in which breakfast is eaten, taiwanese style

Our friend Nancy introduced us to Taiwanese breakfast this weekend at Canaan Restaurant in Artesia. Small plates, big tastiness, and also a lot of stinkiness.

A sip of warm sweet fresh soy milk will make you want to have Taiwanese breakfast everyday. I can't believe that it is even distantly related to packaged soy milk. It hits the perfect sweetness and has a subtle bean-iness that is so drinkable (and dunkable - let the Chinese donuts soak it all up). The bowl with the crullers is the salty version - salted soy milk with scallions and a little dried meat.
We also had soup dumplings (both pork and crab), scallion pancake (not pictured), these amazing savory crispy fried chive cakes, and stinky tofu. Yes, that plate of saucy stuff in the back is stinky tofu, something that has been described by this guy as: "a smoothie out of durian melon, Limburger cheese, kim-chee and nuoc mam then letting it fester inside a porta-potty for a month and then, as you have a taste, your dickhead big brother enshrouds a thick blanket over both of you and rips the worst fart ever."
It was not that bad. Definitely an acquired taste, but I can see why Nancy craves this stuff. And the sauce was good. I'll just have another chive cake though...


Thanks, Nancy!!