we're in Tainan, Taiwan and this place is regarded as the culinary capital of
Taiwan so there is a tonne of food to hunt down
Tainan is a city with a unique food culture we're food hunting here to bring
you some iconic and delicious foods you don't want to miss this video we're
going after the best food in Tainan including the freshest beef we've ever
eaten, fatty crispy milk fish and loads more get
ready for some mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate
we hope you're hungry, let's eat!
there is so much street food in Tainan
and our first stop is going to be for a Taiwanese fresh spring roll a run bing
from this stall right behind me, let's go
I've got this run bing or fresh spring roll and it is hefty, it's very weighty
it was so cool watching these being made because it was a really busy stall and they were
churning through them so just a production line, so it's just a fresh wrapper there's actually two
wrappers there and then packed with ingredients so they dumped a lot of
cabbage on there and what else did I see, I saw tofu, I saw broadbeans I saw some
sort of paste, I saw a sugar mixture which looked like
it had maybe a peanut in it I saw I think carrots, there was so much I
can't even recall it all so let's bite in and see what's inside it
oh and also they toasted it so you can see on the outside here it's got a very
very light toasting from being put on a little pan with just a thin bit of oil
and that was only on there for seconds, let's go
whoa, mmm
Wow, so
it is packed with stuff there's some pork, like some fatty pork, a lot of egg
the yellow, there's some tofu there and there's no one big bold flavour actually
from that I mean the cabbage sort of comes to the front among all those
ingredients but nothing stands out massively I'm just going to go again
whoa
mmmm
whoa, okay
that bite had that sugar and it does taste nutty so I think it might be
peanuts and sugar and the cabbage is super soft it's been blanched I think so
it's got a tiny crunch left but really it's just soft, really easy to eat I
could see a prawn hiding in there as well, I'm totally loving this wrap it's
it's beautiful where they've toasted it, it has the tiniest tiniest crunch but overall
it's actually kind of chewy so it's got a lot of texture so you've got the chew
of the wrap, you've got a bit of crunch from the cabbage you've got the, the
softness of the things like the eggs and that tofu and then the pork obviously
has a meaty texture it's ridiculously textural oh and the sugar, so the sugar's
it's like still quite granule so it's got a crunch you really bite through
that sugar, just a really simple dish which to me it looks like something
should be a bold flavour but it's not, it's all just sort of subtle all works
in harmony, really, really good
Tainan is known as the city of snacks and so we're heading for our next snack one I'm
super excited about pan-fried milk fish and shrimp rice
this eatery is bustling and we've got the perfect spot we are right in front of
the action where all the chefs are making up bowls of congee and soup but we are here
to eat this and I am super excited about this dish, this is pan fried milkfish
and milkfish is super popular in Taiwan you can see that the fish has been
butterflied and then deboned and pan fried so all these sort of crispy golden bits
and this whole section in the middle is the belly of the fish and it is really
fatty, look at that if I just poke it, it just oozes fat oh I can't wait to try it
and then to go with it we've got a bowl of oily shrimp rice which has got a
bit of a pickle on top
I want to dig into this milkfish to
begin with, so I'm gonna get a piece which has got a bit of that fat and then a
lot of meat as well, okay, whoa look at that, it's got a beautiful crispy skin on the
bottom
mmmm, mmm, mmmm, mmmmm
holy moly it is like butter it just melts in your mouth
the flesh is really mild but it's got a beautiful sort of taste of oil from
being pan-fried, it melts in your mouth and then that belly the fat hits your tongue
and then it just dissolves, it is so rich and beautiful
I've got to go again for
another bite that was just too good, all right make sure I've got heaps of that belly
oh it's a bit hard to break up, okay
heaps of that belly, argh this is a humungous mouthful
oh man
it's like no fish I've ever tasted
it almost tastes
quite meat like and that middle fatty belly is just insane
it's like eating a really well braised pork belly or something it just
is so rich, so fatty, so creamy
time to try this shrimp rice so it's meant to be
oily so that's why you can see all the grains of rice are glistening with oil
I've got a little tiny shrimp on there
mmmm, mmmmm
so much flavour
it's just a very beautiful, oily texture and the rice is very very soft
