![Eating Out: [台中市] 櫻屋 (Sakura, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2792/4044971538_1ddc3e1b2d.jpg)
One of the best restaurants that I tried this time while staying in Taichung was Sakura, a small Japanese restaurant specializing in both sushi and cooked foods. Located in a nondescript alleyway in the Xitun district, Sakura is a bit difficult to find but well worth the search.
The storefront:
![Eating Out: [台中市] 櫻屋 (Sakura, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2765/4044225389_9740d12324.jpg)
![Street Food: [台中市] 一中街小吃: 打餅舖, 哇哉海苔飯捲 (Yizhong Street Food: Hit Cookie Home and Wow! Seafood Rice Rolls, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2567/3998956911_4d010aba43.jpg)
Getting to Yizhong Street; the main road parallel to Yizhong Street.
One of my favorite places to go in Taichung is Yizhong Street (一中街). Located near National Taichung First Senior High School (considered by Taichung residents to be the top high school in the city), Yizhong Street is a young person’s shopping and food paradise. Within a small space of one to two blocks, Yizhong Street is tightly packed with street vendors of delicious street food and the latest fashions (all for super cheap!). Scattered amongst the street vendors are various restaurants (apparently the (in)famous Modern Toilet Restaurant has a branch here), arcades, internet cafes, beauty salons, as well as a great 24-hour stationary and bookstore. At any time of the day, Yizhong Street is packed with people; since it’s mainly a pedestrian thoroughfare (though you will encounter some scooters here), it’s pretty easy to navigate (as opposed to other markets, where you have to dodge both pedestrians, scooters and cars). I could easily spend a whole day here just sampling the food and buying things for cheap (the trick is to bargain with the vendors!).
![Fast Food: [台中市] Mister Donut (一中街 location, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2529/3997008956_e0f2975403.jpg)
Sigh. Let’s talk, Mister Donut. I want to like you, I really do, but every time I’ve tried one of your cutesy bubbly donuts, I am inevitably disappointed. There are two camps of donut lovers, those who like the fluffy raised donuts and those who like cake donuts. You see, I’m a cake donut girl, through and through; I don’t like my donuts to be light and fluffy. Donuts should be sugary, have a tight and moist crumb, be heavy and hit my stomach like a greasy brick. Give me an old fashioned buttermilk over a Krispy Kreme glazed anyday. If I wanted diet food, I would have ordered a salad.
But Mister Donut, your donuts are neither my beloved cake donuts nor are they the fluffy, yeasted donuts that others like. They’re a chewy, bread-like “QQ” alien hybrid that was tailored to suit the Taiwanese palate. If there is food texture that I dislike more than anything, it’s that “QQ”-ness that my fellow Taiwanese love so much (I’m such an anomaly; someone must have forgotten the “must love anything ‘QQ’ gene when they were putting me together . . .).
![Fast Food: [台中市] Mister Donut (一中街 location, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3436/3996249309_6a2800cb5a.jpg)
But somehow, I keep buying your donuts. Why? Is it because they’re so damn cute? Note to self: stop buying things because they’re cute. Because usually it’s all a deception.
![Fast Food: [台中市] Mister Donut (一中街 location, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2654/3996249383_3b71161672.jpg)
Let me recount a recent trip to Mister Donut (my fourth). See this box of mini donuts? Cute, right? Straight out of the box, they are perfectly round and the frosting is evenly applied; they’re so perfect they look fake!
![Fast Food: [台中市] Mister Donut (一中街 location, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3488/3996249489_721eed39c8.jpg)
I hate to disappoint but these weren’t great; too chewy and the frosting’s flavor was quite artificial and waxy. If I wanted bread, I would have bought bread. But I’m not saying they’re bad per se, they just don’t suit my personal taste. If you just happen to like things like mochi, gummies, and anything with that “QQ” texture, then you might like Mr. Donut. But not me.
Mister Donut
Purchased at 一中街 location
台中市北區三民路三段110之1號
04-2225-4883
Locations all over Asia (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines, China, Thailand).
