Sunday, August 7, 2011

In search for dried scallops (干貝)

Today, Yuki and I had to go back to Di Hua Jie (迪化街) to restock on dried scallops that we found in my grandmother's freezer. I've been using it in my kongxin cai (空心菜) vegetables. We had to go especially to this area because it's not only known for it's dried food products but it's the only place to buy dried scallops. Little did we know, that we've been using some really expensive ingredients, because it turned out to be approximately $150 NT per 100g. The one's in my grandmother's freezer was Hokkaido dried scallops which are the more expensive type. Ooops. Furthermore, her's was pre-shredded which I couldn't find in Di Hua Jie. So that means my grandmother possible brought it back from Japan. In the end, I still ended up buying a small bag of them though, because they're just that good. My kongxin cai (空心菜) vegetables just wouldn't have the same taste without it. Yuki said it may be cheaper in Japan, so I'll have to remember to buy a big bag of it on my next vacation to Japan. For lunch, we decided to head back to the shrimp roll rice bowl place next to the Di Hua Jie (迪化街) market. For Dinner, we came home and I cooked another batch of chili, but with pork this time around. I just can't get enough of beefy/porky, cheesy, spicy concoction. I'm happy!

3 comments:

  1. Hi

    that lunch bowl looks very yummy! Think you may want to check with yr grandma, I may be wrong but the shredded or broken dried scallops should be cheaper (but depending on the grade)

    was wondering which place serves the best fish balls/squid balls? Heard about a place near Sun Yat San Memorial Station that's run by 2 brothers or something? Any recommendations?

    Thanks.

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  2. Perhaps. But either way, buying a new bag will be expensive unless I find the cheaper ones you mentioned. I don't know of any place near SYS memorial station that's famous for fish balls. I haven't really researched that, but I come across it i'll certainly give it a try and blog about it. Thanks for the tip!

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  3. as far as I know the shredded or broken ones are cheaper, the whole one is consider the better one.

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