An old favorite shines less brightly

We're back in Taiwan and Four Sheets has arranged to meet up with Little Rabbit. Lvsang Canteen (呂桑食堂) was one of the first places I introduced to Four Sheets on our first trip to Taipei, and it's a place we both miss. It made sense to go back to one of my favorite places in Taipei.

I was running late and asked the ladies to hold off ordering until I arrived. With a hungry Little Rabbit in tow, of course we would end up ordering way, way too much food...

Shredded smoked duck (宜蘭鴨賞) - the duck was definitely smoky and lightly cured, and pretty tasty.

Rice with pork lard (豬油拌飯) - can't come here without having a bowl of steamed rice drenched in lard and soy sauce! But in reality, this was a mistake...

Simmered mackerel (鯖魚干煮) - OK la...

Loofah with conpoy (干貝絲瓜) - having loofah in Taiwan is as natural as anything. Love it.

Steamed chicken (白斬雞) - I thought the chicken today wasn't as good as I remembered. The meat was definitely tougher, and I didn't see any much jelly under the skin.

Deep-fried liver rolls (宜蘭肝花) - I've forgotten how much I liked these. Bits of pig's liver are mixed in with diced spring onions, fish paste, minced pork... etc. and rolled up with tofu skin, then deep-fried till the outside is crispy. Wonderful melange of flavors inside. Served with some sweet, dried tofu skin on the side.

Chilled squid from Penghu (澎湖冰卷) - can't go wrong when you've got very fresh squid. All that's needed is to quickly blanch them and chill them in an ice bath.

Sliced pig's liver (粉肝) - this was... disappointing. The liver they sourced today was on the firm side, and not so fluffy.

Glutinous rice with sakura shrimp (櫻花蝦米糕) - this was always gonna be wonderful, and I love how the sakura shrimp added a strong dose of umami as well as some crunch. Alas, this was simply too much for us... so we ended up packing half of it to take home.

Happy to have come back here after all these years, but hopefully the next visit will see some of my favorite dishes delivering at a higher level than today...