If you ask what foods are available in Taiwan, the answers are basically the same, it is nothing more than Taiwan cuisine , Cantonese cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Shanghai cuisine and other provincial dishes. Of course, there are also Taiwanese Japanese cuisine and snacks, but the most real Taiwanese cuisine is ignored. At most, you can eat the easiest mountain pork in scenic spots such as Wulai. Recently, I visited the east and finally took the opportunity to explore delicious and distinctive local cuisine with the introduction of local indigenous friends.
Indigenous restaurant with wood wither as its main decoration.
Many people are quite prejudiced against indigenous vegetables, thinking that I had eaten conservation animals secretly. However, after a deep understanding, I found that many indigenous restaurants have actually come out of the sky, and are oriented towards health, using fresh ingredients from local specialties, instead of eating and protecting animals.
But if you don’t do your homework in advance, or if you take it with your native friends, you will make a joke more or less. Like the Aboriginal Restaurant in Hualien on the first day this time, the guest next door slapped the stage and cursed him, asking the store why he ordered "wild vegetable beef" but there was not a piece of beef inside?
At this time, the other table guests laughed and almost lay on the ground. The store owner replied calmly: There was no beef you wanted.
It turns out that Taiwan never raises cattle on the mountain, and indigenous people cannot buy beef specially, but there are so many snails on the mountain, so everyone grows up by eating snails. The beef mentioned by the indigenous people actually means snail meat ! In order to make it easier for customers to distinguish, if there are dishes that really use beef in the indigenous restaurants, they will be marked with the "+" sign, such as: wild vegetables + beef, bamboo shoots + beef... etc.
Just put it into the stone hot pot of " serpentine ".
Another "stone hot pot" also subverts the idea of friends who are accustomed to eating "table-style stone hot pot". The stone hot pot I eat in Taipei is made of a pot grinded with stones. It is heated on the stove, put the ingredients in and stir-fry for a round, and then add clear soup to cook. The way to eat is similar to that of ordinary hot pot. After all the "serpentine" is put in, a lot of steam is immediately emitted from the hot pot.
However, the stone hot pot of the indigenous people is very interesting. The one brought was a rectangular large soup pot made of betel leaves, which contained fish snapper, shrimp, mountain pork, wild vegetables and seasonings, and cold soup. Because betel leaves cannot be heated on the stove, when will they be cooked? The impolite person is ready to slap the table. As for how to eat, no one on the table could guess the answer.
The good show was behind. The waiter brought a plate of stones and put them into the soup, which immediately stirred up steam. After the stones were put, the soup really rolled out. Everyone couldn't wait to enjoy this "hot pot without fire" with great visual effect.
"serpentine" in stone hot pot can only be used once, and it will explode on the spot when you use it the second time. On the left is the stone that has been cooked in hot pot.
The stone hot pot of the indigenous people is made of the "serpentine stone" picked up in a nearby river. It is burned to more than 800 degrees Celsius with charcoal fire, then put it in the hot pot, and cook the food with the heat of the stone. Although this kind of hot pot seems simple, it can only be eaten in Hualien. Because the stones you find casually, usually put in cold water after heating, will not be able to withstand the cold shrinkage and heat pressure and explode on the spot, which can easily cause injury to customers. Only the "serpentine" picked up in rivers such as Shoufeng, Wanrong, Ruisui, and Zhuoxi , Zhuoxi in Hualien County has a hard texture and can withstand this pressure and be used to make stone hotpot.
roast chicken.
Another feature of indigenous cuisine is barbecue. It seems simple, but it tastes very cultural. What is used here is definitely what Taiwanese people call "spreading pheasants". The meat is delicious and elastic. When cooked and served, it looks similar to ordinary roasted chicken, but the way to eat is very different from the hand-stewed chicken in the city. In Taiwan, people eat hand-stepping chickens, wearing gloves and rushing them up, dismembering the whole chicken and five horses, which is very uncivilized. The indigenous people were wearing gloves and used their hands instead of knives to separate the chicken neatly and remove the bones. The chicken breasts, legs, wings, meat, skin, etc. were rearranged on the plate in an orderly manner before eating. Fortunately, it was brought by an indigenous friend, and he volunteered to serve so that we didn’t have to make a fool of ourselves in front of other guests.
Roasted chicken that you need to divide it neatly with your hands before you can eat it.
Wild vegetables are also an indispensable part, including: mountain thistle, forage heart, bobcats, lover's tears... etc. Most of them have never even heard of them. Among them, the tears of lovers that can only be eaten by luck, originally named " Rain Comes to the Rose". It grows on the mountain grassland after the rain. It is a wild vegetable delicacy in the eyes of the indigenous people. Since it can only grow after the rain, it is given the romantic name " Lover's Tears", and it can only grow in the pollution-free Huadong area.
colorful wild vegetable salad (Lu).
The pre-treatment process of lovers' tears is quite labor-intensive. The sand and gravel must be washed away continuously with clean water. It is often rinsed no less than ten times, and the taste is still rustling. There is a saying among the people: the husband blurted out his words and blamed his wife for not being dedicated, and the wife burst into tears in grievance, which is known as the "love's tears".
"Lovers' tears" must be lucky and can only be eaten after the rain.
Hualien and Taitung have many indigenous restaurants, each with its own characteristics. For example, the "Red Tile House" in Hualien is famous for its stone hotpot, the "Xiangluolei" barbecue is the most distinctive, and another Taitung tourist is more familiar with the "Mibanai" sells creative indigenous food. Amazing special dishes, it's a pity to miss it.
Indigenous people usually replace white rice with this rice dumpling-like "Abai".
