Food in Taiwan

So, Food in Taiwan is different. I like some of it quite a lot, and some not at all. And some of it I just can't bring myself to eat. 

Our hosts showed us how they stuff these chickens for roasting. They are stuffed with herbs and vegetables. Notice the claws are still attached. They eat these after they are cooked. And I always complained that the wing didn't have any meat on it.

Taiwan people are not camera shy. 

Every meal includes soup of some kind and they are usually quite good, though mostly vegetables. This is a fish soup containing several kinds of fish balls and formed fish. They color the formed fish lots of colors like the pink and yellow below and put it into different shapes. Strange colors to have in a soup, but it all tastes just like fish.

This is my bowl of soup.

One night we had soup at a little restaurant down the street. They had us pick out the fish we wanted and then they made it into a soup for us. The head, including the eyeballs, and the tail were floating around in the soup. I just didn't look at it while I ate. It tasted good. David thought we should have chosen the squid instead of a fish. I have a hard time with the tentacles on squid and octopus.

Kaohsiung is bordered on one side by the ocean, so seafood is prevalent in their meals. The fish at left were being grilled. The fish is always cooked with head and tail attached. Sometimes it hasn't even been cleaned before cooking.

This is Hot Pot. You start with a bowl of broth and a plate of vegetables and the meat of your choice. The broth is on a hot plate and you control the temperature. You put whatever you want into the broth and eat it as it cooks. When you finish, you have a yummy broth soup to finish off your meal.

the soup at the end of my meal.

Taiwan pot lucks are great. The Ward finds an excuse to have one about twice a month. There is always lots of food, but there is seldom a dessert table. There may be a few cookies but that's about all. They like meat and vegetable dishes. We've learned that everyone brings their own bowl and chopsticks from home. When we didn't have any, the members insisted on us using theirs. That was rather awkward. This particular potluck was for the Women's broadcast. 

They have wonderful bakeries here. Most of the bread has some kind of filling and we never have any way of knowing what it will be. We always get surprised. I think that is rather fun, but David has ended up with too many raisins and blueberries and red beans and is getting kind of leery of the breads. The only one I haven't liked so far is the the shredded pork filling.


Mostly, the food is very good. I don't have pictures of the pot stickers and Shui Jiao. They are absolutely wonderful. Also the fruit milk drinks make a great meal all by themselves. I'm having a hard time keeping my calorie count in check.