Hello folks, I am officially back from my month long vacation, trust you have applied yourselves positively while I’ve been away. My yearly visit to the folks is always enlightening if perspective bending though this is the first time in eight years that I went home in time to celebrate Chinese New Year. I’m carrying alot of holiday weight right now, five kilos to be exact, heavy stuff. Astrologists are predicting a gold rush this year and have interpreted the year of the Metal Tiger to be one made of solid gold. Bling. I had originally intended this post to be the closer to my run of unofficial Chinese New Year write-ups and was suppose to coincide with Chap Go Meh – the fifteenth day of the new Lunar year – the same day which also marks the end of the Chinese New year festival… but other more pressing commitments had ensured a five day delay – building websites still doesn’t quite pay the rent. I had spent most of the time travelling between Brunei, Singapore and Taiwan, the latter was where I decided to spend my money. I have good reason to stuff myself silly and I filled my schedule with pit-stops to restaurants which served something representatively local – like a crash course into the native cuisine. It’s all well and good that we have so many restaurants which cater to all sorts of world cuisines, but it occurred to me that London has been the first destination that I have sampled certain international flavours. Something as common as say pizza for example – I can’t say I’ve actually tried a Neapolitan recipe passed down from the ages. This holiday would double as gastronomic adventure and I view it as a way to build my CV in a particular style of cuisine, so that I’ll always have something to compare my London exploits against. And so Kang’s quest to catch a glimpse into the world of Taiwanese cuisine was born. Here are his notes (So weird writing in the third person).

The scene is Taipei. The capital of the island republic, it is situated on the Northern tip of the country and its name unsurprisingly translates to ‘Northern Taiwan’. Home to 2.6 million, it is an emerging ultra modern metropolis of Blade Runner style concrete jungle and it’s skyline proudly accomodates Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world. Like all cities, there are shades of vintage buildings still lingering underneath all the shiny metal and glass. Old shop houses prop up the neon signs, lighting up the city’s night like a Christmas tree. It’s wonderfully urban, tight street corners just wide enough for cars to pass through and temperamental rainclouds which make London feel like Cyprus. In the belly of the beast lies a diverse range of restaurant, cafés and their famed night markets which play host to hundreds of independent street food vendors making it a sort of foodie’s wet dream. In fact, there is so much diversity in it’s food, a week is simply not enough time to try everything. But I tried anyway. My excursion wouldn’t be as impactful if not for my extended family taking me around the city, so I have the C and C’s to thank for all the recs.

With Londoners experiencing a spike in Sichuan food, I thought it’d be appropriate that our first stop was Chuan Ba Zhe – a Szechuan restaurant that does all-you-can-eat ‘Ma-la’ hotpots for about 8 per head.

The local flavour – Gold Medal Beer. The brew is light and carries a chrysanthemum sweetness about it – very easy drinking stuff. We started with a selection of ‘small dishes’ to share dishes and to start – something which is characteristic of a Taiwanese meal – including Kousiu (Saliva) chicken , Quaiwei (weird taste) vermicelli, Dou gan zhe (bean curd slices) and Mala tripe. As it was a Szechuan restaurant, everything was red in colour, evident of potent sliced chilli everywhere and the tranquilising effect of Szechuan pepper slowly started to grab hold of my tastebuds. Terrifying.

The main highlight of the meal was the all-you-can-eat hotpot, the freeloading aspect in that we could order as much meat or vegetables we wanted to chuck into the soup.

Now, this is properly spicy stuff. The soup was made with szechuan pepper and as I alluded to earlier, doesn’t just burn your tongue and throat, it actually conjures up a strange numbing sensation that firstly starts on the back of your tongue, and if you’re greedy, works it’s way into the back of your throat. I downed several glasses of gold medal beer to put the fire out. Eventually, I couldn’t feel my tastebuds anymore. If you head to Angelis in Kilburn or No.10 in Earls Court, you’ll be able get your hands on a Ma-la hotpot. It’s usually protocol to have a layer of oil floating on top of the soup, it’s suppose to keep the heat in and also to cook whatever you’ve dunked into the soup. I am certain that London restaurants hold back on the peppers – this place didn’t.

