Two: On perfection and roasted chicken (Guanziling near Tainan, Taiwan/Republic of China) I have witnessed and participated in countless

discussions about where you can get the best roasted chicken. It is no easy matter, for the bird could taste like anything between rubber and ambrosia depending on its genes, breed, feeding, slaughtering and roasting. In Madrid (my hometown) the roasted chicken from Mingo, in Paseo de la Florida, is probably the best known. While Mingos chickens are overall better than a neighborhood roasterys the place has been a victim of its own success. Typically small chickens are better for roasting, but Mingo is bordering cheapness in its ever diminishing roasters. Moreover, the price of a chicken has multiplied by more than 6 times since I started patronizing the place, and worst of all the chicken is dry. I have had good roasted chicken in France and Belgium, where garnishes play a major role, unlike in Spain. The Portuguese-style Peri-peri chicken at the international franchise Nandos (I had it numerous times when living in DC) is acceptable for industrial food, but it invariably tastes a little like microwave food. The skin is not crispy, which of course spoils much of the appeal of roasted birds. I do love the U.S. but in my experience it is difficult to find good roasted birds there. In Japan they do know their chicken, but they favor the skewered yakitori in small pieces delicious, but nothing to do with the whole roasted animal. In Latin America, chicken is usually roasted with lots of spices, either mixed in or on top of an oiled or larded medium-sized roaster. I have tried the Salvadorean, Costa Rican and Peruvian style. They were okay, but the spices spoil a little the flavor of the bird. The same applies to the way chicken is roasted in the Maghreb, plus I dislike the addition of citrus flavors and cooked olives to oven dishes that is so common in the area. I assume the impossibility of finding the perfect roasted chicken, since perfection is an artificial constructs that exists only in our minds. However, there is one roasted chicken that I cant get out of my head, where it dwells close to my perfect label. I ate it on a weekday dinner in a solitary restaurant of a small village called Guanziling. Note: for those who have never been to the Republic of China (AKA Taiwan) I completely recommend a visit. In many ways, I think Taiwan is what China should, but cannot be. The food is simply amazing too, but you need to know where to go. The place: Guanziling is about 2 hours from Tainan, the south capital of Taiwan: 1 hour by train to Xinying station plus 1 hour by bus from there. Only a couple of buses go to and from there, so you must prepare your stay in advance. You can also drive yourself, but good luck with finding your way. The Onsen (hot springs, a custom left behind by the Japanese) are the main attraction of the place, and there are spa hotels at relatively affordable prices. Lets be clear on something: there is nothing special about the village itself. It is a remote, nondescript village like many in Taiwan. But it is deliciously quiet and unpretentious. The restaurant(s): my instinct tells me there are no great differences regardless of which restaurant you pick. The main (and almost only) street of Khuan Tzi Ling is packed with restaurants, all of them catering to local tourism. Without exception they follow the REAL Chinese style: plastic plates and cups, plastic tablecloths, tacky colors and cutting so many corners that

they are almost spherical. The service in Taiwan is similar, but better than in the Chinese restaurants I have been to (only Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, but all of them were quite similar). Politeness is not really an added value of service in China, but it is to some extent in Taiwan. That is, they will not usually throw the stuff at you, and they may include a smile or two. Because we were almost the only customers that night, we were treated with special deference. At the end of the meal we were even treated with a rather tasteless, but utterly kind nonetheless, shaved ice dessert. The food: in every restaurant in town the star dish is the local chicken (a black, small variety with red feet and a blue ring around the eye-you can see it around everywhere) with the also local black mushroom and garlic. The Chinese name of the dish translates literally as urn chicken. The way it is roasted is ingenious and quite effective. The furnace is a large ceramic vase of about 1 meter tall and 1 meter of diameter at its widest part, with a lid and a small chimney. In the bottom they pour red hot vegetal charcoal embers and the chicken sits in a small cage in the middle. The chicken is just seasoned with salt and a tiny bit of Sze chuan pepper, the head is not removed and the feet are bent and stuffed into the main cavity. The result is a ball-shaped chicken where no moisture can escape through the openings. Underneath the chicken is placed a large metallic or ceramic bowl with black whole mushrooms and garlic cloves. These get cooked with the chicken juices. Because the chicken does not move and cooks slowly and evenly, the skin is intact and the chicken so moist and tender that they do not give you knives to carve it. Instead you are given a pair of woolen mittens and polyester gloves so you can tear up the chicken with your hands. It is so soft that you can stick your finger through it like warm butter. Aside from the mushrooms and garlic cloves, garnishes are scant but good: steamed fern with soy and garlic marinade topped with a kind of sweet bchamel and flossed pork, long grain rice with spices. It took well over an hour and a half to get our food but it was well worth the wait. To go with it we drank a bottle of the national Taiwan lager beer. Taiwan beer is good; it tastes almost exactly like the Japanese beer Ebisu, but with a fresh, sake-like aftertaste. Apparently that taste is obtained by adding Ponlai rice (also known as Formosa rice) during the fermentation. I would not recommend any wine to go with that chicken. In summary: when I tasted that chicken I came to an obvious but interesting realization; our prejudice about food (and other things) really is keeping us from experiencing truly amazing things. Then and there, I renewed my pledge to give each place, country and person a fair chance to reveal their potential before forming an opinion on them. Today, this principle keeps bringing me great experiences. Gerardins stars: N/A. In this case, it is not the restaurant, but the specific food that I considered. As far as roasted chicken goes, I was fully satisfied.