Edit: Apparently they do have “cake” donuts, according to their website. Should I go back and try them? Argh! Why do I keep wanting to go back despite being disappointed every single time?
![Eating Out: [台中市] 何記東勢李炒手 (Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2437/3991807778_2acae2f5d3.jpg)
Some close family friends insisted on taking us to He Ji, one of their favorite Hakka-style cuisine restaurants on the outskirts of Taichung City. Hakka cuisine is hard to come by in the U.S., they wanted give me the opportunity to experience it firsthand.
Hakka cuisine is usually characterized by the use of bold, strong flavors (you’ll find a lot of ginger, pickled vegetables, garlic, peppers, and sour, savory and umami-ish flavors going on), with more of an emphasis on the heartiness of the food and less an emphasis on the aesthetic quality of presentation. For this reason, my family members, believing that my “delicate American constitution” would be offended by the supposedly crude presentation of the food, assuring me again and again that the food that I was about to experience was going to be delicious. Little did they know that I don’t really place too much importance on presentation; I believe all food, when prepared with love and care, is beautiful . . . Besides, there’s nothing I hate more than tucking into beautifully plated dish and discovering that it’s actually bad tasting! I hate to think that all the time and effort put into plating a dish like that could have been put towards actually making the food taste good . . . but that’s a story for another day.
Oh, autumn, how I love thee. Despite having the time of my life and eating wonderfully here in Taiwan, I totally missed that glorious transition from summer into fall. Apparently in Taiwan, it’s a hot, humid summer all year round (ok, I have been informed by my relatives that it does get cold sometimes during December . . . maybe). Maybe it’s a sign that I’ve spent enough time here, but my heart is aching for that chilly, smoky breeze that signals the changing of the seasons back home. My sister and I used to always say that we could “smell” autumn coming for this very reason . . .
So, as of late, I’ve had conflicting emotions; I love it here in Taiwan and would love to spend another month here (there’s still so many things I want to do) but something in my heart keeps telling me to rush back home, to stand on more familiar ground, to be reunited with my dad and my sister, to cook in my own kitchen again and to eagerly anticipate what are easily my three favorite holidays of the entire year: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Readers, please humor me as I live autumn vicariously through this simple apple tart that I baked two autumns ago; to me, this galette is the epitome of everything autumn: delicately spiced apples, comforting buttery pastry, and a return to baking.
For the filling:
For the glaze:
Add the chilled water one tablespoon at a time, stirring with your other hand, just until the dough just holds together (you might not need all the water, depending on your flour and the humidity of your kitchen). Dump the dough out on a mat and pat into a circle about 1.5″ inches thick. Double-wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 days).
After the chilling period, take the dough out and let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes; this allows the dough to soften slightly so that when you roll it out, it doesn’t break into a million pieces on you (trust me this has happened to me and it’s not fun nor pretty). Roll out the dough on a lightly floured mat into a 14″ circle, about 1/8″ thick. Using a pastry brush, dust off the excess flour. Carefully transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Preheat the oven to 400 F (205 C).
To fill the tart, overlap the sliced apples on top of the dough in a ring 2 inches from the edge and continue towards the center. To complete the tart, fold over the edges of the dough. It doesn’t have to look perfect, the beauty of a galette lies in its rusticity.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the dough edge and 2 tablespoons of sugar over the apples. Use more or less sugar to your preference.
Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake the galette for 45 minutes, or until the apples are soft and have slightly browned edges. Try to rotate the tart every 15 minutes to ensure even browning of the crust.
While the tart is baking, you can work on the glaze; place the reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan with the sugar. Pour enough water into the saucepan just so it barely covers the peels and sugar and simmer for 25 minutes. Strain the apple-infused syrup through cheesecloth and set aside. Your kitchen will smell amazing at this point.
When the tart is done baking, remove from the oven and slide it (parchment and all) off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack. Let it cool for at least 20 minutes before brushing glaze over the tart.
