It has been some years since I was last in Taiwan and after an epic trip over from a freezing UK in which:
- Initial flight was delayed for 6 hours
- Connecting flight missed
- KLM flight replacement flight class was downgraded
- Baggage lost on arrival
Verily after 32 hours I was all like “well at least when we get to the grandparents baby Gabriel can eat deep fried ducks heart” which he totally did!
Travel tribulations aside, the gulf in class between UK food and Taiwanese food is vast so there’s no point in bothering to explain why and over the next few weeks I’ll prove this. So without further ado, let’s start!
Day 1
My wife suggested we try a traditional Taiwanese steak house and I ordered rib eye with noodles which came in a weird sticky sweet sauce:
The steak was OK but I wasn’t too sure about the noodly sauci-ness of it all.
Gabriel also discovered a new combo of tarot ice cream and french fries:
This was totally decent!
Day 2
We were booked into a hot pot restaurant in Taichung but before we went our guide, Misty, took us to a local crispy pork joint:
This tasted great – very crispy and juicy although maybe a fraction sweet. The coating they use had a curious spice mix but I couldn’t quite identify all the ingredients apart from star anise and cinnamon.
And then we went of to hot pot where they bring out enough food to feed 10 people and you sit there for hours figuring out what to do with it all:
FYI on the condiments rack I spotted shallots finely chopped and kept in ice. I found this most curious so I took a picture:
I guess this is to keep the edge on the shallots so they don’t taste weak. It sure worked, they tasted amazing when mixed with vinegar and soy sauce.
Next, an unusual treat when Gabriel turned up with this plastic cup of some kind of seasoning?
It was kind of dry and maybe a bit salty but when the waitresses began going NO NO NO and pointing outside I realised I was eating the fish food Gabriel was about to feed them:
So, I guess, er, don’t do that; I’m a professional etc.
And that’s the first couple days out the way and I’m still a bit jet lagged but I’m super looking forward to see what other food I can find during my trip.
But what do you think? Had a more ridiculous travel story? Like ducks heart too? Then hit me up in the comments!
NB: I’ll be blogging much more over the coming weeks so stay tuned for more Taiwanese craziness.
Another goddam foodblog 