My parents just got back from a trip to Taiwan. They visited three cities, Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung and ate many traditional Taiwanese dishes. I’m going to live through their photos here, because short of flying there myself, you really can’t get this stuff at our local restaurants.

One of my favorites: Uh-ah zehn (Pardon my sucky Taiwanese phoneticizing, they’re guesses at best)

It’s an oyster pancake omelette. Besides an egg, oysters, and that red ketchupy sauce you see, it’s made with tapioca starch batter that’s pan fried, and sprouts and bai tsai (a leafy green). Tasty doesn’t begin to describe it. You can get variations of it in our local restaurants, but they’re really second rate replicas I’m afraid.

My favorite: Owah gue (translated: bowl (rice)cake)

The best way I can describe it is, it’s a rice flour batter that’s steamed in a bowl. Doesn’t sound like all that does it? Well, I can’t do it justice in any description because I have no clue how to make it. I only know that when I put it in my mouth, it causes my eyeballs to roll to the back of my head. On the side there is garlic paste. You must mix it into the sauce. It enhances the experience.

Ehn-tsen (pork sausages)

Traditional Taiwanese sausage. It has five-spice powder and they have the black pepper, garlic, and regular variety pictured here. I’ll take one of each, thank you!

The fruit.  Oh, the wonderful fruits in Taiwan.  Apples are still my favorite but if you go to Taiwan and they’re in season, seek out the rose (wax) apples. Liam bu.

And for kicks, how about something unusual? Everytime we visit, my uncle likes to squeam us out by ordering various animal part dishes. Funny thing is, he used to be more easily grossed out than we are now.

These are fried fish intestines. I don’t think you can clean the poop out of fish intestines, but let’s not think about that. My parents each tried a piece. My dad said it didn’t taste like anything in particular. Just fried, crispy, crunchy. I think that’s the secret to eating squeam foods. Fry it.