2012-07-03 Day 05 @ Taiwan

Buddha Boy and I woke up early and walked approximately three blocks to the nearest car rental and picked up a Toyota Yaris.  Yup, the chubby couple and their third wheel, Octopus, jam-packed themselves in that little bugger...hey, it's a gas-saver PLUS it maneuvered the narrow Taiwan streets with an ease!!!

I got used to driving in Taiwan pretty quickly.  Simple rule of thumb...just drive like them...wahahahaha!  U-turns everywhere, traffic lights are for decorative-purposes only...and...when in doubt, just stop right where you are...LOL!!!

Our first stop was in Hsinchu City 新竹市.  We picked up a total of five buns, simply one of each featured bun.  We're mainly here for their signature, the Brown Sugar Man-Tou 黑糖饅頭.  Honestly, the bun didn't "burst syrup 爆漿" (as advertised), but the syrup was an ample amount and had an extremely aromatic brown sugar fragrance.  And, to our surprise, the syrup wasn't overly sweet.  The dough was light but not fluffy.  As for the other buns, other than the light dough, nothing was memorable.

Thanks to GPS, we were able to find our next food stop in Shalu District 沙鹿區 of Taichung City 台中市.  This place features Mini Ba-Wan in Soup 肉圓仔, which was simply meat-filled mochi balls in soup, similar to the savory glutinous rice balls 鹹湯圓.  On top of the feature dish, we also ordered a bowl of Dry Noodles 乾拌麵 and four sides dishes.  Overall, nothing was memorable.

Also in Shalu District 沙鹿區, we dropped by these two side-by-side street stalls for a few cups of Old-Style Pineapple Ice Drink 古早味風梨冰 and Carambola Drink 楊桃汁. 

After Taichung City 台中市, we continued driving to our first day's destination, Tainan City 台南市.  Buddha Boy picked up a Taiwanese Sausage 台式香腸 from one of the rest stop and it was gross!  The sausage was tough, dry and salty.  Simply speaking, Hsin Tung Yang 新東陽 sucks!  Yup, I'm not a fan of their stuff, never was and never will.

Our first stop in Tainan City 台南市 was this little oden street stall that was showcased on the popular Taiwan food show, Super Taste 食尚玩家.  Honestly, without GPS, we would never be able to find this place!  It's really a place that only locals would know.  And when we showed up, we were like aliens to them!!!
Here's the conversation between Octopus and a local:
"你們是那裡來的?"  ("Where you from?")
"北部, 台北."  ("From north, Taipei.")
"你們不像台北人."  ("You guys don't look like from Taipei.")
 "其實我們是住加拿大."  ("Actually, we live in Canada.")
"哇! 更遠了!"  ("Wow! Even further!")
"加拿大是用什麼錢啊?"  ("What currency does Canada use?")
"加幣."  ("Canadian dollar.")

As soon as Buddha Boy and Octopus got back in the car, all I could hear was Buddha Boy saying, "SO CHEAP!  SO CHEAP!  SO CHEAP!"  Yes, the above bag of oden/tempura skewers AND Taiwanese sausages was less than $3CAD!  We enjoyed all the food here!  A definite return for us!  :)

170 Our second food stop in Tainan City 台南市 was 新化排骨麵.  What made this chain famous was the use of cartilage parts of the pork ribs.  The cartilages were deep-fried then steam-braised.  The soup base and the meat were both delicious but the noodles were weak.  Marinated items were also disappointing.

The stall that sells Red Bean Cake 紅豆餅 (even though there are more flavors than just red bean) caught Octopus' attention.  Right after noodles, she walked across the street and picked up one of each flavor: black pepper & corn 黑胡椒玉米, custard 奶油, red bean 紅豆, preserved raddish 菜脯 and chocolate 巧克力.  All disappointing.

Next we checked in to our hotel for the first night, Zenda Suites 成大會館, a university-owned and operated hotel.  Main reason why I chose this hotel was because it's only a minute drive to my 6am food stop next morning...wahahahahaha!

After a quick rest, we continued our food adventure and went for Stinky Tofu 臭豆腐.  Thanks to Super Taste 食尚玩家, I finally found what I was looking for all these years...the authentic, classic, old-style stinky tofu that I once had as a kid.  Unlike the non-sense crap you get nowadays where the the tofu is only deep-fried once, this stall serves the traditional-style where the tofu is double-fried and cut into smaller cubes.  The classic old-style stinky tofu in Taiwan should not be juicy or "full" in the middle, instead, it should be dry and airy. 

We arrive at approximately 7pm and, luckily, we got the second last order for the day.  From local food blogs, I've read that this stall starts at approximately 3pm and it's usually sold out by 8pm!!!  Lucky us!!!

Another hard-to-find place that was featured on Super Taste 食尚玩家 was this stall located inside a market where majority of the shops were not operating at night.  Very friendly operators, but the food was just okay.

 

So what if you're from Taiwan and you don't know Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle 洪師傅牛肉麵?  So what if you're from Taiwan and you don't know Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐?  But I'd be very surprised if you're from Taiwan and you don't know Du Hsiao Yueh 度小月, a century-old legend of Tan Tsai Noodles 擔仔麵.  We visited the original location and it was packed with people..and it's already 9pm!!!  We ended up sitting outside with no air-con...grrr... 

Funny thing was, we enjoyed all the side dishes, but the signature bowl of minced pork sauce on noodles, aka Tan Tsai Noodles 擔仔麵, was a disappointment.  I'd thought the century-old pot of marinated minced pork would have depth in flavor...

After Du Hsiao Yueh 度小月, we wanted to try Guan-Tsai-Ban 赤崁棺材板 (Chi-Kan Coffin Bread), where coffin bread 棺材板 first started.  Unfortunately, it's closed for renovations!!!  Grrr...  Oh well, we ended up visiting a local popular night market, Da-Dong Night Market 大東夜市.  This night market is known for food, but the funny things was, as we walked through the whole market, we couldn't even spot one stall that sells 鹽酥雞 (Salty Crispy Chicken)...how weird...