Taiwan Blog Review: Taiwan Duck

I’ve completely given myself to Taiwanese food and snacks.  I can’t help it.  There’s something about Taiwanese food that just grabs me.  So, even though I’m not much of a cook, I still like to look at Taiwan Duck.

I guess I’m into food.  Well, actually, I’m definitely into food.  I like to read about it. I like to talk about it.  I like to hear about it.  I like to look at it as I go by.  I like to smell it, (even Stinky Tofu). I mostly like to eat it.  One of the categories I have for Zite Magazine on my iPad is food and cooking.  So, this type of website is attractive to me.

Taiwan Duck is a website that shows you how to prepare many favorite Taiwanese foods.  They give you a recipe, and the steps to make it, then as an added bonus, they do a video where Joanne shows you how she prepares it.

Joanne is cool; she’s a Taiwanese woman who has been transplanted into the UK, by marriage.  She’s obviously a very good cook, and has quite a charming personality.  I don’t even cook, but my wife and I enjoy watching her videos and listening to her explanations of how to do it.  Sometimes as I watch the video, I can just imagine the delicious smells in that kitchen.

She will also tell you where you can find ingredients, usually found only in Taiwan, in the area where they live.  She tells you her secrets for preparing the food and shows you how it’s done.  At the end of the video she shows you the prepared food and those are the only times I wish that I lived in the UK, so she and her videographer husband, could invite me over to help them eat it. 

Her husband stays mostly in the background.  I can’t remember ever seeing him in any of the videos I’ve watched.  Occasionally, he’ll prompt with an English word or two, but mostly he just hides behind the camera.  I suspect, all though I don’t know for sure, that he writes all of the recipe descriptions and is the tech guy for the website. 

The recipes are varied from Taiwanese snack foods: Oyster Omelets, Salty Chicken (Yen Si Ji), Taiwanese Beef Noodles (Niu Rou Mian) to Beef and Spinach Lasagna.  Lasagna?  Well, apparently not all of the recipes are Taiwanese, but with a name like Banducci, I can eat some Lasagna, too. 

The website is easy to use, and really an enjoyable experience.  You can even slip over to the store and buy some nice Taiwan Duck apparel, so you'll look good in the kitchen.

So, if you have some time and want to  learn how to cook some of Taiwan’s favorites, then take a few moments, grabs some nice Taiwanese Oolong Tea and a notebook and learn how to cook Taiwan Duck Style…then call me up and invite me over to help you try out the meal you made.  I can tell you right now, without equivocating I’m going to like it.

Visit Taiwan Duck at www.taiwanduck.com.  Tell them the Taiwan Adventure sent you.  Taiwan Duck is very high on our list of favorite Taiwanese (and apparently Italian) websites.  Check it out.





Other posts you may be interested in:

Taiwan Blog Review:  Shuflies

Screen Captures from Taiwan Duck Website www.taiwanduck.com
Video from Taiwan Duck TV

Eating My Way Through Taiwan: Niu Rou Mian

Niu Rou Mian

One of my all-time favorite dishes is Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodles). This is a delicious traditional Taiwanese meal. It’s is made with chunks of Beef, Chinese Cabbage, Mustard Greens, Scallions, spices, herbs and of course, the hand-made noodles. All of this is served in Beef stock.

In America, we may choose to serve Niu Rou Mian as a soup with a meal, but here in Taiwan it’s a meal unto itself. It is usually served in a large bowl with no other dishes. It is enough to sustain you. I like it best when the weather is cold and rainy. The hot delicious soup warms you up and takes the chill off, while the aromatic, spicy flavor clears your sinuses.

There are two varieties of Nui Rou Mian that are found in Taiwan. There is the version described above, this is the type most commonly found. But there is another type. The second version contains red pepper to make the meal spicy. The meat is sometimes stir fried in hot sauce. If you are person who likes spicy hot food, then this is the version for you. I like both types and eat both as often as possible.

Most convenience stores carry an instant version. In these, you add hot water and allow it to steep for a period of time. Both the spicy and regular versions are readily available. As with all preprocessed foods, quality is as variable as the number of brands that are available. But don’t misunderstand me; some of these are very delicious, with a flavorful soup and thick noodles. Of course, the beef in these is pretty scarce and the chunks are very small.

One of Bian Yi Liu's other tasty dishes:  Seafood Rice

There is a restaurant in Taoyuan, on Jie Shou Lu, called Bian Yi Liu. The restaurant has an interesting name. Bian is the surname of the owner’s wife. She's from Thailand. and you can see the Thai influence in salads; they serve a delicious papaya salad that is spicy and sweet at the same time. Yi Liu means first class. This small quiet restaurant is just that. They serve traditional Chinese foods in a friendly atmosphere. The owner, Martin, welcomes each guest to the restaurant and often serves you himself. If you’re an English speaker, Martin speaks English very well and will help you to decipher the menu. The restaurant’s specialty is Niu Rou Mian although they serve many tasty dishes.

I only found this restaurant because I’m a foreigner, who doesn’t read Chinese. It is located across the parking lot from a brand new building. I had seen that building many times and thought it might be a nice restaurant to take my wife for dinner. (It has that restaurant look, slanted walls, lots of greenery and large trees.)  So one night we ditched the kids and went out on our own, and I thought I’d surprise her by taking her to this beautiful new restaurant…except it wasn’t a restaurant, it was a place where they sold some new homes. They directed me across the parking lot to Bian Yi Liu, where I was delightfully surprised.

If you are around Taoyuan, you may want to check it out: Bian Yi Liu, Jie Shou Lu, 459, Taouan City, (03) 362-7968. Tell them that you saw it in The Taiwan Adventure Blog, or that Chris sent you, or better yet, email me and I'll go with you...your treat.   .By the way, I wasn't paid for this shameless plug.

Other posts you might be interested in:

Eating My Way Through Taiwan:  Buddha Jumps Over the Wall
Cultural Unawareness:  Cultural Explosions
Eating My Way Through Taiwan:  A Traditional Restaurant