In the Sky

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Dreamland, KaoHsuing, S. Taiwan 夢時代, 高雄, 南台灣

The first time I was in KaoHsuing was in April 1998 and on that trip I was on a heavy mood because I was to set up my network in my new business plan and fierce competition with the other business parties, as I went to Taipei afterwards. At that time, KaoHsuing was just a city to me. 11 years later, it turned out as a modern cosmopolitan but even quieter. The first 2 days didn't impress me much but later on the last 2 days made me re-think about this city.

1/2 Dreamland is a big shopping/entertainment complex close to the Siu Kang Airport (小港機場). On top of it is a Ferris Wheel and a playground. You can spend a whole day there, especially in the book store. I really enjoy browsing the Elite Book shop (誠品書店) and this time I bought some nice books.

3/4. the food court in the basement offering various kinds of local and foreign food.

5. busy food court area. 6. Tan Tsai Noodle 担仔麵 - this noodle derived from a guy called Mr. Hung who migrated from Fujian to Tainan in the late Ching dynasty. Mr. Hung lived as a fisherman but survived hard during the typhoon season. So during typhoon season he would take up a bamboo rod to carry the utensil for cooking a small portion of noodle. So Tan means the bamboo rod. Tsai implies it is a small and humble business. As Mr. Hung sold the noodle for several months during Typhoon season, so he called it as "passing a period of small moon" (度小月) - what a literal term for his name. Now the original shop in Tainan has been over 100 years old. The essense of this noodle is in the minced pork sauce. I kind of like it since the portion is good enough as a snack. Besides, the name already earned our loving memory of Mr. Hung's spirit of surviving and being humble. This noodle is often my recommendation for foreign friends visiting Taiwan.

7. San Sheun Jiao Fu (三商巧福) is a big chain store or may be the first Chinese fast food chain store in Taiwan. It's main dish is beef noodle soup. The taste is quite nice but at a price of NT$70-80 (HK$16-18) for a big bowl of beef noodle, it is worth trying. 8. Kao Hsuing oyster omelette. Personally I don't like it especially that "tomato sauce-like".

9. Hot spicy soup with dumpling. Quite nice and also very cheap NT$80 for both. 10. Taiwanese Bento (便當) - most fast food or lunch box sold at gas station or train station often claim their lunch box as Chie Xheng Bento (池上便當). Chie Xheng is a place in Tai Tung (Eastern Taiwan) and its soil is good for growing rice. Bento is a Japanese name for lunch box. So Chie Xheng is famous for its rice. In fact, we did enjoy quite much on the rice no matter how awlful the food is.

11. beef noodle with pickled veggie - also quite nice and NT$120 for both. 12. my faourite ice - snowy silky ice (雪花冰) - the ice is made of milk; so when it is shred, the texture beomes very silky. Highly recommended!

13/14. more variety of snowy silky ice.

15. this one is with raspberry sauce. 16. the frogs on the playground.

17/18. the Ferris wheel. 19. the swinging ship.

黃媽綠豆蒜 Madam Huang's green bean sweet, 恆春, 南台灣

The web for Kao Hsuing travel highly recommended this shop due to a few TV actors visiting this shop. So we asked the driver to get us to this place. When we saw the long queue, we subconsciously jumped to the line. We waited for about 20 minutes but then it turned out a waste of time.

1. the green bean is in a sweet thick soup. The green bean was first boiled and drained and then put in a soup thickened in yam powder. Supposed the green bean already has its nice aroma but for sure gone with the drained boiled water. Besides, they just use white sugar. What do you think for a sweet being so tasteless with tasteless sugar? 2. if you want it cold, they just put a bed of ice on it. Nothing special at all. I have no idea why it can be famous. I noticed not just we couldn't finish the dish, but also there are quite a number of other customers leaving with a half or 70% left. By the way, the above bowl is just 6 inch in diameter and 2 inch depth.

3. the shop.

Wan Luen Pig Knuckle restaurant 萬巒豬腳, 恆春, 南台灣

Got told by the local driver about this famous Pig Knuckle restaurant on our way into Kenting 墾丁. The shop is like a huge canteen of a big corporate and the name (the sound) reminded everyone about the famous British soccer team Manchester United and wondered if that was purposedly related to "foot". Of course, we know in Mandarin it doesn't sound like Manchester United.

1. A very interesting dish. The prawn is with heavy starch coating and put with some artificial flavour mayonaise and the most interesting is the little colourful candy sprinkles. 2. Pig's knuckle - it's just so so to us.