Our next visit would take us to the outskirts of Taipei, to the seaside township of Danshui.

We rode the MRT – Taipei’s equivalent of the tube – to Danshui and to the very end of the line. The town is a scenic getaway from the high tech city of Taipei. Here, people rolled around in vespas and flip flops and beyond the bridges, you can watch fishermen barbecueing their triumphs by the beach. Restaurants lined the coast, and as we went on a Sunday, it was as if all of Taipei had descended upon this area. We had trekked all the way here to visit the Black Shop, and to sample the locally celebrated pork chop rice.

A large bowl of their signature pork chop costs two pounds, less if our political system was in better working order. Like all umami infused food – this bowl of rice smelled hearty, rustic and fragrant. Served piping hot, the large flap of chop garnished with bean braised tofu and pickled cabbage that carried a vinegary stink. The rice was glutinous, almost sushi rice (but I daren’t claim it) and the savoury flouriness of the pork chop was unmistakable. There was a thin outer which encapsulated the piece of meat, eggs must have been used and the coating absorbed alot of moisture leading to a juiciness which softened the texture of the pork. The combination of the bean-flavoured tofu, the vinegary pickled cabbage and the soya infused egginess of the porkchop gave way to an exemplary example of umami… I finished two bowls.

The black shop was still entertaining massive queues at 3pm in the afternoon, and this was a huge restaurant spread over two floors – such was the popularity of it’s pork chop rice. While there, it was also an opportunity to give one of Taiwan’s best – if common – small dishes a try : Cold creamy tofu with sweet century egg.

When I say creamy, I mean really creamy. The texture is so consistent, it hardly broke and is akin to the density of say a pannacota. Flavoured with a sweetened soya sauce, the purity of the tofu melds well with the mushy liverness of the preserved duck eggs. The strength of this dish – in my opinion – is dependent on the quality of the tofu. The real deal, everything in London is a mere imitation.

Details

Black Shop Pork Chop rice 黑店排骨飯
8-10, Lane 62, Sec 1, Zhongzheng Road, Danshui.
Tel : 02-28052790
MRT : Danshui

We headed out bright and early the next day so that I could run a few errands while in Taipei. Things are generally cheaper, I had my Seiko Kinetic fixed for just under £40 compared to a whopping £85 minimum if I sent it to Maidenhead. I also had bought a pair of thick black rimmed glasses – Clark Kent style – for a reasonable price…. yes, as if Gary Rhodes would suddenly recognised me attempting to ‘review’ his restaurant, says my ego.

Next stop was for breakfast at a local soya milk shop.

We went to Jiang Jia, not particular special, nor exciting but it was something distinctly local and also open 24 hours a day.

A bowl of salty soya milk made with pickled lettuce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, maldive fish and a tiny splash of soya sauce – definitely a change from the rock sugar syrup of HK style sweet tofufa. My favourite were the glutinous rice roll stuffed with pork floss and pickled radish. I thought it was interesting to have a dough explosion of sorts with a youtiaw – fried dough – stuffed with a chinese style omelette on a sesame crusted bread roll – called a ‘shao bing you tiew jia dan’ or otherwise a chinese breakfast butty perhaps.

I spent alot of time getting lost in the side streets which hid makeshift markets and the occasional street food vendor, photographing this street life proved to be one of the highlights of my visit to Taipei.

All I could see was the romance of the older parts of Taipei, so rustic, raw and human, it was here that I felt the life and the buzz of the real city.

We have now just got off Dingxi station and my other half and decided to take me to one of her old favourite noodle shops. Small, unassuming and humble. There would be nothing high brow about it, but again the attraction was apparent in it’s unpretension, just so real.

And here, I had tasted one of the best spare rib & taro soups to date. The soup was oily, but filled with meaty and stocky flavours – very homely. Like most of the soupy meats I had sampled in Taipei, the spare ribs melted like ice cream.

Finally, our last destination led us to the Golden Formosa, famous for none other than authentic Taiwanese cuisine, and I was assured that it doesnt get more authentic, or local than this.