Slice and serve immediately, alone or alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you’re feeling decadent.
Not only is this fall-inspired tart delicious, it’s super easy to make; make it for your next party or gathering and everyone will be in awe of your baking prowess.
![Street Food: [台中市] 幸福潤餅 (Happiness Run Bing, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2474/3981534955_c012ac098e.jpg)
One of my favorite 小吃* to get whenever I come back is 潤餅, or “run bing.” You can order these in the U.S. as “spring rolls”, but the use of “spring rolls” is a bit troublesome . . . Spring rolls in the States refer to so many things, from the Vietnamese fresh rice paper rolls to Chinese fried egg rolls to Thai-style wraps with glass noodles. Taiwanese 潤餅 are more akin to moo-shu wraps than egg rolls or spring rolls in that the wrapper is wheat-flour based, but not fried; moreover, 潤餅 are much larger as well (think burrito-sized).
*(translated literally: small eats; I use this as a blanket term for all the great street foods, small bites that you can find at outdoor wet markets and roadside stalls all over Taiwan)
The wrapper for a 潤餅 a paper thin, wheat-flour based crepe wrapper; it’s not that easy to make these, (see this video here to see a street hawker making the wrappers), so when we do make 潤餅 at home, we opt to just buy premade wrappers in the supermarket. Besides vegetables (typically cabbage, bean sprouts, shittake mushrooms, celery, fresh coriander), your 潤餅 will be filled with some chopped meat (usually a marinated pork mixture), fried shallots for the wonderful aroma and flavor, dried tofu for texture and some sugar and some peanut powder for a little bit of sweetness. The combination of sweet and savory flavors make for some truly delicious eating.
![Street Food: [台中市] 幸福潤餅 (Happiness Run Bing, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2528/3981528989_50c0f735e1.jpg)
When we buy 潤餅, we get them from 幸福潤餅 (if you were to translate it I think it would be called “Happiness Run Bing”?), a place known amongst the locals as one of the best places to get 潤餅 here in Taichung (apparently, the husband and wife team of 幸福潤餅 sell about 500 潤餅 a day!) What’s great about 幸福潤餅 is that your 潤餅 are made to order; you can specify exactly what you want inside, whether you want sugar or peanut powder, more vegetables or less. Vegan or vegetarian? No problem! They’ll make a animal-product free version for you, no questions asked. You like spice? They’ll throw in some spicy sauce as well. Watching your calories? Ask for lean meat only.
![Street Food: [台中市] 幸福潤餅 (Happiness Run Bing, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/3982290664_26d3170e3c.jpg)
One tip: Since the cabbage used in the filling is boiled, their moisture content causes the paper-thin wrap to get soggy fast. If you’re not going to eat these right then and there; as them to “wring out” the veggies more and tell them to pack it to go; that way you don’t end up with a soggy, falling-apart 潤餅 when you do get a chance to eat it.
![Street Food: [台中市] 幸福潤餅 (Happiness Run Bing, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3982296550_3a12f7bba0.jpg)
One roll will set you back 40NT (about $1.25 USD), or 4 rolls for 150NT (about $4.60 USD). At that price, it’s basically an entire meal for cheap; this is why I love Taiwan; you can eat very well on very little here!
幸福潤餅 is located in the venerable Second Market (第二市場), located near the intersection of Zhongzheng Road (中正路) and Sanmin Road (三民路) in the Central District. If you ever get a chance, go to the Second Market and browse around; there’s multiple stalls that are famous for their small eats (such beef noodle soup, Taiwanese “meatballs” (a sort of glutinous rice flour wrapped meat ball with a sweet and spicy sauce), rice “sausages”, fried turnip cakes, steamed meat buns and the like); you can definitely get an amazing meal for cheap here.
