Koahpau-- Taiwanese Style Hamburger and Aboriginal Sausage

     Driving on Highway 14 and 8 from Nantou County through Mt. Hohuan and Taroko National Park to Hualien County seems to become one of our most travel routes in Taiwan. Hualien County is my husband most favorite county and his idea place to enjoy his retired life. To me or most people in Taiwan, it is a nice place for vacational retreats because it is not easy to access which makes the lifestyle slower than the west part of Taiwan.  

    There would always be a reason for my husband to visit Hualien County. This time was to visit an army base in Hualien which was to be opened to the public. Visiting an open house on a military base in Taiwan was alway interesting to him and he had a real passion for the military. So, we drove about 7 hours crossing the central mountain ranges to reach our destination.   

This time we didn't make a lot of stops during our trip.
The only one was Eternal Spring Shrine for practicing
with my canon EF100-400mm/f 4.5-5.6 telephoto len.   

There was a trail from the Eternal Spring Shrine to this temple. 

This photo was taken from the tourist service center which was
next to Farglory Ocean Park along the coast south of Hualien. 

For some reason the open house base was changed to another
base in Taitung county. When we arrived at the base in Taitung 
the next day, we missed the opening ceremony. The drill started. 
 It was fun to see how they played their war game. 

One of the purposes of the open military bases was to keep a good
relationship with its neighbors. In fact,  foreigners were not welcome
to visit any open house in Taiwan. The defense department worried
about its secret stuff would be stolen. 

Visiting the open house to see the military equipment has never been
my interest. My focus was on these vendors which sold food and
souvenirs.  

Hualien and Taitung have more aborigines than the west coast.
Most vendors here were aborigines. They had their special ways 
to prepare their food. The food had the aboriginal textures.  I was
 interested in this sausage booth. It looked so tempted which 
I could not reject.  

Waiting in a long line for good food in Taiwan was
normal and usual. I was one of those people who were
willing to wait in a long line just for good food. My
husband sometimes though I was ridiculous and
wasting his time just for food. But he was very
 patient to wait for me. What could I say?
It was one of the cultural differences.    

Finally, it was my turn after waiting 15 minutes in line  It tasted good.
I had to share with my dear husband who was enjoying talking to people. 

After finishing my sausages, I spotted this booth because of its sign.
It was a BBQ style Koahpau which I didn't see often. The traditional
Koahpau had a slice of stewed pork meat with fattening portion like
bacon. I could buy BBQ meat without the part fattened. So, I decide
to wait in line since my husband was busy talking to people. I didn't
have to worry about let him wait in a long line with me.  

Americans used nice propane or charcoal grills
when BBQing. Most Taiwanese used this
simple style to grill their food, nothing fancy. 

These buns were one of its main characters.
It looked like a purse shape which also means
good fortune. It will be served in a party at the
end of year for wishing for a good fortune.  

The buns were placed in the bamboo steamer. 

Pickled mustard and peanut powder were the other two ingredients.
Some people liked to add parsley for extra flavor.     

This was what I had after a long waiting. I was surprised that my
husband asked for another one. Usually he didn't like this kind of
food. The food must be good for him to asked for one more. This
was also called "tiger bites pig" because the shape of the bun also
looked like a tiger's mouth biting pork. I believed most westerners
could handle this food.