[KF Seetoh] Welcome to Tainan! About 320 kilometers south of Taipei.
This city, this little town, to many aficionados is known as the Street Food Capital of the whole of Taiwan.
Everybody is selling one specialty that belongs to this land.
Displays their heritage.
If you like Street Food the way I do, Tainan is it!
[speaking Taiwanese]
So, this is a humble little restaurant.
I think we've got a long history. And they they sell this Taiwanese or Tainanese specialty.
It is a rice cake or rice pudding,
and it's got pork and shrimps in there.
And it's got this lovely savory sauce which they drown this thing in.
And this is essentially a fish cake.
Fish paste with a bit of flour, then steam or boil them,
slice them, and put it in a lovely little seafood stock.
Thank you!
Hints of a vinegar in there, to cut through the fishiness.
And there's this underwriting case of gentle seafood broth.
I love the fish meat.
Oh, so nice.
So, this is a wok-way rice pudding or rice cake, that's infused with a lot of flavors.
There's pork, I understand there's shrimp.
There's some carrots and greens in there.
[ambient restaurant noise]
Ohhhh. To up the spice portion, a bit of chili.
Garlic.
Some wasabi.
[rock music playing]
So, they are making Chunbing — the many versions of this spring roll found all over the world.
This is how they do it here in Tainan.
They've got different types of toppings.
Sausages, meat, shrimps....
And you got cabbage and eggs.
So, she says that there's not very much flavor in this cabbage.
It's more texture than anything. The rest of the flavor comes from all this variety of ingredients.
Thank you.
Oh, see how they sear here. I can feel it's a touch of crispiness. And here we go.
Wow.
Oh, it's an explosion of — an explosion of savory....
The sweet, nutty, meaty....
[Poppy Music Playing]
So, we've got three types of Gua bao, that's what they call it. it's basically a pork bun.
Lean meat and they got pocket slices and cuts and they got this pork tongue.
And since I'm talking so much, I'll begin with the tongue.
[Ambient street noise]
Wow.
The pork tongue is crunchy and nice.
And the peanut sauce is slightly salty.
And I get a little crunch from the salted vegetables and a daikon.
and they give you a little clear hot broth to this.
Comfort by the street.
[poppy music playing]
So, the eel is fresh and it looks artificially red.
So, that's blood! Because it's its natural color.
If you run your finger through.... Come see. See my finger? See my finger?
[makes a scary sound]
So, it's really fresh. It's applied every day.
And he does things to this with noodles. And I'm gonna eat this!!
So, firstly we got the the eel.
Oh, aw.
Crunchy and I can tell it's very fresh. So, it's onions and spring onions,
garlic, a bit of paprika, and the sauce is salty.
There's vinegar in there. Sugar, of course.
The boss here is already third generation, so this store has been around for how long but.... 100 years.
For over a century.
[Speaking Taiwanese]
So, you know. He said something very important about what Street Food is.
There's gotta be showmanship. Nobody would bat an eye if you're covered all up.
They must be nice, must be fresh, must be kept nice and fresh when he cooks it.
Gotta be that fire! That smoke!
Watch him hold the wok with his bare hands.
It's also show, just to serve you a humble plate of stir fried eel with noodles.