I once ate a dessert made of coconut milk, and (I kid you not) the fat scraped from the inside of a frog's mouth. This was at the Grand Palace Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan, and apparently it is a dessert that traditionally was reserved for emperors.
Also, chicken feet, frog legs and something called 'Chou Dofu' which translates as 'Stinky Tofu' and is the WORST thing I've ever eaten.
I also took a shot of Taiwan moonshine (Mi Jiu) that had turtle blood in it.
@jpthuot03 I think you might win! I've smelled stinky tofu, and that was plenty for me lol
@RickiTarr Oh my god. It smells like a sewer exploded!
I was told "you eat blue cheese, don't you? It's just like that! It tastes much better than it smells."
But it doesn't. It just doesn't. It tastes exactly like it smells.
@jpthuot03 It is not like blue cheese lol
@RickiTarr The moonshine just tasted liked moonshine and bad karma.
@jpthuot03 I'll just have it with fruit lol
@jpthuot03 Same! I lived in Taichung from ‘71-‘73. Ordered at restaurants by pointing to random things on the menu and eating whatever was brought. Learned to cook while we were there. @RickiTarr
@jpthuot03 Beautiful area. At least it was in the 70s. @RickiTarr
Hualien and the whole east coast is stunning... comparative to Thailand or Laos beaches without any of the tourists.
@jpthuot03 @AlliFlowers He took pity on you lol
It was a surprisingly beautiful moment... He could tell, I think, that I didn't *actually* want corn in my omelette, but I really didn't speak any Mandarin at that point (1 month in).
The Taiwanese are really beautiful in that way. Rough, the way Chinese culture can be sometimes, but also really gentle in unexpected ways.
@AlliFlowers @jpthuot03 Oh that sounds fun
When my wife showed up a few months after I did, I tried to impress her by ordering something I could 'read' on the menu. Turns out I could only read the first two characters (niu rou, 'beef') but not the next two, which was 'tendon' so we had beef tendon noodles...
@jpthuot03 Hahahaha!!! While I learned to speak a great deal of Mandarin, I never learned to read it, and that was before pinyin. @RickiTarr
@AlliFlowers @RickiTarr
I love that. I ate "Yu Mi Dan Bing" (Corn Omelette) for breakfast for an entire month because I didn't know the words for anything else. Finally the guy at my breakfast grill started pointing at the various toppings and teaching me the words for 'ham' 'green onion' 'bacon' etc. for which I will forever be grateful.
(I lived in Hualien)