There are several variations of the ‘White-Cut’ Chicken in the different types of Chinese cuisine, and it so happens to be a local favourite in Taiwan, which claims a variation of their own. It’s a mainstay in Cantonese cooking and is a sort of a national symbol of Singapore cuisine in which it is referred to as Hainanese Chicken

The skin is salty and oily, but the meat is juice heaven and silky smooth. There is rich chicken flavour and a clinical taste on the palate. The chicken bounces with every bite and is just a joy to eat – getting breast meat to soften up is a family secret, and the breast meat at Golden formosa was much like caressing the equivalent assets of a beautifully woman, or…

Ginger tripe with bamboo shoots.

What is aromatic to a Taiwanese person just reeked to my untrained palate. This dish stank of bamboo shoots and vinegar, the tripe added to the soured livery flavours of this dish. It was a difficult mouthful for me, not my cup of tea this one, but about as Taiwanese as it could get.

Scallop and Oyster Pancake was up next.

I think the thick gravy – slimy and very fishy – was probably made from the juices scallop and the oyster. It was like a runny pizza with a dough that absorbed too much moisture. Very potent, I could only have a slice before the fishiness became overwhelming.

Finally, deep fried spare ribs.

This one I really enjoyed – one of the most memorable dishes from my trip. Crunchy popcorn like exterior, bubbly crispiness and a peppery hit with a worschester sauce tang. I am certain that there was curry powder in the mixture and which which really gave ribs a spice of life. The meat still juicy on the inside but the distinct sour and spicy crackle on the outside.

Details

Golden Formosa 金蓬萊
101 TianMu East Road, Taipei
Tel: 02-28711517
MRT: Zhishan

So that was my trip to Taipei. The most memorable meal has got to be the Pork Chop rice – simple food, but oh so good. In addition to this, I wrote up on one of Taiwan’s greatest treasure – Beef noodle soup at three of Taipei’s most respected Beef noodle houses. Alright, well a belated happy new year of the Tiger folks, hope you enjoyed my adventures away from home. I think it’s about time I got back to writing up about London again. See you monday.

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Ask any Taiwanese what their number one to-eat dish is and the answer is likely to be Niu Rou Mian. Originally a Northern Chinese recipe, it eventually made it’s way to Taiwan when millions of Nationalist Mainlanders fled the Middle country to escape Communism (source : Travel in Taiwan). It’s a relatively simple recipe, but that’s also why so many adore it. Niu Rou (beef) Mian (noodles) are slow cooked beef slices (Either sirloin or stewing (braising) beef is used) ; spicy soya sauce (or lighter clear broth ; some vegetables and the all important mian. Today Niu Rou Mian’s popularity is so wide spread and deeply rooted in Taiwan’s gastroculture that there is an annual Beef Noodle Festival with the intent to rubber stamp Taipei as the bona-fide capital of Beef noodles. Speaking of Taipei, the city is like a really large open-air food hall. There is just too much to eat. On almost every other street corner, you’ll likely find mobile kitchen units. These movable street vendors are usually manned by single individuals, selling a savory or sweet snack and with nothing but the loudness of their voice as their main form of advertisement. If there is something you crave, chances are you’ll likely run into a street seller just by walking down the street. With such a wide selection, the problem isn’t finding something ‘authentic’ in the city, it’s about finding where the real gems are hidden. Of course, like many things in the world of food, the way to find out about the best in town is through word of mouth. Fortunately for me, I have my entire extended family in Taipei to help me put this hit-list together. On this occasion, we went to three of the most established names in the Taipei Beef Noodle scene, namely Lao Chang, Lin Dong Fang and an unnamed shop in Taoyuan Street. This isn’t the stuffy world top 50 awards folks; This is old fashion, word of mouth street food opinion. Let’s get slurping.

Contestant Number One : Lao Chang Niu Rou Mian

Lao Chang is one of the most respected families in the business. It’s a brand respected and celebrated by the local residents and as far as I know, their noodles are so dependable that it’s usually a representative destination for tourists looking to sample Taiwan’s national treasure. Therefore, it seems fitting for us to start our Beef Noodle adventure with Lao Chang.

