- "Worth It: Taiwan" is back.
- "Worth It" chicken.
Is that a chicken?
- Yeah. - Kind of.
- It's a rooster.
Which is a chicken.
- Is that a chicken?
- No, that's a pigeon.
We're here in Taiwan's garden night market.
We just picked up our chicken treats.
Tomorrow the journey begins.
We're going to three cities for three acts of chicken,
ending in a chicken finale like you've never seen before.
- Bok, bok, bish.
Leggo.
- Mm!
It's like a pancake.
- Today on "Worth It," we're going
to be trying three chicken dishes
at three drastically different price points
to find out which one is the most worth it
at its price.
- So we're eating chicken, but our first chicken
is actually a soup.
I know we just finished a soup video,
but that's just how many soups there are here.
You can't escape the soup.
- We're off to see the Chen family at Walking Su,
where we're going to be trying their sesame oil chicken.
- What is that in Mandarin, Inga?
- Ma you ji.
- Ma you--
- Ma you ji.
- Okay, I'm excited to eat some chicken.
- Let's do it.
(playful music)
- Tell us about how this business got started.
(laughs)
- So this is a family business.
What do each of you do?
- Do you find it easy working together?
- Sesame oil chicken.
Is that dish a classic Taiwanese dish?
(laughs)
- What are those herbs adding to this dish?
(cash register sound)
- This looks incredible.
- We're got a couple additional accoutrements here.
The Thai basil sauce, the spicy fermented bean paste,
and sticky rice.
- All right, let's taste the broth.
Sesame oil chicken.
Mm.
Delightful nuttiness of the sesame oil.
- Yes.
Super nutty.
- Super.
- It's got this hearty feel to it.
- Oh, yeah, this is hearty as (beep).
How was that?
- So incredibly juicy and tender and, ugh.
I'm going to smell the Thai basil,
because that's their specialty here.
- Whoa!
Smells like pesto.
- Yeah.
What?
- That is awesome.
That is like a salad dressing to dip your soup into.
Adam, you gotta try the chicken in the Thai basil.
- Ooh.
- Want to try some rice?
- Oh, yes.
- Chicken, Steven. - Cheers.
- The thing I keep getting blown away by in Taiwan,
I go to a meal expecting one thing,
and then there's always all this bonus stuff
that just blows my expectations out of the water.
- Yeah, and even when they first started this restaurant,
this was a bonus dish.
- Right.
- Right, that's crazy. - This was a free thing.
- So there's a lot of herbs added to this soup.
It tastes like an elixir.
It just washes away all of the pain in your body.
Icky back, I got a soup for that.
Tired eyes.
- Soup for that.
- My foot hurts.
- Throw some soup on there.
- It's all the same soup.
It's very convenient.
Adam, you want to get some of this soup?
I'm pretending like Adam's over here,
even though he's over there.
- Hi.
(laughs)
- So our next chicken location is in Taipei,
but first we're going to take a countryside detour.
- Yep, that's right.
We're going to a scallion farm in Yilan.
And we're going to be making our own scallion pancakes.
Not just cooking them.
We're going to pick them ourselves.
- Scallions, yeah. - Yes.
- It's a chicken episode, it's a soup episode,
and now it's a pancake episode.
(upbeat trumpet music)
- What you see in front of you here is a scallion pancake,
but rewind three hours.
What did we do?
- We're in this unique valley where you get different
temperature winds at different times of day,
which create a nice perfect humidity for growing scallions.
So today we've picked a bunch of scallions,
cleaned them up, chopped them, cried a little bit,
and then learned how to make scallion pancakes.
And here we have it, the spoils of our toils.
- Cheers! - Cheers!
- Mm.
- Oh, no.
- Yo.
Okay, this is one of the best things I've eaten so far.
You know what time it is now?
Time for a Taiwan food fact. (cymbal)
The concept of "xiao chi," meaning little eats,
is popular in Taiwan, basically meaning snacking
throughout the day, often on street food, between meals.
- Of course, yeah.
In Taiwan, if you only eat three meals in one day,
you're just doing it wrong.
- We're actually on our way to a snack shop next.
Inga, where are we going?
- Chu Zha Xiaoshi Dian.
We're going to see Reebok and Julia
and try their fried chicken.
(solemn piano music)
- What makes a perfect fried chicken to you guys?
- So what makes your Taiwanese fried chicken unique?
- What do you recommend that we drink
with the fried chicken?
- What?
- This is not what I was expecting.
- You ready, Steven?
- I'm ready.
- This is called dining al fresco.
- So we've ordered the recommended sparkling wine.
Apparently, you only order by the bottle here.
- I like that.
