52 Cuisines?

Shanxi Food- 山西麵霸王

Am I cheating by having Chinese food twice? I’m gonna say no.

China as you may have heard is a pretty big place and it’s hard to understand the scale of it unless you have actually been. I remember reading that if you take the capital (i.e. Beijing) and all its jurisdictions, you have an area which is just over half the size of Belgium. A whole flipping country. Now if you bear in mind I was able to count Belgian and Dutch cuisine as two very separate entities, I can certainly do the same for China. Therefore Cantonese food (as was represented at Palais de Chine) and Shaanxi food can be covered as they are miles apart on pretty much everything.

I had been told about the availability of said cuisine in Taiwan by hapless Detective Mickey String, who had told me of a place in Tienmu. I fear going to Tienmu after joking about its people and customs. I understand my photo is circulating among the village chiefs and elders who have made me persona non grata, and I am no longer allowed to peruse their boutiques, restaurants and scented candle shops. Mrs. Bao told me of a place near Shandao Temple, but it didn’t tickle my fancy particularly. Then, quite by chance I came upon a place because I took a car journey with The Rocksteady Crew and we passed it on the way to a park. It is very rare for me to be in a car in Taipei, we just don’t need them, so it is very possible there are hidden foods I haven’t found because they aren’t easy to get to via public transport. Anyway, we passed Moshanfang on Jilin Road and Ms. Crew explained it was Shaanxi. I got home and had to do a bit of googling on the intarwebs to find it and only found a blog in Chinese. It had been visited by a bright eyed young thing that had returned to Taiwan after working in the Xian area and was craving the food. As I have mentioned before, many Taiwanese people are averse to eating lamb or mutton, and the cuisine of Shaanxi is famous for using these meats. That and noodles, lots of noodles. So it was interesting to find a Taiwanese lamb fan, as they are pretty rare. I was all geared up to go there when last night by accident I found山西麵霸王, in Bitan and thought I’d write about this place instead, though I will visit Moshanfang another time for an academic study I’m going to be involved in.

We had been visiting Boo Lion (and the pool in his community) in the wilds of Xindian and on our way back ( in the middle of two bus changes) we decided to look for something still open that sold noodles somewhere on Bitan Old Street as us foreign types call it though its real name is Guangming Street. I used to live in the area, but never really explored that street preferring to go nearer to the bridge and eating at The Green Hornet.

Xindian as a whole has quite an interesting history as when the soldiers came over from China after the unsuccessful overthrow of the CCP, many settled here. As the soldiers were from no specific part of China, many of their traditions (and accents) stayed, so in the really old people you still hear traces of Mainland in their voices. They also brought their food which remained pretty authentic.

So we went in. Not the most glamorous of locations, and I hadn’t planned on making it a destination, but I’m out for the scran rather than the décor. No English menu, but I took a picture of the menu and photos from outside to see what was on offer. The missus shared the 180NT pork dish with the bairn, as you can see the portion of pork ribs in the noodles/ soup was huge. They provide customers with plastic gloves so you can pull the ribs apart yourself. Delicious stuff, no idea what it was called, maybe Chinese readers can give me an approximate name but it cost 170NT.

I had the thing which cost 85NT, which Mrs. Bao said was something very countryside, from the photo you can see it was soup with noodles and mostly vegetarian (some pork, but dominated by the veg), strong flavoured soup and noodles but not overpowering. I really liked both and it is now on Mrs. Bao’s list of places to eat after swimming, which is a real award, and one of the better accolades you can receive. Better even that Michelin Star status. She googled it and apparently it has been on Taiwanese TV- so we haven’t found a hidden gem as it were, but we did find a place that was good value for money.

We chatted briefly with the guy working there who told us it is family business, but something had happened that day at home so only he was working- and blimey he worked hard, and told him we’d be back next week/ on our way back from Uncle Boo’s house. I want to finish off the menu.

Menu:

Address: No. 145, Guangming Street, Xindian District, New Taipei City, 231

Best way to get there: Xindian MRT Station. Come out of the station and you’ll see a KFC opposite, go behind there on that street (you’ll see a Co Op bank), turn left and it’s a little bit up there, maybe five minutes.

EDIT: a loyal reader pointed out I made an error and had Shanxi rather than Shaanxi food. Curse my rubbish Chinese, Moshanfang Restaurant lives to fight another day, and I will now self-flagellate in penace.

Moroccan Food- Tajin Moroccan Cuisine

Once again I take myself back to the neglected catacombs of my mind when it comes to this one. I remember back to the three months I spent in Leeds (which is odd that I mention it, because I’ve only thought about it twice in the last 15 years, once to reminisce about Holland when I went to Café Poffertjes and now. It had very little bearing on my life otherwise), and a Moroccan place was one of our Friday night haunts. I have no idea what the place was called, but I do remember it was downtown, it had cushions and it was beloved of my oldest friend DDD and Timmy Magic (his old Uni flat mate) because of the hookah pipes on offer. I remember partaking myself, and yes- you could taste the flavours.

