Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Ummm... Dave is slowly taking over my blog. More on our first few days in Taiwan!

Something to eat.


Finding lunch and dinner is an adventure, there is nothing more fun than walking from corner to corner deciding what kind of mood you are in to eat. Here in Taiwan there are many different choices of food and culture. There of course is the Chains such as Pizza Hut, KFC, Starbucks, 7-11 convenience stores are everywhere, but you can also find nock offs for much less and do a really great job. A few other types of food you can buy here is Italian, Japanese, Indian, and Turkey. I may have told a few people about the century egg I ate at school for an extra 10 bonus marks. Why is it called a century egg? Well it’s considered to be the equivalent to a 1000 year old egg. How it’s made is they take a fresh raw egg, cover it with burnt ashes and sawdust and let it sit out in the sun to bake for a month. The sulfur penetrates the pores of the shell and preserves the egg. This chemical reaction turns the white part of the egg black and into a gel and the inside dark green. I honestly didn’t eat eggs for 6 months, it was one of the most disgusting things I have ever eaten.

The other night Steph, Matt and I went for a walk around the block a found a small street vendor that specializes in steamed pork buns (Xian Xia Sheui Jiao) Chines Pancakes and pan fried pot stickers. The food was very tasty and the total cost was 185nt or about 7bucks Canadian for everything! Street food here is very inexpensive, however the fast food chains will be double or even triple that price per person. I didn’t know this but Egg is one of the stables in Taiwanese Cuisine. You can find fried egg, quail eggs on a stick, poached eggs, pickled egg, century egg is everywhere(YUCK).


I don’t know if the century egg will top stinky tofu, This is on my list of things to try before I leave Taiwan and is considered an experience for every foreigner. Well so far a few of the favourite things I have tried are as follows, Chicken and Pea stirfy, Deep fried Octopus( like popcorn chicken),Shrimp or Pork Dumplings, Naan Seaweed and Chicken wraps, Blue Berry Oreos (yeah that’s right blueberry in the center) and Oyster omelet. I have to describe this thing called an oyster omelette to you because it has been one of the strangest textures I have had. I found this dish at the Shilin Night market which is the largest in Taiwan and one of the main tourist attractions in Taipei. So Imagine Tapioca pearls in bubble tea, but not as chewy, now think of something that’s really gelatine’s but not like jelly that’s too hard. This stuff was goopy and sloppy and weird. This was a very strange experience for me to try but still very tasty. The omelet had fresh oysters, egg, cabbage, and sweet potato starch that started out white and then turns clear this starch is what gives it the weird texture and was served with a sweet pepper sauce on top.



 The other thing I discovered is smoked Figs. They are really really good, kind of nutty, soft, and tender like
the consistency of prunes but way better. I can really see a dish with smoked figs, duck prosciutto, salami, pork rillettes and a nice slice of gouda, pecorino or brie cheese. Did you know that ROOTS Clothing has around 75 stores in Taiwan and 2 in Japan kind of cool to see a Canadian brand all over the subway and on the streets. Oh speaking of Subway yes I found a Subway franchise the other day kind of funny as Steph hates subway and thinks its overrated but I think it’s the best deal during a trip yeah know 5 dollar 5 dollar foot long I can hear the jingle in my head. Steph and I have improved a lot with chopsticks. My hand no longer cramps up and I no longer do the pinch grip and choke up on the chop sticks like a young child would. I have been told that I have the equivalent skill to a 9 year old kid, but I am proud to say that I can finally hold them at full length and not in the middle anymore. It still makes me wonder who thought

a chopstick would be the right tool to eat rice with. It will be very interesting to see what item I find next.


I am a becoming a Chef. I am trying to expand my knowledge, repertoire, expand my creativity and begin to think outside of the basic fundamentals I have learned. This is why I am here, this is why I came to Taiwan. The food market is so influenced by Asian Cuisine right now and it is amazing to see how food is changing from rich butter sauces and your basic steak frites mounted with sundried tomato butter to Curry, and Sushi, and quick pickled items or fermented stuff like kimchee or a Middle Eastern shawarma or kebab. There is something changing in this industry and one of them is simplicity and complexity of flavours, using the best and the freshest ingredients possible and thinking outside the box of the human palate. One thing I have never really thought about being a chef until today was the topic of morality and integrity in the kitchen. When do your passion and the desire for success become so important you throw away all morals and sense of responsibility for what you do as a chef to try to please the customer. In hospitality it has always been about providing a service and trying to make the most memorable experience for the guest. Food is all about a connection with flavours, textures, memories. I know that if I asked you what was one of the most amazing this you have ever eaten was you would probably not hesitate to tell me. I know one of the most memorable for me was only a few weeks ago. I was with my Dad, Ben and my brother in-law Jason and we went to a place called Jacks BBQ in Nashville Tennessee. This small restaurant is located on Broadway and is known for smoked ribs and beef brisket.


WOW that’s all I can say, you have to go there, we waited in line for an hour and it was worth the wait. The food was served on paper plates which I thought was tacky and cheap, but it didn’t affect the flavour and the taste of the 24 hour perfectly smoked and tender ribs. The brisket had the right texture; enough bark or burnt bits on the outside the right kind of moisture on the inside and it just melted like butter in my mouth.  Today I went to the second floor to look at the menu here at the hotel I like to look at menus it peeks my curiosity and gives me something to look into for maybe a future menu layout, design, and style if I ever open a restaurant. The first thing that I noticed was the decor which is very nice up there, round tables, family style dinner with really nice china on the table. So I asked what the hours where and also the cost to eat at the Restaurant. The young hostess couldn’t really speak English so she handed me a menu and I started to brows. The menu had lots of sea food, stir-fry and many differnt authentic Taiwanese dishes. It was a very nice menu easy to read both written in Chinese and English. The fifth menu item I read was “SHARK FIN SOUP” and I kind of had a look of shock on my face and I was stunned at what I was reading. I thanked her for showing me the menu and headed back to my room. I had heard about Shark Fin but never thought in a million years I would see it on a menu my first week here in Taiwan. Well I headed back to my room and decided I would look into shark fin soup in Taiwan and what I discovered was that  that Taiwan has the Capital Consumption on the Planet for the use of shark fin both medicinal and in the special Shark fin soup. You can read about it online and Gordon Ramsey has a video on youtube where he tries it and investigates the problem of shark finning. Well one major problem from this is that shark finning has almost caused the extinction of sharks in our world. I did the price conversion on the laptop for the dish I saw and it costs 12,000Nt or the equivalent of $432.00 Canadian any wonder it’s the most expensive soup in the world.  I am really not sure about this topic and this is one of those areas that either really could tick someone off or not even bother them at all. Here is the Dilemma! Do I go ahead and try it? Do I say something? Do I accept that fact there really is nothing we can do to change it and even though the law was passed in 2012 in Taiwan to ban it that it is still happening?  I was at the food market yesterday and saw shark steaks for sale and I thought they would be great to try only 310nt for a 4oz piece so around 11 dollars Canadian which is really cheap. The only problem was that it didn’t cross my mind about shark finning or shark fin soup. I walked into the restaurant and saw the picture of the dish and the description in English and was shocked. Once again how far do I go to try and expand my knowledge, my repertoire, and expand my creativity?

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