One of the unique features of beef noodle houses are their selection of ‘Xiao Chai’ or small dishes. Usually pre-cooked and prepared on a counter as a kind of self-service sort of thing, while there are some staple dishes such as bean curd, tofu and pickled bitter gourd, each restaurant has their own family recipes unique to them alone. I suppose you can treat them as side-dishes, it’s a little more inventive than say garlic spinach and chips. At Lao Chang, we opted for their shredded beancurd, some greens (unfortunately I forgot what they were) and one of their signature small dishes – steamed spare ribs with rice flour. I liked the sort of chilli spiked oatmeal packed with the wholesome spare ribs – we have imitations of this in London, particularly at Leong’s Legends, but when compared, it is like a photocopy of a photograph.

OK, onto the mainshow, Lao Chang’s Niu Rou Mian.

Their signature rendition is a spicy braised soup, reddish in colour and equally potent in taste. The stock is decidedly beefy, and almost carries hints of marmite and also flavours of soya beans. The soup is hearty and the balance of spicy punch against the bovine is just right, with just a light layer of oil – nothing in London compares. Their beef noodles also come in a lighter, clearer broth, free of oil and devoid of spiciness, but still rich in beefiness, we ordered both and also with tendons and beef – half and half as they say. The slow stewed beef exhibited hallmark rip-away-tenderness and with the broth completely soaked into the meat, carried with it a soggy richness – this is textbook good. Though sadly, I thought the noodles were just textbook good. Full of bounce but not dense enough. It easily slipped away from my chopsticks and they tasted a little too rigid, with little inherent flavour, most of all, it didn’t have that oxygen releasing wow factor that I associate with great noodles.

In the end, I thought Lao Chang was pretty good, but not outstanding – the worst of this lot. Everything was textbook, still it beats everything we have in London. Interestingly enough, there is another reputed Niu Rou Mian house situated next door to Lao Chang called Yung Kang which some argue is the better half. But both noodle houses have their set of fans and are split down the middle. My extended family so happened to favour Lao Chang to Yung Kang. Maybe next trip I guess.

Details

Lao Chang Niu Rou Mian, £3
105 Ai-Guo East Road near Yong Kang Street.
Tel: (02) 2396-0927
Links : Taiwan Embassy; A hungry girl’s guide to Taipei

Contestant Number Two : Lin Dong Fang Niu Rou Mian

When we arrived at high noon, it had a queue. A pretty long one, which gave me a good quarter of an hour to photograph the surroundings. This place is proper old school and is actually spread over three separate old shop houses. The owner had chosen to maintain the traditional setting – something which I appreciated as I think Taipei’s old shop houses are now attaining a kind of vintage ambiance with time. What can I say? I’m always hopelessly in the mood for romance.

Right then, let’s start with their small dishes. Beancurd, Dragon whiskers with ginger and Bamboo shoots.

The small dishes here are modest, nothing to shout about, oh and the Dragon whiskers is really just a fancy name. It’s blanched vegetables.

Ok here we go, presenting Lin Dong Fang’s Niu Rou Mian.

Alright, this particular recipe is slightly different. The soup is something special – it is supposedly made with a medley of secret herbs, giving it a Chinese medicinal, herbal style taste with just a faint beef flavour, but that’s not the only thing that makes it something special. The soup is relatively mild in terms of flavour, instead, the real USP is the home-made beef butter concoction. Supposedly derived from beef stock, beef fat, oil and chillies giving way to a kind of grainy chilli beef butter which would actually make for a good sandwich spread. That stuff is amazing, it’s elemental in that it’s buttery, spicy and beefy. When the butter hits the soup, it melts and turns the soup into an oily and spicy red soup – basically the customer has the opportunity to control the degree of spiciness with this garnish. It’s like a sort of secret ingredient, when added to the relatively light herbal broth, really turns it into an eye-opening mouthful. Chilli herbs, woah. I also asked for mine to be half tendon and half beef slices – the tendons were similar to Lao Chang, springy marrow-like flavours. Naturally, the beef slices were also melt-them-polar-ice-caps fantastic though the superstar of this dish were the noodles. In a word : awesome. The noodles were dense and had amazing soaking ability. This meant that as the beef butter melted into the soup; the noodles start absorbing more flavour. They tasted better and denser the longer it stayed in the soup. Oh and yes, out of these three places, Lin Dong Fangs’ noodles were the ones that had that oxygen releasing liveliness of great hand-pulled noodles. This was brilliant, the more I ate it, the better it tasted. I just couldn’t get enough, I ate half of my partner’s portions too. This is the reason why I’m 80 kgs now.

