Taiwan Day 11: Undeniably Taiwanese Snacks / 一眼看出就是台灣小吃 (Taipei: Wanhua District / 台北市: 萬華區)

One of the best things about Taiwanese cuisine is that there is a vast variety of little snacks or small eats (小吃 / Mandarin: xiǎo chi).  The Taiwanese thrive on these small eats primarily because they are convenient and affordable.  Not only do they get served up quickly, they come in individual servings most of the time.  It is easy to grab and eat in a hurry.  Even if you are in a large group, each person can still eat what they want without having to collectively decide on what to order.  Oh, and these xiaochi can be found on just about every street corner and alleyway.  Art and I were at Ximending (西門町) when a pang of hunger overcame us, so we stopped to have some of our favorite Taiwanese snacks.

The first thing that comes to mind when I need to satisfy my hunger quickly is braised pork rice (滷肉飯 / Mandarin: lǔ ròu fàn / Taiwanese: loh bah bng), also known as stewed pork rice or minced pork rice depending on how it is prepared.  Ground pork, usually stewed with shiitake mushroom and crispy fried shallots, covers a bowl of steamed white rice and gets garnished with a florescent pickled radish.  It is simple bowl of savory satisfaction that cannot be beat.

Arguably the most famous of Taiwanese street foods is the oyster omelette (蚵仔煎 / Taiwanese: ô-ah jian), more commonly known as oyster pancake in English.  It really is an omelette since it is made predominantly of scrambled eggs and because there is no bread like portion to make it a pancake.  Fresh oysters and green veggies are scattered throughout the crisp egg round, and sweet potato starch holds it all together while providing a very glutinous and chewy 'Q' texture.  Sweet chili sauce, a typical condiment used in Taiwanese cooking, is spread across the top.  There is no name for this in Mandarin because this is a truly local item that has been made since the days of Formosa.  The chef can whip this petite and protein packed pancake for you in no time.  I love it.

Neither fried chicken nor food on a stick is Taiwanese in nature, but it is something that is crazy popular on the streets of Taipei.  Whether it is little bite sized pieces of salt and pepper seasoned popcorn chicken or the giant, pounded, deep fried chicken filet from Shilin Night Market, fried chicken must be eaten.  It is just so crispy.  No matter what time of day your hunger pangs develop, the deep fried chicken makes it seem like happy hour.  All that is missing is beer.

These traditional Taiwanese snacks were delicious and held us over until dinner.  Until then, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Ximending Pedestrian Area (西門町)
台北市萬華區漢中街
Hanzhong Street, Wanhua District, Taipei City
MRT: Ximen Station, exit no. 6 / 捷運西門站, 6號出口

ML - 20130710

124. Portland - Back to Portlandia for More Food Carts (Portland: Southwest/Downtown)

It is time to travel again! This trip involves a stop in Portland, about a week romp in Tokyo, and a two week stay in Taipei.  The first leg of the trip began last weekend with a flight to Portland to attend a wedding.  Since I had just finished writing 12 posts about Portland last month, this quick weekend trip came at the right time... yay for more posts on food from Portlandia!

Allison and I flew out of the newly remodeled Long Beach Airport on JetBlue on Saturday morning.  If you've flown on JetBlue before, you know exactly what that means... raiding the snack basket when the flight attendant swings by! When we landed it high time for lunch.  Those in-flight snacks can only hold us over for so long...

As soon as we checked into the hotel, we headed straight for the food pods at the intersection of Southwest Alder and SW 10th Avenue.  Originally, we wanted to try the famous chicken and rice at Nong's Khao Man Gai, but this location was not open on the weekend.  No worries, we quickly found the Euro Trash cart and ordered something we could not get in California... foie gras.  Duck Butter, as it is listed on the menu, is a sinfully seared piece of foie gras laying on a bed of freshly cooked potato chips dripping with garlic aioli (known as their house made Nah-Nah Chips just by itself) and the drippings of the fat foie.  I felt hunger, heaven, and a heart attack all in one bite.  Bewilderment.

