Taiwanese Restaurant 1
I’ve got a new Asian-cuisine obsession: Taiwanese food. And the people responsible are two lovely ladies I met in, of all places, an Asian supermarket.
We began our meal at a favorite Taiwanese restaurant of theirs with a mild-flavored tea, maybe Jasmine?
It’s a simple concept, really, but one that can make a big difference in a person’s dining experience—having attractive cups to drink out of, and…
interesting bowls. The Sunshines, my nickname for the ladies because they brighten my life, know of my fondness for taking food photos, and so helped me with the setup of this one. They insisted on finding a contrasting bowl for the salted dried okra, rather than have me use one of the green rice bowls sitting on our table. The waitress, who I incidentally also know from the same Asian supermarket (my city’s Chinatown is small), found us this white one.
Their tolerance of my brand of crazy is just one of the reasons I adore The Sunshines. Another is their thoughtfulness. The okra wasn’t a restaurant appetizer, but something a friend of one of the ladies brought her from the same store I bought the Peanut Nougat Candy. Yes, it was a nice coincidence.
All right, now onward with our meal!
I trusted The Sunshines to do all of the ordering, and never actually looked at the menu. So my food descriptions are based on what the ladies told me and my memory. This is a pancake with lean and fatty braised pork belly, sour mustard, and cilantro.
The Sunshines ordered just one, for me to try. I heart these ladies, hard.
Ong Choy, one of my favorite Asian veggies. (Except for when I cook it, which was only one time…’weeds’ don’t taste good.)
Deep-fried beancurd stuffed with minced chicken and mushrooms.
I love stuffed beancurd (available at Chinese restaurants, including ones that offer dim sum).
I think I could eat this home-style bowl of rice topped with soy sauce-braised pork belly, sour mustard, and hard-boiled egg twice a week.
A much fancier version of Won Ton Noodles Soup than what I’m used to eating. This one is garnished with chives and green onions.
I liked the atypical noodles used, which The Sunshines surmised weren’t freshly made.
The meal was a wonderful introduction to Taiwanese food, with even more wonderful company.
Yummy! Everything looks so good!
Taiwanese food is lovely indeed! I think you’d like it a lot. Actually, you already do
Sarah Lynn: Everything was indeed delicious. The home-style rice bowl with pork, sour mustard, and egg was my favorite. I’m returning to the restaurant for that dish alone.
Wei-Wei: I’m so glad my first experience with Taiwanese food was a great one, versus a bad experience that would make me avoid trying it again. And if my second Taiwanese restaurant, which I went to recently, was actually my first…well, that may have been the case. Two words for you, ones that will probably suffice: stinky t-f-. That post is coming up.
Hey! Taiwanese! I’m Taiwanese! It’s always an interesting thing that happens, when two Taiwanese people recognize each other. It’s like, “Hey! You’re Taiwanese too? Yay, us!” haha. I feel like we’re so rare or something.
Also, Boba was invented by the Taiwanese.
Gasp. That looks like ING-Tzai! (The veggie). So good.
Some things you should try are Bah-tzahng. It’s like a triangular sticky rice thing (it’s wrapped in two giant leaves) and it’s savory (though there are sweet kinds as well, but I have a savory tooth.) and it’s glutinous rice, mushroom, peanuts, and pork (though I usually pick out the pork and give it to someone else.) It’s so amazing.
I did go to this one bakery though (and I didn’t expect to see them in a bakery of all places! Though it WAS an Asian bakery.) and I was very disappointed to see that they were labeled something like Asian Tamales or something. I felt sort of offended. Hey! It is a cuisine specific to a culture! You can’t just label them tamales! That’s Mexican food and an entirely different thing! (Tamales use corn meal. This is sticky rice.) They’re purposefully catering to people who don’t know what that food is. I know that they’re explaining to them in a way they might understand, but I still feel offended. Give it its proper name and just have a description of the ingredients below it or something. Also, where I live, it’s a pretty high Asian population.
Another is Oh-WAH-mee-swah. It’s oyster noodle soup. There’s pig intestine in there too. And there are these really skinny brown noodles. And you can add some vinegar into the soup too, to make it more interesting tasting. It’s topped with cilantro. And I think also some diced garlic and perhaps shallots. It’s so yummy.
And oyster pancake too. It’s covered with a sauce. (I don’t know what it is, but it’s good.)
And I think I remember my cousin always ordering this thing that’s like a tube of rice wrapped in plastic and inside it has [Chinese long donut, I think] and I think also pork {dried pork floss? Dried shredded pork, you know?}
And there’s another thing. I think on menus, they just call it Meat Ball, but it’s this sort of clear gelatinous flat-ish ball/patty that has a yummy savory filling of bamboo shoots and pork. And that also can be covered in the same yummy sauce as on the oyster pancake.
Oh, and I guess I can’t forget to mention Beef Noodle Soup. My mom would make it on special occasions. It’d take so long to make. A whole day at least. (I wonder if it’s longer.) But yeah, she boils the beef for a loooong time because the longer it’s boiled, the more tender it is. In the soup would be soy sauce, onions, tomato, green onion, and I think star anise and some chili paste. I’m not sure exactly all the ingredients she puts in there. But anyway, it’s eaten with white noodles. Oh! And topped with more green onions and you can add more chili paste to suit your taste. (I’m sure people add Sriracha.)
I also once went to a cute little Taiwanese restaurant with a few family members once and the inside of the restaurant was pretty darling. It was set up like a classroom with wooden tables that had the sort of open space drawer(cubby hole?) underneath the top of the table and inside were actual Taiwanese school homework booklets! And there was a big chalkboard on the side wall with writing and drawings on it. And when we got the food we ordered, they came in these tin [lunch/dinner pails. bento boxes sort of?] that had compartments to separate each type of food and you could lift it up and there’d be another layer of food underneath the first layer. So cute. It’s what students would actually use to eat their school meals.
Lian: I’m excited to try more Taiwanese dishes, even after my ‘stinky’ second experience with the cuisine (that post is coming up, and it’ll have two of the things you commented on). I should just order different things each time so I get a well-rounded sense of Taiwanese food. But that’s already hard to do, because I’ve developed some favorites.
Lian: That classroom restaurant sounds adorable! Was it located in the States or Taiwan? I saw some photos from a cousin (who studied abroad) of a Taiwanese Hello Kitty-themed restaurant. I cannot wait to visit Asia one day.
dang these photos are over-the-top nice! as what Americans say, ‘they knock my sox off!!! (one day you can explain to me how this saying came from…LOL…)’…. You’re just getting better and better without much help of PS…amazing.
It was in the States. (California). I think it was in Diamond Bar. I’m not sure. I don’t recall the name of the restaurant. But I’m glad you’re liking Taiwanese food!
Great Pictures. What’s the name of the restaurant and where is it?
Tool: How much do I owe you again for giving me these nice compliments? What amount did we agree on?
Yum awesome photos! You definitely have to go to Taiwan–it’s a perfect place for a food-cation
Hot pot, Taiwanese sausage, night market foods, shaved ice, fresh seafood…droool
Fran: I’m almost drooling reading those Taiwanese food recs! And I may be taking a foodcation to Asia next year, with one of the stops being Taiwan.
I cannot wait to eat, eat, eat there!