By the way, I’m posting several entries that I started and never finished (for various reasons) while still in Taiwan. I’m back-dating them so that they fit chronologically a little more logically.
In which case, if you’re reading this page on the website and looking at the top posts, you’re missing them. I strongly suggest reading any blog page through a good RSS reader.
Technorati Tags: Blog
I admit it, I’m a long-time patron of Long John Silver’s. My family used to eat there in Tucson at least as far back as 1974. While it’s not completely 100% authentic English Fish & Chips, it’s not too far off the mark, and it’s been very consistent for the last 30+ years. (Remember, I live in the desert, seafood is not the specialty of the region.)
Long John Silver’s has recently opened up in Taipei and my curiosity is too much for me. I was looking forward to eating fish & chips, especially since the apparent demise of the Frying Scotsman, this was my only opportunity. I was also quite curious to see how they’d “adapted it for the local market.†(Which is usually a euphemism for “screwing up the food.â€)
The restaurant was bright and clean, and more upscale than in the US. The food was served on real dishes and silverware! Swanky!
The combos didn’t appear to come with fries, so we ordered some separately. Then it turned out that the combo did come with fries, so we had far too many. My combo was two pieces of fish, fries (chips), a salad and an American-size soda.
My wife’s combo was one fish, one piece of chicken, two shrimp, fries, the salad and the drink.
I tried some of both my fish and my wife’s chicken. Here’s the verdict.
Salad: Well, this just isn’t a US item, so I have nothing to compare it to, save that it was lettuce with some Thousand Island dressing. (Thousand Island is the ubiquitous salad dressing of Taiwan. Taiwan must be one of the thousand islands.). Edible, but tiny. Thousand Island had an unusual hint of something like horseradish in it.
Fries: Absolutely typical LJS fries. I’m not a fan of them, but they were spot on.
Chicken: I noticed no difference between this and the domestic version.
Fish: The cut of the fish, the batter, the look and the feel were all exactly right. The fish was well-cooked and fresh. One thing – I’m not sure it was cod. Domestic LJS uses cod, which of all of nature’s fish has been bestowed the ultimately gift: It doesn’t taste like fish. Except, once in a while, you get a piece that turns a darker color towards one end of the fillet. Then, it starts to get a fishy flavor. This fish, from start to finish, has that fishy flavor without being the darker flesh. It’s not terribly strong, but it is distinct.
Because of that taste, I preferred to eat the fish with sauce. Something which we presumed to be an odd-looking tartar sauce was provided, but it turned out to be something like a cross between Ranch dressing (minus the buttermilk) plus garlic and sugar. We ordered an extra side of Thousand Island dressing (NT$ 5) which was closer to tartar sauce. I didn’t see malt vinegar or salt anywhere.
I had a similar experience on my first trip to Taiwan. At the time, I ate a lot in MacDonald’s because everything tasted exactly like back at home. It might not be good, but it tasted like home. Everything, that is, with one exception: The Filet O’Fish sandwich. That tasted fishier than the real thing. I’ve always wondered, is the difference based on the supply chain or an adaptation to the local taste?
Still, LJS was enjoyable and they seemed to be doing a fair amount of business. Perhaps they’ll survive until my next trip here.
I found LJS Taiwan from Hungry Girl’s Guide to Taipei.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Food, Restaurant, Review, Taiwan, Travel
Looking back through my previous adventures, I now realize that rushing through Chiayi and the train station is more the rule than the exception.
On our return trip this time, though, we made certain that wasn’t going to happen.
The train arrives Chiayi station at 5:00PM, the high speed train leaves at 7:36 PM. Even given that it might take us 30-40 minutes to catch the bus and travel the distance, we had plenty of time.
So we had to make a decision: Eat near the train station (my vote would have gone to MOS, and I would have had a good chance of winning) or catch the bus and eat at the High Speed Rail (HSR) station – which is only MOS.
We decided to eat at the HSR station and went to the bus stop immediately. The bus was pulling up as we arrived. The weather we perfect, the traffic not bad and we arrived at the station at 5:20.
The trains run every hour, so my father-in-law went to see if we could exchange our tickets for an earlier train. I went to the restroom.
5:24.
Irene,standing with her father, asks me, “Do you want to take the 5:36 train?â€
I say, “We still have 10 minutes to get food at MOS to go?â€
“Yesâ€
“OK, let’s do it.â€
5:26
Irene heads to MOS, the line is long, she starts explaining that we don’t have time. The gates close at 5:34, and we don’t have the tickets yet.
Dammit, no food again!
5:30
Back at the ticket counter, my father-in-law is still exchanging the tickets. They pull out one of those ridiculously complicated official Chinese-language forms (lots of boxes) and hand it to him to fill out.
What the hell were they thinking? Why would they even offer to exchange the tickets for someone to train that leaves before you have time to fill out their stupid paperwork!?
5:32
Irene and I have tickets in hand, her father is still doing paperwork. We run for the platform without him. Wrangling the kids is tough enough. We could only hope that he made it, but if he didn’t there’s be a train in an hour and he’d have good cause the chew out the ticket agent for that entire length of time.
5:34
Gates closed, but everybody made it.