This isn’t the average Niu Rou Mian, the soup is herbal, it has beef butter (that’s my term, and also sold separately in jars..) and the noodles are out of this world lively. What do we say, al dente? Hell yeah.

Details

Lin Dong Fang Niu Rou Mian (林東芳牛肉麵) £3
274 Bade Road, Sec 2 (八德路二段274號（中央日報旁)
Tel : 02 2752 2556

Contestant Number Three : Tao Yuan Street Niu Rou Mian

Finally we go to Ximending to visit one of the most well regarded beef noodle houses in Taipei. This one is quirky – it has no name and so people simply refer to it as the ‘One at Tao Yuan Street’. Firstly, abit of culture, Ximending is home to Taipei’s oldest theatre – The Red House, now a tourist landmark of sorts – and was once the busiest Theatre street in town, sort of analogous to the West End I suppose. Incidentally ‘Ximen’ means West Gate. Anyway, today, it’s otherwise nicknamed the ‘Hirajuku’ of Taipei, home to independent fashion shops, Japanese stationery and book shops and otherwise funky youth culture outlets. Cinemas, lights, pretty girls and massive billboards – sinner’s paradise.

Tao Yuan Street’s nameless shop is nonsensical, lit with garish white fluorescence painting a sobering ambiance, as if it was some sort of interrogation room. Service was terse, disciplined and serious, it kind of gave me the impression of a sort of prison mess, ala Wentworth Miller’s screwdriver. Anyway, customers slurp their noodles with a military-like demeanor; the room was mostly quiet, anti-chatter so deafening, pins dare not drop. I spotted a signage inside the shop which loosely translated to ‘The only shop, genuine article, no branches, no exceptions’. It doesn’t even announce itself as a Beef noodle house. Packed to the brim when we visited, and we had to share a large table with strangers.

OK here it is – Tao Yuan Street’s finest.

Woah. This is another style of Beef noodles completely unique and different to the two other noodle houses. The soup is greasy and has a deep beefiness about it. The no-nonsense philosophy is carried into it’s food – no tendons here, just beef, lots of it. I love the beef here. Deep spiciness matched with rich beefiness. It’s salty and the beef are thick cut with wonderful fatty bits that manages the now familiar disintegrate-upon-chewing tenderness. I didn’t like the noodles here though, for some reason, it didn’t quite match up to the quality of the beef. Perhaps there was just a tad too much oil, making the noodles heavy instead of lively.

Still, it was an awesome bowl of beef noodle soup, albeit an intense experience – second to Lin Dong Fang I’m afraid.

Details

Tao Yuan Street Niu Rou Mian, £3.
15 Tao Yuan Street
MRT : Ximending Station
Links : Tripadvisor

And the winner is…

On this particular trip, it has got to be Lin Dong Fang. The noodles really did it for me, it was lively and springy, the herbal soup was an interesting twist and that beef butter just rounded off an excellent beef noodle experience. Honestly though, I am comparing the local favorites in the city – all three noodle houses have their loyal customer base, and choice is a matter of taste, so to speak. I don’t think one can really go too far wrong with beef noodle soup in Taipei, the standard is just so high that I somehow think it’s impossible to have a bad bowl of niu rou mian… well I say impossible. Regardless, the benchmark is way, way higher than in London and there are tens, if not hundreds more noodle houses in Taipei which I’ve not been to. There is another called Liao Jia which I wrote about here that I visited in 2009. The noodles were exceptional, if not better than Lin Dong Fangs’ and they specialise in a clear broth made with ox tail and in the absence of soya sauce, as opposed to popular red braised one with lots of soya.

Well, my niu rou mian education was enlightening if not fattening. I hope you found this resource useful, my Taipei conquests doesn’t end here; Next Tuesday is going to be Authentic Taiwanese Cuisine – six restaurants, six perspectives into Taipei’s finest, all in one piece.

