Taiwan: A Da Live Seafood

My father's only plan for us in Taiwan was to take us to see my grandparents' columbarium...and to take us to get seafood on the way back.  The columbarium itself was out in the middle of seemingly nowhere, but on the way back to Danshui, we passed by this harbor that is known for its seafood restaurants.  

Jiejie (who came with us) told us to ignore all restaurants except A Da:

Of course we followed her advice.

Like most seafood restaurants of its ilk, A Da displays its seafood right outside:

You pick the exact sea creature you wish to grace your table and you let the staff know how you want it to be prepared.  You are charged based on the type of seafood you order and generally its weight.

We let my father and Jiejie figure that the logistics.  Our role was merely to sit at the table, wait for the food to arrive, and then demolish everything.  Which we did.

As a kind of appeteaser, we started out with little shrimp:

Boiled shrimp may seem boring, but the simple preparation allowed for the natural sweetness of the shrimp to come through.

To appease my mother, who isn't a big seafood eater, there was stir fried yam leaves:

And chow mein:

The of us barely touched those plates.  We focused mainly on the seafood.  As we should have.

There were stir fried clams:

Some kind of roasted sea snail:

Of course we had to have crab:

And blanched squid:

And to top it all off, we got a whole fish prepared three ways.  The choice parts came as sashimi:

The bulk of the body came steamed:

And the tail was made into soup:

This seafood feast came out to under $150 and fed six people.  Not only was it cheap, but it doesn't get much fresher than making eye contact with your food outside the restaurant before you see it later on your table.

It's definitely not a tourist spot though.  A Da is very much out of the way and nowhere close to any major tourist attraction.  It's just one of those places you find yourself at if your grandparents' remains are kept in a columbarium in the middle of nowhere.

Guess I'm one of the lucky ones.


啊達活海產
新北市石門區富基村楓林路17-10號
02-2638-0658
http://box.bbbox.net/ada