Open Kitchen: Pineapple Hills

It isn't often that we fall upon happy coincidences in life, so when they roll around, it's best to savor them, like a delicious bite.
A few weeks ago I thought to venture south out of Taiwan, by trusty bike, and found myself pedaling up and down the hilly Changua county road 139 in Western Taiwan. The ribbon of road crowns a ridge that runs north/south parallel to that even bigger ridge to the east: The great spine of the central Mountains of Taiwan so that looking west, a narrow plain stretching to the straight looms in often smoggy air while to the east, a wall of peaks and undulations. The big mountains of Nantou County. Alishan is back there somewhere, and Yushan a bit further east and south (Southeast Asia's tallest peak, mind you).

: Looking East into the mountains, tea on the left foreground, pineapples on the right.

But that's all the backdrop. What one sees along the route immediately are quiet rows of quiet houses with quiet people. Is this place really that serene, or I have I been in the city too long?As you climb out of Changhua the wooded hills thin out and Ba Gua ridge turns mostly to numerous small fields of Pineapple. Go further south, deeper into Nantou county and the pineapple country slowly gives way to tea country. Though it was my goal at the outset, I never made it to tea country on this particular day. But I like to think I had a good reason.

: Almost ripe

Pineapple cakes seem to have originated in Taiwan and are very popular here as gifts. Around Chinese New Year and the Moon festival is when you're most likely to find them. To me, a lover of rich, sweet desserts, I always kind of wrote them off as really thick fig newtons with pineapple inside, instead of figs. But of all the ones that I tried, one kind, made at SunnyFields bakery stood out. The crumbly cakey shell was buttery, not bland, and there was a smokiness and a depth of flavor to the pineapple filling that the multitude of others I tried seemed to lack. Really delightful cakes.
“I got to get to that Sunny Fields one day,” I remember saying, after another student gifted me with a box. So imagine my delight when I stumbled upon their compound while pedaling along towards tea country. I was taking pictures of the mountains to the east when I turned left and saw some other day trippers snapping away...

: Photo Op

There it was plain as a ziploc bag. A big sign.
Glad to have brought my camera along I popped in, picked up some Pineapple cakes and some free and delicious oolong tea and rested my legs before returning home.

If you have a sweet tooth this place is worth a visit...

: The Sunnyfields shop/production center is a mix of old and new... "Where can I park this thing?"

You can get a glimpse into the huge kitchen through a long row of windows. It's a busy place. If the bakers took offense to my squinting and snapping, they bore it well.

: There goes the neighborhood

The location of the place is unique, built into an older complex of buildings that likely date back a hundred years or so, maybe even before Japanese rule. I don't know the period, but they are surely of Chinese design.
They looked similar to the Liu compound my friend Michael and I explored this summer.
So enjoy the pictures, and do try to plan a trip if you are in the area.