Mexican Food in Taipei

You can order masa harina off of taobao.

Seriously, I donā€™t know when I acquired this halo of omniscience, but itā€™s silly. :wink: My position is the same as yours. AFAIK you need masa harina for making corn tortillas. The texture etc. will probably not be right otherwise, but Iā€™ve never experimented.

Iā€™m not sure what that refers to, but perhaps theyā€™re like sopes? Living in Mexico, I never saw or heard of a masa ā€œboatā€ (not that my experience was somehow all-encompassing). Is this fancy new cuisine?

Tamal, actually. I made the same error growing up, and still recall being corrected by my father, who is from Celaya, Gto.

My assumption has always been that you need proper maiz nixtamalizado to make them, but it couldnā€™t hurt to do the experiment. Youā€™d need experience to judge the result, obviously! I doubt it would work.

Ah, well thatā€™s a whole other linguistic debate. At what point does the incorrect English back-formation become standard? (Thanks, though. I didnā€™t know that.)

If I were to make tamales (?), theyā€™d be in an ever-larger category of dishes Iā€™ve only cooked at home, and never tried in a restaurant, authentic or otherwise, so Iā€™d have no way to say if it ā€œworksā€ in an authentic sense. For example, I love the assorted polenta dishes Iā€™ve added to my repertoire. One of these days I really should try polenta at a genuinely Italian-ish restaurant to see if Iā€™m anywhere close to ā€œstandardā€, not that it really matters for whether or not I enjoy the dish.

I recently noticed that Diana Kennedyā€™s Essential Cuisines of Mexico now has a Kindle edition, although from what Iā€™ve seen of her stuff Iā€™m far more likely to read that than I am to cook with it. Perhaps more practical for me are the upcoming Rick Baylessā€™s [i]More Mexican Everyday[/i] (LOVE the first one), and Cooks Illustratedā€™s as always modestly named Best Mexican Recipes.

If we are going into detail, the stuff you use for tortillas is different technically speaking from the one you use for arepas, pupusas, and yes, cornbread and polenta. Basic corn ā€œmealā€ turned into many different things. Not as flexible flavor-wise as wheat but then a gordita is not a taco. Which is why anyways tacos in Central America are not the same as tacos in Mexico.

As to using dried masa to make tamales, also technically speaking, is close to heresy as per my relatives and the results, IMHO, can never be as good as with fresh masa. But then they think the same of tortillas made from the dried stuff. Yes, I know that as Latinos abroad we make do with dried because meipanfa, butā€¦ Hence, the mill idea.

Thatā€™s a common problem for me too, although, fortunately, I grew up eating tamales occasionally, and have been able to try tamales and sopes in Mexico, traditional mole, and so on.

Searching online turns up that it is calcium oxide (CaO, ę°§åŒ–éˆ£), aka quicklime or burnt lime (made by putting limestone in a very hot kiln), which when you add it to water becomes calcium hydroxide (slaked lime) aka pickling lime, aka lime paste, which has nothing to do with citrus limes (but I can imagine some poor schleb has misunderstood and has written the latter into instructions online somewhere). I imagine youā€™ll find the calcium oxide itself marketed under ā€˜pickling limeā€™.

According to this site, it forms a cloudy slurry in water, as it is minimally soluble in water. You can search for pickling lime online and see if anyone ships internationally. However, acc. to Wiki, it is widely used in the food industry, and so food-grade slaked lime is likely available here somewhere, especially since itā€™s used to make ā€˜century eggsā€™ (ēš®č›‹ pĆ­dĆ n) acc. to Wiki. It might be used in some Thai food to, as this pic implies. Itā€™s used to prepare betel nuts here; should be easy to get.

NEWS FLASH

There is a Mexican guy named Luca selling home made tortillas at NTU this week. If nearby, grab some!

Oh, and in case you do get some tortillas, think about getting/making one of these, to heat up the tortillas, especially using gas stoves:

+1 for juanitas. tried it the other day, it definitely hit the spot.

although i donā€™t like the counter style restaurants with hardly any seats the food was awesome. i didnā€™t have much choice as all the actual restaurant style mexican restaurants had very shitty reviews. i will try eddies cantina next time.

