Last of the Taiwan summer trip pics
Wed, Sep. 10th, 2008 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterLots of pictures of food (unsurprising), one of bad parking, and a few of the Hello Kitty gate at the airport!
My birthday coincided with the last cooking class I went to. This is an example of lu wei (滷味), which is something like "stewed stuff" (meaning-wise, not literally). My mom commented that the teacher's lu wei tasted very homey.
A cake of duck's blood, which I feel is a critical ingredient in hot and sour soup. It doesn't particularly taste like anything, but nothing quite approximates the texture, which is slippery and has an interesting feel when you bite it. I love the stuff.
Cold tofu with Japanese sesame dressing.
The finished hot and sour soup! Very traditional, apparently, as there were no carrots or wood ear or the other stuff I get used to seeing in the US.
Fen pi (粉皮), which is a kind of noodle made from mung beans. It's transparent and a little slippery and really good. This is a cold dish with the machine-made fen pi, which is more even in terms of texture and thickness. You eat it with the sesame dressing. Really good summer food! (How much do I love being able to type in Chinese? This much!)
More fen pi, this time with the dressing! Also, this fen pi is the homemade kind, which you buy in thin rounds, then slice up. It's not quite as slippery, but much more Q (chewy? toothsome?).
We make scallion pancakes! Sadly, because the teacher hadn't made them in so long, they turned out to be way too salty.
After the scallions have been rolled in, the dough is then spiraled into a circle, then rolled out again to get the layers.
The finished product!
More lu wei. This is tofu gan (豆腐乾) fished out of the stewing pot. You can actually save the stew and reuse it to start a new batch, and the teacher said she had one that she had cultured for about 7 years. And then, she left it behind when she was giving a lesson, and someone threw it away!
Pot stickers! We made the skin for some of them, but not all. These have shrimp inside, different from the usual pork/cabbage or vegetarian ones that I'm used to making.
Beef rolls (牛肉捲餅)! I love them so much! Although it would have been nice if the wrapper had been thicker and chewier. And I like mine with green onions instead of cucumbers for a bit of bite.
Close up of the beef rolls.
I probably could have learned this one from a book, but I wanted to eat it for my birthday. Mango over coconut sticky rice, yum!
And then, after we ate a ton at cooking class, we went out... for more food! This is my dessert, with the requisite candle. It's passion fruit panna cotta (I learned to love flavored panna cotta this summer, though nothing beats black sesame panna cotta).
On our way to the bookstore, I saw this exemplary piece of parking.
My special birthday wine! It was, to everyone's surprise, still good. (My dad the wine freak likes buying wines the year of special occasions. Alas, this doesn't always work for him. DAD (disapprovingly, to me and my sister): Your years were very bad for wine.) And then, there was a spectacular dinner that followed only I promised not to post the pictures.
Pigs' blood cake! It's sticky rice soaked in blood (and other stuff? maybe?) packed into squares and cut. Very chewy and tasty. Also, you can get it ON A STICK in 7 Eleven!
One of the aunties was waxing rhapsodic about Romantic Yokohama's (浪漫橫梹, spelled wrong) pork cutlet sandwiches. I think this one would have been much better had it not cooled down while I wandered around looking for a seat, but it's was really good just the same. They cut the pork cross-grain, so it feels like it melts into your mouth as you bite in, and the bread is pillowy and soft, and it is all together excellent. But probably best piping hot!
15區 (15 ème) a tiny French pastry place in Taipei. So good! Well, first, I am slightly obsessed with cute French bakeries. Then I am obsessed with cute Asian bakeries. And I absolutely adore Asian takes on French pastries. From the top-left corner down: mango and passion fruit tart with a deliciously thin and crunchy shell; a chocolate-orange cake with a rose macaroon and possibly hints of passion fruit in the cream; a green tea macaroon.
I was so paralyzed by indecision while ordering the first batch of pastries that my dad took pity on me and mentioned that we should buy some to take home. I wish I could remember what this one was called!
But it was good! Sponge cake outside with a thin pink sugary shell, really good raspberry jam and ground pistachio on the inside, on top of a denser, wetter cake. It looks like it should be too sweet and cotton-candy-like, but it was not, thanks to the jam and the pistachio.
