With every meal, you are guaranteed to have either rice or noodles as they are the most basic components. Then the Taiwanese usually add a green vegetable called bocai which is a form of spinach and other vegetables. Lastly, they will usually add some type of meat or tofu, which is prepared with a particular sauce, to the meal.
One of the most interesting dishes that I have had recently is beef noodles. Normally, this is a plain dish of small chunks of cooked beef in broth with noodles and bocai, but I was at a unique restaurant. They are famous for the flavor of their beef noodles. That flavor comes from preparing the food traditionally. As a result, the beef that was in with my noodles included the cow's stomach and intestines, as well as other parts of the cow.
At first, I was a little nervous because I could see that there were different types of meat in my noodle soup. One of my personal rules for living abroad is that before I ask what something is, I have to try it, so I tried all of the types of meat. I found that some were more chewy than anticipated, but carried a richer beef flavor than the others. At this point, I asked my Taiwanese friend Helen if she knew what it was. She told me that it was cow stomach and intestines.
All of the different types of beef are rinsed in cold water and sliced into pieces. It is then placed in a special broth to boil. Depending on the shop and the recipe, different herbs, vegetables and spices are added to the broth. After being brought to a boil, the broth is left to sit for an hour or two. Then it is reheated.