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Hello guys! I am reporting to you live from Taipei, where the rain doesn’t stop and the beef noodles are bouncy. I think my weight has gone up to 80 kgs, I’ve been eating out alot lately, hah, as if I don’t eat out in London. At least my jeans still fit. I wasn’t kidding about the rain – it went on for three days straight before breaking for sunshine. I’ve been totting around three cameras switching between the film and digital Leicas for action street shots, and going to my trusty Nikon for the food ones. As this is my second time in Taipei, I already have a hitlist to..well hit, and what I’ve found so far looks promising.

One thing I noticed about Taiwan (or any place other than London) is the sheer lack of pretension. People seem alot more blase, though they also do not hesitate to shove you aside if you are in their path. The quirkiest culture shock I’ve had thus far, is that men don’t give way to women. I actually found myself in such a situation when I stood in front of an escalator in Sogo to give way to an old lady, when she did exactly the same for me. So we stared at each other till I said “after you”, and she was puzzled, almost shocked and reluctantly rushed up the escalator. Hmm. Taipei has shades of Japanese culture ingrained into it’s consumerist society, most probably since the Japanese have been jostling for control of the Republic of Formosa since the 19th century. As such, today’s Taipei shares much of Japan’s more accessible exports such as karaoke, sushi, love motels and Japan’s department stores. One such super Japanese department store is Sogo – akin to say Harrords or Selfridges in Blighty, the attraction of these superstores are the imported Japanese goods they stock. One of the worst side effects of globlalisation – I feel – is the homogenisation of mass production. I mean come on, I don’t want to buy Burberry in Taiwan, I want to spend my money on something unique which I can’t get on High Street Ken. Thanks to these Japanese department stores and their imports, I could throw my money on Made in Japan Trinkets and expensive sake. Obviously, the first department I headed to was the food hall to scope out the local produce.

Much to my disappointment – Taiwan is not allowed to import Japanese beef, so no Kobe, no Matsusaka on display. However, I still saw marbled red gold wrapped in cling film at the meat counter, albeit Australian Wagyu. I’m not entirely sure what grade it was, but the marbling in this piece of ribeye was exceptional. I mean just look at it. Price is 300NT per 100 g , or about £60/kg. Not cheap, but not expensive either. Harrords does this for about £100/kg, I think.

I ruffled through the stock to find the fattiest piece of meat and came up with this one : All American Black Angus.

This one is much cheaper at 170NT per 100g which translate to about £34/kg. Now that’s a price I can swallow. I’m not sure what this cut is, but it’s sliced and I am guessing this is for Teppanyaki style beef? Look at the marbling on that beast though – I sure would like to sink my teeth into that. Someone, please tell me we have something equivalent in the UK? OK my steak expedition begins on Tuesday… so I will report back when I have some news.

Speaking of beef, I have been sampling Taiwan’s national treasure : Niu Rou Mien.

….Or Beef Noodle Soup. This particular bowl was slurped at Lao Chang, I’m not going to give too much away, since I’m still in the middle of ‘researching’ my super Taiwanese Niu Rou Mein battle of the century blogpost. We’ve been to three so far – all word of mouth recommendations, and the standard is way, way high – even the lousiest bowl of Niu Rou Mein is way better than the best in London.

As far as I know, sushi is Asia is like confit du canard in France – it’s just better. I have already made reservations for Mitsui – high end sushi supposedly and write-up to follow. Before that happened, I wanted to get my hands on some benchmark sushi. I accompanied my extended family to KTV and picked up some takeway from Hi Sushi before belting out a couple of Jay Chou tracks.

Hi sushi is a sort of high end sushi franchise, there are five locations (i think) in Taipei and are thought to be just about above average. Ok, first of all, the sushi rice does not beat my beloved Sushi Hiro, but it definitely comes very close. Warm, consistently pasty, vinegary and that unique umami warmth that only sushi has – this has it. I ordered toro and salmon – both deftly cut and just melted away as I chewed into it. Good, but I’ve had better. We did pull out an unchewable fatty bit from one of the toro nigiri – something which if we showed it to the Itamae on location, we would get another one for free, since nigiri sushi is suppose to disintegrate when you eat it. I also had short rib steak nigiri, seared scallop and unagi. Ah, interestingly enough, I spotted matsusaka beef nigiri on the menu… my eyeballs popped out, had to order it. I say interestingly because Japanese beef is supposed to be unimportable in Taiwan. Anyway – the beef was thinly sliced, I think it was gently flamed as it carried a faint smokiness, but it had a deeply beefy flavour. Yummy, I inspected the beef, it wasn’t marbled like the ones I saw in Sogo, though I noted the consistent and fragile texture, more like butter than meat. I’m heading back to Hi Sushi again in the next few days for a proper sit down meal (this was takeaway after all) and will make sure I quiz the chef regarding the whereabouts of the beef. Eating it blind – the best beef nigiri I’ve had yet, I now believe the oft paraded melt-on-your-tongue gimmick.

