Food « My Itchy Fingers

Food Glorious Food! – Taiwan Trip #17

April 2, 2009 at 11:21 am | In itchy backside | 1 Comment
Tags: Food, Taiwan, Travel

Taiwan is known for its many good food. The thing is, I am never a food person, although I do have a sweet tooth and welcome any ice-cream or chocolate. Strangely cakes do not appeal that much to me…heee….

Walking along the Shilin Night Market, you would be able to see a lot of interesting stuff that they sell. Besides the food, the signs on these mobile hawkers were interesting too.

stick
This reminded me of Bangkok. They had all sorts of skewed meat to be heated
up when you order

Stall selling fish cakes and stinky beancurd

These hotdogs were coated with a layer of flour and deep-fried before serving

Grilled quail eggs

Tisu Boy had been saying that he must eat the “Pig Blood” in Taiwan, since we dun have it back home anymore due to hygiene reasons. But the strange thing was we looked at so many stalls selling it, and it didn’t look anything like what we had in Singapore. They called it the Pig Blood Cake (豬血糕), which was made from pork blood and sticky rice. Those that were sold in Singapore were a kind of congealed pig blood, without mixing anything. In the end, we saw something similar to those we had back home, but these were made from duck blood….According to Wikipedia, these are called “blood tofu“ (血豆腐), or “red tofu” (红豆腐) in China, and are most often made with pig’s or duck’s blood, although chicken’s or cow’s blood may also be used. These are simply cut into rectangular pieces and cooked.

So gamely, Tisu Boy ordered a set for himself…eeee….I dun take these…. :O We were asked to take a seat inside the shop…had wanted to take-away, but since it was such a cold night, we thought it would be a good idea to rest in the warm and cosy shop.

blood
I think the stall owner thought Tisu Boy order ‘one set’ for TWO person…
it was such a big serving!

Especially when he thought “one set” meant “one piece” and went to order
some other stuff to share. These were all fish balls, fish cakes and mushrooms
for me so I would have something to munch on while he savoured his ducky blood… :p

Besides this duck blood, Tisu Boy also tried the ducks’ tongues….

tongue
Quack quack quack…..looked scary to me….

Then we also saw a few of these familiar signs as seen on guidebooks…

The “Frog laying eggs”. Wonder why all the signs had this same design…
think they were some kind of franchise….

So what on earth are “Frog laying eggs” (青蛙下蛋)?

It is actually made of 粉圓, a kind of jelly, similar to those in bubble tea. When boiled in water, it looked whitish like frogs’ eggs. Served with ice, milk and other toppings like green beans or lemon, and we have a delicious cup of jelly drink…hmmmm…similiar to that of our ice-jelly 文头雪….

frog
This picture cropped off the big bowl of jelly in the foreground. This is similar
to our ice jelly…they called it 愛玉

愛玉? Why called that? Isn’t that ice-jelly?

It was only then I realised I never know how ice-jelly is made….

Actually the jelly is made from the gel on the seeds of a fig, Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang, found in Taiwan and East Asian countries. The fruits are the size of small mangos and are harvested just before they ripen to a dark purple. They are then halved and turned inside out to dry over the course of several days. The dry fruits can then be sold, or dried aiyu seeds (愛玉子) can then be pulled off the outside skin and sold separately. To make the jelly, the seeds are placed in a cotton cloth bag and submerged in cold water and rubbed. A slimy yellowish tea coloured gel will be extracted from the bag of aiyu seeds as it is squeezed and massaged. The bag is discarded and the extracted gel is then allowed to set into a jelly either in a cool location or in the fridge. Today, those sold in Singapore hawker centres or food courts are not made fresh this way but from commercially ready powder form, according to a local food variety show that I missed recently. They showed how they found an old stall owner who knows how to make ice-jelly the traditional way but stopped doing so as he couldn’t get fresh ingredients here. For filming the show, the TV crew specially flew in the aiyu seeds from Taiwan. Hope they will re-run the show again…

We also tried some of the more ‘normal’ food.

egg
Cakes made into cute shapes…

Itchyfingers tried this stall…and asked for all animal shapes only…. :p

Nice little animal cakes….would be nice to have some red bean fillings….