幸福潤餅
營業時間: 09：00 ～ 19：30（每月第二、四個星期日店休）
台中市中區興中街4號
04-22293022
Happiness Run Bing
Hours: 9:00 am ~ 7:30 pm daily (closed every 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month)
No. 4, Xing Zhong St., Central District, Taichung City, Taiwan
04-22293022
We’re in the midst of Mid-Autumn Festival (otherwise known as 中秋節 or Autumn Moon Festival) here in Taiwan; besides Lunar New Year (which occurs between the end of February and the beginning of March of every year), Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the biggest and most important holidays here in Taiwan. It’s a time where families have reunions, celebrate the harvest by eating mooncakes and gazing at the moon, and make offerings of food, fruit and flowers to deceased ancestors. There’s many different stories about the origin of the holiday, but I’ll leave that to others to explain.
Mid-Autumn Festival occurs on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar (October 3rd this year, unusually late). I am fortunate enough to be here in Taiwan this year to celebrate it with my extended family, something that I’ve never gotten to do before. Moreover, I’m all the more excited because I get to witness firsthand how the Taiwanese celebrate the holiday; growing up in the US, opportunities to experience elements of my culture are few and far between. So my dear readers, you can imagine how important this Mid-Autumn Festival is to me this year. My only regret is that my dad and my little sister won’t be here to celebrate it with us as my dad wasn’t able to take time off from work and my sister has started her last year at university. So, Dad and 妹, if you’re reading this, 中秋節快樂 and I miss you!
People here usually celebrate by holding family get-togethers, having barbeques outdoors (while basking in the moonlight) and gifting mooncakes to family and friends. In the weeks leading up to Mid-Autumn Festival, all bakeries in Taiwan push out and market their mooncakes aggressively; the trend in the past few years has been to move away from tradition and towards more innovative mooncakes, such as savory mooncakes (I’ve seen pesto and walnut mooncakes), ice-cream mooncakes (Haagen-Daz sells a package of six) to ones that include more Western flavors (chocolate, earl grey tea, rosewater flavored mooncakes). While I appreciate innovation and change, I find that I still enjoy the traditional mooncakes the best.
An example of a typical Taiwanese mooncake that incorporates both sweet and savory fillings (mung-bean paste with pork and mushrooms)
An inescapable consequence of all the mooncaking is that you will inevitably be gifted with numerous boxes of mooncakes by family and friends; it seems as though every time we meet up with someone, we leave with yet another box of cakes (I think at one time we had 6 boxes of mooncakes sitting in our fridge, keep in mind each box contains at least 6 mooncakes, making that at least 36 cakes for 4 people in our household . . . and typically mooncakes do not contain any preservatives; these are time-sensitive materials, people!). So as of late, mooncakes comprise a large portion of my diet. Keep in mind that these are calorie-dense foods (a 100g portion contains approximately 400-500 calories. I guess you could take it along with you on a run as a Taiwanese-style energy bar . . .)
Not that I’m complaining of course; mooncakes aren’t despised and passed around like fruitcakes during Christmas are; people scarf them without nary a thought to diet and coronary health. But I’m getting side-tracked; let’s talk about mooncakes, yeah?
The day after we visited Big Juicy Goose, we decided to visit the restaurant next door: 大東屋活鰻料理專門店 (Daito Live Eel Restaurant). This restaurant, like Big Juicy Goose, specializes in one particular dish. In Daito’s case, it’s signature dish is an 鰻丼 (unagi donburi), a bento of Japanese-style roasted eel (うなぎ), basted in a sticky-sweet soy sauce and placed over a bed of chewy, short grain rice. One reason this restaurant is so popular is that the owner boasts that his eel is fresh; it has never been frozen, unlike the eel you find in most other Chinese or Japanese restaurants. In fact, the eel live in tanks near the back of the restaurant, and are cooked only after you place your order. The owner insists that this the proper and best way to enjoy the freshest unagi donburi. For that reason, one has to plan their arrival at this restaurant; it’s so popular that if you happen to come by around lunch or dinnertime, you’ll probably end up with a waiting time upwards of one hour or more . . .
