I went to Taichung to search for some humble yet absolutely delicious Taiwanese cuisine. In the month of October, the weather was cooling and it was the best time to go to Fengjia Night Market, the biggest night market in Taiwan. It was a great place to “settle” my dinner. There were plenty food stalls to choose from, this made me a happy glutton. There were fish eggs, fried squids with wasabi, Big Intestine with Glutinous Rice, pig blood cake (大肠包小肠) and oden (a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth). The one I liked the most was the fried squid with wasabi. The fried squids were crispy outside but chewy inside. Wasabi was the prefect sauce for the dish. It was absolutely delicious.
In the month of November, since it was approaching winter, the cuisine that did justice in winter is ginger duck soup (姜母鸭). A certain kind of duck was selected for the soup. It was fried with ginger and other ingredients and was brewed with chicken and duck broth. Rice wine may be added to increase flavour and made this soup simply irresistible. Side dishes such as pork livers, pork intestine, and golden needle mushroom and bean curbs were cooked with the ginger duck soup, just like steamboat. The soup and the side dishes were tasted together with the mee suah (rice vermicelli). This dish was awesome.
The rice tube pudding (筒仔米糕) was tasty as well. It tasted almost like rice dumplings. The dish was almost prepared the same way as the rice dumpling too. The glutinous rice was cooked with stewed pork and was steamed in a small metal container. So the steamed rice pudding took the form of the container and so it was known as rice tube pudding. The rice tube pudding was delicious.
Rice Cake (碗粿) was a popular street food in Tainan, it was absolutely delicious. It tasted almost exactly like Chwee Kueh (水粿) from Malaysia and Singapore but more flavour and more ingredients. Pork, dried shrimps, hard-boiled eggs and other ingredients were mixed with the glutinous rice juice in a bowl and the mixture was steamed. The taste was simply irresistible.
My next stop will be Ding Tai Fung, the flagship restaurant in Taipei. Stay tuned, folks.
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