What I'm Eating - Sugar-apple

Taiwan is renown for its incredible fruit, and I'm particularly fond of this one, the sugar-apple. (Chinese: 釋迦, pinyin: shìjiā) 

The outside looks scaly, but it's incredibly delicate. It's easily broken open, exposing a milky, sugary flesh. Its taste and texture remind me of custard. 

What I'm Eating - Hot Pot

This is a hot pot. In Taiwan, It's also called shabu-shabu, the Japanese variation of hot pot. Japan occupied Taiwan from 1895-1945; Japanese influence still permeates Taiwanese culture, this being a conspicuous example.

1: This is the hot pot itself - a stock with cabbage, carrots, Daikon, and bean curd. All of the other "stuff" is dipped into the hot pot briefly and cooked.

2: Sliced beef. This was brought out before the hot pot so my first thought was, "This tartare looks a touch bland." Well, it wasn't tartare, and fortunately, my hosts saved me from food poisoning.

3: Salty pork fried with scallions. It's already cooked so doesn't need the hot pot treatment. There is no shortage of scallions in Asian cuisine - I love it.

4: Cow tongue with a ginger, red pepper, and scallion slaw. Very good.

5: From left to right: heart, liver, tripe, and pancreas. Tripe has an interesting texture. The heart is pretty dense meat. The pancreas was my favorite. However, I don't think that the hot pot is ideal for preparing sweetbreads. Blanched then grilled or fried is the ticket. (Reminiscing: Argentine mollejas and Malbec) Prior to the pancreas, I've only tried the thymus gland. In the future, I would like to compare them, ceteris paribus.

6: Fish paste. This is pulverized swordfish, ginger, and scallions. The raw paste looks like mayonnaise and has a similar viscosity. After being cooked, it has a rubbery texture (wikipedia says it's because of myosin polymerization). I liked the fish balls.

I really liked the hot pot experience - it's tasty and interactive. I'm going to carefully work the hot pot into my culinary repertoire. Carefully being operative.

After all, my coworker didn't get the same impression. He shook his head and bemoaned the time his girlfriend made him hot pot: "We sat around for a few hours boiling vegetables. It was awful." Haha, I hope things slanted more towards interactive for him.

Fact: sometimes wine pairs better with spankings than coq au vin.

What I'm Eating - Pigs' Feet

Someone recommended that I try pigs' feet. Here it is, with soup to the right:

I liked the soup. It was light on the palate and had a really silky finish with just a hint of sweetness. Its smell actually reminded me of hay and there was no lipid layer. I guessed it was a plant based soup. Wrong-o. It was made from dehydrated Skipjack tuna. The tuna is dehydrated whole, thinly sliced, and then made into stock. The stock is consumed as soup or used to cook with. I had most all of the soup because I wasn't keen on the pigs' feet.

The feet were braised, and I can't imagine them being prepared another way because there is oh-so-much connective tissue, fat, and bone. Not that I particularly dislike any of those things - in the contrary, my favorite cut of steak is the bone-in ribeye - I just need a suitable ratio. Next, the skin had a chewy, waxy combination of a texture. Not in the slightest was there any delicious baconesque flavor. Contrary, think lard flavored jello. For me, this was a one-and-done.

What I'm Eating - Sushi

Yeahhhhhhhhhh :

Top left to right: smoked carp, crab, smoked carp, and two swordfish. Bottom left to right: don't know, don't know, don't know, roe, and octopus. My favorite was the swordfish and first two don't knows. Cost: 3.00$USD. This is the tip of the sushi iceberg - I haven't been to the fish market yet, nor is it Bluefin season.

(Update [Thanks, Cheech]) : The yellow wrap on the bottom row is tofu skin, which has a spongy texture and more subtle flavor than seaweed. 

What I'm Eating - Raddish Squares

My standard breakfast:

The white squares are [phonetically] lo bo gow. They are made from Daikon and rice puree. Their taste is crisp and fresh but more mellow than biting into a radish - could be the addition of rice. Anyhow, the puree is formed into squares, dried, and then grilled.

The green things are [phonetically] jee-ow bing. Bing is popular as a breakfast food and it's basically a crepe / scrambled egg combination. The "jee-ow" part is what signifies the green color - I think the addition of green squash into the mix. The owner of the hostel suggested that this may be a special recipe because dan bing [you guessed it, phonetic] is more popular.

Dan bing is white and pictured here with lo bo gow :

I prefer the green one because of a crispier texture and the squash adding a more-than-flour flavor. The details of "What I'm Eating" posts will improve as I learn Chinese.