Friday, January 23, 2009

What's for dinner at Dan-Suei 淡水? It is A-Gei's 阿給.


"What is for dinner?"
"It is A-Gei 阿給at Dan-Suei惔水."

You probably have no clue with the previous conversation; because you have not been at Dan-Suei. Even a Taiwanese like me who have grown up in Taiwan half of my life did not know about A-gei until I was at Dan-Suei with Meeilei two days ago. A-Gei is actually an abbriviation of Abura-Agei. It is a Japanese word. Abura means oil, and Agei means fried. The original Japanese words only mean oil-fried. But fried what? It is Taiwanese ingenuity that makes this Abura-Agei a special dedicacy at Dan-Suei. It is made of Tou-Fu only with the skin stay intact. The inside of Tou-Fu is digged out and filled with Tong-Fun (冬粉a kind of rice noodle) and sealed with a fish paste. The whole product is then deep fried in the oil. The end product is then called the A-Gei of Dan-Suei.

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