While foie gras on potato chips is delicious and all, it doesn't quite make a full meal.  Just around the corner and a few carts down from Euro Trash sits the E-San Thai cart, one of the many, many carts serving Thai cuisine in Portland.  There are six Thai food carts just at the pod at Alder & 10th intersection alone.  I ordered a green curry with tofu, eggplant and other vegetables, plopped myself down on a parking curb and let the sweat drip down my face.

Allie had a hunkering for meat, so she ventured over to the Number 1 Bento cart for the galbi bento.  The flavoring was not far from what we know as Korean barbecue in LA, and for just six bucks, it was a steal.  One thing though... the food comes in a plastic container, so beware of the heat from the steaming white rice while holding the box.  Ouch!

Sitting and eating on a parking curb is no easy task, but the good food makes it all worthwhile.  We won't let the food take away from the main focus of the trip... the wedding.  Which, come to think of it... this was about the time that we dropped the food to head back to the hotel to get ready.

We clean up real nice now don't we? I kid, I kid.  These Instagram filters make us look extremely airbrushed, so they look best on IG.  Congratulations Sarah and Ray! Allie and I wish you two all the best.  Until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20130622

Post 26.5: Vancouver - Day 1 (Dinner Substitute)

Have you ever eaten so much that you feel like you can't breathe anymore? After a morning of donuts, dim sum, and dumplings... the landfill that was my breakfast and lunch had piled so high in my stomach that I could have sworn that my esophagus was blocked, and the extra weight from all that food was pushing my lungs into my chest.  There was barely enough space left in my lungs to let any oxygen in, but there wasn't any power left in there to blow the carbon dioxide out either.  Even Albuterol would have been useless.

Hot Cheetos from the USA.

I brought these for Amanda; Canada doesn't sell Hot Cheetos!

And even after I found respite in Amanda's couch, I continued to munch on the uniquely Canadian chips that were found at Superstore.  Superstore (like Costco) carries President's Choice brand (like Kirkland Signature), and although it's just the basic of all basic brands, it was like culinary Gucci to me.  Canada is famous for having ketchup flavored chips, but they also have these flavors too:

Szechwan (Sichuan) flavored chips.

Szechwan is famous for kung pao and the peppercorn that provides a numbing spiciness.

General Tao chicken flavor.  It's Panda Express in potato chip form.

Indian tandoori barbecue flavor.

If the chips really were made from naan, that'd be pure genius.

Continuing to eat at that state of being was almost masochistic.  Okay, it was purely masochistic.  But the pungently putrid scent of the feta cheese beckoned me to continue eating chip after chip.  I was a fly... hypnotized by the smell of... well, you know.  And no matter how stinky it was... nom, nom, nom.

Greek flavored chips.  With olive and feta cheese.

Super stinky.  Super delicious.

Ketchup flavored Pringles.

They confuse the tastebuds at first but get addicting later on.

Dill pickle flavored Pringles.

Once you pop... you can definitely stop.

But no worries.  I would be quickly rescued by an intense calorie-burning activity... carrying Amanda's three-tier, strawberry mousse, chocolate cake... MADE. FROM. SCRATCH.  We were on our way to a Hawaiian-themed barbecue.  Amanda was dressed as a hula girl, and I... well, I carried the two-ton cake, so I was Superman.

All smiles. 

The master baker presents her jaw-dropping product.

I have no clue why those mini cakes were so damn heavy because the strawberry mousse was light and fluffy as hell.  Holy bujeezus.  Amanda, have you ever thought about opening your own bakery? What are you doing working at VCC?!

A stack of strawberry mousse.

Three tiers of heavenly fluffy mousse... like clouds on your tongue.

And, of course, the barbecue was really a party, so Amanda made jello shots.  Of all the colors from a box of crayons.  Festive! And slightly dangerous.

Five floors of festive fun.  The pagoda of Jello shots.

No more eating for me.  Okay, maybe just a little bit...

Next post: A Day of Japanese Meals