A Hearty Easy Meal from Portugal to Tainan, Taiwan…

Just remembered that a snack we grew up eating in Tainan, called “guan chai2 ban3” the coffin was deep fried bread, hollowed in the middle with chicken a la king cream sauce and chicken gizzards.  We had that again during our bike trip in 2010…I suddenly realized it was Portuguese! Cream sauce was not a native Taiwanese, Fujian culinary element but an import, just like bread was.  Bread in the Taiwanese dialect is called “pung” which sounds like “Pain” in French for bread.  I believe it is similar pronunciation in Portuguese.  To replicate this snack and avoid the deep fried grease, I hollow out bread, toast it on a pan, then ladle cream sauce with meat into it as a meal. I don’t always have access to chicken or duck gizzards so I sub with whatever meat I have.  This reminds me of having clam chowder in sour dough bread at Fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco!