TW Tour: Wanluan Pig Trotter

There is a small town in Pingtung County off of Route 1 on Road 187 called Wanluan. Wanluan is a Hakka town and they are famous for their pig trotter. We are huge fans of pig trotter in general... ah the gelatin between mosels of meat and skin... So we had to give it a try. Plus, our pre-lunch of tea eggs, fruit, and exotic cold tea beverages from 7-11 weren't holding up anymore. Wanluan and Pingtung in general was unbelievably hot and the air was heavy. This was not ideal heavy food weather but we were going to persevere. The small town was basically over run with pig trotter stores. But we had to go to the granddad of them all - Wanluan Pig Trotter @ Hai Hon.

Right outside the restaurant you can see a row of ladies with pig trotters ready for chopping. This was an exciting sight indeed.
We ordered a half order of pig trotter (hate to see how big the whole order would be). It comes with a very strong garlic-ish dipping sauce. I had read that Wanluan town's pig trotter technique produced a dry and more crunchy specimen - not the usual soft kind that we're used to. This smelled great and looked great but we didn't love the texture. The collagen was not as much present. Also, I didn't like the crunch.
The sauteed kong shing tsai was fresh and provided relief from the heaviness of the pork.
The Hakka Small Fry was a good rendition of the TW Hakka's ethnic dish with octopus, dry bean curd, celery, and pork strips.
The chitterlings had a wisp of heat.
So our conclusion was that while the restaurant provide a fantastic demonstration of TW Hakka food -exhibiting its characteristics of oily, salty, and fragrant - it was not our cup of tea. But hey, we get it... it's food of peasants who worked in fields and needed the robustness. I think it was a bit overwhelming for our palates and the oil level was uncomfortable. Those who prefer spicing with a heavier hand or have an affinity and stomach tolerance for American Southern cooking would love the flavours here. NT865 total (~$28).

http://www.haihon.com.tw/
屏東縣萬巒鄉民和路16號　TEL：(08)7811220

TW Tour: Clay Jar Chicken

We were driving in the Quanziling area (to and from our lovely hotspring experience). Apparently the area is know for clay jar chicken. We saw some signs for road stands selling this preparatio nas well as signs for traditional chicken (tu ji) farms. We were too full from our pre-breakfast and breakfast for a whole chicken to be split by the four of us. They only sold it whole.

These chickens looked amazing and smelled heavenly but I must admit they took me a bit to the brink of my rehabilitated chicken phobia.


Tainan County, Route 172 near Guanziling

TW Tour: Alishan Pre-Breakfast and Breakfast

If you're starting to see the gluttony demonstrated in these posts, you're starting to catch our intent of the trip. After a beautiful sunrise on top of the Zushan Observatory Area, we got a egg pancake (pictured on the right) for pre-breakfast for our jaunt down the mountain back to the steam train. These were like scallion pancakes with an egg on top. But they were thin and not doughy. The outside were golden crisp yet the insides were not dry. And the egg was just the savory bonus. God, these took me back to my childhood - just like the ones my Grandpa Tsao would buy me at the stand near the elementary school for breakfast.

We also spied some delicious looking bamboo soup but didn't seem that portable.

When we got back to our B&B, we had the breakfast that was included in the stay. There was this "Western" breakfast complete with a TW rendition of an American hotdog (a lot less fatty and thereby less juicy).
And we had the buffet of traditional Chinese porridge with breakfast small plates. Janet discovered that she loves pork floss here.

TW Tour: B&B Dinner, Alishan

If our precious afternoon tea were not enough, our B&B also cooked up a delicious dinner for us. It was great to stay at our place of residence for dinner as after a long day of planes, trains, and automobiles, we really could not be bothered to navigate the mountain roads in search of a restaurant. We had a choice of lions head (meatballs) or fish as the main entree. But as you can see here it's quite the spread. It included a fishball soup (light and clean tasting), the entrees (the lions head was not too dense or sweet and the fish was silken).


We also got a trip of vegetables as a side. From left to right they were - bamboo with sha cha sauce, mountain san su with mayo, and pickled daikon. The vegetables were really the hit of the meal with the kind of freshness and preparation with the lightest touch that is so often lacking in the US.

The style of cooking here can only be best described as Taiwanese, mountain spa food. Nothing was heavy and everything spoke of the fresh and healthy mountain air.

