Taiwanese Dried Fish and Dried Crab

I went to my local Chinese grocery store to pick out some tasty treats.  First up on the menu are dried fish and dried crab.  These treats are from Taiwan, a country for which seafood is an extremely important part of the diet.  The snacks were relatively healthy if you overlook the MSG (low in fat and high in protein).

If you don't like things that smell fishy, do not try the dried fish.  These smelled so strong that my cat thought I was getting him a treat.  But don't let the smell fool you, the sugar and sesame seeds balanced the snack giving it a mild flavor.

The dried crab were very cute.  They were crunchier than I had anticipated and barely had any flavor at all. 

 Check out the full review.

I invite you to try these foods and let me know how you feel about them.  Do you like them?  Do they remind you of something else you've eaten that you liked or disliked?  Or just drop me a line in the comments.  I'd love to hear from you.

First Blog Post

For many years, I have been what you could call an "adventurous" eater.  Although I love food generally, I am absolutely delighted when I go to a restaurant and there is something on the menu I have never tried.  My love of ethnic foods set me on this path a few years ago.  My family is from Argentina, a country that prizes its beef and indulges an appetite for grass-fed offal.  I grew up eating sweetbreads, tongue, and blood sausage.  My palate grew as I ventured into sushi and sashimi. 

Over the most recent ten years, I have discovered a love of Korean food, from which this blog gets its name.  Banchan are the small plates of various tastings that are served in any Korean restaurant as a free appetizer.  Korean food has been my gateway.  Without it, who knows if I would have tried caramelized anchovies, raw blue crab, and fermented everything.

This blog will be about trying foods that are outside the "norm" of the typical western palate.  Each blog post will contain video and pictures of some ethnic food that I have purchased at a local food store.  My hope is to make trying new foods more accessible than a typical show on the Travel Channel.  Don't get me wrong.  The Travel Channel has some of my favorite shows.  But I am hoping that this blog gets the interested few to participate and join in the adventure.