Taiwan Day 5, Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung harbor by day

A full day to spend in Kaohsiung and a day of homecoming. For the first 12 years of my life, Kaohsiung was my home, my formative years of education was also spent in this harbour city. It is not surprising that the full day in Kaohsiung was one of the days that i was rather looking forward to.
The morning begun with a visit to the temple where my grandparents', and my uncle's, ashes are housed. Incense and prayers are offered before we went back to my childhood home to visit relatives

The view of Kaohsiung from the Temple where my grandparents are installed

from my father's side. My home was the 4th floor in an apartment building behind the hospital that my family ran in the San Ming District of Kaohsiung. After the visitation of kin, i set off into the old neighborhood with Jenn. First stop, the Temple of the Three Phoenix. This temple is dedicated to a child deity. He is the patron "saint" to children and "takes in" children under his protection until they are of age (16). So, i thought, a visit to the temple is appropriate. The temple has not changed very

The Three Phoenix Temple

The child protecting
diety

much indeed. Sure, new signage and perhaps a fresh coat of paint, but over all, the temple is as i remembered. This day, the Temple was a quiet day for a visitor like me. There were just a handful of worshipers on hand offering their gifts of fruits and incense and prayers. We purchased a packet of

The view from the central temple to the entrance pavilion

incense and followed suite, offering our incense smoke and prayers to the child. Ever since i was little, this was the local temple that i would visit on occasion. In my memory are lodged the temple festivals, the firecrackers and the parades of disciples and temple associated figures.
From the temple, a short stroll found me at the San Ming market. It is the local market where pretty much anything could be had. Three meals of the day, sundry items useful in everyday living, clothing, luxury goods,

Door Guardian

the central incense/ash
culdron

groceries, and general gossip of the district/neighborhood. We strolled through the packed street and gazed at all that is being offered. Taiwan is now replete with scooters, and people has gotten into a habit of being astride these motorized conveyances at all times. They will literally ride up and coast into a food stand with the engine on idle, plant their feet and await their food to be made and given to them in a plastic bag. Needless to say, this makes a street quite crowded when there is a press of people and a press of scooter mounted persons!
At the market, we obtained an order of Aiyu jelly. Aiyu is a jelly made from a tropical fig varietal, cut into shape (cubes, strips, crumbles) and served in a slightly lemony sugar'd and ice'd soup base. It makes for a very refreshing summer drink with the aiyu jelly slip/sliding down your throat being a direct association with hot Taiwan summers. With the aiyu in hand, we also visited a riceball stand like that which i grew up with. A cart with buckets of cooked rice and containers of fillings for the riceball. The ball is always the same size, as is the price, but you can pick up to, in the case of this

The intricate decorations of the beam and ceiling

stand, up to 6 different ingredients. The fillings range from the classic pork floss and fried dough to various dried fruits, dried fish, and spicy pickled vegetables. Strips of scrambled egg and meat options influenced by the west (ham and such) were also available at this stand. We each got the classic pork floss and fried dough and called it good. The owner was so shocked by the simplicity of it, he only charged us the price of 1 rice ball for the two balls we got. So a double win! From the market, we walked by my old elementary school. There was some thought of going in

entrance to the San Ming Market

and taking a look at my old classrooms, but it was hot out, i've sweated through my tee shirt, and it is amazing how the heat just saps your energy. So, we looked at the school from the outside and went back to the hotel for a shower and a nap.
Dinner was a visit to the nearby night market, where we loaded up on take out foods for a feast in our hotel room. There were a few surprising stalls at this night market. For one, an Ukrainian fellow selling freshly fried meat crepes (Nalesniki or so the web tells me)... in hindsight, i wish i was hungry enough to purchase

the market hasn't changed much, narrow lane, with
now the addition of many more scooters

one and try it. Second, a number of Sushi stands advertising fresh sushi. The air temperature at the time was 87*F... i wasn't that brave to try it.
What we brought home was an order of fragrant crispy chicken (on top of the salt and pepper chicken we had bought and consumed at the market -- along with an order of stinky tofu), an order per person of ro geng vermicelli soup (the self same meat paste vermicelli soup i had mentioned in the previous blogs, but now i finally figured out how to "ping-ing" the silly thing), an order of fried scallion pancakes, Jenn's roasted corn, and two "bings" or "cookies", one filled with a peanut filling and

the Ai-yu stand, with swimwear on
display... and the raw ingredients of
the purveyed food to show that it is
all hand made and such

two large bowls of ai-yu (the caramel
coloured jello) and a bowl of tapioca
pearls (bottom right) along with a
bowl of grass jelly (top right)

one with a red bean baste filling.
The food at the night market was numerous but our appetite was sadly only so large. The stinky tofu that we got in Kaohsiung was superior than the one we had in Taipei. However, that could simply be an issue of take away versus eat in place. The Kaohsiung stinky tofu was crispier in the skin and more flavorful in the

the ingredient selection at the rice ball
stand... a feast for the eyes!

