Gastro Monkey // 美食家

I love when people I follow in Instagram post places I wouldn't have found on my own. Who says you have to sit around with Insta-envy? I use it as a way to find places to go! Stinky tofu? Good. Blood cakes? Good. Ramen? Good. All together? GOOD!   If you are in the Kaohsiung area and are feeling a hankering for stinky tofu and ramen, this is a good place to get it. The bowl isn't huge, but those blood cakes were pretty filling on top of all of the side tofu we ordered. Tofu is super dense so it really didn't take that much to get full. The stinky tofu here is pretty good and very stinky. If you can't handle the smell, you can sit outside where it's a balmy 85F with 90% humidity, or you can head upstairs and enjoy the strong a/c.  Are they really the king of stinky tofu? I don't know, but I do know that I liked what I had. My favorite of course, was the softer, fried tofu, and the ramen with stinky tofu, blood cakes, and enoki. Stinky tofu, ramen, ...

I have to say, this was my first time going to Tainan on my own. Every other time, I went with family and they just took me around to eat. They warned me before during those trips that Tainan people don't like it if you speak Mandarin; and that's all I speak. And by "they," I mean the 本省人 (benshengren - literally translates to people of the province). My family is considered  外省人 ( waishengren - literally translated to outside province people, basically, outsiders) . Taiwan has a very complicated history. If you're interested, there are online resources, random books here and there, and this fantastic YouTube channel Taiwan Bar . Well researched and has cute animation to go with the history and contemporary topics, I highly recommended watching a few to learn more about Taiwan. We arrive at the Tainan Train Station at night. It's dark and muggy outside. I'm not a huge fan of getting a cab from train stations because you don't get to choose who you...

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am always looking for a few favorite items. I like eating a lot of things, but certain things I feel like the search is never ending. These are my comfort foods, and because I can't make them the way I like it myself, I have to maintain the hope that someday, I'll find something relatively close to where I live. Shanghai Restaurant is located in Oakland's Chinatown. It's a comfortable little space, and the owners speak Shanghainese (this always makes me feel better, like having a Taiwanese person make my pearl milk tea). I ordered the salty soy milk with some oily sticks, stinky tofu, soup dumplings, and pan fried buns.  The salty soy milk was alright. Better than the other places I had tried before in the Bay Area, so it means I would actually go back for it again. I don't know how the places in Taiwan make it so good, but compared to those ones, this one lacked flavor. I added some vinegar in there and it was better. ...

If you've ever been to Taiwan and walked through a night market (or any random street, actually), you probably smelled what appeared to be some rancid trash or really bad feet. Pungent and definitely an assault to the nose - this smell is not for everyone. Growing up, I gagged on the smell. I only had one cousin who lived in Taiwan who actually loved eating it. I thought he was disgusting. Little did my younger, more Americanized self know, stinky tofu is one treat that's hard to beat!  First of all, it's fried. Fried food is delicious. You can fry just about any food and it'll be amazing. Secondly, once you bite through that crispy outer layer, you are rewarded with a softer tofu center. I love the contrast. Then, to get a more of a different flavor, you can also add the chili sauce that is either served with the tofu, or from the jar on your table. If you are at a good stinky tofu stall, they will also have really good pickled veggies. Sometimes I can't finis...