I’m getting sidetracked. I remember one such Friday evening, when we were tucking into pigeon tagine when members of seminal Leeds band The Jack Klugman Orchestra had come out as well. They were named after the main actor from the 70’s crime show Quincy which was shown on TV in the daytime around that time. They were either students or unemployed so got to watch a lot of terrible daytime TV. They also used to play in the same venues as the now super famous Kaiser Chiefs, and local opinion on the indie band scene (DDD was a photographer and spent a fair bit of time on the band scene- even though he was primarily a B-boy and techno man) had it that they were far superior. One of their best songs was Delboy and Rodney a tune about how the drummer had been sold a dodgy Russian telephone by a man in the pub that didn’t work. Fantastic stuff. They were a great bunch of lads but never went far. I was in contact with one of them for a few years after and apparently everyone was bitter that the Kaiser Chiefs went on to be what they are now. Ah, what could have been…So for that reason if I think of Moroccan food, I have a weird association with cushions, the Leeds art rock/indie scene in the early 2000’s and Russian telephones.

Anyway, today I went to Tajin Moroccan Cuisine, one of the easiest places to find that I’ve visited so far, just off Keelung Road near to Taipei 101. I had invited someone to come along however real life got in the way and I found myself dining alone, which is no bad thing, as Jay Rayner said in a lovely article I read once that the greatest thing about dining alone is the people watching, and I couldn’t agree more. People watching in Taipei can be hilarious.

As I entered, the amazing smell hit me and I was reminded of an Eddie Izzard sketch where he remarked why fruit and vegetables are the first thing you see in the supermarket when you arrive. It sends a message to the brain that says “This is a fresh shop, I will do well here”. So true. The place is pretty small, but the decoration is great, and fully shows off its Moroccan heritage. Everything is fully halal (I have no idea why I seem to enjoy myself so much in places that are halal- do I have some of the blood? Who knows) and it was pretty hard to choose from the menu as everything was bloody marvelous. I went for the second meal deal which didn’t include the starter, but I had Lemon Rabat Chicken tagine, orange blossom yoghurt for dessert and Moroccan mint tea to drink. The waitress made a slight mistake in that she forgot I had ordered the dessert and drink, but I’ll forgive her because the main was top notch and so was the chat with the owner, who I believe said his name was Mohammad. Very interesting guy, fantastic English and flitted between English, Chinese and the occasional phone call in what I think was Arabic seamlessly. It was lunch time and they close at 14:30 and I asked if he was going for Zuhr (afternoon prayers) he said “Oh, no- it’s the only chance I get to go to the gym”. Ha!

The chicken was as tender as it could be, you are probably familiar by now how the tagine works, so I’m not going to into that, but just take it from me it is good. I paid extra to have cous cous, horrible stuff on it’s own. The yoghurt worked really well with the main (even though it took about 20 minutes to come-not her fault), very refreshing, and I could have eaten it all day. The mint tea, I drank too fast but it ranks highly on my odd drinks from around the world table which doesn’t actually exist, but if I was to make one it would be up there with purple corn juice from Peru and salty tea from Bhutan. That sentence would look weird to anyone reading this that is unfamiliar with my blog.

There is an option for a two people tagine set, and I think I’m going to bring Mrs. Bao here for a significant occasion. A really great experience which I think caters to local Taiwanese and foreigners well and hasn’t sacrificed anything to local tastes.

As I left to catch the MRT to go to my old job to say hello and get some help on a bit of research I’m doing, lyrics entered my mind.

Delboy and Rodney,

Delboy and Rodney….

I’m officially over half way through my challenge now and still not been to some of the more obvious heavy hitters. Looking forward to what else I can dig up 🙂

Menu:

Address: No. 3, Lane 144, Section 2, Jilong Road, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106

Best way to get there: Hmm probably Taipei 101 MRT and walk about 10minutes.

Korean Food-首爾大叔

For many years, I actively stayed away from Korean food because I had had a bad experience living there many many moons ago. After graduating from Big School in 2003, I had no money and was unemployed and ended up living in a godforsaken city in South Korea teaching English. I’ll spare you the intimate details, but my life at that time was a car crash and living in what was considered to be the most conservative city in the most conservative part of a conservative country. I still have some very good friends from that time who may well be reading this (you know who and WHERE you are) who can vouch for the fact I had a pretty rough ride for my first year in Asia. I left that town on 31^st August 2004, not having completed a year. I arrived in Taipei on 1^st September 2004 and one of my first memories of being in Taiwan was being in the airport at the same time as the returning Taiwanese Olympics squad, who had just come back from Athens. I swore I would never return, though I did for a long weekend about 10 years ago.

It may seem petty, but I was angry at that country for a long time and I think it took me three years before I would even think about eating Korean food again. Korean culture was on the rise (nearly eclipsing Japanese culture) and I mellowed out and realized one bad experience cannot explain a whole country. It has to be said that I have never really found anything as good as some of the food I had when I was there (I can’t say this is rose tinted glasses, maybe “puce covered” is a better description).

Today’s visit to首爾大叔 coincided with my Taiwanese wedding anniversary, I had been wanting to go somewhere a bit fancier, but Mrs. Bao was feeling a bit under the weather and she didn’t want to go far from the house- we opted for a Shandong restaurant, but as we hadn’t made a reservation and the place was full all night (I’ll return there, not so easy to find that cuisine in Taipei) we opted for the Korean place across the road.

