Anybody have any Taiwanese foods that you have slowly (or quickly) become addicted to?
My personal favorites are:
Traditional douhua with peanuts
doufu gan and haidai
Chinese sausages (when they are done right)
Lately I have also been on a kick with the mango shuang/mango coconut shakes. The stands are starting to appear everywhere. There is a famous one in Shilin and the big hong kong chain has opened up branches in the Hsimendingb[/b] and Donghuab[/b] Jie markets.
My absolute favorite has to be stir fried doumiao.
Those deep fried rice sausages you get at the tienbula stalls, but ONLY when they’re chopped up BEFORE, not AFTER they’re dropped into the ancient, black carcinogenic oil.
i just can’t resist the sausages. just catching a whiff makes me hungry. and the raw garlic…mmm. of course the deluxe version is the dua deung(rice sausage…in taiwanese it just means big intestine…sounds tasty, eh?) split down the middle with a sausage smooshed in there along with some pieces of raw garlic and some parsley. throw some soy paste and some sweet chili sauce in there and it’s a party in your mouth!
i also can’t resist ai yu. not sure why. it’s not like it has any taste, really(except for the lime and sugar they add to it). but i get at least 2 cups a day. and it’s much healthier than drinking bubble tea all the time.
[color=orange]Hot Douhua with a Youtiao in the winter, Cold Douhua with peanuts in the summer[/color]
[color=olive]Barbecued Squidsicles[/color]
[color=red]The crunchy little birds on a stick (haven’t had one in a loooong time, but I used to eat them often.)[/color]
[color=yellow]Sunflower seeds[/color]
Anybody else addicted to Assam milk tea? I have had that one since my first week here.
Yep, me. Also like the “Teh Tarik” from 7-11 for breakfast …
Unfortunately I can’t really get friend with any of the local food, too different from the Chinese food I am used to (while staying in Malaysia) - something here is missing …
In fact - and no offense intended - I don’t like the typical Taiwanese food at all.
I can’t possibly drink enough “Cha Li Wang” - The Japanese style green tea, though, not the other flavors (especially not the British-style black tea Cha Li Wang - bleah!) I live on it. Unfortunately, it has less that 300 ppm caffeine, so that means I have to alternate between that and Starbucks coffee of the day.
When I left Taiwan the first time, I missed dou jiang and dan bing the most. It is the best drunk food I have found, with a xiao bing you tiao to dip in the dou jiang.
I also love a good bing in the summer, with apple, banana, and sweetened condensed milk.
Taiwan Draft Beer goes well with outdoor seafood, a la Bi Tan, for some reason.
i had something that translates as “coffin” in hualien. supposedly there are people at shilin night market selling them to. unfortunately there is nothing in taiwan that can make me go back to shilin n.m., but i’m always up for a weekend jaunt down the east coast.
