Taiwan Fest Vancouver (Sept. 4-6)

http://taiwanfest.ca/

Today was the last day of this mini festival, which consisted of food stalls and other attractions along the three blocks of Granville just south of Georgia, and a stage behind the Vancouver Art Gallery featuring indie Taiwanese bands.

They had nice weather up until today, and unfortunately we didn't find out about it until today. I was curious to see what kind of Taiwanese street food they might have on offer. I've had stinky tofu at the Chinatown night market, but I wanted to see if I could discover any other typical dishes.

Unfortunately, the weather put a damper on the event. There were people milling about miserably in the cold and drizzling rain and seeking refuge beneath the overhangs of the stores on Granville, but far fewer than there would have been. We got cold pretty quick after looking around the various stalls and eating a few things and went home.

Some of the stuff didn't seem particularly apropos. Like this Xin Jiang BBQ stall:

Still, the BBQ technician's booming voice hawking his dishes made a nice ambiance, not to mention being nice and warm by the flame.

Kweepo ordered a lamb stick, which was good but not really what I came here to try.

I ordered one of these bun-like objects, the likes of which I'd never seen before. They could have been a little fresher. They were a little hard. But still decent.

The following stall was one of the only ones that seemed really specialized in Taiwanese food. They advertised "TW Traditional snacks". I had to try some of those.

I didn't try these candied strawberries, though they looked tempting.

They had this mushroom and rice noodle soup that I'm wishing I'd tried.

Kweepo got this oyster and rice cake omlette:

It was really interesting. The rice cake was extremely gooey and the sauce nice and savory. The oyster taste wasn't overwhelming at all. A nice warming dish for a cold day. This is supposedly a classic Taiwanese dish. I'd be interested in exploring the various permutations of this.

I saw this sign and had to try it out:

I was confused when I saw these sausage and was told one was sausage and one was sticky rice. In fact, the top one is sticky rice packed into a sausage shape. What they do is slice it in half like you would a bun, and stick the darker sausage on the bottom row into it, like a hot dog.

They put some cucumbers between the two and drizzle on some sauce. It was very awkward to eat, especially standing up, because the sausage doesn't fit into the 'sticky rice sausage' at all, so you have to sort of grab both and eat them at the same time. But it was very good and unlike anything I've had before.

Here's a cross-section of the sticky rice sausage.

The iPhone photo sucks, but you can basically see that it's made up of rice inside. It reminds me a bit of the sticky rice dish I had at Long's Noodle House, though they're completely different traditions.

It was worth going just to experience the Taiwanese hot dog. I wonder if there's any place that sells these in Vancouver.

The wiki entry is called Small sausage in large sausage (literally "small intestine in large intestine" - lovely). That is apparently the actual name, not just a description. I think it could use a new name. How about: Taiwadog.