My Chinese is limited however oddly enough; my Korean reading ability is fine after all these years, so I was able to read the menu (No English) and knew what I was ordering. All the favourites were there (I have the ability to read Korean as I just stated but can’t write in Korean in English as opposed to Chinese where I can write pinyin- it’s confusing even for me I had to look these up!), but they had bulgogi(불고기), bibimbap (비빔밥), sundae (순대) (I always hated that stuff) samgyetang (삼계탕)and I believe they had Hite or Cass beer available.

One of the things I’d forgotten from my hiatus from Korean food was the fact that you could probably get away with not bothering with the main course and only eating side dishes, the amount we got on our table was huge. I ordered (this is my attempt at writing Korean in English) selleongtang (설렁탕) which was a beef soup, with added clear noodles, not the best I’ve had but the beef flavor was good. Mrs. Bao had kimchijjigae (김치찌개) or kimchi stew in this case with a massive amount of pork. I was never a fan of kimchi so I didn’t have any. As an aside, when I lived in Korea I would rarely see local people eating it, even though they professed their love for the stuff, and would only eat it if they were called out on it. The missus loved it though, so that was a plus. We also ordered Bibimbap mixed rice (I guess) for Preschooler Bao, which was too much for her but it tasted great- exactly like I had in Pohang. We also ordered a buchimgae (부침개) a kind of seafood pancake, like the shrimp one you get in Thai food. It was pretty bland on its own- but the secret is to add the soy sauce or spicy sauce that comes on your table. Good stuff, and not something I remember from before.

bibimbap-totally wasted on the youth of today

The restaurant itself was a nice place, if a bit clichéd. Old artwork of Yangban, dolls wearing hambok that kind of thing. I automatically fell into Korean when the waitress asked me if it was good, and she was a bit shocked. But nah, it was good. It is also close to me, so will probably become part of our rotation. I didn’t include the barbecue menu- but could smell from elsewhere that it was worth taking a look. They also seem to do big parties. I’ll check that again when I’m out for a wander.

It definitely won’t be another 16 years til I try it again 🙂

Address

No. 24號, Lane 133, Zhongyang Road, Xindian District, New Taipei City, 231

Getting there: Xiaobitan MRT. Turn right and walk to the 7-11 on the corner and turn right again- walk maybe 3minutes and it is on your right hand side. The Shandong place I’m gonna visit in a future installment is directly opposite.

Peruvian Food- Polleria

Peru eh? Yeah, Peru.

I can’t imagine anyone in the UK telling me anything about Peru other than the fact that their international football strip resembles Red Stripe beer. This was famously parodied on the UK TV show Fantasy Football in the 1990’s when in the Phoenix from the Flames segment of the show where they reconstructed famous footballing moments of history (In this case Teófilo Cubillas’ first goal for Peru against Scotland in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina) which can be seen on YouTube. As somebody who collects (and wears) obscure retro sportswear (and unknown teams from around the world), it is among the faves that I don’t own. This remains a mystery even to me, because I actually don’t like football. Oh, and it is in South America.

Polleria in a roundabout way was what kicked off my idea for trying to do this challenge (along with an Uzbekistani place which has sadly disappeared). I went with my old pal Donnie Lonnegan a few years back, then last summer with Mr. Connors and my friend Boycie, who has very recently graduated with a First in Creative Writing, and had returned to Taiwan on holiday. I have recommended it a few times to people who have also enjoyed it. On both previous occasions I went however, the service was pretty slow. I was hoping to see that it wasn’t the case this time. It also got moved around in my internal schedule of places I want to go to. I was originally going to take Gozzeh, who was going to visit Japan for a work conference in April, and he was to spend the weekend here in Taipei. He has an interest in exotic food and had wanted me to take him to somewhere where the food was unknown to him. However, as it is 2020 and nobody can travel from the UK at this point, the conference was postponed to November. If indeed he can travel in November, and if Taiwan no longer has the 14 day quarantine requirement upon arrival, I will take him out for Aboriginal food (yes Taiwan has aboriginal people).These are of course very big “ifs”.

Anyway, Polleria.

The venue is suspiciously close to Mrs. Bao’s office in about as Central as Taipei as you could get. That is, old school Taipei rather than these days where most offices have moved ever eastward, and it is arguable where the center actually is. It is a small restaurant, but the black and multicoloured sign outside prevents it from being a “blink and you’ll miss it” sort of place. They specialize in rotisserie chicken and have exotic drinks on the menu.

I decided to go today before a class I teach at NTNU which is also nearby, and as it is a pretty lazy laidback class of graduate students, nobody would care if I lapsed into a meat coma. They are also all studying hospitality related subjects, so the fact I had just been to a restaurant is interesting to them, on both a social and intellectual level.

As usual, I was the only person there except for the incredibly chatty owner ( a Peruvian gentleman who has taken on Taiwanese citizenship- a fact we talked about at length) and the guy working the rotisserie who I’m not sure could speak English (or Chinese for that matter).

The place is quite small, and relatively unchanged from the other times I’ve been there. I was having such a good natter that I forgot to take a picture before I tucked into the chicken, which was good but drier than I remember. The sauce is interesting and a little spicy, the fries, which I think qualify as chips in the British sense, were good, as was the green rice. It was a meal deal that came to 349NT, I’d say good for what it was, as the plate was quite big.