Ok guys, the real reason I came back to Taiwan : Meet Qio Qio.

He is wearing a three button dinosaur hoodie – green – and he has made his bed on top of our suitcases in the closet. He’s ten this year, which when converted from cat years is 56. Middle aged.

I’m not quite o-fay with the geography in Taipei as yet. It’s hilly and there are mountains in the background, and the old buildings makes for great photo opportunities.

Abit about my photographic endeavor thus far – in this post, the photographs are made with a mixture of kit and I am shooting about 50/50 film/digital. I’m shooting alot more film simply because it’s dirt cheap to develop here. It’s only £2 plus a CD of scans. Also, I’ve split-toned (fancy way of saying change the colour of light) my images to give it a greenish vintage sheen. It should be subtle, but I’m still experimenting with it – I’m aiming for a Hong Kong cinema look. Think ‘In the Mood for Love’.

Hokkaido Cupcake – split toned, low contrast, neutral colors – what do you think? I’m taking my cues from Japanese photo magazines – Nippon Camera – which I have bought a ton of so far. I’m not sure if I can get them in the UK, I don’t speak Japanese, can’t read the words, but I understand the pretty pictures. Japanese photography is so different from Eurocentric photography. It’s alot more liberal, natural and the photographs are still ‘real’, so to speak. Flipping through the magazine, most shots are still made with film cameras – something which is rapidly disappearing in the West. I think film still has a unique quality simply because the photographer has less room in post to work with, which makes the photograph more realistic. I’m nostalgic in that way I suppose.

Speaking of media, I spent half a day at Eslite bookstore. Four stories of paper heaven.

Basically, this is the Taiwanese rendition of Waterstones. All the books are in Chinese, the author names are all foreign to me, but I find it all so fascinating. It’s literally like tapping into the brain of another civilization, completely different to ours. This is cool. I headed up to the Japanese section, and yet another type of brain altogether. I actually think Japanese media is miles ahead of everybody else – especially their magazines. Each issue is a work of art. From the sleek cover designs, the page setups, to the flow of photo essays and the typography. I think they just make prettier books. Oh how I wish I could read Japanese.

Time to settle down – the tea room in Eslite.

Nothing particularly exciting, comfortable, and has a nice view of Taipei 101 – the tallest building in the city. They serve Lavazza coffee, which was average.

And I flew 10,000 miles to have …

… German and French pastry. The blackforest cake was actually pretty good – very light and spongy, though the macaron recipe could do with abit of fine tuning – not quite up to it’s Parisian counterparts. Relatively cheap though, macarons are £1 each. I’m showing this photograph, because I love the styling – it’s so efficient in the way they have decorated the plate. Look at the strawberries, the chocolate sauce and the way the macarons are arranged around the square cut cake – it came pre-styled, all I had to do was position my Leica to make a background. Result.

Ok guys, I’ll check back with you again in a few days with my super niu rou mien battle of the century and some more food photography hopefully of secretly smuggled matsusaka beef. For now, I leave you with a rain soaked view of the Taipei 101, Kodak Portra 400NC.

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Not everything gets publicised on the internet these days, especially the hyperlocal events, like this Taiwanese Food Festival which took place at Westminster Academy last weekend for example. I heard about it through my special Taiwanese counterpart. I love food fests, time for another photo essay me thinks.

Here’s what I think the premise is, this Taiwanese Food Festival rounds up the Taiwanese societies from various Universities around the country to celebrate Taiwan’s greatest gastro treasures, but first we need to exchange cash for foodie vouchers.