We also got a mini creme brulee type dessert with the set. The funny part of all this is that all this food was only NT300 per person (~$10).


「阿里山民宿 四季星空」 602 嘉義縣番路鄉隙頂18號阿里山
電話：0960-091-683

TW Tour: Tea Time in Alishan

Our beautiful B&B, Season Star Minsu, was absolutely immaculate in their guest experience and surroundings. Afternoon tea is included with the price of the stay. We got two pots of local tea (grown right on the premise of the B&B!) with the cutest dessert spread. Each was decorated with flowers slightly differently. Of course we gobbled up the delicious treats and savoured the fragrant and delicate teas despite this being the fourth meal of the day for us. We were relaxing in foodie heaven now...

TW Tour: Ah Liang Bento, Fenchihu

Taiwan, like Japan, is known for its train food, in particular train bentos. It's kind of a weird concept for Americans as we tend to think of food on any mass transit as edible at best (think plane food). One of the most famous purveyors of traditional style train bentos is Ah Liang in Fenchihu which is along the Alishan Steam Train route and of course we had to come see for ourselves.

After a harrowing journey on a mostly one lane road through the mountains with mirrors positioned every three feet to help guide cars through the curves, we arrived in the small town of Fenchihu. This town is basically a few of blocks and we would have missed it had we not seen a bunch of tourist looking types milling about. Ah Liang Bento was easy to find after we ascertained we were in the right town. The restaurant itself was essentially a shack with some covered outdoor porch type seating. After our long car trek on what was essentially a mountain trail, we were hungry for lunch so we ordered four of their signature bentos.

The bentos contained pork chop, a drumstick, some mountain greens, pickled vegetables, bamboo shoots, and rice. All of it was delicious. The pork chop was pounded very thin and marinated in something (not sure what) that made it a bright magenta colour.

As an aside, we were thrilled to find even in these remote mountain outposts people making coffee via the siphon system.

Ah Liang Bento
No. 117, Fenchihu town, Chiayi County
Taiwan
05)256-1809 or (05)256-1609

TW Tour: Dai Si Turkey Rice, Chiyai

Yep, I'm alive. Life had been rather full of changes the last few months, but I am now back to food blogging. The most important food event I must catch you all up on was my visit to Taiwan in Aug/Sep of this year. Three of my friends came to join my on this culinary expedition - Wil, Janet, and Melissa. I was excited to explore Taiwan with them. Some places and food there, I had experienced before, but the majority of the experiences were new for all of us. I just happened to be the language facilitator.


Our first "real meal" in TW was in Chiyai. And if you go to Chiayi, you must have turkey rice. It's sort of what gumbo is to New Orleans or deep dish pizza is to Chicago - it defines the city culinarily. In fact, the entire city is over-run with signs for turkey rice. Literally every 2 or 3 store fronts is a turkey rice joint. We were musing how much turkey rice the average Chiayi resident must eat per week in order support this kind of proliferation.

It was 9:30 in the morning and we decided to see if Dai Si (呆獅) Turkey Rice was open and indeed it was! The most famous turkey rice joint in Chiyai is supposed to be Fountain Turkey Rice. But we read that the locals all went to Dai Si instead and that Fountain was for tourists. We, being dedicated to eating like locals, picked Dai Si. The place was old and run down. There was a big turkey in a bowl near the back and a woman was picking out turkey meat by hand. As it was still early, there were only a couple of tables filled in this small place of 5 maybe 6 tables. We ordered two large bowls of turkey rice, two bowls of oyster soup, and the first of many cold, bottled ice teas to be consumed on this trip.

The turkey rice was everything it was built up to be despite not looking all that. The meat was tender and juicy. The saucing savory yet light. You can really taste the aroma of the rice and the pickled daikon offset the meat nicely. We gobbled this up quickly.
Oyster soup was a revelation to Wil, Janet, and Melissa. TW oysters are small (pebble in size) but packs lots of flavour. They weren't over-done. The ginger slivers took away any fishiness. The clear broth awakened our palates.
All this flavour for NT140 (or about a little over $4) for all four of us. As a side note, when we polled ourselves towards the end of the trip about Top 5 meals of the trip, everyone agreed this was one of them. Our trip was indeed off to a good start!

呆獅火雞肉飯
　　地址：嘉義市民族路665號（靠近仁愛路）
　　電話：(05) 227-3051