The real star of the show though was the Chicha Morada or Peruvian purple corn juice. As what I had was essentially chicken and chips (done well, of course), I wanted to top it off with something not so bog standard. If you were to look at a glass of it, it would be easy to confuse for a glass of red wine. So, down the hatch it went, and… yeah an odd surprise. It was pretty sweet and quite smokey. The glass was big, and I could easily have had a few more. Of the specialist drinks I’ve had on my travels around Taipei, this has been my favourite so far. Ordering by the glass would be 150NT, but I paid an extra 90NT on the meal set to upgrade to this from a soft drink. Well worth it in my opinion.

Chicha Morada aka Peruvian purple corn juice

Chatting to the owner, who in typical me style when I’m in Latin American places I forgot his name,the topics went from the virus, Taiwanese citizenship as a foreigner and an anecdote of a Peruvian man he knows who is stuck in Taiwan as he was visiting on holiday before all flights were stopped. A crazy situation to find yourself in and I really felt for the bloke.

Will I go again? Well, I feel that I’ve gone through the whole menu now and as good as it is, there are no new surprises in store for me there. I’d recommend it. It is definitely good stuff, and the spice is intriguing for sure, as is the corn drink. But there are other places which I haven’t been to yet which are more demanding of my attention, and others which I’ve been to in this journey that I’m counting down the days til I can go again. So… go there, the service was good for me today and the food is great, and I’ll probably join you…when I’ve got some other places out of the way first. Besides, I’m not made of money.

So I bid farewell, and took a long walk to NTNU to try to stave off the incoming meat coma, and I enjoyed my tourism related class. A good afternoon all in all.

off centre- but hey- I kept forgetting why I was there- too much chatting

Address: No. 61-5, Guling Street, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 100

Best way to get there: well it is in the badlands between Guting and Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, and I’m not sure which is the nearer MRT. Probably Guting and walk 10minutes.

Turkish Food- Safranbolu

I had been looking forward to this one.

This week in the Chinese speaking world (Thursday) was Dragon Boat Festival which is a national holiday here in Taiwan. As it fell on a Thursday, the Taiwanese government, in their infinite wisdom gave us all Friday off, which sounds great, hurray! Four day weekend! But in practice, everyone had to work last Saturday to compensate for the extra day holiday. Workers here could really do with the extra time off, due to horrendous work hours and working culture (which is a massive rant that I can’t be bothered to get into here), and if the Taiwanese workforce who observe this extra day work thing are anything to go by, most people do very little work and spend their time drinking pearl milk tea, rearranging their desks and trying to find a reason, any reason to be in the office on a Saturday. If they trade overseas, there is pretty much nothing to do.

Normally, Dragon Boat Festival means dragon boat races, where people train for months to prepare, but this year being 2020 and nothing makes sense anymore, there were to my knowledge no races scheduled. So of course what do I do? I take advantage of the long holiday and go out for Turkish food, because, well because. I probably wouldn’t have gone anyway- Thursday was one of the hottest days on record for June hitting 39C.

Joining me today was Preschooler Bao (Mrs. Bao wasn’t present because after our move she hadn’t had time to enjoy the new house alone) as well as our friends The Rocksteady Crew. I’ve known Ms. Crew since 2012 when I had a stint of trying not to be an English teacher in Taipei, and focused instead on writing educational material and she was chief editor. Ms. Crew has quite possibly the best English of a non-native I’ve met in Taiwan, even knowing regional slang. She has some Italian/Scottish family and knows her way around Edinburgh very well. I’ve also met her father, who is also a pretty amazing linguist (speaks Arabic). Mr. Crew, I have known for a few years since they married (though I’ve forgotten what he does), very nice bloke too, particularly good with kids but a bit shy to speak English, and of course Preschool Crew who is little bit older than my fun tornado, but they get along very well. Plus, as any parents out there know, they can keep each other entertained while we focus on more useful topics.

Ms. Crew had asked to come along on one of my wild rides saying she had a preference for strong flavours, and me wanting something a bit less standard than my most recent jaunts, we agreed on Safranbolu. We also knew the young ones wouldn’t be hard to cater for, as Preschooler Bao at least, is pretty fussy.

I wish I could blame drinking for my bad photos

Safranbolu had been recommended to me by one of the army of people I seem to know called Cat, who knows someone who is married to a Turkish guy who said it is great. One thing you can say about Taipei when you’ve been here a while is the place is pretty incestuous.

The restaurant is very easy to find, with the takeout kebab element of their business on the first floor i.e. the ground floor if you are British and the sit down restaurant is upstairs. The décor was as you would expect. A lot of Turkish flags, Middle Eastern themes. It was busy, but other tables’ conversations didn’t carry, which is a good thing obviously. I don’t need people who aren’t parents to know that CBeebies kicks Nick Jr’s behind. Seriously, Sarah & Duck and Hey Duggee are miles ahead of Blaze & the Monster Machines and Top Wing. These are the serious issues parents discuss when they get together.

