4ever Discovering

Before arriving in Taiwan, one of the most important research topics about this country was the FOOD.  I love to eat, so naturally I was curious about what I was going to be eating for the next year.  If it didn’t look good, I was going to have to mentally prepare myself for this crazy adventure.  I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just in for rice for every meal; I like to try new food, especially cultural dishes.

After some intensive research, I concluded that I was going to love everything (even the stinky tofu).  All I read about were these amazing street vendors that sell anything from dumplings to sushi to sausage on a stick.  What more could a girl ask for in life???

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With that being said, as the annual Moon Festival was approaching in mid-September, I was informed of all of the cultural dishes that were eaten over the holiday.  One of the most popular foods to eat during the Mid-Autumn Festival is moon cake.  This is a small pastry filled with mashed red beans.  That’s right, not your average dessert.  Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the moon cake.  I’m still trying to get rid of all of them from the festival.  The students gave me quite a few as gifts and I couldn’t say no to them.  I tried to hint to them that I like Reese Peanut Butter Cups for next time!

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Along with dessert, you need to eat your dinner over the holiday.  You always have your every day meat and veggies, but the extra special meal is the barbeque you have with your family.  When I first heard about these barbeques, I imagined families and friends coming together and having a night filled with food, drinks and dancing.  Now I’m sure this actually happened somewhere, but not for me.  When people say barbeque, they actually mean sitting in the street with a mini grill and stools to eat all of the food.  Forget about restaurants or tables, these people just gather wherever they please and enjoy their good company and food.  That’s how I roll.

Unfortunately, I did not have a barbeque, stool, meat or any family here to celebrate with me.  Instead, a group of us went out to an all-you-can-eat BBQ restaurant and pigged out.  This place was awesome!  You just order whatever you want off of the menu, pay a set price and eat your heart out.  It is a great way to try new foods that you probably wouldn’t back at home.  I tried lamb for the first time and LOVED it. 

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The table is set up with two grills in the middle and a hot pot with boiling water.  When the food is delivered to the table, you just put whatever you want to eat on the grill and enjoy.  It was very similar to eating fondu; you cook your own food and need to keep an eye on it in case it burns.  Along with the beef, pork, lamb, shrimp and other miscellaneous items (still not sure exactly what I ate), we also ordered squid to eat.  Emily and I both love squid so we were pretty excited when we saw it on the menu.  We were also pretty surprised when a full squid was delivered to the table and we were expected to eat it.  First off, how are you supposed to eat that without a fork and how are you supposed to cut it without a knife?  Sometimes chopsticks just will not do.  After we were given scissors to cut it, we thoroughly enjoyed it and cooking it on the grill.  It’s not every day you can say you got to grill a full squid.

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After we had completely stuffed ourselves with meat, we were faced with a tough decision: to eat dessert or not.  Who am I kidding, this is always an easy decision; ALWAYS EAT DESSERT.  On the menu we had ‘ice cream burgers’.  I’m assuming the translation was intended for ice cream sandwiches, but hey, a burger sounds good too.  These little burgers were given to us still frozen, so we actually had to put ice cream on the grill to cook.  The key here was to not cook them too long (you can figure out what would happen if you did).  These were delicious!  They came in all different flavours and you never knew what kind you got until you bit into it.  The best one was the peanut butter! (I may have had one or two or three).  I make sure I get my money’s worth when I go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant.  Ask anyone, you don’t want to see me at East Side Mario’s. 

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Even though I almost had to get Emily to roll me out of the restaurant, I would absolutely go back!  These BBQ restaurants are all over Taipei and are definitely well worth it.  It wasn’t the barbeque that I was expecting to eat during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but it was just as good.  I’m sure the locals wouldn’t have minded if we joined in on their BBQ!  If you ever go to one of these restaurants, do not be alarmed if you do not see any vegetables and do not feel overwhelmed with the amount of meat in front of you.  Indulge.