It is my first time at Westminister Academy, the festival took place on the uppermost floor. On my way up, I spotted the kitchen whipping up the food. That’s where the smell came from. Yummy, my tummy is growling now.

We got there early-ish – 11.30am – to beat the queue, there was a healthy crowd slowly building up. At the entrance, we were greeted by a dude wiping lyrical about Taiwan and their gastronomical gems. I stood there to listen for a few minutes, before my attention was completely diverted toward the food, of course.

True to fairground fashion, tables made for food stalls and each stall specialised in something different. I caught a rare moment when a food stall was unmanned and empty.

Before long, life would take over the stalls.

I loved being around so many people, the noise was reminiscent of the chorus within a food hall somewhere in Asia, instead of London. The atmosphere was building… and people were beginning to eat.

I don’t realise the gravity of the occasion. I’m not sure if the parents were assisting the kids or bit of both, everything smells absolutely amazing though.

I’ll try to cover the bases and the different variety of foods on sale (but not everything). The photographer in me was a little obsessed with grabbing the fleeting moments. These folks were bemused with the hunk of metal I was pointing at them, they were prepping minced pork rice, and beer.

And here, the boys were creating the atmosphere.

OK, time for me to eat. So, my mandarin is poor (at best), I can kind of read chinese (he says), I was in doubt, so I followed my nose to the most popular stall. There was a long queue waiting on this lovely lass, I fell in line.

This was what she was making – Gua Bao or Pocket Bun.

A puffy white fluff filled with slitheringly juicy braised pork cubes. I remember having this at a Night Market in Taipei, and this tasted really good.

Not everything was in English, so I ended up pointing to the stuff I wanted to eat. A little unsuccessful at times.

Crapola – they saw me.

Ah, here’s a stall selling a Taiwanese treasure: Beef noodle soup.

I managed to stay away from too much cake, but these looked so tempting. I love, love, love egg steamed cake. Looking back I probably should have tried a couple of slices of the layer cake as well.

High Noon and we are in the midst of the greatest crowd ever assembled. It was as if the entire Taiwanese community in Britain had descended upon Westminster Academy. Love it.

She is preparing glutinious rice, as a customer readies her coupons to pay…

…and here’s the finished product. Glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves (I think) and otherwise known as ‘Jung Zi’. They usually come with a variety of stuffings ranging from powdered nuts, egg, braised chicken and so goes the list. This particular version had pork and chestnuts. A little bland, but with that magic chilli sauce dip it came with, it was quite delightful.

(I wear a Seiko Kinetic Artura which stopped working over the weekend, not happy, I need to mail it back to Seiko, but I don’t know if I can trust Royal Mail for that.)

I cannot help but be cheerful with this image. It is so humanistic, the boys work the floor selling their food. I wish I could read chinese but I’m sure one of you can help with the translation.

Another Taiwanese treasure – Egg infused with tea (via osmosis (I’d imagine)).

The third floor has an outside area. T’was a little gloomy, but it didn’t affect the families huddled around the tables chatting away over their food. I think the kids like the cupcakes.

Outside, there was also a stall selling Taiwanese style salt and pepper chicken. I gobble them up within seconds.

About 2pm, the crowd begins to thin and there are some warming moments for me and my camera. Oh and the dude’s white t-shirt, it reads ‘#@%$, I’m afraid of the wife’.

Let’s get a few more laughs in, it is monday afterall (at the time of writing).

And even the little guy is enjoying himself.

And so I leave you with an image which shows that the festival continues to roll along even as I leave them. Between the five of us, we tried quite alot of food. We were all alittle amazed at the quality of the food. Authenticity aside, most things were delicious and I was surprised that the organisers didn’t advertise this to a wider audience because it was a cracking event, for two hours last weekend, I believed I was in a night market in taiwan. I’ll be there again next year (the real thing and this one).

Well, I hope you enjoyed this. Photo essays are one of my favourite things to post. As you can probably tell, I love places with lots of people, especially when they are celebrating food. I think that is probably food’s most charming quality: it’s ability to bring people together. It’s times like this that I’m glad to be involved with food.

You can see the entire flickr photo gallery here.

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