We ordered two sets and an extra cheese pide, and bread for the young ones. If you don’t know pide, people look upon it as “Turkish pizza”, but that would be unfair. The set included a soup, appetizer, main, dessert. Soup-wise I went for the yoghurt soup with rice. One for the stranger end of the spectrum like the salty tea I had from Bhutan. It split opinion, and while we liked it, it was strange to have as a soup. It felt like it would be more at home being a dip of some kind. Next was shakshuka which was very enjoyable. The Crew had Turkish salad which was a little spicy, and they enjoy spice more than I do.

For the main I had beyte chicken doner kebab, they had lamb shish and lamb meatballs, as well as the aforementioned cheese pide. It is a little unusual to see Taiwanese people eat lamb, there are definitely lamb fans here, but many local people say that it smells weird and won’t eat it, so I was happy to see them order it. It was lovely, both the shish and the meatballs. The shish was very tender and the meatballs had a spice to them that we couldn’t work out but not overpowering. My kebab was good, and the yoghurt on the side was tip top. I’ve looked at a few online reviews and there seems to be a consensus that portions are a bit small, but I would say they are fine.

For dessert we had vanilla rice pudding, which was snaffled by both Preschooler. The small taste I had of it was good.

There is definitely a lot more to discover in here, they are very good at what they do and like everything I’ve had so far, I want to return. I don’t remember seeing it was halal certified, but I presume it is because of mentions on Facebook celebrating Ramadan and the huge pre-virus tourism push that was geared towards Indonesians and Malaysians. Another good place to bring my Muslim friends should any ever come round these parts.

Young kids, getting restless and not satisfied with the free balloons they got, we knew it was time to make moves, otherwise it would have gotten to the point where four year olds start running about for no reason, somebody falls over and…you’ve seen it many times before.

We continued our day elsewhere, letting the two kids burn off energy in the park while we discussed the finer points of society. All in all, a good time had by all.

Prices

Yoghurt soup with rice- 110NT

Shakshuka 60NT

Turkish Salad 145NT

Beyti Doner Kebab (Chicken)-420 NT

Lamb Shish 450NT

Cheese Pide 280NT

Oven Grilled Beef Meatballs 450NT

Rice Pudding 130NT

Turkish Lemonade 120NT

Turkish Bread 60NT

There is a set meal deal which included soup, appetizer, main and dessert that mentioned 300NT and wasn’t written in English so I’ll have to ask Ms. Crew what that was because I forgot to ask (we took advantage of it)

Nearest MRT:: Songjiang Nanjing station, go out of Exit 1 turn left, walk about 5 minutes.

Address: No. 60, Section 2, Nanjing East Road

Dutch Food- Café Poffertjes

I reviewed, well I say “reviewed” I mean “went” to The Belgian Waffle Shop a few weeks back and now it’s the turn of the Dutch. I found out about this via a mysterious Dutchman named “Chris” who was sat at my table at a recent curry event which is held in Taipei. The curry itself was uninspiring and in my view (though no expert) nothing I couldn’t have done myself, but at least I gleaned this bit of knowledge (as well as having a bit of banter with a few old friends and new). I was considering using that event to write about Indian food, though I will save that for a later date.

I have been to Holland a few times in my life, the most recent being in 2002 during the Japanese/South Korean World Cup. I was living in Leeds, UK at the time in my oldest friend’s house, as his flat mate had recently been promoted to “Head Office” in Amsterdam. Her Company had paid the rest of her rent to the end of their rental contract, so I got to bed down in Yorkshire for three months for free, and they also paid her moving costs (Read: she hired a van and me and Dancin’ Danny Danson, moved all her stuff on the cheap from Leeds to Amsterdam and got a free holiday out of it). My first memory of being in Amsterdam was the TV behind us in “Head Office”’s reception showing David Beckham scoring a “wonder penalty” against Argentina. This was a pretty big moment in UK folklore, the spectre of 1986’s hand of God, the more jingoistic media types linking it to The Falklands War, and the fact we finally beat Argentina in a competitive match. I remember in the months leading up to the “big game” people were coming up with creative reasons to be off work for that match, companies were not allowing holidays, however, me and him didn’t care either way. We were just sat in his room playing on the Gamecube and/or listening to funk and reggae until all hours. Time of course, well spent. I recollect we were staying in the De Pijp area and we had some food from Surinam, but other that- it is a blur. Take from that what you will. I have no idea how the city changed with the advent of AirBnB.

My last official night out in the UK before I left was in The Dutch Pancake House in Manchester, which has since been demolished, nobody I knew had ever set foot in there. We’d all been past it on the bus and always wanted to go in- we finally did in October 2003. We built it up in our heads as going to be the best thing ever- all I remember was Dancin’ Danny Danson (who had joined me back in Manchester) and the then Mrs. DDD say “Oh wow, Dutch pancakes aren’t always cake”. Cultured, and sophisticated to the last.

This was the first time in this project I’d gone for breakfast or specifically for something sweet. Again, that quality factual organ Wikipedia claims that poffertjes come from the traditionally Catholic South to sweeten up communion offerings. They are pancakes, and they are small. This much is true.

The place itself was pretty small, maybe 25 seats and was pretty busy for a Thursday. Nice atmosphere and easy to get to if you aren’t me (I’m very bad with directions and reading maps). The menu is pretty extensive; I got a few pics from the menu, but didn’t get it all, I wasn’t interested in the spaghetti or risotto which is on offer, focusing instead on the brunch and poffertjes menu. What I had wanted was not available today, for some reason. So, instead I went for the classic poffertjes with syrup and butter. I thought that as I’m trying to represent authentic as possible, that would be best and it was cheap at 110NT.I also got a latte.

