9/25/13-10/2/12: Taipei, Taiwan
Farewell, Hong kong, welcome to...... Taipei, Taiwan! Taipei has been the place I wanted to come long time and finally made it. I stayed in Taipei for one week and all I did is pretty much EAT, EAT, EAT since I can't set up any stage! Taiwan's night market culture is awesome, I have been probably 12-15 night markets and tried different booths to try as many as local dishes. The picture above is part of it, maybe not even 1/3 of I had!
As a city, Taipei reminds me of Seoul, Korea. As same as Seoul it seems people speak Japanese more than English, no kidding! I really enjoyed my time in Taipei, people are so nice & kind, city is clean, free wifi is all over the city(important for tourist), easy to get around and food is delicious and cheap! For now I may call Taiwan is my favorite city in Asia to visit and can't wait to visit Tainan in the near future!
So... Munch n' inspiration@ Taipei..... but I want to do something different this time, so I decided to post here 5 course tribute tasting menu for CJWDT'13 Taipei trip!!
Boba / bubble tea is one of my favorite drink on the planet!!!! I wish I can find boba as much as Starbucks!! What makes so special, just simple one 'kick', flavor + texture!! I'm a kind of texture freak. When I was Amber, I had chance to work with chef Kang Kuan(CDC of Morimoto Napa valley). And we did random 'food' talk and he came up to the idea of doing boba tea using octopus tentacles. I thought quite interesting idea, and this is my version. Cuttlefish soup in boba form... can u mergination & inspiration?
2. Oyster X Egg X Peanuts X / tribute to 蚵仔煎(oyster omelette)
One of my favorite munch from night markets, oyster omelette with peanuts sauce. This is basically I use 3 ingredients serving with different form/states/textures 3 ways, that's why 3 X. Oyster could be cream & cracker, egg could be royale & sunny side up quail egg, peanuts could be sponge cake & foam....that's about it!
3. Soup ball / tribute to 小籠包(soup dumplings) x 魯肉飯 (braised pork rice)
Soup dumplings is not originally from Taiwan, from Shanghai. But Taiwan's soup dumplings has been considered one of 'must' eat for visitors, so I put in the list. I went to eat Din Tai Fung, famous soup dumplings restaurants, HANDS DOWN DERRRRICIOUS! So... let me work on soup dumplings.....
Alinea's black truffle explosion is like chef Achatz's answer to soup dumplings. My idea ... is soup 'takoyaki', Japanese octopus ball! The idea itself is kinda old actually, but I never have chance to try since I don't have octopus ball pan. In this case the filling/soup would be braised pork jus& small ground pork and garnish with puffed rice and small shredded picked vegetable, that's basic battle plan. But I need to figure out the best butter recipe to make it light n' fluffy & the way how to set jus inside the ball. (agar? gellan? also need to freeze?) It's probably tough to do it, but one day I would try and make report about it!!!
4. Beef noodle(as it is) / tribute to 牛肉麺(beef noodle)
Being innovative is so cool, but no necessary, especially if losing focus on flavor and care about how looks cool. So this one, I don't even try to be unnecessary innovative. I'd like to serve tsuke-men(noodle with broth on the side) style. beef broth with braised meat. But I would serve noodles with variety of different textures like shredded scallion & bok choy noodle,fried vermicelli, egg noodle & crispy rice noodle, puffed beef tendon with perfect poached tea egg!
5. White & Crystal / tribute to 刨冰山(shaved ice)
Not certain who started first, but I love Hong kong style/Taiwanese shaved ice. It's super fine and melted in the mouth unlike regular shaved ice which is much more chunky, edgy & rough. I wanna buy Taiwanese shaved ice machine or need to figure out how I can make same result with paco jet! Anyway, white & crystal > white: almond milk shaved ice, milk panna cotta, rice ball, marshmallow Crystal: tapioca, aiyu jelly, aloe, nata de coco Mmmm... not sure bout marshmallow with shaved ice, but could be good, am I weird???
Restaurants in Taipei:
http://www.dn-asia.com/v2/
http://www.villa32.com/
Taipei Culinary web links:
http://taiwanesemenu.
CJWDT'13 Euphoriania grand tour continues, 20th stop, Manila, Philippines!!