10 Weird Foods I Ate in Taiwan

Chicken Feet

This is a chicken foot that I ate. I couldn't figure out how to eat it at first, but later someone showed me how to eat them. You start by biting off the toes and then spitting out the bones. You don't have to bite the toenails off first. :P

There isn't much meat on them and I was told that they are good for snacking on when watching a movie. You can pick up a bag of chicken feet at any night market.

Stinky Tofu

When I first got to Taiwan, I often smelled a bad smell that I thought was from people who had thrown up on the street somewhere the night before.

It turns out the smell was a certain kind of food called stinky tofu or chou tofu in Chinese. It's tofu that has been marinated in vegetable and shrimp broth that has been fermenting for months. Apparently, there is one type of stinky tofu that is served with goose blood, but I couldn't find that kind.

It actually doesn't taste as bad as it smells. I tried it a couple of different ways, but in the image below it's deep fried with some sauerkraut and sauce. If you can stand the smell to get close enough to the vendors' chou tofu stand, I recommend trying it because the taste is good.

Asparagus Juice

Every convenience store that I went to in Taipei has asparagus juice. It's a very sweet drink — kind of like asparagus-flavored sugar water. It's too sweet for me, but if you have a craving for asparagus-flavored juice, you might like it.

Duck Tongue

You can find duck tongues at most night markets. The person I was with said she didn't eat duck tongues because "it's like making out with a duck". I tried one anyway. It's not terrible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it.

Blood on a Stick

Many stands sell blood on a stick. You can get duck blood or pig blood. This one is pig blood on a stick, "spicy flavor". It's rolled in hot sauce, peanuts, and cilantro. It's very tasty.

Chicken Hearts on a Stick

You can order any part of the chicken you want to eat, from chicken wombs to chicken intestines. The following picture is chicken hearts on a stick. They aren't bad.

Healthy Plum Vinegar

As mentioned in another post, due to a miscommunication at a coffee shop called 85 degrees, I ended up with a drink called healthy plum vinegar. "Healthy plum vinegar" tastes like pickled, salty plums (umeboshi) soaked in vinegar and then served it over ice.

Boiled Assorted Animal Parts

One of my favorite foods from the Taiwanese night markets is a type of stand where you pick ingredients from the stand and put them in a basket. You then give the basket to the vendor and they boil the ingredients for you.

Ingredients include things like duck intestines, chicken intestines, animal tendons, and other things that I couldn't identify.

This is one of the best foods that I've ever eaten. If you can't stomach the weird animal parts, you can just choose noodles, vegetables, and mushrooms.

Rooibus Tea Latte

I generally try to avoid Starbucks, but when traveling they are often the place where I can get wireless Internet access.

Starbucks in Taiwan has a lot of different drinks, like green tea lattes, black tea lattes, and rooibus tea lattes. This is a rooibus tea latte with a sweet pork bread. I like rooibus tea and green tea, but I don't like the latte versions.

McDonalds Grilled Chicken Toasted Rice Burger

In Japan and Taiwan you can get burgers that have buns made of rice. If you get them at MOS Burger, they are great. McDonalds' version of the toasted rice burger is not good, but I recommend trying MOS Burger.

This rice burger photo is from a McDonalds in Taipei:

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Thursday, April 14, 2011