What arrived at my table was pretty small but was just enough. An unfair person would describe it as a mound of bite sized pancakes. To me though, it was as if those gosh darned Catholics had designed the perfect size for the things. Very nice indeed, and as we are close by quite often we’ll go back and try some of the other stuff available.

Latte art. I am finally a bonafide influencer blogger type now I have taken a a latte art photo.

As I come back home to write this, I’m smiling at some of the scrapes that me and DDD got into in the early years. We unfortunately lost contact due to a series of unfortunate circumstances after he had a total breakdown and he began to fear technology. Also my ipad locked up and it was our only direct line. If you are out there DDD and you recognize my words, get in touch on here, there is a fair bit to catch up on.

A bittersweet note to end on today, but hey, these things happen. Should you go to Poffertjes Café? It’s a yes from me, it is cheap for brunch, easy to get to and everybody loves the Dutch.

Address: No. 18, Lane 52, Chang’an West Road, Datong District, Taipei City, 103

Nearest MRT: I’d say your best bet is to go to Taipei Main Station and walk underground to the R2 exit of Zhongshan Metro Mall and you are right outside. You could walk from Zhongshan MRT but as today was 37C outside, you know it makes sense.

Malaysian Food- Wonderful Baba

Malaysia has always been a bit of a blind spot for me. I’ve known Malaysians, taught Malaysians and was teaching tourism related marketing and advertising classes during the whole Malaysia Truly Asia marketing push. Yet, I’ve never really had a desire to go there. It looks fascinating, though I have heard living there is not so easy from dear friends of mine now living in Paris and South Africa respectively.

Genuine Malaysian food is surprisingly hard to find here, it is either “rendang because I say it is” or so Taiwanesed up for local tastes it resembles nothing that would be eaten over there. In my quest to find something a bit off the beaten track, and the fact that Mr. Du went there and mentioned it on Facebook, We headed over to Wonderful Baba next to Xinpu MRT station in New Taipei City. Quite what Mr. Du was doing over there I have no idea, as his usual stomping ground is in the east side. As with the residents of most cities if you are from said city, you generally stick to where you live, and rarely (if ever) will you venture far from your district.

Signature dish ( my daughter would like you to know that you can also see her scooter)

The food in question this time was bak kut teh (肉骨茶) or literally “meat bone tea” which is akin to a Taiwanese spicy hotpot but in this case with pork ribs. This dish, according to Wikipedia, is eaten generally by the Hokkien speaking people of Malaysia, which is to say people who speak the Taiwanese dialect (it is complicated – and I’m not educated enough in that stuff to pontificate on the who’s and the wherefores) so there is some crossover here. It counts because EYE make the rules around here sunshine!

Walking down the street you can’t really miss it, as you can see from the photo there is a massive Malaysian flag as part of the shop front, there are lots of photos outside from TV appearances and/or local celebrities who have visited. The owner, who I couldn’t be sure if he was there or not, proudly displays on the wall that he is in the top 50 restaurateurs of bak kut teh in the world. So, we were surely in good hands.

top 50 in the world: also Bruce Lee who *may* have once been to Malaysia.

I went with the signature dish for 350NT (wine flavored, pork ribs) had a very sweet almost Chinese medicine type flavor, though the wine was ever present. It was huge and was probably enough for two people. Mrs. Bao went for pepper stomach “something” soup at 220NT. The pepper taste was a bit too much for both of us, though we thought that maybe it was the wrong time of year. As it has a spicy hotpot thing going on, Taiwanese people are more accustomed to eating this kind of thing in the depths of winter, not the blazing hot Taiwanese summertime. Again, this is cultural difference as the Malaysians don’t have a winter as we see it, and use this kind of food to help aid sweating. As a side dish for the young ‘un we had simple noodles (which in four year old style didn’t want) and we had minced pork and shrimp rice for 80NT. All in all, 780NT for three people without a drink, which we went out for later.

We have already made plans to return because we did enjoy it a lot, and it is relatively easy for us to travel to now that the first phase of the Circle line from Dapinglin is open.

But never again in summer, I’ll need it in winter to warm my cold, cold heart.

Address:

No. 18-1, Juguang Road, Banqiao District, New Taipei City

Best MRT: Xinpu Exit 1

American Food- Baba Kevin’s American Barbecue

I was going to take on the cuisine of Malaysia today; I was made aware of a place I want to try via one of Mrs. Bao’s friends on Facebook, Mr. Du however, Mrs. Bao also wanted to try it. As it is also nearby to where the young ‘un has football “practice” (I use the term very loosely) on Saturdays, we will wait until then. In the meantime…

Southern US Barbecue. I dunno man, it has always been one of those things that I thought only makes sense if you are from that country. Such as (also in America) marching band practice isn’t a punishment, the relationship between The Tragically Hip and Canadians and in the UK-having your washing machine in the kitchen (Seriously mate, it makes sense. You have the plumbing there for the dishwasher, and the sink and everything. You also have the electrics for the dishwasher; why not add the washing machine?)

