Good Eats :Taiwan (Isha Chaudhari)

The foods most people consume on a daily basis, what might be called Taiwanese xiao-chi, can also be divided into eight main categories according to their primary ingredients:

Steamed dumplings and various dim sum make popular snacks and light meals. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

• Poultry: boiled salted duck, roast duck, a-siunn Yilan-style marinated and smoked duck, chicken stewed in Chinese herbs, “drunken” chicken (steamed in wine), rice with shredded chicken meat, steamed chicken, etc.

• Meat: beef noodles, cow viscera soup, mutton rice noodles, mutton stewed with Chinese angelica, dried meat, crispy meat, preserved or processed meat, meatballs, bah-uan (meatballs in a dumpling), etc.

• Fish and seafood: milkfish porridge, steamed grouper, fried white hairtail, o-a-tsian (oyster omelet), mangrove crab porridge, etc.

• Rice and noodle dishes: Hsinchu rice noodles, Nantou slender noodles, Taiwanese rice noodles, “slab” noodles, glutinous rice tamales with meat and other fillings, uann-kue “bowl-pasties” (stuffed flour dumplings), and o-a-mi-suann (slender noodles with oysters), etc.

• Bean curd and vegetarian fare: Shenkeng tofu, Daxi dried bean curd, “stinky” tofu, and various kinds of vegetarian dishes.

“Pearl milk tea” made with flour balls and aromatic milk tea is a unique Taiwan invention now available around the world. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

• Sweet and savory pastries: sweet stuffed dumplings such as mua-tsi, aboriginal millet cake, and Hakka glutinous rice cake; egg-yolk shortbread, pineapple cake, crispy wedding meat pie, crispy cookie, sun-shaped pastry, ox-tongue-shaped pastry, salty pie, yokan jelly, white gourd cake, cake made from glutinous rice powder, maltose puff rice balls, etc.

• Beverages: honey bean ice, papaya milk shake, taro ice, honey, carambola juice, grass jelly, sugarcane juice, bitter tea, Hakka leicha (pounded tea), jelly fig ice, “pearl milk tea,” etc.

• Sauces and seasonings: spicy soybean sauce, fermented bean curd paste, pickled vegetables, pickled mustard tuber, sesame oil sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, soybean sauce, etc.

                                                [ also known as boba :) ]---------->

source: [http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/food/]