sausage alone is a superstar at night markets, but when served as the snack "little sausage inside big sausage" it is unbeatable.

Basically, it's like a hot dog, but instead of a bun, sticky rice is stuffed inside a sausage casing to make an oversized rice sausage. That rice sausage is slit open to stuff in a pork sausage. So it's a little sausage inside a big one. Get it?

Available in Night Markets, like 士林或台中逢甲夜市- Editor

26. Mochi (麻糬)

Mobile mochi: get your chewy fix any time of the day.

These glutinous rice balls are soft as marshmallows and filled with sweet or salty things.

The most traditional mochi are filled with red bean paste and rolled in peanut powder. But in recent years, strawberry jam, sesame paste, green tea jam and peanut paste are some of the popular choices of filling.

You can learn how to make mochi by visiting the Royal Taiwan Mochi Museum (around US$5 per person).

Remember to chew carefully before swallowing, the sticky mochi are practically a choking hazard.

Royal Taiwan Mochi Museum(台灣麻糬主題館), No. 3, Tzu Qiang 3rd Road, Nantou County; +886 49 225 7644, see the class schedule at www.taiwanmochi.com.tw (In Chinese only)

Also availabe at 嘉義市新台灣及光正堂餅店

27. Lantern soy sauce braised food (燈籠滷味)

Lantern Lu Wei doesn't worry about your schedule, only good flavor.

No matter what you choose from the Lantern Lu Wei food stall, it will take on the taste of the signature five-spice soy sauce. It's a little sweet, not too salty and very aromatic with cloves, star anise, cinnamon and other spices.

Pick your preferred ingredients and the chef will cook it in the pot of special sauce. This makes a perfect light meal before a big night out.

Expect to wait in line as the chef never rushes but takes his time to allow the sauce to be well absorbed by the food.

Lantern Lu Wei (燈籠滷味), Shida Night Market, Taipei City

                        師大夜市& Other Night Markets

28. Sun cakes (太陽餅)-

Originating in Taichung, the suncake is simply a flakey pastry filled with maltose. And yet this sweet nothing has come to represent Taichung City and is a souvenir sought out by all visitors.

Countless sun cake shops flourish in Taichung, all claiming to be the original store, which none of them are.

But maybe it's time for them to shine. The one and only original sun cake store Tai Yang Bakery closed down unexpectedly when the 68-year-old boss decided to retire.

Along Tze Yo Street, Zhongzheng District, Taichung City/ 太陽堂或一福堂(Editor)

Comp: 老婆餅in 鹿港- 嘉義方塊酥- Editor

29. Tube rice pudding (筒仔米糕)

Sticky rice pudding the size of your stomach.

Sticky rice and Chinese mushrooms are fried with seasoning and stuffed into a bamboo tube together with pork and egg. The tube of rice is steamed again to further soften the texture until it becomes a cylindrical pudding.

Da Qiao Tou started making the rice pudding in a small stall under a bridge more than four decades ago. The business has expanded since but the rice pudding stays the same.

Be sure to add the homemade turnip-laced sweet spicy sauce to the pudding.

Da Qiao Tou (大橋頭老牌筒仔米糕), 41 Yanping North Road, Section 3, Datong District, Taipei City; +886 2 2594 4685, 或台中清水區

30. Taiwanese breakfast (or Yung ho Bean Milk)

 

   永和豆漿-Editor

Nothing like fried bread wrapped with roast bread to fuel a morning

Three elements to start a day right in Taiwan: sesame flat bread, deep-fried Chinese donut and soymilk.

Blogger Joan H from A Hungry Girl’s Guide to Taipei says her favorite breakfast is from Fu Hang.

“I love the thick sesame flat bread at Fu Hang because it has a slight sweetness, a thin crispy layer and soft center from coming straight out of the hot metal barrel. 

Many sesame flat breads are dry and flaky but Fu Hang's shows why there is often a half-hour to hour wait on the weekends.”

Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿), 2/F Hua Shan Market, 108 Zhongxiao East Road, Section 1, Taipei City; +886 2 2392 2175

Dear friends:  Bonaparte!!  很難不垂涎三尺? (Are your mouths watering yet?)  

To be continued  (待續)

Justin Lai  整理

05/13/2016