- It's my speed. - Let's go.
Cheers.
- How awesome is this?
This is some riviera (beep).
- We got to eat this while it's hot, so let's go.
- Ooo.
It smells so good. - Oh, it's so fragrant.
The garlic, the onions, basil.
The meat inside is so soft.
- It's very pleasing.
- Very pleasing.
Like brûléed marshmallows.
Seriously.
- Oh man. - It's wild.
I thought QQ was only for dumplings.
- Whoa.
- It's so soft.
- It's almost like chicken nugget-esque.
- You know what's crazy about this?
We've eaten fried chicken in Minneapolis,
where the restaurant thought, "You know what's actually
the best drink to have with chicken?
Sparkling wine."
And here we are in Taiwan,
and this restaurant had the same idea.
- I see, I see.
- If there's a restaurant on either side of the world
that is doing the same thing, it must be great.
- I'm scared to eat this, because I'm scared
of how much I'll like it.
- Pork knuckle and radish cake.
- Wow.
Ooo.
- Oh, man.
Watch out, you're going to push me off my stool.
- Radish cake is a classic dim sum dish.
I've eaten this every time I go out.
You know, they bring around the carts
and they're all steamed, right?
It's still hot but it doesn't have
that break-through-the-crunch texture that this has.
- You could maybe liken it to a potato pancake.
That's so good.
- Yeah it's crazy.
- Yeah.
How should we eat the pork knuckle?
- By hand.
- By hand?
Just like an apple?
Okay.
Kind of looks like a donut.
- Oh!
Yours does.
- Mine does.
- Cheers.
- Oh my god.
This is like a pork donut.
Wow.
(laughs)
- So this is actually cartilage, but it feels like fat
with how loosey-goosey it is.
- The gelatin is the jelly of this pork donut.
- Right.
- And to wash it down, sparkling wine.
- Oh, thank goodness for this.
- How awesome is this?
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- This was really good.
- Thank you.
(speaks in foreign language)
- We are at the Beijing hotel,
where they serve a boba croissant.
Yes, you heard me right.
Boba croissant.
(imitates whooshing)
- We got the matcha, tiramisu and the milk tea.
Which one do you want?
- My gut is going toward matcha,
but I'm going against my gut and going for the tiramisu.
- I actually knew that you were going to pick that one,
because it has gold flake on it.
(laughs)
All right, I'll go milk tea.
Very satisfying to pick up.
- Cheers.
Are you going to bite into it?
- Yeah. - Or open it up?
- I'm going to bite into it.
- Oh. (Steven gasps)
This is just all of the textures.
This is nice.
It's satisfyingly squishy.
- I think there's a word for that, QQ.
- Ready for a Taiwan food fact, Steve?
- Taiwan food fact!
Taiwan food fact.
- Um.
- Up until the 1960s, the most common Taiwanese breakfast
was rice or congee.
Buns emerged as a popular Taiwanese food in the 1960s
when U.S. trade introduced wheat into the Taiwanese diet.
- Shouldn't that fact go in the dumpling episode
that we did?
- Well, it was more about breakfast.
- I just want an excuse to talk about congee,
because it's just a nice, savory thing
to have for breakfast.
- This is a very good croissant.
- Yeah.
- I got a cake.
- [Steven] Oh, my.
- [Andrew] This boba croissant is part of a boba festival.
- Boba fest.
- And Inga's got the crown jewel of the festival.
And now it's time to take a little train ride.
- QQ.
(laughs)
You want to hear my boba rap?
- Yeah.
- How do you like your boba?
- Yeah.
- Eat it like a cobra.
- Yeah.
- My name is Yoda.
- Yeah.
- And I like yoga.
- Now dab.
- Never.
- This is a train water bottle that they sell
on the train.
(imitates train chugging)
So once we get done with this guy, we'll be in Taichung
and we'll be eating at our final chicken location.
- We're going to go meet RuiHong at Yan Xiang Lou
to have Beggar's Chicken.
(uplifting orchestral music)
- What kind of cuisine is the food here?
- Tell us about this dish, the Beggar's Chicken.
- What happened to the beggar?
(laughs)
- I hope so.
- [Andrew] Why bake the chicken in clay?
- [Andrew] How do we get the chicken out from the clay?
- [Andrew] Which one of us gets to do it?
- [Steven] I'll do the hammering, you do the hammer time.
- What?
You just automatically assume that you get to hammer.
- You can both do it.
- Two hammers?
Okay.
- [Steven] Great. - [Andrew] Resolved.
Ooh, thank you.
Cheers to our final meal in Taiwan.
- Oh, no!
- I know.
- Cheers.
- Since this is our last meal in Taiwan,
we're blowing it out.