taste. Certainly the crispiness difference could be attributed to the different methods of food delivery. The salt and pepper chicken was a thing of beauty. We had walked up to the stall and found it unattended. A guy hurried up and took the order and kinda just did nothing until an older lady came out from the building with her gloves on to begin freshly frying the already breaded and fried chicken nuggets in the frier. She had also tossed in some fried basil leafs which is always a welcomed flavor to have with one's food. After the re-fried chicken is done, the guy took over again. Placing the chicken bits in a shaped pan and diligently salt and

the salt and pepper chicken stand,
or should i say the "pick it and we will
fry it for you" stand?

the salt and pepper
chicken... yum!

the stinky tofu... 

peppered the entire thing, shaking and turning every piece to make sure that it was indeed dusted and covered. The act of diligent seasoning took perhaps just as long as the re-frying. It was amazing, and his efforts shone through on the taste of the chicken. The salt and pepper flavor was spot on and unabashed. Eating the chicken with the fried basil leaf gave the whole bite yet another dimension of deliciousness! These two were eaten at the market, which, i do believe, makes it taste better. Perhaps it is the heat of the place, or the milling people and the stall owners' "thousand yard" stares as they wait for the next costumer to approach.
Of the food that was brought back to the hotel, the best was the "bing". It was rather disappointing,

86*F out, night market "fresh" sushi?
30 cents a go!

but also shows that we have been away too long. The scallion pancakes were great! Crispy and flaky on the outside with a chewy center. Sadly, the entire thing was dusted with a dose of MSG to give it that extra umph... Back when i grew up, MSG was added to everything as it forgave cooking and seasoning mistakes. However, now that i have been away so long, the taste is no longer expected or, i guess, wanted? The fragrant crispy chicken was sadly neither fragrant nor crispy. i had been fried and sat so the breading has gotten soggy in the night air. The flavor of the

The ro geng stall with the ro geng
bubbling away

ro geng revealed!

breading was also decidedly sweet. While i understand (as Jenn makes light of it at all times) that many Taiwanese meat dishes are sweet, this came as an undesired surprise. Oh well. The ro geng vermicelli was very bountiful and filling, the seasoning was customized in the take away bag by me asking him to add more of this and that and he asking after each spoonful "is that enough". It has certain flavor profile differences than the one we had in Taipei. For one, in Kaohsiung, he adds a bit of very finely minced garlic "mud", a staple to southern Taiwan cooking that i love but for the fact that it is garlic and it makes the next day at work a wee bit interesting. The soup was also lighter and thicker but the flavor wasn't as deep. All in all, a good bowl

the disappointing scallion pancakes and fragrant crispy
chicken... 8(

of ro geng, just not as good as the Liaoning night market stall that we went to in Taipei. Jenn was generally disappointed in her corn. It wasn't seasoned properly (too much seasoning she said) and wasn't cooked through properly and it wasn't how she remembered her corn from 30 years ago... there is nothing i can say to that. But, the "bing"... the "bing" was a thing of wonder. This is essentially an Imagawayaki, a traditional Japanese dessert that made its way to Taiwan during the Japanese occupation and, well, integrated into the Taiwanese food lexicon and is simply called "bing" or cookie.

Jenn's disappointing
corn being made

This dessert is made using an iron mold that is made from two mirrored image leaves of deep cylinders (about an inch deep). The leaves can be folded so that the molds will form a now two inch deep cylinder. The way it is made is thus. Batter -- like a waffle batter mated with a pancake batter -- is poured into the molds that is heated either electrically or, traditionally, over fire. After the batter has cooked for a certain amount of time, filling is heaped into the center of half of the array of batter containing cylinders. The mold is then folded up and heated through to cook the contents like an waffle iron. When the cooking time expires, the mold is then unfolded to present a completed "bing"/cookie/imagawayaki. We had purchased two. One with a peanut filling and one with the traditional red bean filling. In Taiwan, fillings of taro root, lotus seeds, black sesame and, more western influenced, cream, chocolate, or butter are also available. The peanut filling is made up of ground peanuts cut with some black sesame and sweetened with sugar. It was a gritty, sweet, peanuty, delicious filling. The pastry itself was what i remembered. The

the "bing"/cookie/imagawayaki
making process. He is putting
the fillings into the batter, he
will then remove the finished
cookies from the row above,
pour in batter, and then remove
the filling containing half
to put on top of the newly
battered half

packaging the finished product
for a customer

bottoms are firmer and of a more chewy texture while the side walls
are airy and pancake like. The batter is sweet like how a cream or sweet butter is sweet, subtle and not overwhelming. The red bean paste was thick, with the skin of the red bean coming across for that extra textural surprise in spots and on occasion. The red bean filling is definitely less sweet than the peanut filling, though neither is sweet when compared to most western desserts. They were a great way to end dinner and a fine walk down memory lane.

My description of the imagawayaki is not great, but here is a great youtube video that will make more sense. The fillings that is being made in order of placement is, as far as i can tell, this: red bean, oreo cookies, butter, green bean, taro root. https://youtu.be/8lRpgPbgDAU

the peanut is above, the red bean below, now i am hungry for some more!