I’m ashamed to say that, for the most part, I don’t really like the food in Taiwan. I think that it stems from my general dislike for meat. I’m not a huge meat-eater, especially funky meat. And there is a lot of funky meat here.
For example, dumplings are the unofficial food of Taiwan. Pork dumplings are probably the most common. Most people really like Taiwanese dumplings. However, every time I eat them I have the sneaking suspicion that the few minutes in boiling water hasn’t really cooked the ground pork and all I can think of is, I am eating raw pork. I am feeling bile rising from the back of my throat and mixing with the raw pork. Raw pork and stomach bile are not a good combination. Hence, my general dislike of dumplings.
Everywhere Jason and I have traveled to, I have found food that I love. Food that I dream about long after I leave the country. Up until just recently, I hadn’t found that food in Taiwan. But now I have!
Taiwanese Mangoes Baby!!!!
I’m thinking that when God sent manna to the Children of Israel, it was really Taiwanese mangoes that He sent. I would have been very happy hanging out in the wilderness for 40 years if I could have eaten Taiwanese mangoes everyday.
So move over Three C’s (Cheese, Chocolate and Cheesecake) because you have been replaced with my new favorite food of all time. Taiwanese mangoes are now at the top of the list. The mangoes we get in the states don’t hold a candle; even the mangoes I ate in Hawaii are sub-par compared to these lovely local mangoes. The only drawback is that I have to consume them in the privacy of my kitchen because I make such a mess as I’m stuffing them in my gullet that I have to lean over the sink while the juice runs down my face like the blood of a hyena’s recent kill.
But alas, mango season is coming to an end all too soon. Sniff! And then I’ll be back to eating raw pork and stomach bile dumplings.
Six Abroad 
Hilarious…I’ve got to try one of those someday because I DO love me my Hawaiian mangoes
I have eaten mangos in Mexico, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and they were all great, but didn’t match those grown in our own yard in Nicaragua. We had four kinds of mango trees. some were almost as big as footballs. We had one tree which had different varieties grafted in so that it produces mangoes the year around. But the best were the small orange ones, 3″ to 4″ long. .I would collect the ripe ones fallen to the ground evry night after work in a bucket. I would peel them and squeeze all the meat possible from them into ice cream buckets (You have adequately described the mess) and freeze them to be enjoyed in the off season. I even hand-carrried two frozen buckets of them on the plane when we were transferred. There is nothing like the taste of a really good mango!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoy!!! Even learn to enjoy the mess!!!
bob
I agree that a ripe mango must be enjoyed over the kitchen sink. I always volunteer to peel and slice the mangoes at our house. Maybe 3/4s ends up as slices in the bowl to share with the family, and the rest I just eat right off of the pit with the juice dripping into the sink.
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Bob Brown