Pin It
Besides spending time with the Parental Units this weekend, I also made time to visit grandma - who just turned 101 a couple of weeks ago. After hanging out with her for a little - and trying to remind her who I am - it was time for dinner with Last Minute Uncle. True to his moniker, he made a last minute decision for us to have dinner at a different restaurant than the Taiwanese restaurant he originally had in mind... Some things never change.
It's been at least 3 years since I last dined at
Tainan Tantsumien Seafood Restaurant (台南担仔麵) with the family. No, boys and girls... in spite of the Chinese name, this ain't your run-of-the-mill noodle shop. It's all about seafood here, and you do get some of the freshest and the best. Not wanting to stick with a boring set menu, Last Minute Uncle went to look at the seafood and picked out what he wanted.
Sashimi platter (生魚片拼盤) - the lightly torched scallop was nice, as were the great amberjack (間八) and striped jack (縞鰺). I didn't take the salmon, naturally...
These clams are called
diphos sanguine (西施舌), which were pretty decent. No surprise to find them stir-fried with spring onions, garlic, Taiwanese basil (九層塔), and chili.
Baby abalone - steamed with a sweet and spicy sauce on top, mixed with diced spring onions and garlic.
Steamed leopard coral trout (清蒸七星斑) - commonly referred to as eastern star garoupa (東星斑) in Hong Kong. Pretty yummy.
French style prawn (cream baked) (法式焗明蝦) - a huge tiger prawn baked underneath a layer of what Hello Kitty believes to be Miracle Whip... Well, it certainly ain't cheese! Like my last experience, the prawn was baked for a little too long. But there was a lot of meat here, even in the head.
Steamed virgin mud crabs (清蒸處女蟳) - the
pièce de résistance tonight, and mom's favorite. The two crabs were filled with roe, and their consistencies were pretty different.
A friend asked me how one can tell that these crabs were actually "virgin". Well, I'm no expert, but after doing some digging on the great-and-reliable resource called the Interweb (I probably should have just asked mom!), I think it comes down to 1) season, 2) hair on the female's apron, and 3) color/consistency of the roe. Mom thinks it is a little late in the season, but I guess there are always some "late bloomers"? In terms of hair, well, I wasn't paying attention... and I think the aprons have been removed, anyway...
But looking at the roe it's obvious that it's soft and yellow, which I believe shows that the female has yet to mate. If the Interweb is to be believed, the roe turns reddish and hard after mating - eventually forming into individual eggs. So yeah, I think we were indeed feasting on virgins, and boy, did their flesh taste sweet!
Stir-fried asparagus with conpoy (干貝炒蘆筍)
We were served complimentary fruit, which included a couple of pieces of very ripe and sweet papaya. Finally there was a nice, big piece of
flan. Needless to say I gobbled this up in a heartbeat...
Totally stuffed after all this fresh seafood, to the point that I didn't even want the signature and namesake
tantsumian (担仔麵), but I was happy to have come back here with the family. Definitely gotta save some room for the noodles next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment