Food I Ate in Taipei

Simple title, simple post. No elegant wordsmithing here. Just a bunch of photos of stuff I ate while I was in Taipei. This covers most typical meals I ate, but I'm saving a couple of special things for future posts - one about a fantastic dinner at the Silk House, and another about foods of the night markets. Enjoy!

Taiwanese Chicken Rolls - Chicken spiced with cinnamon(?) stuffed with some vegetable matter (water chestnuts, etc.) into a thin dough skin, then rolled up and fried. My hosts told me that this is a Taiwanese specialty. They were quite good, with a thin crispy skin that was very light and flakey. The English on the menu read "Chicken Rools." Nice.

Black Chicken (Silkie) - Not only is the skin black, but the bones are too (the Chinese name translates to "black boned chicken"). Even the meat is tinged with blackness and appears a vibrant, bright (if there is such a thing) grey. The feathers, on the other hand, are typically pure white. I had a simply prepared steamed black chicken that was juicy and delicious. It was much more flavorful than a typical chicken. Afterthought - as I'm proofreading this, I realize that I didn't even comment on the presence of the chicken heads. I've been to Asia way too many times now.

Yakitori Bar - Japanese influence, and therefore, food, is common in Taiwan. One evening we headed out for yakitori to this place, called Japan, Taiwan. I was glad to see the grill pit full of real wood coals, with lots of skewered items sizzling away.

Grilled Intestines, Shrimp, Beef, and Fish - The excitement of the charcoal grill was equal and opposite to my anti-excitement upon seeing the lovely skewer of pig intestines on my plate. A colleague assured me that they were crispy and delicious when prepared this way. So against my better judgement, I grabbed the stick and tore into a hunk of pig colon. The first sensation was of a crispy exterior and a nice charred fatty taste - not bad at all! As I kept chewing, the pleasant taste melted away leaving a chewy bundle of fatty tissue in my mouth. More chewing... Wow... that sure does taste a little funky... Chew, chew, chew... Hmmmm... This sort of fecal aroma wafted across my palate. Yup, I could definitely tell what I was eating. Yeah, just too fecal for me. Those fish, by the way, have bellies full of roe. Very fishy. I was instructed to eat them with a bite into the belly first. Also not one of my favorites. The shrimp and beef were great, though.

Shrimp and Crab Hand Rolls - I had these tasty bundles for lunch one day along with a fantastic Japanese noodle bowl. Soup broth on this side of the world is amazingly flavorfull and complex. I have to figure out how to make that at home. No imitation crab in these rolls, by the way. The real thing makes all the difference.

We went to a Yunnan restaurant for lunch one afternoon. There were old women sitting in the restaurant shelling baby peas for this delicious soup (simply chicken broth and fresh, baby peas). Many of the dishes used ingredients that I was familiar with, but in ways I had not ever thought of before. I was impressed enough with this place to bust out the camera for a few of the dishes.

Steamed Bamboo - I had no idea that you could just eat hunks of bamboo. It is almost always served shredded into fine slices, and I realized that I've always just eaten it without giving it much thought. It was good, but not great. Less starchy than a potato, a little sweeter, but with a strong vegetal taste. These were served with mayo for dipping, which was a little weird.

Hearts of Palm with Chicken and Hot Peppers - An outstanding dish, full of flavor. Shredding the hearts of palm was a great way to use them. The small bits of chicken and peppers gave a nice lift to the flavor profile.

Fried Mushroom Sticks - Another brilliant idea. Thin strips of mushroom fried to a chip-like crispiness. Simply seasoned with salt and dried hot pepper, I envisioned myself popping open a bag of these while watching the game, and wolfing the whole thing down. Great snack concept.

Coconut Soup Dessert - This coconut broth was served cold (you can see an ice cube in the photo) and contained soft cooked lotus seeds. It was sweet, light, and refreshing - the perfect way to end a meal on a hot day.

Taipei Dunkin Donuts - A nod to my New England home, it appears that Taipei runs on Dunkin, too. Although that looks like a bagel sandwich in the picture, it is actually a donut. Think about that - donut, ham, mayo... Hmmmm... They had the regular donuts we get at home, but they also had...

Strange Dunkin Donuts in Taiwan - How could we pass on the chance to pick up some of these space alien inspired donuts? They were made out of a different type of dough than typical donuts, and were much more spongey in texture. From front to back: chocolate glazed, soybean, corn, soybean.