Anyway I digress. I’ve always found barbecue to be an anticlimax. I’ve been to a few places (which may or may not still be around) with Americans who have raved about that particular venue and I’ve thought well, yeah I can see they are good at what they do, clearly get a lot out of their work and customers enjoy it but it just isn’t for me. I want to like it, but it doesn’t really gel for me. Maybe it is too heavy, maybe I don’t go there hungry enough, maybe we are just lost souls spinning, hurtling, towards a vortex wherein death is the only release. Maybe.

So in the interests of science, I’ve tried to give it another crack. Because there are people out there that consider my words blasphemy. Non-vegetarians mostly.

I’ve been to Baba Kevin’s before, once with Ms. V and The Prophet of Miltown, and once with Lady Whirlwind and Lady Snowblood as a farewell to Lady W when she left her job in Taipei. Lady W is supposed to come out with me again at a later date, but we’ll see. I enjoyed both visits up to a certain point; however everyone else enjoyed it more.

Kevin himself is a truly great host, very very friendly and one of the most upbeat people I’ve met in Taipei. Very chatty, always happy to talk about pretty much anything and going there just to see Kevin is a good enough experience on its own. Today though, he wasn’t there and I chatted with the other staff who were lovely in their own right. I can see he chooses his staff well.

So the food, as barbecue is my nemesis I decided to go with the half platter. As you can see from the menu you get a choice of one of six different meats and two sides as well as pilaf rice. I wanted to be as darn tootin’ as possible so went with the pulled pork and for the sides, sweet potato and cornbread. Oh and a sprite.

cornbread, rice, sweet potato and pulled pork

Well, I think I’ve been converted, sort of. It is never going to be something I hanker for, I think the situation has to be right (planets aligned, money in my pocket, a smile on my face and not a cloud in the sky) but I have to say I did enjoy it. The size was generous for 250NT (about 8.5 USD), pork was tender and everything worked together well. The service and atmosphere are all great, quite relaxing on a Wednesday lunchtime when it is flipping hot outside. I already knew those things to be true so no difference there.

So yeah, I’d recommend it. Barbecue-heads will love it and those of us who are a bit more on the fence (I’m English don’t you know!) would get something out of it. Maybe it could be like green belt level barbecue, and you are working your way up to black.

drinks: from those lads and laddesses over at Redpoint Brewing co and soft drink menu

So now I’m going to join a marching band and listen to The Hip to see if there is anything there. My washing machine is sadly on the balcony and as my house is a rental, there it shall stay.

Address:

No. 6號, Lane 115, Section 2, Minsheng East Road

Nearest MRT: Xingtian Temple (about a five minute walk)

Food Belgian – The Belgian Waffle Shop

After the dizzying heights of Cantonese and Iranian food I bring you the nice homely cuisine of Belgium.

It has been a strange week this week outside the safe world of eating food and wandering about town. I’m not here to make grand political statements of course, but I write this week as the US is on fire, the virus continues unabashed and on a personal note, I have been diagnosed as an asthmatic. This has seriously curtailed my ability to wander the streets in the afternoon as (as of Tuesday 2^nd June); I am yet to have an inhaler, relying on medication that sort of works for a bit. I am ok in an air conditioned environment, but as soon as I leave I’ll be coughing up stuff that is scarier than The Exorcist.

If you aren’t familiar with the seasonal changes in Taiwan, we are now in the rainy season (梅雨季which translates from Chinese as “plum rain season”) which generally means ok in the morning, pissing down like you wouldn’t believe in the afternoon for a while and then sort of rainy sort of not in the evening. It being humid here, horribly so in Taipei at this time of year, people get sick a lot and this year I have succumbed. Badly. I have never known a cough like it.

So, Belgium eh? Belgium. It doesn’t strike fear into anyone’s hearts, it doesn’t sound exactly exotic to my mind if you look at some of the more out there things on this list. That being said, it will be exotic to someone somewhere, I could get all teacher-y on you and bang on about experience, blasé attitude and everything, but I’m not wearing that hat today. Belgian food is however, represented in Taiwan as a food from another country so it qualifies, and I’m happy to try anything. It was also an easy journey via MRT/bus from my house.

On entering I realized I met the owner, Marc, through other friends a few times in the past though he didn’t remember me. I knew he had had restaurants before but I had some feeling he had left Taiwan years ago. He was quite open about the fact that business these days is not what it was, in his area of town alone he has known 10 or maybe 15 restaurants have closed in the last few years. Even wholesale is down. This has meant a limited menu not by choice, but rather through necessity and it is a story I hear more and more as I go to different restaurants that don’t stock local food. He pointed out he has the capacity to make XXX number of liters of coffee a day, but cannot take the chance as it is likely it will not get sold.

A slightly bleak picture, but I guess that’s what I get for trying to do a food challenge during a world changing pandemic. In the end, I settled for a panini and Belgian fries with salad (290 NT). Very tasty and was different from the regular bread I’m used to here. The fries were real chips like we have in the UK, big irregular sized. A good salad too. I didn’t order a drink except water, and didn’t really check the drinks menu for soft drinks; however the restaurant itself is well stocked with Belgian beers (Marc clearly knows that side of his business!) Though I was the only person there aside from him and his wife the place had a nice atmosphere. I guess on a busy day it would be a good time to be had by all. I’d like to come back and see some more stuff from the menu, because I had only planned on a quick reconnaissance type lunch.

