第三天 : Day 3 // Yangming Mountain

我饿了: I'm hungry!

We drove about half an hour up to Yangming Mountain, maneuvering through tight curves and numerous motorbikes, to find this little famous restaurant that serves local Taiwanese food. It has been around for about 20 years, which is as long as Eric's mother has been going there. 

This is the sign with the restaurant name, which I cannot read but I can give you their telephone number (or is it an address??): 

Distant mountains.

Across the street from the restaurant is a taro farm.

Rows and rows of taro plants.

The name of the farm if you ever wanted to look for it.

Lunchtime...

The restaurant itself is a small shop but it is very busy. They are only open from 11am to 2:30pm and people are quick to make reservations. We forgot to RSVP but we were very blessed in the fact that when we walked in, there was a table available, and right after we sat down, three more groups of people came in to eat.    

Food came out very quickly. Here were the things we ordered: 

Got to have our vegetables! The only one I know here are the bamboo shoots on the left!

Taro, minced pork and mushrooms, topped with cilantro. One of my favorites for sure. 

This chicken dish is what this restaurant is known for. The pieces were succulent and the most tender I've ever had. There's also a sweet and spicy dipping sauce that you can help yourself to, which I'm definitely going to try to recreate when I get back to the States. 

This is called "3 Cup Calamari" and the sauce is made up of vinegar, soy sauce and white wine. The vegetable had the quality of basil and gave the dish a spicy, peppery taste.

This chicken soup with bamboo shoots was delicious! The chickens run free on the mountains and as I like to say, "I rather eat happy chickens [than caged, depressed chickens]." It makes that much of a difference. Yay for organic and cage-free!

Happy chickens and happy people - Eric and his lovely parents, Shu Shu and Ayi.

Onward to our Yangming Mountain Adventure...