Photographed on Dihua Street
Taipei, Taiwan
February 5, 2008
at flickr
Tang hu lu are basically candied fruit and vegetable skewers. Seen here, from left, are tomatoes, strawberries, and tomatoes stuffed with plums. Apparently, these originated in northern China. I didn’t see much of them when I was a kid in Taiwan, but the last time I visited in November of 2006, I saw them everywhere. I was always too busy trying to photograph them that the thought of trying them never occurred to me. By the time I decided to try them, my trip was nearly over and I never saw them again. This time, however, I jumped on the chance to try them. The only one that I would even consider trying was one of the strawberry skewers. I didn’t expect the candied coating to be solid.
Together with our skewers (she with the tomato/plum one and me with the strawberry one), my mother and I stood beneath an overhang that provided us with shelter from the pouring rain. When I bit into the first strawberry, the juices from the strawberry mixed with the sweet candy flavor rather overwhelmingly. As I chewed, the sharp edges from the candy coating poked various parts of my mouth. It was so sweet and sharp that I almost didn’t finish, but I made myself, so as to gain the “full experience.” In the future, I think I will stick to photographing these and eating other delicious “little eats.”
NIKON D200 1/640 sec at f/1.8 50mm ISO:400