One of the most bizarre thing food stalls we encountered must be this one. It was located just opposite the Ximen station, which was the centre of the hip Ximending shopping area…So out of place!

dried
Shop selling dried duck, fish, sauages and other dried meat. A totally out of
place shop, sharing the prime location with its neighbours of hip bubble tea,
eateries and fashion outlets…The boss looked grumpy, so Itchyfingers had
to shoot it from a distance…and were surprised to see a customer the next minute…

At Jiufen 九份, Itchyfingers tried this nice dessert made from yam…apparently it was a popular old shop…

yam
The original Granny Lai’s shop. One side was the kitchen, the other side was
where customers take a seat enjoying the hot dessert…

Very nice and not too sweet

Cute name and sign for shop selling buns…. The country pumpkin buns

egg2
This was even better…the Bastard Eggs….hahahah….Specially concocted
eggs with three flavours….

Then of all things, Tisu Boy had to order this to try….exotic lor…eeeee….

snail2
Grilled snails….and he asked for the original taste, with no added spices,
only a pinch of salt….

Turned out to be not so nice since the lady didn’t give him all the hot ones…
It smelt fishy to me….

There were simply too much interesting food to try in Taiwan, too bad we didn’t have big stomach to try all, and there were a lot of pork stuff which I do not take. But since I have a sweet tooth, would strongly recommend the Frog Laying Eggs jelly drink as well as the yam dessert! Hahaha….

Everyone Says Good Good Eat…Again! – Taiwan Trip #16

March 30, 2009 at 10:32 am | In itchy mouth | 2 Comments
Tags: Design, Food, Humour, Packaging, Product design, Taiwan, Travel

This trip to Taiwan Itchyfingers had planned to check out (and hopefully pick up if I could afford them…) the local design – be it food, signage or lifestyle product, after seeing many of these on magazines.

Remember Itchyfingers once wrote about discovering a tit-bit with a cute little girl as mascot on the packaging? Was attracted by the cute girl and the even cuter product name – 張君雅小妹妹, that I bought the snack even though I seldom eat them! So during the Taiwan trip, I kept reminding myself to visit the supermarket to look for the whole series of product under this 張君雅小妹妹 brand. Well, didn’t have to even look far in supermarkets, cos just under our hotel was a 7-11 store, and was excited to find some of the products there while picking up snacks for our day trips out of the city!

noodle3
This is the noodle snack featured in the advertisement we linked on the last post.
There were three colours but I only bought one….kinda regretted now…afterall
it was so cheap…

Ooo…they even have gummies! These were lychee and grapes flavours…

Ooooo….the white lychee ones only had 張君雅小妹妹 with very faint hair
line pattern whereas the purple grape ones were more distinct. You could see
the hair line and the smiling faces. The other ones were grumpy faces….hahah

Then there was this tiny cup noodle version..cute mermaid 張君雅小妹妹 with
clam shells….:p

The shrink-wrapped cup…

I brought back and cooked it…oh my goodness..so cute…the fish cakes were
in the shape of 張君雅小妹妹’s face!

Was so happy with my purchase that day! The next day when we returned to get some drinks, my eyes caught these and immediately grabbed them without looking at the price or read what was the content! I must have these! :O

Pack of five 張君雅小妹妹 snack. Normally you could choose to buy one pack
or the whole row. Didn’t even see what was it inside…But I guess should be
some candies. Have to get them first!

So, it’s some BBQ flavoured noodle snacks again. This fifth pack had
張君雅小妹妹 pleading people to come and buy her… :p

The happy 張君雅小妹妹: “Sold one pack, hurry before all are gone!”

“Left just three packs! Quickly bring me to the cashier!”

張君雅小妹妹 getting pissed. “Left only two packs and still thinking!”