A celebrity! We were in a department store, and he was there... not even on a stage, but in the front entrance. Apparently he is Jolin Tsai's boyfriend and also plays Morita/Sen Tian in the Taiwan drama of Honey and Clover. I had no idea who he was, so I stood there, took a snapshot to prove that I saw him, and left.
Seared tuna on asparagus, with a tiny poached quail egg on olives in the back.
Pumpkin soup!
Pasta with shrimp.
Ohhhh, tasty steak! And a giant slice of mushroom on the side, with eggplant and tomato. I may have enjoyed the mushroom as much or more than the beef, though it is a coin toss.
And now, we're at Chun Shui Tang (春水堂), a place that I think specializes in more Taiwan-style food. This is the gong fu mien (same characters as "kung fu"), which had really excellent thick and chewy and QQ noodles.
I now cannot remember what this is, woe! It was spicy? Possibly there was also pigs' blood cake under the tofu.
Aaaand the pearl milk tea! Much more expensive than the ones on the streets, but now that the stands all have a pre-made mix that very sweet, I like this better. You can actually taste the tea.
More panna cotta! This is brown sugar panna cotta, and had I not been surrounded by 15 other people, I might have licked the bowl clean.
OMG these turnip cakes were SO GOOD. Just... crispy and fluffy on the inside and just a wee bit spicy and SO GOOD.
Brown sugar cake! I am curious to see if brown sugar will still be this popular in a few years. I am rooting for its longevity, since I am greatly enjoying how people are making assorted brown sugar desserts.
Red bean panna cotta! It basically looks like shaved ice, only with panna cotta instead.
This is the Hello Kitty nursery in the Taoyuan airport. Lest you think this is an exception, EVA totally boasted when it had a Hello Kitty airplane.
And then, there's this! The Hello Kitty Gate! And yes, it is functioning gate.
It has wee Hello Kitties on the seats! My friend, who actually boarded through it, said he was scared to sit on them. And then there are Hello Kitties doing traditional Chinese things like dragon boat racing and going to the Lantern Festival and dragon dancing! I am alternately amused and bemused by the combination of pride in Chinese culture and adopting a Japanese icon to show it.
And at the gate, there are Hello Kitty telephones! And Hello Kitty heads marking off various time zones!
Sigh. I want to go back to Taiwan now.
My birthday coincided with the last cooking class I went to. This is an example of lu wei (滷味), which is something like "stewed stuff" (meaning-wise, not literally). My mom commented that the teacher's lu wei tasted very homey.
A cake of duck's blood, which I feel is a critical ingredient in hot and sour soup. It doesn't particularly taste like anything, but nothing quite approximates the texture, which is slippery and has an interesting feel when you bite it. I love the stuff.
Cold tofu with Japanese sesame dressing.
The finished hot and sour soup! Very traditional, apparently, as there were no carrots or wood ear or the other stuff I get used to seeing in the US.
Fen pi (粉皮), which is a kind of noodle made from mung beans. It's transparent and a little slippery and really good. This is a cold dish with the machine-made fen pi, which is more even in terms of texture and thickness. You eat it with the sesame dressing. Really good summer food! (How much do I love being able to type in Chinese? This much!)
More fen pi, this time with the dressing! Also, this fen pi is the homemade kind, which you buy in thin rounds, then slice up. It's not quite as slippery, but much more Q (chewy? toothsome?).
We make scallion pancakes! Sadly, because the teacher hadn't made them in so long, they turned out to be way too salty.
After the scallions have been rolled in, the dough is then spiraled into a circle, then rolled out again to get the layers.
The finished product!
More lu wei. This is tofu gan (豆腐乾) fished out of the stewing pot. You can actually save the stew and reuse it to start a new batch, and the teacher said she had one that she had cultured for about 7 years. And then, she left it behind when she was giving a lesson, and someone threw it away!
Pot stickers! We made the skin for some of them, but not all. These have shrimp inside, different from the usual pork/cabbage or vegetarian ones that I'm used to making.
Beef rolls (牛肉捲餅)! I love them so much! Although it would have been nice if the wrapper had been thicker and chewier. And I like mine with green onions instead of cucumbers for a bit of bite.
Close up of the beef rolls.
I probably could have learned this one from a book, but I wanted to eat it for my birthday. Mango over coconut sticky rice, yum!
