March 23, 2010

Taiwan Food : A Taste of Taiwan Mountain Organic Food at Hsitou

After visiting the eco park and bamboo forest of Hsitou we headed towards a very nice mountain hotel where we enjoyed the pine trees and nice hilly mountainside stay.
That evening after walking around again (as if we did not walk enough at Hsitou) we had a good meal...again in a restaurant "downstairs". They do know how to make full use of their space...vertically and deep into the ground or down the slope...

this is pork with bamboo shoot cooked in aboriginal style.

This is an unusal dish of very crispy small shrimps with herbs all freshly harvested from the mountainside.

This is an assortment of cold chicken and pickled bamboo. Another version of pickled bamboo.

This is superb thinly sliced wild boar with local greens.


This is a dish of river fish fried very very crispy and they are really tasty....we ate everything - head and tail.

The owner of this mountain side hotel planted radish himself...He was always around to show us things and sights and especially his vegetables. I really appreciate his personal touch here. It is like having the BOSS coming in for an event and he even wants to let you know where the food comes from....It is his special interest in organic food and his green fingers. A book should be written about him.

This is local fish (not as good as bertutu) but is fairly tasty.


More fresh and delicate mushrooms.....Again the spring onions and coriander come from the boss's personal garden.

18 comments:

wenn said...

wow, yummy!

Lee said...

Hello Sarawakiana, wow! The dishes really look exotic. Love that fish dish.
I can imagine how lovely the place is too.
Is the food cheap? Looks expensive...
You have fun and keep well, Lee.

Ensurai said...

Hi Wenn
The heart of TAiwan is beautiful. I wish our Camerons and Gunung Tahan or Mr. Kinabalu can offer as much....can you immagine 100 million mainland Chinese will want to see this place in the next 10 years????

Ensurai said...

Dear Uncle Lee
The chefs do not use Aji no moto...they use mountain salt and the natural tastes of the vegetables and meats to give us really good fresh food.
The food is not expensive by Singapore standard.
It was a good week of my life!!

Jay said...

Maybe you should tell more about bamboo of Taiwan. I am sure there are many interesting topic or issue about that.

Ensurai said...

Yes Jay The TAiwanese do capitalise on their bamboo products...and have made millions out of them...there are more than 500 edible species there....and other commercial species..the Aboriginal peoples are also very advance and entrepreneurial. We have a lot to learn from them.

fufu said...

i love radish!! but cant get it here in germany >< cannot make the soup...sigh

Ensurai said...

Hi Fufu
Hope you will soon celebrate your birthday with friends...I love radish too....I used to plant them in school when I first started teaching in a boarding school and may be when the weather is better here I will start growing them again. So inspired....

Mumble jumble said...

AIYO! Mushrooms! Plenty! I must visit Taiwan.

The food looks good. The spread looks like servings of native food and chinese food served together. Maybe from what I read, natives of sarawak came from the mainlands of china. So I must be pure chinese! HAHA.

The influence is pretty obvious. Did you ask if they cooked in bamboo as well?

The fried fish looks very much like what Ibans cook. And the wild boar, pretty amazing they eat wild boar too. Tak Halal but must have been fantastic. Was it tender? Did they use cornflour?

Ensurai said...

No the natives of Taiwan do not use cornflour...everything is pretty organic as I observed.

They have cooking done in Bamboo too...in fact most indigenous people in Asia cook in bamboo...and they also use a lot of bamboo shoots....so Consolidate the brotherhood in bamboo!!

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

Hi CY,

Perhaps I am also in the brotherhood. Bamboo was the source of livelihood of the Chans in China.

I was replying to Ngao which I thought you will be interested. I should comment this on your Sago worms, but I am too lazy to find your post.

Ann

Hi Ngao,

Re: Your comment on the timber log.

some times log come off from the timber company's timber. I don't know if this is one of them.

When I was young in Sibu, when I visit both sets of my grandparents, they lived along the river. We played in the river a lot. Often we see barges dragging lots of timber logs together.

Occasionally, a log will escape, and I remember my uncles would be so happy as they swam to it and take it back to the jetty to enlarge the jetty. No one will sell the single log, perhaps they were worried about being accused of stealing the log.

I don't know if the log is belian.

In New Zealand, there is grown forest of pine trees. The native trees like Kauri are not allowed to be logged.

My brother Henry is a consultant to the Sarawak Forestry Dept.

May be you met him, Dr Henry Chan, PhD, a tall 6 footer, wears glasses, born 1965.

You ever ate the worms from these logs? My uncle found those worms inside the logs forming our own jetty. We were sworn to secrecy that we don't tell our grand parents.

You miss the fun by migrating to the big city of Kuching.LOL

Ensurai said...

Hi Ann
This "swim in the river to save the log" was what my cousins and uncles would have done in the 60's!! Better still...they used a small sampan..small boat. I was often in the boat as I was not a good swimmer in the huge torrential Rajang.
But we never ate the worms in the logs...yes indeed ...we expanded our jetty. My uncle's Toh Tau was a renown one and many people used it because it was big and safe.

Town people do miss this riverine life...like I miss it so much now.

Superman said...

Nice Taiwan foods...make me drooling. I heard that their foods are not so salty compare to ours over here, right?

Ensurai said...

Superman
The Taiwanese are health conscious and they are into organic food. They do not use Aji no Moto...and they use the expensive sea salt and mountain salt ...very tasty food. And very very fresh vegetables...lots of dried mountain vegetables which you can buy to bring back.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

CY,

You look for my sis E, and she will tell you about her BIL in Miri. I will tell her to give you some of their prized black Kelabit salt on the account that E was also in St Mark's house and she also played hockey. They say the Kelabit salt is the best and money cannot buy.

Where is CS?

Ensurai said...

Dear Ann
Oh Yes!! I remember E. We played hockey together...is her bil in Miri? I get Bario salt but often feel a little afraid...because of the price and because it could be imitation too.

The real Kelabit salt is really good. Just a bit and the porridge is fantastic...

CS is in Kuching..mum has moved to Kuching....

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