Lemon Aiyu, Shaoxiancao, Danzai Noodles, Rice Blood Cake, Meatballs. Top 5 Foods Recommended by Taiwanese Locals

As a Taiwanese, I was thinking about which restaurants I had eaten at that were worth recommending. Then I suddenly remembered that when I was in college, I went to Shanghai with my friends. We made a detailed plan in advance, including which restaurants we would go to and what to eat. In the end, we had a great time, but I felt that the trip lacked the "discovery" link. Seeing that the friends in front have recommended a lot of Taiwanese snacks, I will make some additions. I hope that everyone will have more "discoveries" of their own during the trip while having fun in Taiwan.

Taiwanese snacks are as interesting as Taiwanese culture. It seems that there are always shadows here or there. After careful tasting, it turns out that it is "fusion". Taiwanese snacks have the shadows of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Japanese occupation era, the immigration of veterans of the National Army, and the integration with the West.

I have seen many complaints that "some Taiwanese snacks are actually certain snacks from a certain place in the mainland!", but what I want to say more is that Taiwanese snacks are actually a microcosm of Taiwanese history.

Let's start with the recommendation

Lemon Aiyu

Aiyu is a vine plant unique to Taiwan, and there are male and female Aiyu. Male Aiyu is inedible, so the Aiyu we are talking about is actually made from the seeds of female Aiyu. Legend has it that during the Qing Dynasty, a Fujian businessman went to Chiayi, Taiwan to do business. The businessman discovered that after rubbing Aiyu fruit in water, a condensed transparent soft substance would be produced. So he came up with a method of rubbing through gauze, and asked his daughter named Aiyu to sell it in the market. People always shouted "Aiyu! Come on, one bowl" from afar, and over time, this dessert was called "Aiyu".



Delicious aiyu must be smooth and chewy. The natural pectin is rubbed out from the aiyu seeds. Of course, the degree of softness and smoothness is also related to the proportion of water when rubbing. There will be some flocs in the real aiyu, which is the fiber in the aiyu fruit, and it will start to seep water after being left for a period of time.

Aiyu itself has no taste except for a light grassy scent, so it needs to be paired with brown sugar syrup and lime juice. The syrup made from brown sugar has a unique flavor, but if you only use brown sugar syrup and aiyu, the taste will be too sweet and monotonous. The overly sweet taste paired with Taiwan’s hot and humid climate is really intoxicating...So use the sourness and fragrance of lime juice to balance the sweetness of brown sugar syrup, and this is lemon aiyu!



Grass Jelly

When I was a kid, Kaohsiung had a cold snap that lasted for 3 days. The cold snap was really exciting for me at that time! It was the first time I put on a sweater, and I felt so cool. The next day when I went to kindergarten, I found that my classmates were competing to see who wore more sweaters, as if the more they wore, the cooler they were... But the most impressive thing about that time was that my father took me to eat grass jelly after class, because I heard that eating grass jelly can keep out the cold and prevent getting angry.

Grass jelly has a lot of ingredients, which is simply the best choice for those with choice disorder. Candied red beans, mung beans, flower beans, taro balls, pearls, oat kernels, coix seeds, peanuts (cooked peanut kernels/fried peeled peanuts)... The grass jelly should not be as thin as water, nor too thick. The best state is between liquid and solid. The hot grass jelly has a herbal aroma and a very slight bitter taste. After the bitterness, you will find that there is a "cool" feeling in your mouth. This is the intuitive feeling of "annealing" as people say. The grass jelly itself must not be too sweet, because the ingredients are basically "honeyed". The slightly bitter grass jelly with herbal aroma is matched with various "honeyed" ingredients. After a bowl of it, it really warms the stomach and heart.

I have also eaten "grass jelly" in Beijing, but it was "icy" grass jelly cubes with milk and red beans. In fact, it was grass jelly jelly...



Danzai noodles

Danzai noodles originated in Tainan. This simple noodle dish contains the diligent spirit of the Taiwanese people at that time. Tainan was the capital of Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty. Many local snacks have elements of Fujian, and Danzai noodles are a typical example.

There is a man named Hong Yutou in Tainan. Mr. Hong makes a living by fishing in Tainan. Fishing is a job that depends on the weather, so Mr. Hong decided to do a sideline business to generate income during the fishing off-season. Mr. Hong relied on the braised pork method learned from the master in Zhangzhou, picked up a noodle stall and sold it on the street, and began his journey of Danzai noodles.

Danzai noodles are mainly composed of oil noodles, braised pork, broth, bean sprouts, shrimps and coriander, and of course you can add a braised egg. The first time I went to eat Danzai noodles, I was scared by the blackened braised pork pot in the store. I said to my mother: "This pot looks...%￥#& Are you sure we want to eat here?" My mother said three words: "You don't understand."