And then, after we ate a ton at cooking class, we went out... for more food! This is my dessert, with the requisite candle. It's passion fruit panna cotta (I learned to love flavored panna cotta this summer, though nothing beats black sesame panna cotta).
On our way to the bookstore, I saw this exemplary piece of parking.
My special birthday wine! It was, to everyone's surprise, still good. (My dad the wine freak likes buying wines the year of special occasions. Alas, this doesn't always work for him. DAD (disapprovingly, to me and my sister): Your years were very bad for wine.) And then, there was a spectacular dinner that followed only I promised not to post the pictures.
Pigs' blood cake! It's sticky rice soaked in blood (and other stuff? maybe?) packed into squares and cut. Very chewy and tasty. Also, you can get it ON A STICK in 7 Eleven!
One of the aunties was waxing rhapsodic about Romantic Yokohama's (浪漫橫梹, spelled wrong) pork cutlet sandwiches. I think this one would have been much better had it not cooled down while I wandered around looking for a seat, but it's was really good just the same. They cut the pork cross-grain, so it feels like it melts into your mouth as you bite in, and the bread is pillowy and soft, and it is all together excellent. But probably best piping hot!
15區 (15 ème) a tiny French pastry place in Taipei. So good! Well, first, I am slightly obsessed with cute French bakeries. Then I am obsessed with cute Asian bakeries. And I absolutely adore Asian takes on French pastries. From the top-left corner down: mango and passion fruit tart with a deliciously thin and crunchy shell; a chocolate-orange cake with a rose macaroon and possibly hints of passion fruit in the cream; a green tea macaroon.
I was so paralyzed by indecision while ordering the first batch of pastries that my dad took pity on me and mentioned that we should buy some to take home. I wish I could remember what this one was called!
But it was good! Sponge cake outside with a thin pink sugary shell, really good raspberry jam and ground pistachio on the inside, on top of a denser, wetter cake. It looks like it should be too sweet and cotton-candy-like, but it was not, thanks to the jam and the pistachio.
A celebrity! We were in a department store, and he was there... not even on a stage, but in the front entrance. Apparently he is Jolin Tsai's boyfriend and also plays Morita/Sen Tian in the Taiwan drama of Honey and Clover. I had no idea who he was, so I stood there, took a snapshot to prove that I saw him, and left.
Seared tuna on asparagus, with a tiny poached quail egg on olives in the back.
Pumpkin soup!
Pasta with shrimp.
Ohhhh, tasty steak! And a giant slice of mushroom on the side, with eggplant and tomato. I may have enjoyed the mushroom as much or more than the beef, though it is a coin toss.
And now, we're at Chun Shui Tang (春水堂), a place that I think specializes in more Taiwan-style food. This is the gong fu mien (same characters as "kung fu"), which had really excellent thick and chewy and QQ noodles.
I now cannot remember what this is, woe! It was spicy? Possibly there was also pigs' blood cake under the tofu.
Aaaand the pearl milk tea! Much more expensive than the ones on the streets, but now that the stands all have a pre-made mix that very sweet, I like this better. You can actually taste the tea.
More panna cotta! This is brown sugar panna cotta, and had I not been surrounded by 15 other people, I might have licked the bowl clean.
OMG these turnip cakes were SO GOOD. Just... crispy and fluffy on the inside and just a wee bit spicy and SO GOOD.
Brown sugar cake! I am curious to see if brown sugar will still be this popular in a few years. I am rooting for its longevity, since I am greatly enjoying how people are making assorted brown sugar desserts.
Red bean panna cotta! It basically looks like shaved ice, only with panna cotta instead.
This is the Hello Kitty nursery in the Taoyuan airport. Lest you think this is an exception, EVA totally boasted when it had a Hello Kitty airplane.
And then, there's this! The Hello Kitty Gate! And yes, it is functioning gate.
It has wee Hello Kitties on the seats! My friend, who actually boarded through it, said he was scared to sit on them. And then there are Hello Kitties doing traditional Chinese things like dragon boat racing and going to the Lantern Festival and dragon dancing! I am alternately amused and bemused by the combination of pride in Chinese culture and adopting a Japanese icon to show it.
And at the gate, there are Hello Kitty telephones! And Hello Kitty heads marking off various time zones!
Sigh. I want to go back to Taiwan now.
(no subject)
Wed, Sep. 10th, 2008 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Sep. 11th, 2008 07:21 pm (UTC)