After our hefty breakfast in Taichung, we really didn't feel like lunch before or during our train to Chiayi. Our main reason for heading to Chiayi was to visit Alishan. I was somewhat confused as to why I wasn't able to get train tickets to Alishan ahead of time and even more confused as to why I wasn't able to get THSR (high speed rail) and even any train tickets when we left Chiayi. I ended up coming across something referring to Qingming Festival, which I mentioned to the Missus. Turns out that during the 15th day after the spring equinox families visit the tombs of their ancestors and proceed to clean the site and make offerings. In Taiwan, the whole week is taken off. Everyone is traveling, so transport is in high demand. What we ended up doing once arriving at Chiayi Station, was to head directly to the 7-11 where Alishan bus tickets were sold. We bought two tickets for the following morning.
We were staying at the Orange Hotel, which was kind of dated and noisy, but was centrally located and overlooked the Central Square. Of course, right after checking in the Missus needed to get Her tea fix.
Tea and boba drinks were priced ridiculously low; like 30 TWD ($1/US) at many places.
And just within a block of where we were staying were no less than six shops! The young lady at this shop was especially friendly and while chatting with the Missus even made a recommendation we'd go to later on during our stay.
We got used to having 2-3 of these a day. The Missus got really spoiled by this….to the point where She considered tea priced at 35 TWD ($1.10/US) to be too expensive! Ten cents more?!?!?
Once our thirst was quenched we decided to head out for a late lunch – early dinner. There was a specialty of Chiayi that I really wanted to try. So we headed on out. I had a list of places, but the first one was closed, probably due to the holiday. As we walked on over to another shop I had on my list we passed this temple.
All the temples we came across in Taiwan were fascinating, ornate, and beautiful. And all are important to the local community. This one is Chiayi Cheng Huang Temple, which was built in 1715. It is dedicated to the "City God", Cheng Huang. For more history, information, and wonderful stories about this temple, please check out this web page.
It seemed like every corner in every city or village was packed with places like this in Taiwan. History, culture, and lore abounds……
Sometimes I wish I knew the places we'd stumble across so I could do more research ahead of time, but you really can't dictate the future. I didn't know that our first choice of a restaurant would be closed and we'd head on to our second choice. Which featured quite a line!
There's a specific dish that I'd read about, for which Chiayi is famous; turkey rice, yes turkey rice. According to several sources, online and in print, and of course the ever popular Street Food series, turkey was brought in by the military following World War II (Shades of SPAM® in Hawaii). Due to post war hardships, turkeys being larger and cheaper to raise than chickens became popular in Central Taiwan. I'm sure there are several origin stories.
Anyway, there was a pretty long line when we arrived, but as we quickly learned in Taiwan, lines are a good thing and usually move pretty quickly. Within fifteen minutes we were stationed at the door of the restaurant; Ah Hong Shi.
And before you knew it we were seated. Tables had dividers so a four top could be converted into a two top.
You are given a slip of paper and mark off what you want to order and hand it to the Server. The Missus's Chinese reading and writing skills sure came in handy during this trip. We placed our order and items started arriving in no time.
Of course the Missus got the Pidan with Tofu.
For some reason, I found that the century egg in Taiwan had a much stronger, almost cheesy flavor, and the ammonia like finish was more pronounced. That tofu was very "beany".
We enjoyed the Bittermelon.
This was very puckery and bitter. We enjoyed it.
The Bamboo Shoots were earthy with a mild nutty-sweetness.
Loved the crunchiness as well.
And then the dish I was waiting for, the Turkey Rice. The Missus, is not a fan of Turkey in the States as it is often bland, dry, really lacking in flavor, so She was not particularly excited about trying Chiayi Turkey Rice. This totally changed Her mind.
Topped with lovely fried shallots and pickled daikon (aka Takuan), the turkey was so tender, full of earthy, well…..turkeyness. Think about having moist and tender turkey with the flavor dialed up to 100 on a scale of one to ten. The perfectly cooked rice was saturated with the sauce of the turkey. Man, this was so good!
At the time of ordering, the Missus was still not sure about getting Turkey Rice and decided to cover our bets by ordering the Lu Rou Fan, the braised pork on rice.
Loved the varying texture of the pork; fatty belly, pieces of offal and such. The braising liquid was soy based, leaning on the saltier side of the spectrum. This was good, though we'd have better later on this trip.
For me; this was all about the Turkey Rice! And, ahem, "Rice-ly so".
Folks don't dally at places like this. You eat, take your bill, pay at the counter, and get the heck out of Dodge.
After all, look at who're waiting their turn!
Ah Hong Shi Turkey Rice
No. 108 Guanghua Rd.
East District, Chiayi City, Taiwan
Chiayi Turkey Rice!
First off, the grilled sourdough was fantastic, texturally and in taste. As for the mussels, well the shellfish was tender enough, but the "escabeche" was really weak. I'm used to a good acidic, flavorful escabeche, the addition of paprika for smokiness, more points for garlicky-oniony tones, all of which seemed to be missing here. To be honest, any number of tinned mussels from Tunaville (post upcoming) would be more enjoyable to us then this. But heck, that sourdough was good on its own. On a positive note, this brought back wonderful memories of our lunch 
And yes, it was quite full of Cha Lua, Thit Nguoi…… What I think banh mi purists' will appreciate, I'm looking at you "Billy" is that Phoung Nga still includes cucumbers in their banh mi, a rarity these days. The bread, as usual is a bit heavily baked (onsite), making it more hard and crusty than having a nice balance of light, crusty-flaky. But these days, this is almost a blessing, as much of what I've had is soft and doughy. There's a good amount of pickled veggies, the jalapenos were present, but not overly spicy on this visit. This was a nice lunch for me.
Man, this location of Boston Market had been here forever! I decided to walk on over to see what was up….hoping that perhaps an interesting eating establishment was coming to this location. I should have known better. It's a chain swap out. At least it's California Fish Grill which claims serve only "Responsibly Sourced Seafood". You can read about 
I ordered this at a heat level 4 (on the scale of 1-5) and it was adequately spicy. Though I'd return with friends a week later and we ordered heat level 5 and it wasn't as spicy as this. Of course you can instantly see this is missing the salted crab and the tomatoes are just wedges that haven't been poroperly "briused" in the "kruk". This was slightly funky, not a savory as we enjoy and the liquid was kind of watery.
Like before, the sandwich uses a yeasty Telera roll. The pork was more seasoned than I recall, the pork was quite chewy, which is in line with 
I would also vote to have more camote, as it makes little impact on the sandwich.
And just wandered around. I ended up buying more Tarbais beans in the shop/deli above….yep, 35€ a kilo and I bought another half kilo.
