Dinner in Taiwan first night.........Been to this familiar place before and just plain love it

Every trip to the southern town of Tainan always takes me to a restaurant that the owners of the company represent love to go.  Bill and Olivia Shih who own the company are very friendly with Jennifer the owner and they take many people there from out of town.

This Loud Restaurant and bar seems to have floating tables in the middle as we found the table constantly moving to accommodate large parties that seem to come and go.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the island's main source of protein comes from the fish that are caught close by.  Most of the places have the seafood on display where before you go in to be seated, you look at what is available and decide which you want and how you want it cooked.

We were originally 5 people and then later on three others joined us.  Which was a good thing because a 6 pack of beer arrived and we needed help drinking it.  It's not just your average 6 pack.  This was a 6 pack of 32 oz. beers.

We started off with some Edamame which was peppery and hot.  We also got an order of Sashimi.  I only had the salmon and it was very fresh.  The flesh was firm and rich in oil which gave it some great flavor.

We were next served shrimp.  I don't think I have seen shrimp like this in a long time.  they were huge and salted. like most places outside of the United States, Shrimp are served with the head on.  It's usually a very dramatic display having them on.  Plus most of the time it adds to the flavor.  That is Jennifer the owner in the picture with the shrimp.

I was told the next dish was a real delicacy but it was really just chewy.  Stomach of black fish was served with green onions.  They say it's seasonal and I told "Its good for the man to be strong".  I can see why it makes you strong, because you have to really work your jaw muscles to eat it.  it was good.  just chewy

We were served a type of sweet and sour pork rib which wasn't in rib form.  it was the bottom of the rib that have the small tough cartilage type bones.  It was really sweet.   As you will see in the photos, we had two kids with us and they like the sweet stuff.

One of my favorite dishes was the Squid with Thai basil and sliced Ginger.  The ginger was peeled and sliced long ways so you got a real good bite of it.

The next dish I they had brought out was one I had eaten there before.  It was bean sprouts with some sort of Minced pork on top of it.  it was delicious and also challenging for my customer to eat with his chop sticks.  Very amusing for me.

The final dish was the funkiest.  it was a whole fried fish that was sitting in a shallow pool of brown gravy. inside the gravy were sautéed vegetables and chili peppers.  The fish had a crispy outside and moist inside. I find that you can get this type of fish at home but mostly in NYC in Chinatown.  Many people don't like to fight the bones and the people of Taiwan are very comfortable eating something and spitting out what is not edible.  Its not the classiest way of eating but you get very comfortable quickly spitting things out on your plate while everyone else is.  It's just as fun as making a ton of noise slurping up noodles at a noodle bar in the subway of Japan.

Next came a dish that was very unusual for me but one that I enjoyed.  Everyone loves to pickle things.  I thought I have seen everything pickled and now I have.  small green mango's were sliced thin and pickled.  it was a very unusual taste because it didn't have a mango taste or a pickle taste.  What did it taste like?  I don't know but it was good. I also understand at times like this i'm not a good judge because I pretty much like everything.  But it was something I have never had before.

The last dish was also unique and guess what?  I didn't like it.  I'm not much of a sweet eater.  This dish was chopped sweet potato that was covered in a sugary glaze.  it came out as one solid mass.  our host was wrestling with it to break it apart to put it in cold water.   I got hit with some shrapnel when it was being broken up.  the kids at the table really liked it.

Overall another very successful eating adventure in Taiwan.  My only dissapointment is that i'm not sure when I will get out there again.  But I know when I do, it will be a great time.

Below is a photo of myself with my customer and the company that manufactures the machine I represent in North America.