Kt Kingtronics Taiwanese Foods We Can't Live Without

19 Oct 2017

1. Braised pork rice (滷肉飯)
Not to be underestimated: braised fatty pork with rice.
不可小覷的滷肉飯

"Where there's a wisp of smoke from the kitchen chimney, there will be lurou fan [braised pork with rice]," goes the Taiwanese saying. The popularity of this humble dish cannot be overstated.
"Lurou fan" is almost synonymous with Taiwanese food.
"Lurou fan is the more ordinary and down-to-earth dish for any Taiwanese," says Rae Lin, founder of dearbnb, a Taiwanese travel website. "From your mother's version of lurou fan to the one served in a restaurant, it's the one dish we truly can't live without."
A good bowl of lurou fan features finely chopped, not quite minced, pork belly, slow-cooked in aromatic soy sauce with five spices. There should be an ample amount of fattiness, in which lies the magic. The meat is spooned over hot rice. A little sweet, a little salty, braised pork rice is comfort food perfected.

2. Oyster omelet (蚵仔煎)
The oyster omelet: the island's snack.
全島公認的點心

Here's a snack that really showcases the fat of the land of Taiwan. You've got something from the sea and something from the soil.

The eggs are the perfect foil for the little oysters easily found around the island, while sweet potato starch is added to give the whole thing a gooey chewiness -- a signature Taiwan food texture.

No wonder it was voted best snack to represent the island in a poll of 1,000 Taiwanese by Global Views Monthly in 2007.

3. Bubble tea (珍珠奶茶)
Better than beer: bubble tea is a drink and a snack.
比啤酒更棒：是飲料也是點心

Bubble tea is representative of the "QQ" food texture that Taiwanese love. The cute-sounding phrase refers to something that is very chewy, just like the tapioca balls that are the "bubbles" in bubble tea.

It is said that this unique drink was invented out of boredom. Liu Han-Chieh threw some sweetened tapioca pudding into her iced Assam tea on a fateful day in 1988 and one of the greatest Taiwanese exports was born.
Huge variations on the theme have since emerged, including taro-flavored tea, jasmine tea or coffee, served cold or hot.

4. Coffin bread (棺材板)
If the Addams Family came to Taiwan.
"阿達一族"(電影)來台灣的話...

This Tainan specialty is a mutated offspring of French toast and chowder.
An extra thick piece of bread is hollowed out to resemble a flat bread bowl. It is toasted to harden it and then filled with seafood chowder.
Legend says a Taiwanese chef who studied Western cooking invented this bread-soup-bowl-with-corners.
One day an archeologist tried the toast and told the chef, “It looks just like the coffin I am excavating now.”
Thus, the chowder soup took on its morbid Chinese name, which means "coffin bread."

5. Gua bao (割包)
Dear Gua Bao, you're the Big Mac of our eye.
親愛的割包，你是我們眼中的"大麥克"(麥當勞的大漢堡)

It's a hamburger, Taiwan-style.
A steamed bun sandwiches a hearty filling of braised pork belly, pickled Chinese cabbage and powdered peanuts.
The filling is chopped up into small pieces and mixed together so there's a bit of everything in every bite. Consider doing this with Western hamburgers.
Take in a big mouthful and enjoy the salty, sour and sweet flavors and the greasy pork swimming in your mouth.

6. Pineapple cake (鳳梨酥)
Sunny Hill's traditional pineapple cake.
"微熱山丘"的傳統式鳳梨酥

This iconic Taiwanese pastry is one of the best souvenir options. These mini pineapple pies are filled with candied pineapple.
If you want the best pineapple cake experience, try SunnyHills which uses only local pineapple as filling. It yields a darker filling, rougher texture and a more sour taste.
The traditional pies at other shops are filled with a mix of pineapple and chewable bits of winter melon. They have a fruity sweetness and a golden casing of crumbly buttery pastry.
Stores that replace pineapple completely with winter melon to cut costs are committing a big no-no.

7. Tian bu la (甜不辣)
Don't waste a single drop: water down the brown sauce and drink it up.
一滴也不浪費：湯水下碗、混合濃郁醬汁，然後把它喝光

Tian bu la refers to fish paste that has been molded into various shapes and sizes, deep-fried, then boiled in a broth. Before eating, the pieces of solid fish paste are taken out of the broth and smothered in brown sauce.
Doesn't sound like much, but it delivers plenty of the sweet flavors and chewy textures beloved by Taiwanese. Tian bu la is basically a Taiwan take on Japanese oden, with more sugariness, tougher fish cakes and a signature sauce.
After finishing the pieces of fish cakes, there's more to come. Get some soup from the vendor and add it to the remaining sauce in the bowl. Mix and drink the flavor bomb.

8. Ba wan (肉圓)
Ba wan: dumplings for giants.
肉圓：是巨人的水餃

The ba wan is Taiwan's mega dumpling.
Made with a dough of rice flour, corn starch and sweet potato starch, it looks almost translucent after cooking. Pork, veggies and sometimes eggs are stuffed inside and gravy is poured on top.
It is commonly believed that ba wan was invented during periods of scarcity. The simple pork dumpling was then a luxurious snack enjoyed only during the Lunar New Year festival.

9. Fried chicken (鹽酥雞)
Perfect street food: boneless and bite-sized.
完美隨手吃：去骨、一口剛剛好

In the fried chicken hall of fame, Taiwan deserves its own exhibit. Not only has it made the giant fried chicken cutlet (No. 35 on this list) a cult classic, but its popcorn chicken is dangerously addictive.
The chicken is chopped into bite-sized pieces, marinated, dipped in batter and deep-fried. A generous sprinkling of salt and pepper complete the morish morsels. It's a ubiquitous snack on the city streets.

10. Flaky scallion pancake (蔥抓餅)
The flaky scallion pancake, Taiwan's food porn queen.
有著酥脆口感的千層蔥餅，是台灣美食之性感女王

There is nothing more appetizing than the sight of a flaky scallion pancake being slowly torn apart. Add cheese and egg fillings to maximize the visuals.

Devour this night market staple in a few bites to ensure it is steaming hot and chewy.

11. Oyster vermicelli (蚵仔麵線)
Oyster vermicelli: taste of the sea.
鮮蚵細麵：海洋之味

A bowl of great oyster vermicelli should have a thick, flavorful soup base while the thin rice noodles and oysters should still retain their distinct texture.
Some people will add chopped intestines for a funky dimension to the soup.
It is a gooey, slurpable dish, more soup than noodle, with an intense briny taste.

12. Stinky tofu (臭豆腐)
You need two hands to eat this, one to hold your nose.
吃的時候你需要兩手併用，一手是用來掐住鼻子的

This is the world's best love-it-or-hate-it snack and Taiwan does it just right.
The "fragrant" cube of bean curd is deep-fried and draped with sweet and spicy sauce. It you hold your nose, it looks and tastes just like a plain ol' piece of fried tofu, with a crisp casing and soft center like pudding.
But what's the fun in eating that? Inhale deeply and relish the stench, the smellier, the better.

13. Pepper cakes (胡椒餅)
So good that we ate half of it before remembering to take a photo.
太好吃了差點忘記拍照，吃到一半才想起來

The must-have at Rao He night market, the pepper cake is a crispy pocket filled with juicy pork that is infused with the aromatic bite of black pepper. Baked on the wall of a clay oven, the pies are a delicious ode to the pepper plant.
Make sure you get more than one, or risk the overwhelming sense of regret when you have to wait again in the long queue for more.

More information please visit: http://www.kingtronics.com/

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Kt Kingtronics Taiwanese Foods We Can't Live Without

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