Taiwanese food at Sitou Mountain

This is my favorite restaurant on the trip so far. It was near Sitou Mountain. Went here after hiking for a day. It was dope family style Taiwanese food. If I had to compare it, I would say it is like the Taiwanese Kenka on St. Mark's in terms of style, but more bigger plates to share. A lot of good drinking food but not street food more family style. I'm a dumbass and didn't get the name. I actually don't like taking photos but you gotta when eating in Taiwan.



Sticky rice in bamboo.



Cabbage with garlic bits



Sweet & Sour Carp was the shit! I haven't had a sweet and sour fish this big before. Usually in America you get a small river fish or flounder, etc. This was really dope and the fresh water fish was good. Lots of little bones, but more flavor.



Bai Chia Ji (again, my pinyin sucks, feel free to correct) - white chopped chicken. traditional dish, but done really well. This was a free range chicken, which is normal in Taiwan. It sucks that in America, we get charged an arm and a leg for free range, it should be the damn standard!

7-11 Zin Hao

I love 7-11 in Taiwan. Its the bomb. I got an Apple Sidra and Pig's Blood Rice Cake.





Super dope. If only I had a dope man here...... I could eat everything in one sitting, but without my gummy bear juice, I am just a mere mortal and must come back several times over the course of a day to try everything.

Japanese food in Taiwan

Went to this Japanese place. Since I'm illiterate and can't read Chinese, I can't tell you the name. But this dish was dope. Green Tea Langoustine.

Wein in Taichung

This is Wein. Its a modern Shanghainese place with a Taiwanese influence that Mr. Wu took us to for lunch. Usually, I don't go to the upscale places, but this was dope! Its a good example of what I talked about in previous posts concerning restaurants that evolve but stay on the same flavor track. Its not fusion, its a progression...



Mei Tsai Coh Roh - one of my all time favorite dishes. A sweet and funky preserved cabbage with sliced pork belly. This was probably the best version of it I've ever had. Sorry mom. haha



Egg roll in a new shape with a different approach to the skin. It was very thin but fried extra hard and filled with cheese and shrimp. I liked the skin, I didn't like the filling. Felt like some funky japanese fusion where they are just excited to use mayo, cheese, or cream of corn.

That's one thing you'll notice a lot in Taiwan. There is a lot of cultural exchange with Japan and most tourists are from Japan. They like Taiwanese food and Taiwanese people like to borrow things from Japan as well. Very interesting to see in practice. Of course, those jerks occupied Taiwan for a while, but we won't talk about it here LOL.



This was the most creative dish. I am playing with taro a lot on our new menu at Crackhaus so I like to see it done here. Taro is really underappreciated. One of the things we'll be doing is trying to introduce and use certain ingredients that have not been utilized much in American Taiwanese (or Chinese) cooking. In short, class is in mother fucking session lol. This dish was inspired by a old half-n-half "love story" called Oha Nanji (my Taiwanese spelling is horrible, I will get the correct by end of day) about Taiwanese-Chinese connect. The old heads really liked this use of an old name for a new dish as well.

The dish combined sauteed chicken with a light marinade then tossed in taro gravy paired with a crisp Purple Yam. This was some serious shit. Deeper than money, taro, and hos.

9 Suns Bakery

My new goal in life is to be a BOSS like Mr. Wu.... I met Mr. Wu who owns 9 Suns Bakery, which specializes in Sun Cake. The Big Homie is such a boss he pulled the whip INTO the foyer of the store and parked. I can't wait to get a whip and pull it up onto the curb in front of our crazy neighbor the Psychotic Bag Lady.



Mom was in the house. This photo was taken B.B.B. (Before the Bitching Began). She was being nice here and then started going off on all sorts of things like: when are you going back to being an attorney, can you convince Evan to become an architect, why are you so fat? All fobtastic questions mom. But I have no fobtastic answers for you.



This is the remixed savory version with dried pork sung and sugar.



This was my favorite. Coal flavored! Coal is real popular in Taiwan for its versatility and "healing" properties. They have Coal face wash, coal to put around the house for good "universe vibes", and now sun cake. This tasted just like their original flavor sun cake with a hint of sesame. Coal doesn't have a flavor, but you feel like its slimming cause its black. Like when Mac had the black graphite mac. Nothing real different functionally, it just looks cool.



This is the front of the store.

When in Alaska, Eat like Santa Claus

Flight stopped over in Alaska for gas. I thought I wouldn't need to eat since I brought 1lb of gummy bears with me on the flight, but my colorful friends didn't hold me down. Here in Alaska they are offering Udon Noodles w/ Reindeer, Reindeer Dogs, and Halibut & Chips. Any other time, I would get the halibut and chips, but this place was grimey. I wasn't trying to get diarrhea before I even got to Taiwan. So I got Udon with Reindeer Sausage.



I'm not even gonna front it tastes like Winter Ale Sausage LOL. For real, its like a kielbasa that they hit with a variety of apple pie seasonings. Not bad, but definitely not good.

Q&A w/ Rebecca Marx of Village Voice

Got a call from Rebecca Marx today to do a Q&A for Village Voice. I liked it a lot.
check it out
. I like when the press wants the whole story raw from the source so it was nice to clear the air after Grubstreet's hit job the other day.

By the way! I'm off. Going to Taiwan for 3 weeks. I will bring back some dope bootleg dvds, defective condoms, and new recipes. BONG.