Wednesday, February 28, 2018

YummY! - Taiwanese Milk Fish Soup @ Hualien New Station Milkfish Shop (新站虱目魚專賣店)

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Taiwanese Milk Fish Soup @ Hualien New Station Milkfish Shop (新站虱目魚專賣店)

Hualien City, Hualien County, Taiwan - October 2017

We were on a cycling tour of Taiwan, and had arrived at Hualien (花蓮市). As usual we always try to look for good when at a new place and we did find one of the best food in Hualien - Milk Fish Soup!

This specialty can be found at the Hualien New Station Milk Fish Shop (新站虱目魚專賣店), so named because it is nearby to the new Hualien Railway Station. The shop is a no frills place, without air-conditioning and patrons sit on small tables at the small front compound or along the five-footway. Despite its humble settings it is one of the favourite food of Hualien locals.

There were six of us and we ordered four of the Milk Fish Maw set, two of the Milk Fish Ball set together with some stewed tofu and stir-fried vegetables. The sets came with saucers of garlic-soy sauce.
By the way the beer and other drinks seen in the photo above were bought from a nearby 7-11 outlet. That's the odd thing about most food outlets in Taiwan, especially those in the big towns and cities - they don't sell drinks. Anyways, I detract; let's get back to this good Hualien food.

The fish maw set came with a bowl of fish belly soup together with a bowl of rice topped up with pork braised in soy sauce and garlic. The rice looks very good but the fish soup looked rather plainly lame.
Note: Although called Milk Fish here, the fish used is actually not Milk Fish, the fish used here is the Toli Shad (Tenualosa toli); it is sometimes called the Chinese Herring. In Malaysia it's called Ikan Terubuk, in Chinese it's called Jié yú (节鱼).

But don't let it's looks fool you, A close up look shows a fresh fillet of Milk Fish belly, de-boned except for the dorsal fin. The soup had thin slices of ginger and had been cooked such that the fish meat had absorbed a little ginger flavour; the soup had very little fishy flavour as most of the fish essence were still retained in the fish meat. I believe they added fresh fish to be cooked in the soup only when orders are made, and then cook the fish just to the right timing so that the fish flavours does not seep out to the soup and thus maintain the essence within the fish meat itself.

Flipping the fillet over showed that this was the case, there was no overcooking as the fillet was intact as a single piece without any odd bits floating away. Do note that the Milk Fish has lots of tiny bones in the main body, and it's the belly that does not have tiny bones. So to avoid difficulty in eating order the belly. Although some say that the main body meat is sweeter!

The white rice came with tiny cublets of fat pork belly braised in soy sauce together with thin slices of Chinese mushrooms. It's all fat and with hardly any lean meat yet somehow this worked well as the braising had extracted some lard into the braise gravy which goes very well with the rice. The gravy had a fairly strong flavour which balance very well with the lightly flavoured soup. Guess what? I went for a second round of the rice!

Here's their menu and price list, showing their Combo Meals Set. The house favourite Milk Fish Maw with rice cost NTD120, The combo of other Milk Fish cuts was much cheaper at NTD80. I would recommend going for the fish maw as it tasted much better.
________________________________________________________________________

Hualien New Station Milkfish Shop
(新站虱目魚專賣店)

國聯三路6號, 970, Hualien City, Hualien County, Taiwan 958.
Phone: +886-3835-7816
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/新站虱目魚專賣店/192833777414833

Hours: 4:30pm to 1:00am everyday (hours may differ on public holidays)

Direction Map & GPS : 23.99131, 121.60298

(Click here for Google Street View)

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Art Gallery - Taiwan Street Art @ Danongdafu Forest Park (大農大富平地森林園區)

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / Footsteps-Cycling Taiwan 2017 / Art Gallery / Taiwan Art / Taiwan Street Art @ Danongdafu Forest Park (大農大富平地森林園區)

Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Taiwan Street Art @ Danongdafu Forest Park (大農大富平地森林園區)

Hualien County, Taiwan - October 2017

Rainbow Flower Petal - sculpture of welded metal tubes, enamel paint. Location at the junction entrance from Route 193.

On a cycling tour of Taiwan, we visited the Danongdafu Forest Park (大農大富平地森林園區) a large public park in the Hualien County. Covering a large area, the park is home to enriched ecology including butterflies, reptiles, rare bird, and plants. The park also features various recreation facilities such as bicycle trails, pond, walk paths and many other family-friendly features. The park is also the event venue of Hualien Hot Air Balloon Festival.
Also at the central park area can be seen many pieces of artwork, lining the streets, in the fields, etc. Below are some of these artwork. These photos here gives a representation of what I saw; nothing beats going there to see them for yourselves.
Enjoy!

Comptemporary "Torii" Rainbow Large Photo Frames - sculpture of welded steel square hollow sections, enamel paint. Location at the junction entrance from Route 193.

"Love TAIWAN" - Hollywood style signage.

The following statues of Taiwanese Aborigines were ingeniously made from flower pots with the head made from timber logs:

This one is an owl spirit.

Fish - sculpture made from tree routes and bamboo.

Perching butterflies - sculpture made from steel frame with fine steel netting, enamel paint.

Close up of the "Perching butterflies".

Star, Hear and Balloon photo frames - made from steel hollow sections with spray metallic paint.

"Prayer for Blessings" - Taiwanese aborigine tribal totem carved from tree trunk by Jian-Zhao Chen (9th July 2011).
The chieftain sincerely prays to the Sun God and the ancestor spirits, "Please bestow our toiling clansmen on this great land peace and a good harvest".

"Rejoicing at the Harvest Festival" - Taiwanese aborigine tribal totem carved from tree trunk by Jian-Zhao Chen (9th July 2011).
One of the important annual festivals is The Harvest Festival. The clansmen offer their most prosperous sacrifices including delicious dishes, flavour wine; singing songs and dancing to their gods and ancestor spirits. They thank the deities for bestowing peace, happiness, and a good harvest. They also pray for the blessing of the next year.

At the corner of the park was a field of mini aborigines tribal totems, each painted with tribal motifs. - by Sapud Kacaw (2017).

Close up of some of the mini totems.

Another close up of some of the mini totems.

Some of the buildings are even artwork, this one is the 蟻窩咖啡 Cafe; its being attacked by giant yellow ants!

An "igloo" made from timber log ends.

The following artworks were seen en-route somewhere around the Dongsheng Tea Store R&R Area (東昇茶行) and the Ruisui Tropic of Cancer Marker Park (北回歸線標誌公園).

Giant tea kettle at Ruisui Tropic of Cancer Marker Park.

Floor tiles carved with Chinese dragon motifs. at Ruisui Tropic of Cancer Marker Park.

Wuhe dancing crane stone statue at the Dongsheng Tea Store R&R Area (東昇茶行).

Wuhe dancing crane stone statue at Wuhe Terrace in Ruisui (瑞穗鄉).

Wuhe dancing crane logo of the Dancing Cranes Brand tea brand at Wuhe Terrace in Ruisui (瑞穗鄉).

Fat aborigine deity stone statue at Wuhe Terrace in Ruisui (瑞穗鄉).

Pair of Chinese stone dragons statues at Wuhe Terrace in Ruisui (瑞穗鄉).

Stylized creeper plant at the Guangfu (光復鄉) Railway Station.

Danongdafu Forest Park (大農大富平地森林園區)
Zhèngtōng 3rd St, Dawu Township, Taitung County, Taiwan 96541.