The taste of braised pork is the key to Danzai noodles. Pork, soy sauce, sugar and fried shallots determine the quality of braised pork. High-quality pork will be reflected in color, taste and flavor; cheap soy sauce is often salty but not fragrant enough, while handmade pure soy sauce has a prominent aroma; the sweetness of rock sugar and licorice powder is milder and more mellow than that of sugar; fried shallots are made by chopped shallots and fried over low heat, with a crispy and fragrant taste. Good braised pork should be full of pork fragrance, with appropriate saltiness and mild and mellow sweetness.

Danzai noodles use oil noodles, which belong to wet noodles. Since alkali is added during the production process, the color of oil noodles is yellow and the taste is very chewy. The reason why it is called oil noodles is that oil noodles are generally sold after being cooked and mixed with oil.

A delicious bowl of danzai noodles should be full of the aroma of meat and onions, which is why my mother said to me "you don't understand" back then. A good pot of braised pork is also very important. I believe that friends who can cook will know that the more you use the pot of braised meat, the more fragrant it will be. In addition to the tempting braised pork, there are also smooth and chewy oil noodles, soup made from shrimp heads, and a small spoonful of essential mashed garlic, which will definitely make danzai noodles sublime instantly.



Rice Blood Cake

Rice Blood Cake is definitely the first thing I want to eat after getting off the plane. As a staple food lover, I will never say no to the soft and sticky rice blood cake!

There are two main types of rice blood cake: duck blood cake and pig blood cake. It is a snack made by steaming duck blood or duck blood with glutinous rice. Some friends may wonder, "Aren't duck blood and pig blood in lumps? How can they be steamed with glutinous rice? Is the rice blood cake layered?!"------ Because it uses fresh blood, it will not be layered!

The glutinous rice in the rice blood cake must be soaked in water for half a day before making it. Then, when killing ducks or pigs, use a rectangular container to drip blood along the wall of the container with the soaked glutinous rice until the duck blood or pig blood covers the rice grains. Then add a little salt and steam it after solidification.

A delicious rice blood cake should not be too salty, the texture should be soft and glutinous enough, the glutinous rice should not be undercooked, there should be no residue (the residue is my translation, the Taiwanese pronunciation is pè pè), and there should be no unpleasant bloody smell.

When it comes to eating rice blood cake, there are many ways to eat it. In the north, people eat it with peanut powder and coriander; in the south, the way of eating is more simple, and the rice blood cake is often cooked and eaten as a side dish with ginger and soy sauce paste or soy sauce, or as a raw material for braised food; it can also be fried, and sesame oil rice blood cake is a good product for winter cold.





Meatballs

I was a little confused when writing about meatballs, because not only are there differences between the north and south of Taiwan's meatballs, but even the meatballs and side dishes in different places are different. I'll just give a general idea here. If anyone is interested, I can write another article about Taiwanese meatballs.

It is said that meatballs originated in the Beidou area of ​​Changhua. The outer skin of meatballs is generally made of sweet potato flour, rice flour or cornstarch. The fillings are mainly pork, mushrooms and bamboo shoots. The sauces usually served with meatballs include sea mountain sauce, white sweet rice sauce, soy sauce paste, sweet and spicy sauce, and chili sauce.

In general, meatballs can be divided into: central meatballs, northern meatballs and southern meatballs.

In terms of cooking methods, meatballs in the north and central regions are steamed first and then soaked in warm oil, while those in the south are steamed; in terms of fillings, red yeast rice is added to the fillings of meatballs in the north, five-spice powder is added to the fillings of meatballs in the central region, and only meat pieces soaked in sauce are added to the fillings of meatballs in the south.

The Changhua meatballs in central Taiwan are probably the most common meatballs in Taiwan. Even the store downstairs from my house sells Changhua meatballs. In addition to the basic pork, mushrooms and bamboo shoots, the fillings of Changhua meatballs also contain five-spice powder and fried shallots. The fried shallots are rich in flavor, the fillings are firm, the gravy is sweet, and the mushrooms and bamboo shoots enhance the flavor. The skin of the Changhua meatballs is mainly made of rice paste with a little sweet potato starch. After steaming, the texture is hard. After the low-temperature oil-soaking process, the skin will become chewy. The outer skin of the meatballs is thinner, so after being soaked in oil, the skin on the edge will be relatively tough. The closer you eat to the middle, the more chewy the skin will be. This kind of meatballs that are steamed first and then soaked in low-temperature oil are really great!