My Favorite Taiwanese Foods

Hi Readers,

I noticed that I devoted a category of my blog to food, and it has only 2 posts! What an atrocity, since food is one of my passions. Therefore, let this post be devoted to food!

No matter what people say, Taiwanese people will maintain that they have the best food selection in the world. I truly believe that Taiwan is probably the only place in the world where it is cheaper to eat out than eat in. An average meal costs US$2-3, and "gourmet" meals such as 5-course meals go up to exorbitant price of US$10. Oh noes, who can afford this? The answer: EVERYBODY. And everybody does, as every single high-end restaurant is always packed with people wanting to eat like a king. In fact, there is so much demand, that most high-end restaurants don't take reservations. It's first come first serve.

I live across the street from one of Taiwan's best (and most expensive) restaurants: Ding Tai Fung. This is fortunate, because we can walk across the street, take a ticket, go home and wait for half an hr to an hr until a table becomes available, and all the while chuckle at the people who are being baked by the scorching sun while they stand in line. Ding Tai Fung's specialty: the Xiao Long (Tang) Bao. These are little steamed buns/dumplings that come in little bamboo baskets. The "tang" in brackets means "soup", and it is a variant on these steamed dumplings in the sense that when you bite into them they are filled with delicious broth along with meat! Yum! I'm getting so hungry just thinking about it. Argh.

Taiwan's national food: the Stinky Tofu. THIS IS MY FAVORITE DISH IN THE WORLD. Most non-Taiwanese (and even some Taiwanese) people hate it, but I love it. I love it like Thai people love durian (look it up if you don't know what durian is). Stinky tofu is pretty much what it sounds like: it stinks. But it tastes great! Experienced stinky-tofu-eaters maintain that the more it stinks the better, and I am of the same opinion! Stinky tofu comes in all shapes and forms, whether deep-fried, grilled, steamed, stir-fried, cold-mixed, or more. I love it it all. If you diss this dish it will actually annoy me quite a bit, so don't do it!

Another great food item: Bubble Tea. Now, probably 90% Americans who think they know the variety of flavors that bubble tea comes in cannot even imagine all the flavors they can get. There are literally over 50 flavor combinations + 2 choices (amount of sugar and ice) per combination. Even if you drink a different type of bubble tea everyday it would take you a year to finish all the possible combinations. This is probably the biggest reason why I gain 20 pounds in Taiwan every time I go back. Last summer I averaged 3 cups a day. I gladly added the 10 pounds lol.

When I go back, there are some things I never fail to make a pilgrimage to get. One of these is the Rou Yuan / Ba Wan / "Meat Rounds" of Shuili, in the remote mountainous Nantou county. I am not sure how to describe these. It is like a gelatinous-ball surrounding a bunch of meat in the middle, fried in oil. It is simply amazing. Everytime my grandma drives us there, assuming we survive the drive (she is 82 years old after all, and those mountain roads are not exactly like the interstate through Illinois), I get at least 5-6 of them. And eat and eat and eat. And then after I'm done there's free soup! It's amazing.

I remember one time we almost got in a fight with some other family at the "meat round" place. We were in line behind them, and the dad said to the cook, "Hey give me 30 of them." The cook said that there's only 20 left and that since we were in line he would make sure we got some. The dad begin to argue with the cook and he shouted: "Hey we drove 4 hours from Taipei just so we could come here! Give me all of them!" And then my grandma shouted at him, "SHUT YOUR TRAP YOU DOUCHE, MY GRANDSON FLEW 15 HOURS FROM CHICAGO TO COME HERE!" And that shut him up pretty quickly. Good times! Did I mention that I love my grandma? =D

Shuili's Clear Ice is also pretty well known, and another thing I make the perilous pilgrimage to Shuili for. (On a side note, maybe next time I go back I will request that I do the driving, because I would actually like to live to taste these things). Anyways, the clear ice is sold at a Popsicle factory. Although it's only a popsicle made from pure sugar water, it tastes great on a summer day. Of course, I don't stop there - I quickly move on to passionfruit, peanut, red bean, mango, lemon, and whatever other flavors they have there. As these popsicles only cost about 10 cents US each, I usually get upwards of 10 every time I visit. Oh gosh I am hungry.

So hungry! I will probably stop there and continue another post on Taipei's restaurants some other time. OMG I AM SO HUNGRY! I want those meat rounds now. STINKY TOFU! ARGHHH I miss Taiwan =(.

-FCDH