almost a little bit sticky, very rich because it's oily, I'm gonna take a bite
of this pickle and see if it cuts through
mmm it's like a pickled radish, oh very sour and very tangy that works perfectly with
the rice, it cuts through that richness
now we're really excited about this next place because we're having beef soup
but there's something really special about this restaurant, it's the beef, the
beef gets slaughtered today and delivered twice a night to the
restaurant so it doesn't get refrigerated, nothing
like that it gets slaughtered, delivered put straight in your soup so this is
going to be some of the freshest beef we have ever eaten
it is a race against time because what happens is
thank you
you order your beef soup, they weigh the raw beef, pop it in a bowl add a bit of seasoning and then
they throw in that stock or the soup and so the beef just cooks in the stock I
have just got to try it because it is fast cooking and I don't want it to be
chewy
oh man
Oh the flavour! The beef itself
when it's in its raw state is so red, it's a beautiful dark red and it is translating
into the most stunning meaty flavour, so the soup itself is actually a really
light flavour, let me have a taste of it
hmm it's just a really simple clear broth, it tastes of that beef but the hero
is that meat there is just texture, flavour, it's sensational
so while the beef is still a little bit pink what I'm gonna do is grab some of
this shredded ginger that the guy brought over and just have a mouthful of
that
hmm that raw ginger, it's a really beautiful spiciness a tangyness to the
beef oh so good
there's some sauce on the table so I'm going to pop it in a little
bowl here and then just dip the beef in it I'm not sure what the sauce is but let's
give it a go
all right
mmm the sauce is a little bit tangy, a little bit umm it tastes like plum sauce in fact
it's nice and sweet but actually I think I like the beef best when it's just
naked or with that ginger cause the flavour is just so simple and clean
that beef was insanely good it was so tasty and so fresh I loved how red it was and they
dunk it into that broth or that soup and it just cooked so quick so it was
all race against time we just dived in there and we ended up having a bowl each
so after Sheena had hers on camera we got another bowl and oh my god
it's unreal now we're going for some shrimp rolls
they are so golden and they feel really crispy, so they've got shrimp inside
whole shrimp you can see cut up there there's some greens which I think are spring
onions and then that mixture is covered in some caul fat so which is the fat from
the inside of a sheep or a cow it sort of surrounds the organs that's all
around it, then they get dumped into some batter
once they're all battered, they go into a massive tub of oil and get deep fried and
that is why it's so ridiculously golden and I really loved watching her because
when there were little holes appearing in the batter she was taking them out and
almost painting the batter on, just in spots, just to fill the spots and then back into
that oil, I can't wait to try this it came with sauces so I think this is a
wasabi or horseradish sauce, this is a sweet sauce, let's get it dunked straight
into the sauce so this is the wasabi sauce the hot sauce and I want a whole
lot of that spicy sauce, sorry the sweet sauce as well
oh my god
Wow, oooooh
definitely wasabi or horseradish that just went straight up my nose woah that is
delicious, it's ridiculously delicious the outside is super, super crispy and
then the inside is just unreal, it's a burst of flavour, the shrimp, perfectly
cooked not squishy at all, just a little bit of crunch and I got some
greens in there as well, which tasted like a fresh crunch, that is unreal there's
definitely something else in there and I think it might be cabbage so I'm just
gonna dunk another one and let's go again
mmm thank you
mmm yeah it's cabbage so just cooked
cabbage I think, slightly boiled cabbage oh my god, these are amazing they're incredible
so simple looking, they're just so good, there's that caul fat, adds sort of a
texture and a meatiness to the dish as well but I don't think if I
didn't know it was there I don't think I'd pick it but because I know oh my god
it adds so much to it these are unbelievable, unbelievably good
another massive and great food day here in Tainan it has been such a good stay
here, check out our other videos and we're heading to Japan soon so make sure
you hit subscribe because there is a ton of food videos to come, thank you so much
for watching, pop a comment down below let us know which food you like the
best in this video we ate some cracker foods and remember to give this video a
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we'll see you next time, jai zian (see you)!