Juanitas is PERMANENTLY CLOSED behind Sogo at No. 51, Lane 160, Section 1, Dunhua S Rd . Donā€™t know if this has already been mentioned.

Wow that sucks

:astonished:

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

BTW, soon to come: Pan de Muerto available. Make your pedidos / orders here.

I had a pretty good chicken burrito the other day at Pre Game in Xin Yi. Just to set expectations, that place is American-style bar food so not sure if their burrito ranks high as far as authenticity goesā€¦but it was tasty.

I have a 1lb bag of masa harina sitting in my freezer, specially FedExā€™d to me last week :smiley:
Gonna attempt corn tortillas sometime this week.

Yea, theyā€™ve already started remodeling into some Chinese restaurant. On the plus side, RexMex in Shida is mostly amazing food.

There is a Taco Festival this weekend? How can there be this many places that serve tacos that I have never heard of?!

Taipei Times
Fri, Apr 08, 2016 - Page 12
The anywhere, anytime kind of food

Taiwan gears up for its first-ever Festival del Taco en Taipei tomorrow and Sunday at Taipei Artist Village

By Marcus Aurelius / Contributing reporter

Uncle Taco Touch will be selling a variety of tacos at the Festival del Taco in Taipei tomorrow.

Taiwan is well known for itā€™s many cheap culinary delights. Stinky tofu, oyster omelets, pigā€™s blood cake and three cups chicken (äø‰ęÆ雞) are all tasty dishes found easily in every city and are a must try for tourists.
In Latin countries, tacos are usually the best cheap foods. Taiwan doesnā€™t really do tacos, unless guabao (割包), soy sauce braised pork topped with peanut powder and served in a steamed bun, is included. This weekend, the first-ever Festival del Taco en Taipei at the Taiwan Artist Village (å°åŒ—åœ‹éš›č—č”“ę‘) will be introducing Taiwan to a variety of tacos
Nine stalls will be selling tacos, including Emā€™s Taco, Mecato, Uncle Kunkel, Nalaā€™s Mexican Food and Las Adelitas.

TACO MADNESS
Todde Williams is a culinary crackerjack who considers himself an expert on tacos. He plans his birthdays in Taco Bells and is always on the lookout for Mexican food when he travels around the world as a writer. Williams will also be at the festival selling his Uncle Taco Touch tacos.
Having relocated to Taipei from South Korea two years ago, Williams says that Taiwanese pay closer attention to replicating the original than Koreanā€™s do.
ā€œTaipei has actually taken the time to look up recipes, and people in town travel a lot more than Koreans do, and get more out of other cultures in general. Iā€™d say that here itā€™s genuinely about flavor, even if thereā€™s a slight miss,ā€ he said.
ā€œSometimes everything will be spot on, and then someone throws cabbage on the taco and makes it a mess. Iā€™ve had a perfect taco, served cold, and a nice, hot, juicy taco served with mayonnaise instead of sour cream.ā€
While Williamsā€™ favorite taco joint in Taiwan is Anitaā€™s Cantina in Taitung Countyā€™s Dulan Village (éƒ½č˜­), he said he is proud of his pork adobada, which he stews for 12 hours.

Festival Notes
What: Festival del Taco en Taipei (台北å¢Øč„æ哄夾餅ēƀ
When: Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 6pm
Where: Taipei Artist Village (å°åŒ—åœ‹éš›č—č”“ę‘), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北åø‚åŒ—å¹³ę±č·Æ7號)
Admission: Free
On the Net: On Facebook, search for Festival del Taco en Taipei

ā€œItā€™s [the] Mexican guabao,ā€ he said.

Thanks for posting about this. My goodness, I may actually go downtown on a weekend. I try very hard to avoid that.

I can see why theyā€™re making the comparison, but man, way to make tacos sound unappetizing!

sounds goodā€¦

a few days ago i saw masa stocked in super city. is this normal? or a random appearanceā€¦ did not expect to find such a specialist item in taiwan.

It is rare as an unicorn. :astonished:

Which City Super you say?

Was it wet masa or that yellow thing from the States?

in which case, close but no cigar.

What is ā€œwet masaā€? Do tellā€¦
And what city super has that Bobā€™s Red Mill Masa Harina? I had to hand carry a bag last time and I am halfway through it already.