3. deep fried spare ribs in sweet vinegar sauce. The spare ribs were indeed over-cooked and much too dried. The sauce is quite ok. 4. Baby bamboo - it's very soft but the heavy gravy made me lose my appetite. Besides, I noticed this shop are in a massive "production". Yes, I can say it's a "production" - not cooking. I found most of those "hot" eating places are like this - doing massive "production" to cater the large no. of customers. I would say it's a common mistake for those famous shops turning themselves into "production".

5. clam and winter melon soup - a bit too bland indeed or another "production". 6. stir fried beef.

7. Spare ribs in "hot burnt" (紅燒) sauce - supposed the hot burnt sauce should have the burnt aroma but this one didn't have any at all. The hot burnt sauce should be first with a chunk of rock sugar to be brown in the wok and then put wine/water/soy sauce together to create that "burnt" aroma. I don't think this one can be called as "hot burnt". 8. Tofu in "hot burnt" sauce - another disappointing dish. If you like heavy gravy, this is the one.

9. stir fried squid - no comments. 10. the pig knuckle.

11. stir fried Yam leaves - this one should be a symbolic dish for Taiwanese veggie but the shop didn't get the essence of stir frying at all. 12. see how crowded and busy it is.

13. the shop outside.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

龍媽麵店, 高雄, 台灣

Passed by this shop during my stay at Grand Hi Lai Hotel in KaoHsuing and noticed quite many locals visited this shop. So why not for a late night try by myself only for my favourite rice noodle in minced pork sauce (乾米粉) plus preserved cabbage and a Lo Shui Egg (滷水蛋) (egg soaked in special soy sauce). I got really impressed! So the next day I brought my colleagues and of course Madam Fa (being a taste supervisor and an experienced chef). Then we tried more various food and we were all so surprised! Now that we have a reason to go back to Kao Hsuing.

1. Madam Loen (means Dragon) is in the middle of the photo and her shop. When getting so impressed with her food, we got to chat with her for a while. She also appreciated my tasting for what ingredients she put. Then we got to know each other being so enjoyable in cooking. Madam Loen started cooking since 13 and she started this shop on her own. She claimed to use freshest ingredients and made her own "deep fried red onion" (油蔥酥) - this one is very essential for Taiwanese local food and that's also the important part of cooking - making your own ingredients and this is your style. 2. Pork in thick soup (肉羹) - I think I would have my prejudice by simply looking at the texture of this thick soup. I was so wrong but I don't blame for myself as nobody's perfect. I think it's best Pork in thick soup I have ever tried. Madam put the deep fried fish chunks (大地魚) in the soup and made the whole soup a lot different, just like the way the Cantonese wonton soup having deep fried fish chunks in it. What's more, Madam put the Chinese long cabbage (黃芽白) and the sweetness of the cabbage balance the aromatic salty taste of the fish chunks, just like how much I enjoyed using fried dried shrimp to cook with cabbage. As for the meat, it's not just meat. Madam used her own hand to massage the meat well and made it so soft and chewy, and even like fish cake texture. Highly recommended!!!

3. Dried rice noodle in minced pork sauce (乾米粉) - my favourite! Madam's special minced pork sauce made the noodle so different - sweet and salty taste very balanced! 4. Jia Yi Chicken rice (嘉義雞肉飯) - Why pick the chicken from Jia Yi (a county in the Southern Middle Taiwan). I asked Madam Fa what the difference of this meat to the other chicken meat and Madam Fa simply pointed out the meat is marinated first in salt and it's full of chicken taste. However, I told her I also got amazed with this name because it's not chicken at all but just the Chinese name has the "chicken". It's just with one word prefix - "fire" in Chinese. Yes, it's Turkey actually. Turkey in Chinese has 2 words "fire" "chicken". Jia Yi's turkey is different from the original turkey. I was told the locals of Jia Yi mix the breed of chicken and turkey and have this new breed of turkey - having the taste of chicken but in lean meat. Of course, Madam made this marinated meat so well - not dried at all even though after a long time of marinating.

5. rice noodle in soup - Madam Dragon made the soup so clear but the taste is not bland at all. Madam Fa really enjoyed the soup so much and appraised for Madam Dragon's cooking skill! You can see the deep fried red onion in the soup. Madam just sprinkled it a little and made the soup so aromatic. No need to put much as it will be too overwhelming. 6. Thick chewy noodle (米苔目) - another Southern Taiwanese local food - we all got so amazed at this chewy noodle texture. Must try!

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Kao Hsuing 高雄, Southern Taiwan (part 2)

KaoHsuing originally named as Takao (a Japanese sound for "hit the dog"); so the locals named the city as 打狗. The city is in a very strategic position of Southern Taiwan and hence was once a place for various battles during those war times. Now it's a place populated with 1.5 million locals but yet it's still quite a quiet city.