“What! Only left with one pack!??” What are you still waiting for!??

Heee….Itchyfingers brought all these cute 張君雅小妹妹 snacks back home and finished them all by myself…. The snacks themselves were okay, but with a nice branding and nice packaging, you will be sure to attract consumers’ attention!

Anyone visiting Taiwan soon? Itchyfingers dun mind getting these 張君雅小妹妹 snacks as little gifts….hahahahah…..

Also see related post:
> Everyone Says Good Good Eat!

Answer to Nature’s Call #3 – Toilet Signs, Taiwan Trip #15

March 27, 2009 at 3:55 pm | In itchy fingers | 5 Comments
Tags: Culture, Design, Food, Humour, Language, Signage, Taiwan, Travel

Itchyfingers were kinda surprised to find the public loos in Taiwan were mostly the squat kinds, except in the train stations and in one of the nicer shopping centres we visited. One of the first loos I visited was in a shopping centre. It was our first night in Taipei, walking around after dinner. We had thought that the shopping centre was a 24 hour bookshop we planned to visit as they had the same name. Went up several floors and saw no books… So I thought might as well go visit the loo since we might be staying out for a while before returning to the hotel.

But I was a bit shocked by the loos in the shopping centre….such nice and hip shopping centre selling upmarket things but the loos were…..

loo
This was the cleanest of all the cubicles…but after looking at the condition
of the other cubicles, I was in no more mood to use the loo anymore…Notice
the design of their squatt loo is different from ours, which is totall flat? The
metal thing on the right is for you to step on to flush. All tissues were supposed
to be thrown in the bin at the left.

I remembered some other countries also don’t encourage tissues to be thrown into the toilet bowl…think it was Vietnam or Cambodia…can’t remember well cos they merely had a small discreet sign. None of these other countries had such big signs to remind users not to throw the tissue in…except in Taiwan….

poem
A ‘poem’ on the gracious use of loos at the Shilin Market….You really have
to understand the language to fully appreciate this piece… :p

Well, Itchyfingers shall attempt at a (very!) loose translation for those not proficient in Mandarin…

It said, (from left to right):

“To pee, lean forward; Urine, won’t drip out.
To squat, aim correctly; Loo, will remain fresh.
When done, flush immediately; Faeces, gone you go.
Foreign matters, throw not; Betel nuts, spit not.”

Haha….lousy translation….but you get the idea….

sign33
Another friendly poster in the toilet at Taroko National Park. From left to
right it said, “Toilet paper makes me suffer from indigestion. Sanitary pads
block my intestines. Please do not throw these into the toilet bowl. Keep
public toilets clean.”

Now I think back, the toilets at that first shopping centre were actually not that dirty. They were just old and the flooring a bit wet. I think because they thrashed the used toilet papers into the bin, there was always this stinky smell in the loos…so I wasn’t used to it that night. Haha…

Itchyfingers also din forget to take nice toilet signs to add onto our collections.

sign42
This nice one at Tiansiang, Taroko National Park showed the tribal people

Another at the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

Another cute loo sign…but this was not a loo….it was a restaurant!

Before we were in Taiwan, I had been reading about this cute restaurant. But due to its popularity, reservations had to be made at least a day ahead. We were not sure if we could afford the time to go and find the place since we weren’t supposed to be staying only in Taipei city. So we decided to give it a try only if our timing allowed us to fit in a last minute visit. But we accidentally bumped into this branch at Shilin on our way to the train station…and wow! So cute! I wanna try! But we were already full and the restaurant seemed to be full house….

loo1
With loo as a theme for the restaurant, what do you think the decor would be?

Big pile of sh*t on a toilet in the window display…why did they keep the
Happy Hour sign behind?

Cute loo and sh*t shaped merchandise on display….wow!

I peeped into the restaurant for a long while before finally willing to leave. Too bad we didn’t have a chance to visit any other outlets during our short stay in Taiwan. Next time, Itchyfingers will be back and we will make sure we visit the restaurant! :O