There’s nothing more invigorating than taking a nice hot shower and scrubbing your tired, depleted skin with some honey and strawberry body wash squeezed into a giant fluffy loofah. As I learned recently at Five Dime Driftwood in Taipei, loofahs aren’t just great for washing your body, but also for making delicious Taiwanese food. Although most people probably think of it as a linen, loofah is actually a cucumber-like plant that can be used in a hearty seafood soup.
The dish contains the spongy loofah cut into strips and dipped into its own thick juices. To enhance the meal, shredded local crab is added. To be honest the loofah doesn’t taste like much, but is interesting to eat as it gives you a good idea of how Taiwanese people use different textures in their meals. The spongy consistency combines with the thick liquid and soft but firm crab to create an interesting Taiwanese meal.
What’s the most unusual dish you’ve ever tried?
Featured image via foxuman
Jessica Festa is the editor of the travel sites Jessie on a Journey (http://jessieonajourney.com) and Epicure & Culture (http://epicureandculture.com). Along with blogging at We Blog The World, her byline has appeared in publications like Huffington Post, Gadling, Fodor’s, Travel + Escape, Matador, Viator, The Culture-Ist and many others. After getting her BA/MA in Communication from the State University of New York at Albany, she realized she wasn’t really to stop backpacking and made travel her full time job. Some of her most memorable experiences include studying abroad in Sydney, teaching English in Thailand, doing orphanage work in Ghana, hiking her way through South America and traveling solo through Europe. She has a passion for backpacking, adventure, hiking, wine and getting off the beaten path.
