9/11/10 Feed Me: An Aboriginal Dinner

Taiwan had offered me the “Philosophy of Yes” and at a restaurant specializing in food from the islands aboriginals I offered the “feed me” approach to dining.  The approach dictates that when you are in unfamiliar surrounding and visiting a restaurant that you will likely never visit again one should speak with the staff and ask them to feed you.  More often than not a good chef will be thrilled to be presented with such an opportunity.  Iris managed to negotiate a “feed me” arrangement and soon our table was flooded with plates of unique food, much of it hand picked by the owners.

The rundown:

Sweet potato salad – Sweet potato and wild passion fruit.  I’ve never tasted anything like it and wish I could recreate it.  I’ll try, but the scarcity of wild passion fruit in Canada might make it difficult.

Seaweed salad – 3 different types of seaweed, in the best version I’ve tasted.  Even better than the coriander laced one I ate with Jacob a couple of days ago.  Eaten with eyes closed, it would instantly remind you of the ocean.

Wild boar skin – Tasty, but only because of the sauce.  It would take one hell of a refined palate to distinguish between this and pig skin that you could get in any market.

Bacon fried rice – plumper grains than what is typically offered here; reminded me of a dry version of risotto.  Delicious and perfect to cut the heat of the whole chili pepper that I ate but shouldn’t have.

Sliced pork belly – Served cold with sliced radishes and wild versions of a bitter gourd (Wow! That’s bitter!), leek and passion fruit.  A simple preparation that Space wanted more of.

Boar meatballs – cooked to perfection with a rare centre.  Served on a bed of eggplant (I call it the vile weed – one of the only things that can’t eat but am forced to - my relatives insist that I don’t like it because I haven’t eaten it the way they make it) and fern leaves.

Passing cat – no, not a cat in the throws of death.  Passing cat is a wild green vegetable that looks like a cross between arugula and rapini.  Kind of slimy, but that may have due to the way it was cooked; nutty taste with bite.  I finished the plate even though Iris is the vegetarian of the group.

Bamboo shoot soup – simple with a faint taste…I could take it or leave it.

Fried fish – I have no idea what type of fish it was, but they were smaller than my hand and thin as a pancake.  I ate it whole, face and all which prompted Space to start singing “Fish Heads” by Barnes and Barnes, a so for which I happen to know all the lyrics… so I helped him out “Ask a fish head anything you want to, they wont answer, they can’t talk.”  It was served on a bed of battered squash slices.  More please.  Iris, who claims to not like squash, finished them off.

"Roly poly fish heads are never seen drinking cappucino in
Italian restaurants with oriental womennnnn... yeah!"

Vegetable platter – predictably slimy okra, long beans, impossibly bitter bamboo shoots, and some unidentified boiled gourd that I didn’t get to try.

We finished it all of with yellow watermelon and some more wild passion fruit.

Space declared it to be the best meal that he’d ever had in Hualien.  While not as impressed as Space, I appreciated what the chef had done, and even with a less than perfect meal, it’s the company that matters most.