This is a gratuitous post about things that I have been eating.
In Chinese cultures, it’s pretty common for each different region to have its local specialty, which is often a snack 小吃 of some kind. Taiwan has a lot, and they’re delicious. Here is just a spread of some things we ate at a night market for dinner one night, featuring some 小吃.
Dragonfruit 火龍果 is sold everywhere here – Taiwan is a sub-tropical island after all; fresh, delicious, and often locally grown food is readily available. Dragonfruit comes in two varieties, this kind with the red flesh, and another (I think more common) version with silvery insides. It’s one of my favorites – I love how subtle the flavor is and how refreshing and juicy it can be.
So everyone who is familiar with me as a college student knows that there were some periods of my life where 50% of my caloric intake came from ice cream and peanut butter (in between, I ate a lot of vegetables – no lie). One of my concerns in coming to Taiwan was related to how I would survive without access to my favorite natural peanut butter. As expected, I haven’t found natural peanut butter yet. But an acceptable substitute is this treat, often found in street-vendor places – this particular stand was in Bali 八里. In the left of the picture is essentially a giant block of peanut brittle – whole peanuts embedded in sugar. The wooden blocks in the front and in the man’s hand are used to scrape this brittle off into a sweet, peanut-y powder that is then spread out on the inside of a thin, stretchy flour (might be rice flour) tortilla. Then, 2-3 scoops of ice cream are plopped inside and it’s rolled up into a handful of deliciousness. The name? I think I’ve just seen it called Peanut Ice Cream Roll 花生冰淇淋捲. The result? Excellence. The ice cream flavors we got at this place were also awesome: taro and pineapple.
So this is the one picture here of something that I didn’t eat. But isn’t this stack of fried noodles just beautiful? It might also just be for decoration, regardless, it’s eye-catching.
This wrap is similar to the peanut ice cream dessert illustrated and described with another picture, yet this version is meant as a more savory meal. It’s a thin flour wrap stuffed with all kinds of things which often make appearances in Taiwanese sandwiches as well. There’s some kind of mayo, sprouts, corn, peanut sugar, a fluffy kind of beef jerky, corn and general tastiness. I have been calling it a Taiwanese burrito – I had a “Mexican” burrito one night, and let me tell you that this is way better than that very sad, flavorless attempt at a burrito.
I know I already posted pictures of some shave ice, but this one we went all out with. It was pricey, but totally worth it for a fully-loaded experience. The ice was matcha-flavored, and as you can see it is heaped with everything from red bean to strawberry to sweetened condensed milk. I think there’s also a pudding on the side that you can’t see. Even I would have hesitated if I had to tackle this alone. Thankfully, I had help from several of the other Fulbright Fellows.
My new kitchen! Still a work in progress regarding cleaning (I haven’t dealt with the fridge yet) and stocking it with supplies to be functional, but I’m looking forward to cooking again. Although it is perfectly affordable to eat out all the time here (unlike the States), I miss cooking and getting to handle my own food. I’ve had several conversations with Taiwanese people about how they think that Taiwanese cuisine is unhealthy. I have a hard time agreeing with them. Obviously the buffet of fried options available in street food is unhealthy. But so is fast food and street food everywhere. True, home-cooked, traditional Taiwanese cuisine doesn’t seem to have anything inherently unhealthy about it. In this vein of thinking, I hope to cook at home and eat more vegetables in the coming months.
First food cooked in my new apartment! Some simple Chinese water spinach 空心菜 (lit. empty heart vegetable – a way more descriptive name) and bamboo shoots 竹筍 (a super simple way of cooking veggies that I also used in the States where you fry fresh greens in the chili oil that the bamboo shoots are preserved in). This vegetable is extremely common here, way more so than I remember it being in the mainland, and it’s probably a much rarer find in the States. I really like it. As the Chinese name implies, the stems are hollow and lightly crunchy when cooked right, while the wilted leaves catch juices for lots of flavor.
I believe that my dad once described Taiwan as “all of the good food from the mainland, concentrated in one place. Then when you actually go over to the mainland, you’re really confused and frustrated by the fact that you can’t get everything delicious because it’s all spread out.” Anyway, this is some highly excellent roast Peking duck (北京烤鴨) which was, to be honest, the first meal that I was not able to clean the plates for. I also felt full for the next 24 hours. Something about all the fat on that duck can get you…
…and just because this post is all about food, here are some scones that I made this one time, back when I lived in Providence had an oven. Full-size ovens are very rare in home kitchens in Taiwan. I am going to be so out of practice with baking by the time I get my hands on an oven again…
