another taiwanese breakfast

We head home tonight. And sad though we are to leave family, you know you’ve spent enough time in Asia when you start wondering if it’s possible for your husband to take your child to school on his scooter. Standing between his legs. With a helmet, though…I’m still pretty American.

Last time when I was in Taiwan, I wrote about one of my favorite Taiwanese breakfasts. Another place I rush to as soon as I return is Shiao Ji Da Win Dwin (Shiao Family’s Big Won Tons – it doesn’t sound as weird in Chinese, I promise) I dream about this place when I am back in California, and in fact, I was so desperate for a taste of these foods that I very seriously considered coming back for my Grandfather’s birthday (when I was 8 months pregnant!!) just so I could eat these things.

This is ba wan:

Doesn’t look very good, does it? It’s such a unique food, I can’t really describe it in a way that would do it justice. It’s essentially a very chewy wrapper, made of sweet potato starch and rice flour, with a filling of meat and bamboo. It’s steamed first, then poached in oil to heat, and when you order it, they take one out of the hot oil, squeeze it dry, cut it open and top it with sauces (there’s a sweet soy sauce, a sweet and hot sauce, and often big dollop of garlic). Here they are, sitting in oil:

Yes, I know it sounds gross, and looks even grosser. I wouldn’t eat it for years because who wants to eat something that’s been sitting in oil like that, especially if it’s not crispy and made by Ronald McDonald? But a few years ago, things turned around for me, and I like these things now. It’s very Taiwanese.

This is my favorite, the food that made my mouth water when the pregnancy hormones were at their strongest. It’s tong yuan, mixed with wontons (pronounced “hwin twin” by folks originating from certain parts of the Mainland, like my family, and “win dwin” by the Taiwanese folks who own/work at the restaurant, who peer curiously at me and correct my pronunciation every time).

You’ll often find sweet tong yuan in the frozen food section in most Asian markets in the States. It’s mochi with filling inside. The sweet ones have red bean, black sesame or peanut paste in side. It’s cooked and served in hot water, so that the mochi is soft and chewy and the filling hot and gelatinous. The tong yuan you’ll find here are salty so once you bite through that chewy mochi, you’ll find the juicy meat filling. It’s a little like eating a soup dumpling.

This place has been around forever. It started out as a little streetside vendor, when the daughters were all very small, and they still had to wash dishes out in the street. They’re been pretty successful, and now rent out a nice, big, air-conditioned restaurant, where the grown daughters now do all the cooking. Luckily, this place is close, so Otis and I have managed to sneak over there a few times (he adores wontons). I will miss these foods desperately when we’re gone.