Yeah real fruit! Taiwan is a great great great fruit kingdom. I mean not to be bragging but we are quit famous for our fruit hahaha. Today my uncle brought over a lot of fruit. A lot I mean seriously a lot, like 5 or 6 move-in container boxes load amount. Peaches are my favorite fruit here. Peaches are usually more well known in Japan. However, Taiwanese people are very good at making fruit grow despite the needed weather condition without doing a lot of weird chemical stuff to fruits. Sometimes they are even so good at it that the fruit ended up growing better than where they are originated. Like this peach, it is grown in the high mountain tops of Taiwan. It is one of the best peach one can ever have.
Well~ here’s the famous stinky tofu. In fact this place is one of the best stinky tofu place I had ever had in my life. It is a new place though, so it is also my first time here. It is located in a small inner street of Ping-tung. For those who don't’ know Ping-tung. 1) it is where I grew up and lived before I went to college. 2) it is what a lot of my friend from Kaohsiung refer to as “where cows and grass grow.” However, it has changed a lot since I left. A lot more tall buildings, department store, actual chain restaurants, etc. However, I still miss all the good old style street food here. In a more vulgar way, I probably miss the dirtiness of the restaurant here XD Back to stinky tofu. Stinky tofu is a rather interesting dish, because every place and restaurant here makes it differently. Different level of crunchiness, different level of inner softness, and DIFFERENT LEVEL OF STINKINESS! Every restaurant has their own secret towards fermenting the tofu to how they want it to taste. This one uses vegetables to ferment it. So the tofu is super crunchy on the outside after it is fried, but the inside still retain its tenderness. Along with the homemade garlic soy sauce and taiwanese kimchi, I couldn’t help myself but eat 2 plates. >_<
More food~ Here is some of my favorite dishes from home. Beef noodle soup, xiao long bao, sweet and sour soup, drunken chicken, and chopped shrimp in lettuce leaf. These are very Taiwanese dishes that I tried to find substitutes in Los Angeles from the Chinese restaurants there, but they just taste different. Especially when noodle and noodle skins are involved. I’m sorry to say it’s like comparing sky to land. You can’t compare because the real way here taste way better. Especially the soup exploding into your mouth when you bite into the xiao long bao or along with the sweet sour soup. The beef noodle soup doesn’t taste just like soy sauce in water, but here you can actually taste the vegetables and long shimmering of the meat juice.