- Let's do it.
- I saw a little sneak peek of what's coming upstairs.
It's going to blow you away.
So this is winter melon.
- [Steven] Whoa.
- [Andrew] Wow. - [Steven] Wow.
- What?
Look at it coming out, pouring on the fish's head.
- These look too real.
Look at the scales on these guys.
- Honestly, every time I've seen a koi fish,
I've thought they looked like a tasty fish.
Cheers, Steven.
Fish kiss.
That's a good dumpling.
- Aw, fish super good.
- This looks like in "Hook," when Robin Williams
is imagining the food.
Have you seen this movie?
It's all vibrant colors.
Do yourself a favor, go watch "Hook."
You'll have a delightful time.
You'll be reminded of this moment.
- I'm going pink for my hair.
We might as well have just shot all three episodes here.
- Much like the origin myth, first we're eating
like an emperor, and then we're taking a journey
to discover the chicken.
- Food is all about storytelling.
Well, and taste.
(Andrew laughs)
But also storytelling.
(dramatic orchestral music)
(Steven laughs)
- [Andrew] Ohh. - [Steven] Ohh.
Hey, oh.
- [Andrew] What?
- Yes.
- What?
- [Inga] You guys can go up now.
- [Andrew] Hammer time?
- [Steven] Okay.
- All right, Steven.
I'm nervous.
- I am scared, too.
- [Both] One, two, three!
(clay shatters)
- Wow. - Nice!
- Looks like chocolate.
- Smells like dirt. - Dirt.
(laughs)
We just hatched our chicken dinner.
It was very dino egg-like.
- [Both] Mm.
- [Andrew] Wow.
Chicken cheers.
- Chicken cheers.
- Oh, that's good.
- What?
That is so soft.
- Some people say chicken's a boring meal.
I would say those people haven't had it--
- Deep-fried, baked in clay.
- Stuffed with pork and aromatics.
- There's pork in the chicken?
- Yeah.
- [Inga] So now she's just adding a sauce.
I think it's an oyster sauce slurry.
- Ooh.
That tastes like my mom's fried rice.
Whoa, that was weird.
- "Mom?"
(laughs)
You know what this chicken is?
It's a time capsule.
For flavor.
Buried under dirt, much like a regular time capsule.
But it's also a dish--
- From the Ming dynasty.
Is there a letter written in there?
Like, "Dear diary, do I still taste good?"
- Very soft.
At its core, this dish is just a plate
of really nice chicken.
So simple, so perfect.
We're going to take it back into artistry land now,
if that's okay with you.
- Let's do it.
What is going on right now?
- [Andrew] Yeah, dude.
(laughs)
Looks like a scene from "Nightmare Before Christmas."
This is too beautiful not to share.
I think we should get everybody in here
and we all take a bite.
Who wants a swan, who wants a pumpkin?
Cheers, everybody.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- What?
Oh my god.
It's red bean.
- Why?
Why?
- Not "why."
Why not?
Worth it.
Beggar's Chicken.
You know they say beggars can't be choosers,
but beggars can be chicken.
That was quite an experience.
Steven, before we get to our "Worth It" winners,
what was your favorite thing that wasn't one
of the highlight foods in this "Worth It" episode.
- Pork knuckle at Chu Zha Xiaoshi Dian.
Mm.
- That's the knuckle.
- It was so good, I contemplated eating my own knuckles.
- What was your favorite thing?
- Honestly, the hard ass rain while we were filming
location two.
We had a typhoon barely graze us, but we still got
some awesome hard rain, which I love.
- Which chicken was the most worth it to you?
- My "Worth It" winner, Walking Su sesame oil chicken.
- [Steven] Woo.
- If that chicken had been in the soup episode,
it would have won that episode, too.
- Wow.
- Comforting, exciting, inexpensive.
It was wonderful.
Who was your "Worth It" winner?
- Okay.
Walking Su, totally new experience.
- Yeah.
Yan Xiang Lou.
If you could eat with your eyes, that place would have won.
But, because that pork knuckle was so effing good,
my "Worth It" winner must go to Chu Zha Xiaoshi Dian.
- Inga, "Worth It" winner.
- Two, Chu Zha Xiaoshi Dian.
With Reebok and Julia.
- [Steven] Annie?
- [Annie] This one.
- Adam, who's your "Worth It" winner?
- [Adam] Fried chicken.
- [Andrew] Oo, the friend chicken.
Very good choice.
- All right.
Let's wrap on "Worth It: Taiwan."
- Very special thank you to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau,
that helped us out tremendously with this trip.
Couldn't have been here without them.
- All right, let's get out of here.
Bye!