kitchenettes
After more than one year in Taiwan and we didn’t talk about food yet! It’s unforgivable considering that Taiwanese love food! (and taking pictures of the food).
The first thing we should point out is that Taiwanese or Chinese food in general, doesn’t have anything to do, absolutley anything, with the famous Chinese restaurants in any European country (I don’t know the rest). Let’s say that here it doesn’t exist what we know as “fried rice” or commonly called “three delicious rice”, or the “spring rolls”.
There is a large variety of restaurants and nightmarkets everywhere. Nightmarkets are very popular in Taiwan and it’ s possble to find all kind of food at very cheap prices, sometimes. Actually, is more convenient and cheaper to go out for lunch or dinner. We can confirm it! Due to it’s history or just for geographical reasons, Japanese restaurants are very popular as well as some Korean, Thai or Vietnamese…
The basic ingredient is rice or noodles and vegetables or meat is added, whether it is with or whithout soup. There are lots more of dishes, but a bowl of rice is never missing, actually is like bread in the Mediterranean diet. And above all, everything must be cooked. In the past it was thought as a prevention against any disease or infection, and nowadays this habit still remains and it’s difficult to find some salads in the restaurants.
As we can’t talk about all culinary spacialities, otherwise we’ll get hungry, here you are the most famous dishes (not the most delicious!) of the island:
Beef noodles, top 1 and it’s worth Stinky Tofu, its name says everything
Pig’s blood cake, Spanish “Morcilla” indeed Pineapple cake, the most famous cake
For us, it has not been difficult to get used to eat out and try all kind of food, sometimes even without knowing what to order or what exactly we are eating. We’ve become (almost) experts with the chopsticks although at home we use cutlery, because sometimes we nedd some western food, whether at home or in any restaurant. And to make a good impression, nothing better than say everything is very good, or in Chinese “hao chi”!. Here you are some examples of what we can eat during the week…
Taiwanese breakfast31-Jan-2010 11:27, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 3.1, 6.3mm, 0.013 sec
Italian noodles (spaghettis)31-May-2010 13:16, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 4.0, 24.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 1100
Beef noodles01-Jun-2010 13:22, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 4.5, 30.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 1100
Street level restaurant02-Jun-2010 12:45, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 5.6, 18.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 500
Tofu, pigs blood and a little bit of spicy sauce02-Jun-2010 12:55, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 5.0, 36.0mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 1600
Mission accomplished!02-Jun-2010 13:11, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 4.0, 18.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 900
As I said, Night Markets are very popular all around the island. Streets full of shops and food stalls where there is a mix of all sort of smells and tastes. Everything is prepared in small portions to make it easy for eating. One of the most popular food stall among local people is that one where you can pick the ingredients you want, put them in a small basket and then everything is boiled together… like a self-service buffet on the street. In these markets we were also surprised by the “no order” of the stalls, as you can buy socks at the same time you are buying tofu or whatever you want to eat.
Deep fried chicken11-Apr-2010 20:24, Canon Canon DIGITAL IXUS 1, 2.8, 5.0mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 400
Food and 100 Taiwanese dollar shop21-Aug-2010 22:44, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 3.5, 35.0mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 800
Yummy!21-Aug-2010 22:48, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 3.2, 35.0mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 800
Famous food stall. Take your turn.21-Aug-2010 22:50, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 4.0, 35.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
Calamari09-Dec-2010 20:30, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 5.6, 35.0mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 200
Famous dumplings09-Dec-2010 20:01, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5000, 4.0, 35.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 400
It is also very common the Taiwanese version of “Tupperware”, the “bento box” or lunch box, that actually comes from Japan. If you don’t have your own lunch box, you can just buy a take away lunch box in any restaurant. Everywhere you go, you’ll find food… we have the impression that Taiwanese are always eating :)
Food culture is deep-rooted among Taiwanese and any activity or social event take place around a table full of dishes. Taiwanese worry about the food would not be enough, so when there are some guests they always order or cook too much food! Moreover, in any village or city they have their own speciality, a famous dish or its traditional sweet. We already get “taiwanized” and eveywhere we go we also buy some sweets from the area as a souvenir :)
However, from time to time we miss Mediterranean flavor and we prepare a good salad or pa amb tomàquet (bread with tomato sauce, Catalan style!). There are some supermarkets where it’s possible to find imported products such as olive oil, wine, Italian pasta or cheese. As a curiosity, one of the most expensive meal we had in Taiwan has been pa amb tomàquet and cheese!
Enjoy your meal!
– Jo volia comentar:
8O…
– Però m’ha sortit això:
Your comment was a bit too short. Please go back and try again.
– I m’he quedat així:
8O. <– La goteta de baba és un residu d'abans ;)
Pero si a tots els reportatges esteu menjan!!!!!!
Quina gana m’heu fet agafar.
Enric.
Anna: Queda clar que, “si conseves la línia”, no és per falta de menjar ni de varietat en els menús.
Abili i Carme
La comida de Taiwan!!! Finally!!! Está bueno!!!
mmm…que hambre me ha entrado, y que rico parece todo! :)