Continuing from Taiwan - 2.2.1 Taichung 台中…

The first stall we came upon was a beverage stall. Taiwanese love their milk so much that they add milk into almost any beverages they can come up with. Papaya milk, mango milk, watermelon milk, kiwi milk, bitter gourd with honey and milk, strawberry milk and so on…

The first food we had at the night market was this really, really, really weird man tou 馒头, which the Taiwanese called Ge Bao 割包. It has probably all four tastes, sweet, salty, sour and a little bit of bitterness. Inside the man tou, it has a slice of braised lean meat, peanuts, sugar, pickled mustard and probably a few more ingredients.

Our first bite left everyone speechless and had a WTF look on the face. I wouldn’t say it tasted badly or heavenly, it was just plain weird. I certainly don’t know how to describe the taste. That being said, we ended up ordering another piece.

Continuing our walk, we saw a lady preparing a huge pot of oyster noodles 蚵仔面线 and some other food.

We sat down, ordered a bowl of oyster noodles, glutinous rice with minced meat and a plate of fried oyster.

Glutinous rice topped with minced meat 米糕.

Oyster noodles 蚵仔面线.

Fried oyster 蚵仔煎. The Taiwanese’s version of fried oyster is very soggy, wet and slimy. Also, they top it with loads of peppermint leaves, which make the dish tastes even weirder for us Malaysians.

We had mua chee 麻芝, featured in the travel guide book that we used and also by many local magazines. You can have your mua chee stuffed with red bean paste, black sesame pastes, finely crushed peanuts or have it plain.

Walking further down the street, we saw another stall which was featured in the book we used as a guide. It’s Big Sister Xu’s deep fried stall. There were a number of people queuing up to buy whatever the stall was serving.

You can choose whatever you want to eat, ranging from chicken chops, sausages, tempura, tofu, eggs to vegetables and many more. Select your stuffs and hand it over to the guy, they will deep fry it and spread it with their home made special sauce.

That was the end of our first visit to Taiwanese’s night market. However, our food tasting journey didn’t end there as while we were walking back to our hotel, we saw a shop that sells nothing but milk jellies and puddings.

We bought one for each flavour.

Clockwise from top left, mango, aloe vera, black sesame, original / milk, red bean and lotus seed.

The shop claimed that not even a single drop of water was added during the process of making the jellies and puddings, which I think is highly believable as the taste was strong and full flavoured.

My favourite, black sesame pudding.

That was day 2 of our Taiwan trip as we got ourselves ready to go Sun Moon Lake 日月潭.

Instead of bringing my outstation friends for overrated and ridiculously priced Nyonya food, I prefer to bring them to this small fishing village in Alai for kampung styled seafood.

It is not exactly in town, but rather outskirt and a good old 20 to 25 minutes drive is required. Moreover, one needs to go through small roads and easily unnoticed junctions before arriving at the restaurant.

Upon entering the restaurant, you will see a big BBQ pit and a stall filled with seafood that are mostly just caught / brought up from the fishing boats. All sorts of fishes, clams, shells, prawns and even crabs (Only flower crabs though.) for you to choose from. They are just one step below from selling live seafood or rearing them in aquariums. The tray is reloaded every three to four hours, about two rounds per night, and the second batch of seafood also comes from the returning fishing boat.

The price is clearly written on the whiteboard hanging above the seafood. However, there’s no need to look at the whiteboard as it is reasonably priced or rather cheap, seriously. Once you finish selecting the seafood, you have to then decide on the cooking style by telling the guy managing the stall.

Instead of ordering a glass for each person, I reckon it is much cheaper to order a jug of whatever beverage you want.

Also, they will serve you plates of their specially made sauce, using onions, soy sauce, lime and etc.. Not spicy at all, to me.

Together with the special sauce, a tray loaded with steaming hot nasi lemak is put on the table at your expense. Each packet is priced at RM0.50-RM0.60, if not mistaken. It is really small and I can finish the whole packet in less than five spoons. Normally, I have to eat like six to eight packets each time I have my dinner at this place. It is not those super fragrant kind of nasi lemak, just good enough to gobble down together with your seafood.

Again, the otak-otak here is no where close to the Chinese’s counterparts in Muar but definitely far better than those what you get from hypermarkets.

There are many styles for you to choose from, goreng tepung, goreng sambal, masak kunyit dan cili padi, bakar, bakar sambal, sweet and sour, steamed and etc.. You can mix and match for all the dishes, but I reckon the prawns should be grilled only. Only that way, you can taste the natural taste of a fresh prawn.

I have been patronizing this particular restaurant for almost three to four years. No matter how much I order, the price per head always come to an average of RM25 or a maximum of RM30, be it a group of three or four or even up to six or eight people. The price always linger around that figure.

Some prefer the further and slightly more expensive Serkam or the nearer to town but slightly expensive Umbai, I have tried both and I still come back to Alai’s. Considering the money I am paying and the distance just to drive there, Alai offers the best value among all three. I have brought a number of outstation friends here and so far, if not, all of them enjoyed the meal.

I like potatoes. Who doesn’t?

I like curry.

I like potatoes with curry sauce.

Funny how I don’t like curry puffs because of the pastry, especially the super yucky and hard sides. Moreover, it’s not easy to find a good curry puff. It’s either too hard, too soft, too dry, too puffy, too wet, too plain or too…

There is this Indian lady that sells deep fried stuffs (traditional Indian snacks) at a junction not too far from my house. She sells this snack, that tastes exactly like a curry puff but without the pastry. Instead, it is wrapped with a thin layer of batter which is then deep fried as well. There’s pieces of onions and even poppy seeds, which might or might not explain my addiction to it.

I know it looks gross, but it is absolutely finger licking-ly delicious. Definitely ideal for those who are going out for a picnic, with those blue and white checkered picnic blanket.

And I have been eating this for lunch for the past four days. It’s cheap, three for only RM1.

I don’t know what is it, any Indian readers that can help me identify this snack? Ex-housemate Sanjev Sunder said he knew what it was, but didn’t know the name.

The stall is just near the vegetarian restaurant at Taman Bukit Melaka, near to the main road.

Updated : It’s called bonda. Thanks, Visithra