Batagor

Batagor is one of famous street snack originating from Bandung, West Jawa. It is made from mackerel fish, Tofu sometimes from prawn It is similar to to other food called Siomay, but the difference is that Batagor is fried. It is served with peanut sauce with red chilli, kafir lime juice. On the top you can put sweet soy sauce, here called kecap manis.


You can see on the left side the fried Batagor. The seller filling the plastic with the sauce after i ordered the Batagor take away. he will cut the edges of the fried pieces and put it in the plastic container.

In my humble opinion i think the most plastic is used in Asian countries. they used the plastic for everything. As you can see on the picture there is small container another small bag for sauce and you get the spoon or fork and all this is put in plastic bag.



The look might not be the the most appetizing but the taste is good. You can feel the peanut sauce with lime juice mixed with soy sauce and the flavor of fried fish-tofu. Yummy.

Soerabi

Soerabie, Serabi or also called Surabi is authentic Sundanese dumpling or pancake made from rice flour with coconut milk, topped with salty condiments various flavor. It can be a sweet taste or salty and spicy. Each province in Indonesia has it own Serabi taste and it is eaten as a snack.

Here few examples of the choices of Soerabi with the prices.

1. Soerabi Coklat Keju Special Rp.5,000,- Surabi with Chocolate topping with Cheese

2. Soerabi Sosis Telor Keju Special Rp.6,500,- -Sausage with Egg and Cheese
3. Soerabi Pisang Keju Rp.4,500,- With Banana and Cheese
4. Soerabi Oncom Mayonaise Rp.3,500,- With Oncom and Mayonnaise
5. Soerabi Oncom Sosis Telor Keju Special Rp.7,000,- With Oncom sausage,Egg and Cheese
6. Soerabi Pisang Coklat Keju Special Rp.6,000,- With Banana Chocolate and Cheese
7. Pisang Bakar Coklat Keju Special Rp.6,500,- With Grilled Banana Chocolate and Cheese

Soerabi maker. You put the dough on the dish cover it and wait until is done. Then garnish with your choice of ingredients.

Soerabi with Oncom


Soerabi with Chocolate puding

Sawo-Sapodilla-Chico

I have found l in supermarket (I know it is shame that not on the market) fruit which looked like a potato. I knew it is a fruit because i found it in the fruit section. It also resemble kiwi but without the hair. I had no idea what was it. On the sticker was written Sawo.

Nedavno som v supermarkete (ano mal by som nakupovat na trhovisku a nie v supermarkete) nasiel ovocie, podobajuce sa zemiaku. To ze to je ovocie som vytusil tym ze bolo v sekcii pre ovocie. Podobalo sa to na maly zemiak, alebo kiwi bez "srsti". Na nalepke bolo napisane Sawo.




After doing some research I found the Sawo is also known as Sapodilla or Chico in Phillipines and was native in Central America. When you cut it in half, it has brown flash inside with the nuts.

Po resersi som zistil ze ovocie sa vola Sapodilla alebo na Filipinach ho nazyvaju Chico a je povodom z Centralnej Ameriky. po prekrojeni na polovicu vo vnutri sa nachadzala hnedasta duzina s kostkami.


The flesh is like pear like but little softer and the taste is sweet like like brown palm sugar. Very delicious and subtle.
When buying one of these be careful there are other species who like also the sweet taste. The worms. Try to get not too firm and not too soft fruit. It is one of best tasting fruit i have ever tasted.


Duzina strukturou bola ako hruska len troska jemnejsia a chut bola ako hnedy palmovy cukor.
Pri kupovani treba byt obozretny, lebo nielen cloveku chuti toto ovocie. Zvycajne sa vo vnutri nachadza aj cierny pasazier. Mam na mysli cervika. Najlepsie je kupit ovocie nie ani velmi tvrde ale ani velmi makke. Je to jedno z najlepsich ovocii co som kedy skusil.

Food I have tried in Taiwan

Here are few pictures of food I have tried in Taiwan and some pictures from night markets. markets.
Zopar fotiek jedal co som skusil na Taiwane. Vacsinu som nepoznal a bolo tazke lustit co to je lebo na nocnych trhoch to bol popis vacsinou len v Cinstine. Vacsinu jedal som skusal na nocnych trhoch

A shrimp dumpling soup.

Poliavka s krevetovymi kndelickami.

Desert consisting of various jelly balls or cubes sprinkled with crushed ice and with passion fruit jelly sauce on the top.
Dezerts pozostavajuci z roznych zelatinovych gulik ci kociek roznych farieb a prichuti s nasekanym ladom a marakujovou stavou na vrchu.

Various snacks on Night market.
Rozne jednohubky. Nemam sajnu co to je.Ale asi maso.

A snake restaurant. Of course there is forbidden to take photograph. Unfortunately I saw the sign just after the shot. :-))
Hadia restauracia. Samozrejme je zakazane fotenie ale ja som si to bohuzial vsimol a po odfoteni :-))

Variety of seafood. Taiwan is an island so seafood is here quite in abundance
Rozne morske potvory. Taiwan je ostrov a vyber potvor je velky.

I don't know the name of those but they are made is made from Casava flour and sugar and then fried. I call them fried Casava balls. You can get the same in Thailand. I used to have them on breakfast.
Neviem ako sa volaju tieto gulky ale su robene z Kasavovej muky, cukru a potom vyprazane.nazyvam ich prazene Kasavove gule. Rovnake mozete kupit aj v Thajsku, kde som si ich zvykol kupovat na ranajky.