Train arrives on time. I’m not taking pictures, but getting video instead.
Interesting little side story. Back in 2001 when were we in Taiwan, I used to have a Sony Hi8 camcorder, which I purchased immediately prior to my first trip to Taiwan in 1998. (To say that Taiwan seems to drive my camera purchased would be an understatement.)
I really liked that camcorder (and still have it), on a trip around the island it began to behave badly. You’d click the record button, and it would “beep†accordingly to tell you that it was recording and stop instantly. You had to be extra diligent to make sure the record light was always on. I lost many a good shot because of it.
The digital age was upon us and I used that chance, and camera discounts in Taipei, to replace it with my current (also Sony) Mini-DV camcorder.
The “new†camcorder started exhibiting exactly the same problem at the HSR platform this day. I completely missed the train arriving. I was hungry and therefore not in the best of moods to begin with, but that clinched it for the day.
5:36
Train departs on time for uneventful trip back to Taipei. One problem, apparently my father-in-law didn’t do enough paperwork because they failed to refund his 7:36PM tickets. He was engaged in long conversations with a train staff member during the journey and then had to stay at the station to do more when we arrived.
7:00
Taipei – we headed to MOS Burger (my insistence), then home.
I found an interesting “problem†today as I went through the photographs for this recent trip to the mountains. Both my wife and I had digital cameras and I’m loading all the photos into the same iPhoto library.
Usually, only one or the other of us are using a camera at the same time, but, particularly on Tursday morning, we were both taking pictures at the same time.
The clocks on our cameras weren’t completely synchronized, and so, as the photos self-sort themselves into date-time order, they appear to be jumbled around a bit in iPhoto. (There’s a technical explanation, but basically time is a big ball of timey-wimey stuff…)
Not a bug in software or anything, but something to be aware if one goes out on a two-camera photo shoot.
The rain has let up some today and, even when raining, is fairly light. We took the kids to the Miramar shopping center, which is quite a long bus ride.
On the way back, some teenagers got on the bus. They were all friends and having a good time. Michelle and I were in the back of the bus because that has the highest seats for Michelle to see out the windows (and the roughest ride.)
One girl, just one row up and across the aisle leaned forward, tapped one of her friends on that arm and said in Chinese, “Look at the foreigner and his cute little daughter.†(That’s a loose translation, since I don’t understand much Chinese, but it was a pretty simple sentence and all words I understood.)
Naturally, I turned towards the girl who was talking about us and I smiled, because what father doesn’t smile when people say his kids are cute?
The thing is, it embarrassed the girl completely. She assumed I wouldn’t know she was talking about us. Her friends immediately started laughing at her. One of them said, “[Something I couldn’t understand], he understands Chinese.†and then the next one said in English to her, “You are so stupid.â€
I felt bad for her, but couldn’t think of anything to say to her.
Despite the torrential rain, my in-laws decided to take us out to dinner last night. My wife, the kids and I headed out first so they could close up the house and bug spray the place. Despite umbrellas, the rain was causing standing water 4“ deep in places and Michelle and I both managed to step ankle deep in water, soaking our sandals and feel to the bone.
As we struggled in the pouring rain, we came to an intersection and had no choice but to stand waiting. Two foreigners approached me and started to ask if I lived in the area and did I recognize them. Of course, I didn’t and then, just as the light changed, they decided to talk to me about mormonism.
It’s bad enough that the duped followers of a convicted con man (Joseph Smith) want to try to induct more people into their religion, but it’s another thing altogether to be so irritatingly inconsiderate as to try to keep me and my family standing in the rain for even 10 seconds to spread more religious poison in the world. Perhaps it’s better for them they didn’t get the opportunity to discuss my opinion of religion with them…
It’s been so wet that taking out the big cameras has been impractical, but I usually keep my wife’s new Canon SD1000 handy. It’s small enough to fit in my pocket or on my belt. I went out a few minutes ago just to run to the 7-11 for a Coke and didn’t bother to take it with me. Mistake.
Taipei is always a city of surprises. Most of those surprises involve the populations almost playful disregard for anything resembling the law or basic rules of common courtesy. I say playful because no one seemed bothered by it and take it good-naturedly, presumably because they’ll disregard the next person just as fast as they themselves were disregarded.
If you see a “no parking†sign, someone will be parked in front of it, even if the sign is painted on someone’s front gate and they have no other way to get out. If there’s a no jaywalking sign, you can bet someone will be jaywalking there.
I was shocked to learn that, on Heping Rd they’ve started to install covered bus stops!. It seems like a great idea to me, but in Taipei there’s always someone ready to take advantage of it. On my way to the 7-11 I passed one of the new covered stops, which is now being used as covered scooter parking. True, there’s no sign saying, “don’t park your scooter under the bus stopâ€, but it shows a complete disregard for the people who might be using the bus stop for something like… oh, I don’t know… how about waiting for a bus and trying to stay out of the rain?
I also missed a photo of the female construction worker coming off a job site. Nothing special about her except that she was kited up in the standard construction gear: Hard hat, t-shirt, lifting belt, blue jeans and bright pink “Hello Kitty†wellingtons.
