Opium Rice Rowl in Yilan county. With a side of Empty Heart Greens and Blood Cake. I love these names. One of these dishes is not a play on words!

鴨片飯 means both opium and slices of duck. So it's a duck rice bowl. The rice is covered in duck fat. I could see this being addicting though 🤤

Empty heart is 空心菜 It's basically a type of local spinach that had a very wide and hollow stem which adds amazing crunch. Here it is sauteed in oil and garlic. I suspect there's a secret ingredient in here but I couldn't tell that it was.

And last but not least, blood cake 米血糕. This one is not a play on words. There is blood in this dish! It's made by coagulating blood in a mixture of rice and then steamed. It is very lightly seasoned and doesn't taste like iron as you'd expect from a blood dish. Most of the flavor comes with it's dipping sauce (not pictured) I opted for a soy sauce paste with garlic.

#foodstr #grownostr #taiwan