You can find here some strange kind of juices or drinks in Taiwan. Here is the Asparagus juice. I have tried it and expected vegetable salty flavor but was surprised by the sweet flavor. It was a bit unusual taste but quite OK.
Daju sa tu najst rozne zaujimave druhy dzusov. Tu je priklad spargloveho dzusu. Ocakaval som zeleninovu chut, ale prekvapila ma sladka prichut.Celkom sa to dalo.Troska nezvycajne.

Picture was taken on Vegan day on Chiang Kai Shek square. Somehow I doubt this is all soy protein. Who knows.
Obrazok z veganskych dni na namesti Chiang Kai Sheka. Akosi sa mi nezda ze vsetko su to sojove proteiny.

What a selection of beers. I think the prices are below. Not very cheap. And a riddle is: Why I took this pic? What kind of beer I'm fond off??
Siroky vyber piva, ale nie velmi lacne. Hadanka: Preco som to fotil, a ktore pivo mam rad?

Stand in Danshui with fried shrimps. Danshui
Stanok s vyprazanymi krevetami v Danshui

Fried Shrimps
Vyprazane krevety

Restaurant where I had breakfast. During the meals there was a rat running trough the restaurant. Instead go to panic I was thinking: "Well, when rat is risking during a day to run trough the place that means the food must be good."
Restauracia, kde som mal ranajky. Pocas jedenia prebehol potkan cmez restauraciu.Akosi ma to nerozhadzalo a pristupoval som k tomu s pozitivnym myslenim v zmysle, ze ked potkan riskuje a takto otvorene bezi cez restiku tak to znamena ze jedlo tu musi byt dobre. A skutocne chutilo.

Steamed Bun with hopefully just mushroom and vegetable filling.
Parena buchta. Dufal som ze bola len plnena zeleninou.

Omelet with veggie filling. Quite tasty.
Omeleta so zeleninovou plnkou.Celkom chutna.

Rice with salmon in hot pan with some kind of caviar in Watami Japan restaurant. Taste was quite bland. Server stirred the salmon and rice after serving it.
Ryza s lososom v horucej panvici a s akymsi kaviarom vo Watami japonskej restauracii.Chut nebola nic moc. Casnik to rozmiesal priamo predomnou.

A "Bun" stand at the Shillin Night market.
Parene buchty s roznymi plnkami na nocnom trhu v Shiline.


Fried fish-balls stand.
Stanok s vyprazanymi rybimi gulkami.

Fried fish-balls.
Vyprazane rybie gulky

Here you can find the pig blood cake or duck blood cake.
Stankok s pochutkou s lepkavou ryzou a prasacou krvou.

This is it! The duck or pig blood cake garnished in peanuts and cilantro or parsley. I had no idea what i was eating until i was told later. Quite a shock because I don't eat pig or beef or chicken. But the most disturbing part was that it tasted quite good and the most disturbing was the cilantro taste. It had sweetly taste and i had no idea it was a blood!!!
Tak toto je ono. Toto ma dostalo. Myslel som si ze je to dezert.Chutilo to nasladlo a vcelku co bolo na tom rusive bola skor ta prichut petrzlenu alebo koriandru. Obalovane to bolo v prasku z burskych orieskov. Nemal som ani sajnu ze to tmave co v tom bolo bolo kacacia alebo prasacia krv!!! Skoro ma rachlo ked som sa to dozvedel.

Bun filled with custard.
Buchta plnena pastou.

Selection of whatever it is.
Vyber roznych zelenin ci masa.

A Taiwan specialty. Bubble tea. Tea with some jelly balls. You can decide how sweet the tea you want to have or what kind of bubbles.
Toto je dalsia taiwanska specialita a to caj so zelatinovymi gulickami. Celkom sa to da a clovek si moze zvolit ako sladko to chce. Chlapik co mi to objednaval tak zvolil len 70Percent z opatrnosti ale nebolo to velmi sladke.

Indonesia - Stinky Tofu - Tahu Gejrot

Foolishly i thought that the stinky tofu is just Taiwan specialty. After done some research I have found it is not just Taiwan specialty but also China, Hong Kong and Indonesia. The last one raised my curiosity as I'm right now there. Again I did a little research and indeed I found it. Indonesian stinky tofu comes fom Jawa northern coast town of Cirebon and is a part of the Sundanese cuisine.

A typical stand for Tahu Gejrot.

It is called Tahu Gejrot in Indonesia it is not as stinky as his Taiwanese counterpart and the taste was also strong. It was served with shallots some green chili and some chili oil. Most of Indonesian dishes are served with sambal which is a condiment made from chili. It could be quite hot. And btw. it cost 6000,-Rupiah which is about 66 U.S. cents. So far it is one of my favorite Indonesian dishes.

Taiwan - Stinky Tofu mission

My first article will be about the food I especially stopped for in Taiwan, on my way to South East Asia.

Stinky tofu (臭豆腐 in Chinese, Pinyin: chòu dòufu): Is a fermented tofu with strong odor.

All the story began when i was watching the Bizzare Food with Andrew Zimmern where he reached his limit with stinky tofu. That made me curious. the guy was able to drink or eat intestines, insect,warm blood but he failed on Durian and on this one.
I took the chance to stopover in Taiwan on my way. Just after flight and a shower I headed to the most famous and biggest night market The Shillin Nightmarket. There is such a variety of all kinds of foods, I had a little problem actually to find it. But finally. Got it!!



Actually the smell was not so bad or rotten i was told. This one was a fried one. There is another one cooked with pig blood which should have had worse odor. Honestly I expected worse and it was a nice surprise that finally tofu had a taste.