Sunday, February 12, 2006
Food
I'm back to the subject of Taiwan again. Food in Taiwan is interesting in many ways. First, it's surprisingly cheap. We had one lunch at a pretty nice restaurant called KiKi for 15 people that came to NT$3400, which while at first intimidating is actually just a smidgen over US$100. And yes, by the way, that is a clothed picture of Hsu Chi on the website who is one of the owners. Located in Taipei, it has pretty good food in a spicy, Schezwan style. You can probably feed an average group of four in most Taiwan restaurants for US$30-40.
Probably the most amazing is the unbelievable number of small restaurants (4 - 6 tables maybe) and vendors (just a grill) that sell food. You can get a complete lunch for one for no more than a couple of bucks. Now I don't really enjoy seafood that much which really limits Taiwan's cuisine for me. I think anything that's in (or even near) the water can be bought to eat. One big treat is BBQed cuttlefish on a stick which my wife loves. Clams are everywhere and fish comes in more styles than I can even imagine. Seaweed (algae, kelp, whatever you call it) is used for everything from wrappers to sidedishes - some of which aren't too bad.
A lot of Taiwan style is cold marinated side dishes. We went to one little hole-in-the-wall restaurant near my wife's home that is a famous and renowned second generation noodle house. The tables are just barely standing and their tops are worn almost through while the seats are cheap plastic stools. And the place is LOUD and busy with almost always a line. You see people wearing everything from upscale suits and dresses to kids in bluejeans and folks in work clothes eating there. We went up the counter to pick our dinner and I started panic. As much as my wife sold the place, I didn't see anything I thought I could possible eat. There were three shelves with assorted Taiwan style food - tea eggs, assorted tofus, some pork that might have been an ear or jowls??, some beef that was WELL marbled and other stuff that I couldn't even recognize. It turned out you could order other stuff as well. I did have some excellent noodles along with some cooked greens and shrimp.
When walking on the residential type streets - the residences are at the back of the first floors and second floors or higher - almost every 20 feet brings another vendor cooking and selling something. I think we went to four different bakeries within two blocks of my wife's home. There's probably two coffee shops and four 7/11 style stores on the same block. I had to walk all of 30 feet to pick up my morning paper (English language) or late night munchy.
And the western style places are there as well. Macdonalds is about as common - if not more so - than in the US. I did try one. I had a Big Mac combo - the fries were identical and the only difference in the Big Mac was not as much sauce - which made it better. They were pushing a new seafood burger on a rice bun while I was there. There are Pizza Huts, TGIFs and KFCs just to mention a few. The Big Mac and a corn dog on the first day were the only real western type fast food I tried while I was there. I tried to enjoy the local food as much as I could, but unfortunately, I'm just a little too picky for my own good. I did enjoy most of the veggie dishes I ended up with.
Just as a last note - flying China Airlines, you're offered a wide assortment of special meal choices. Flying in I opted for the regular meal - nothing too special, usually a choice of fish or chicken in mystery sauce with noodles, rice or potatoes. My wife had the fruit plate (which I chose for the trip out) which was really excellent for flying food. A plate of assorted fresh fruit - melons, grapes, kiwi, oranges, etc. that hit the spot.