We chatted for a while about mutual acquaintances that Marc had not seen for a while, the world situation as it is and a few other things until my chest started tightening and it was getting close to me losing my voice. A very chatty guy and his wife is very friendly too, but I really had to cut it short. Sorry about that!

It has left me wondering how much longer I can continue looking for the “out there” stuff. The mainstays like Thai, Japanese etc. are going nowhere but if supplies are running short and it’s not financially viable for the owners, I may not be able to finish this project (I hope for their sakes they can get through this). I have done 20 (I think) now and I can count at least ten on my hit list which will be fine. Let’s hope so.

Price

Panini with chips 290

Address: No. 2 1F, Alley 6, Lane 553, Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City, 110

Getting there best bet is to go to Taipei City Hall MRT and then walk maybe 5 minutes. It is much closer to that stop than Sun Yet San Memorial Hall.

Iftar part2 –

You can read part 1 of this here https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/foodschallenge.com/211

With a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and haranguing them outside their places of work, I managed to convince both Ms. V and The Prophet of Miltown to join me once again for more wacky adventures. They have both been big supporters of my Sisyphean task since the early days when my head had been sent West by my immediate boss at Unnecessary Targeting Ltd, and are in many ways perfect for this particular event.

Ms. V has Syrian heritage (albeit not a follower of Islam herself) and the Prophet, well… it’s his story to tell not mine, but The Prophet’s dad is/ was an Islamic convert of a sort. Both though, as has been demonstrated in earlier posts, have a keen eye for a good bit of cooking.

slightly out of focus salad shirazi- I was going to get another pic but I forgot

After the startling revelation last week that Michelin three starred restaurants serve good food (who knew?), it was always going to take some beating. This is not any kind of competition of course, so I don’t want to think in those terms, but while the differences between the décor and other things were worlds apart they were immensely enjoyable in their own right.

We were joined by the owner and his wife who up until now I hadn’t realized was Taiwanese, her face had been covered on all previous visits. I am very far from being a racist and as we do have many Malaysians and Indonesians who do wear the hijab, it is a fair assumption to make. Her accent too, when speaking English, didn’t give her away as Taiwanese either. Her husband is a native of Tehran, very friendly and talkative and willing to talk about the history of Iran after I had said I knew Iranians (who are Baha’i) and Muslims of various heritages back in the UK. He mentioned he has a cousin in Manchester though they do not speak, due to some class difference that I’m not schooled enough in, in Iranian tradition to understand though he was very keen to talk about it. He got a friendly poke from the missus asking him to shut up, as we were there to eat.

It was a massive spread. As you can see from the photos- I’m surprised we didn’t waddle home. It was a very rare honour to be able to eat it, and I’m going to be dreaming about the Tandoori style chicken for years to come.

First up was the Salad Shirazi which the owner said is pretty much the national dish or salad of Iran. Many Iranians are particularly proud of it and I can see why, very tasty and I’m not a salad guy. He remarked that even though his wife is not Iranian, he would put her up there with the best chefs in Iran for her salad- who are we to suggest otherwise?

The Ash-e Reshte that you see on the menu was soup; I don’t remember eating it, though Ms. V and TPoM both enjoyed it. It was full of lentils and it got two thumbs up.

The chicken, maaaaaan. It was spicy, but flavor-spicy and really tender. I think I had two legs and a breast, maybe more. I am still not up to my ideal weight yet after what I have started to dub “the fall”, and I have been advised to get more protein, so this and the Ghorme Sabzi (lamb stew) were just the thing. Both my companions were satisfied too, probably still talking about it.

The thing that looks like a cake, but wasn’t a cake was the Salad Oliviye. A potato salad, with peas, egg and some other stuff. There was a look of confusion on TPoM face as he encountered this, which is kind of unusual as he is among the more chatty of people. It takes something pretty crazy to stop him in his tracks, like a buffalo playing a tuba, that’d maybe work, but in this case it was the salad.

halva with Iranian date on the side. Get your mind out of the gutter!

Last but certainly not least were the ferni and the halva. I enjoyed both, but the rose flavoring of the ferni wasn’t to the taste of Ms. V. The ferni is the white dish with the pistachios on the top and has the consistency of custard. The halva is more dense, but also had saffron and was pretty darned sweet. As with everything, I could have eaten them both all day. Throughout the meal we were drinking pomegranate juice with rose water- a nice change to my usual orange juice, tea or coke.

I guess we stayed around for about two hours, chatting about this that and the other. It had been a long week, for all of us for various reasons, not least because it was midterm week and the subsequent marking of papers for Ms. V, and I had some stuff happen that I won’t go into here. The mood was fun and our hosts were very generous, providing the hospitality I know well from Muslims across the world. All we need to do now is convince them to do this more often. I’ll be championing them everywhere I can. If I can do my small part in making them more famous or popular, they deserve all the custom that comes their way.

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/foroshgaheirani

Address: 60 Zhongyang 5^th Street, Xindian, New Taipei City.( same building as the PX Mart) About a 5-10min walk from Xiaobitan MRT station

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