![Eating Out: [台中市] 大東屋活鰻料理專門店 (Daito Live Eel Restaurant, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2481/3968342557_b8732ff7a4.jpg)
Luckily, the day we went, we had been at the doctor’s office all morning and arrived way past the lunch rush; within 5 minutes, we were seated and had placed our orders . . .
We ordered some side dishes to accompany our donburis; the first to arrive was young asparagus topped with mayo:
![Eating Out: [台中市] 大東屋活鰻料理專門店 (Daito Live Eel Restaurant, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3527/3969116882_c24ce587ae.jpg)
There was an insane amount of mayo! Taiwanese people seem to enjoy their Kewpie-style mayo as much as the Japanese do. The sweet taste of the mayo does pair nicely with the blanched, chilled asparagus but I do admit it was a bit excessive.
I ordered one of my favorite summer dishes, cold silken tofu topped with thick soy sauce and shaved bonito flakes.
![Eating Out: [台中市] 大東屋活鰻料理專門店 (Daito Live Eel Restaurant, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2589/3968343329_fac8d12b5a.jpg)
Perfect for a hot summer’s day!
We also ordered two skewers of grilled shittake mushrooms:
![Eating Out: [台中市] 大東屋活鰻料理專門店 (Daito Live Eel Restaurant, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3968343587_7c91365477.jpg)
These were grilled and basted with the same sauce they use on the unagi donburis; we weren’t expecting much, but these mushrooms were fresh, plump and juicy. Too many restaurants try to substitute reconstituted dried shittake mushrooms in lieu of fresh ones (I guess in their defense, it is difficult to find a good source of fresh shittakes; I have yet to find one back home in the states) and many times, the refreshed dried shittakes end up making the dish taste stale.
![Eating Out: [台中市] 大東屋活鰻料理專門店 (Daito Live Eel Restaurant, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3968343899_11c58b9e25.jpg)
My grandfather ordered one of his favorite fish: grilled 鮎 (あゆ, ayu). This dish was also exceptional since the ayu was also very fresh and seasoned simply with a dash of salt, allowing for the fish’s natural sweetness to shine through.
The main event: Our donburis! We ordered 3 small-sized donburis (they come in either small or large sizes).
![Eating Out: [台中市] 大東屋活鰻料理專門店 (Daito Live Eel Restaurant, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2524/3968344915_7c39f3dd32.jpg)
To be honest, when I opened my box I was slightly disappointed as the portion seemed quite small; the eel barely covered half of the rice; furthermore, the bed of rice was probably only 1 centimeter thick. I realize I did order a “small”, but the portion seemed pretty lacking; perhaps I am used to my American super-sized portions?
However, I later realized that the portion was just fine; the eel is so rich that you get full pretty easily. I actually ended up not finishing mine . . .
As for the taste? As expected, the eel was delicious; grilled just to the point where you get those great crispy charbroiled edges, yet the interior was still moist. The sauce was only slightly sweet (I’ve had some unagi donburis were the sauce was so sweet I felt like I was eating dessert), which was perfect. The rice was also fluffy and chewy at the same time, preserving that “QQ” quality that Taiwanese prize so much. (For a good explanation of what “Q” or “QQ” means, see this post at Feast Meets West).
Does the eel live up to the hype? Yes, to some extent. If you’re a hearty eater you might be disappointed with the portions, but that’s easily solvable, just order multiple portions!
大東屋活鰻料理專門店
台中市朝富236號
04-22513447
營業時間: 10：00 ~ 22：00
公休日: 無
Daito Live Eel Restaurant
No. 236, Chao-Fu Road.
Taichung, Taiwan
Tel: 04-22513447
Hours: 10:00 am ~ 10:00 pm
Open 7 days a week
If you’re confused by my last two posts (the earlier one saying I was already back in Taiwan, the later one saying that it wasn’t worth $2000 to fly back to Taiwan to buy 杏仁餅); I definitely apologize . . . I am still in Taiwan, the post on black sesame polvoron was actually written prior to my coming back to Taiwan (saved as a draft).
