This ain't Tesco, baby

Unlike (here starts a sweeping generalisation) the USA & Europe, a trip to a shopping mall in Hong-Kong or Taiwan brings culinary delight. In Taipei today, Max (a nut for HK cuisine) took me to a restaurant in the local Carrefour in Neihu district. Minced beef soup, pork dumplings with crab roe and shrimps in orange sauce overshadowed the stir-fried chicken.

Today's shrimps in orange were much like yesterday's spare ribs in strawberry sauce. They were different, almost unpalatable on first bite, but as crunch on, you delve deeper and deeper into the realms of flavour, and you don't want to come up for air.