I’m definitely enjoying my long stay here; my grandparents have been so gracious and have taken me to a bunch of restaurants here in Taichung. I’ve taken pains to capture every single meal that I’ve eaten out; my entire extended family is so used to me pulling out my camera that they actually rotate the lazy susan towards me with every new dish served so that I can take a photo first!
As I won’t be cooking much here, there won’t be much in the way of recipe posts; rather, I’ll be posting about all the great food I’ve been eating so far here in Taiwan.
The first week I was back, my grandparents took me to a restaurant near our home called 阿秋大肥鵝, literally “Big Juicy Goose”, a restaurant specializing in Taiwanese 小吃 (literally, “small eats”, can be likened to tapas, or small dishes) and what else, goose:
![Eating Out: [台中市] 阿秋大肥鵝 (Big Juicy Goose, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2620/3961061455_710203c0ea.jpg)
小吃 always pairs well with a cold glass of beer; they have specials on Taiwan’s ubiquitous Taiwan beer here and upon ordering a bottle (or 4 in my grandpa’s case) you’ll promptly be served by a Taiwan beer girl . . .
![Eating Out: [台中市] 阿秋大肥鵝 (Big Juicy Goose, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3435/3961061849_4604f4fcc6.jpg)
The menu here is quite cute; you take a crayon and just check off what dishes you’d like to order and hand it to your server.
![Eating Out: [台中市] 阿秋大肥鵝 (Big Juicy Goose, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2426/3961836976_c26924bce1.jpg)
First up: the house specialty, “fat goose”, slices of fatty dark goose meat, in a light soy broth, accompanied by pickled daikon and carrots. I don’t really like eating poultry, but I must admit this dish was tasty; the goose was moist, the broth was light and not greasy. If you’re a fan of eating the chicken/duck/goose skin with that thick layer of fat underneath, this dish is for you.
![Eating Out: [台中市] 阿秋大肥鵝 (Big Juicy Goose, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2637/3961837396_a83f987cd1.jpg)
Next up: 南瓜炒米粉 (Pumpkin Stir-fried rice noodles), a typical preparation of rice noodles here in Taiwan. Not bad, but not great either.
![Eating Out: [台中市] 阿秋大肥鵝 (Big Juicy Goose, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2484/3961837752_6a42d07b3c.jpg)
Marinated and grilled eel. I always thought of eel as a “winter” type of food as it’s so warming, but apparently it’s also considered a “summer” food here as eel is supposed to have “strengthening” properties which help you get through the insane summer heat here. I liked this dish, the marinade was pleasantly sweet and savory and the eel was nicely grilled (crispy on the edges with a moist interior). I couldn’t eat too much of this though, as it’s quite rich.
![Eating Out: [台中市] 阿秋大肥鵝 (Big Juicy Goose, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3961063433_b1229ddd54.jpg)
Next: Stir-fried bean sprouts topped with deep fried shallots. Light and a good palate cleanser after all the meat. This dish was on the house; most Taiwanese restaurants serve a free vegetable dish if you order enough.
![Eating Out: [台中市] 阿秋大肥鵝 (Big Juicy Goose, Taichung, Taiwan)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2634/3961063881_57cdc6131f.jpg)
Those who know me well know I have a weird thing about not wanting to eat meat (i.e., the muscular part of the animal) but loving eating all sorts of offal (I’m the best and worst vegan ever). This dish was ordered for me specially; pig intestines with sour pickled vegetables. There’s an inordinate amount of ginger in this dish, but it serves the purpose of taking away any “smelliness” that the pig intestines impart. Personally, I love any kind of “stinky” or “fermented” foods (Taiwanese “stinky tofu” (臭豆腐) and 臭臭鍋 (stinky hot pot, a bubbling pot of sticky rice and pork blood cakes, pig intestine and pickled vegetables) are some of my favorites). Have I grossed anyone out yet?
阿秋大肥鵝
台中市朝富路258路(與龍門路交叉路口)
04-22512966
午餐: 11：00 ~ 14：00
晚餐: 16：30 ~ 01：30
365天全年無休
Big Juicy Goose
At the corner of Chaofu Rd. and Longmen 3rd St.
04-22512966
Lunch: 11：00 ~ 14：00
Dinner: 16：30 ~ 01：30
Open 365 days of the year.
One of my favorite Taiwanese confections are 杏仁餅 (almond chess cookies; or, as I like to call it, almond-flavored crack), a sort of marzipan-flavored candy with a crumbly, sandy, shortbread texture. They’re slightly sweet, buttery, with a salty backnote, and pair perfectly with a nice cup of hot tea. However, it’s hard to find these things in the U.S.; since the ones I see in Asian supermarkets usually are loaded with tons of additives and preservatives, I tend to shy away from buying them. Since it doesn’t really seem worth it to buy a $2000 plane ticket back to Taiwan to purchase freshly made 杏仁餅, I made up my mind to make them myself.
Recently I came across this recipe from Rose at Spots For Dates via tastespotting for Filipino polvoron. Looking at the recipe and the photos, I saw how similar the Filipino polvoron was to the Taiwanese 杏仁餅; perhaps this was the recipe I was looking for?
At the time of making these, I didn’t have any almonds, so instead of subbing them for the macadamia nuts in the original recipe, I used freshly toasted and ground black sesame seeds. You may substitute your favorite nut/seed in this versatile recipe; just make sure they’re finely ground (but ground so much they turn into nut butter) to facilitate the shaping of the polvoron and for the best texture and mouthfeel.
If the black sesame seeds you have are raw, place them in a large skillet over low heat and toast until fragrant. Try not to leave the pan as it’s difficult to tell whether black sesame seeds are burnt. Go by smell; once the seeds smell fragrant and nutty, scrape the seeds into a bowl and set aside to let cool.
Grind the cooled sesame seeds into a fine powder. I use a suribachi that I bought at my local Japanese supermarket; these things are super easy to use and they do the job quite well (you get a mini-workout in the process too!). If you can’t find a suribachi near you, a spice grinder or a coffee grinder would work equally well.
In the meantime, prepare the roasted flour by heating your large skillet over medium-high heat; once hot, dump the flour in and spread it around the pan and turn the heat down to medium-low. Keep stirring the flour so that it doesn’t burn, roasting it until it turns a golden color and lets off a nutty fragrance. Keep your eyes on the flour so that it doesn’t burn (unless you want random bits of burnt flour in your final product, an unfortunate mistake I made the first time I tried making these).
Once the flour is done roasting, scrape the flour into a bowl and set aside; return the skillet to the heat. Dump in your butter and let it melt (but don’t let it brown, we just want it melted). Once the butter is melted, add the roasted flour, sugar, powdered milk and a pinch of salt and stir with the spatula so that all ingredients are well mixed; at this point, it should look a bit gritty or sandy. Continue stirring, allowing the milk powder to toast, once it smells fragrant, take the pan off the heat and pour the mixture into a bowl and let it cool slightly.
At this point, you can shape the polvoron in several ways; the easiest is just to press the mixture into a well-oiled, foil-lined baking pan and cut into the shape you desire after it’s been refrigerated. If you feel like putting more effort into it, you could try using a mold like I did here (I was trying to recreate the chess piece shape that I remember so fondly). Essentially the basic process for shaping is the same whether you use a pan or a mold, take the polvoron mixture, press into the mold, pop it out of the mold (if not using a baking pan), and place on a sheet lined with wax paper or foil and refrigerate. Once refrigerated, the polvoron’s shape will set. Just make sure you shape the polvoron while the mixture is still warm; once it’s cooled, it is much more difficult for the mixture to stick together.
Or, if you can’t wait for the polvoron to set, you could eat it hot, straight off the burner in all its sandy goodness. I’m sure if you sprinkled it on top of yogurt or ice cream, it’d be delicious (Note to self: try this next time I make polvoron . . .)
Enjoy!
