Halloween is around the corner! Get your tricks and your treats ready. If you haven't binged on the Reese's Peanut Butter cups at Costco yet, you can get these cute and spooky cookies from Florida Bakery, or Halloween cupcakes from The Cupcake Shop or Les Bebes Cupcakery.
I haven't written about the Cupcake Shop yet, but have enjoyed their baked-to-order cupcakes immensely. Their playful and colorful designs are so creative and the Halloween Olaf is too funny!
My mom is a vegetarian, so I'm always on the look out for good places to take her. So when a friend suggested Yang Shin for their vegetarian dim sum, it was a great find. The entrance is slightly hidden, even though the sign is quite prominent. You enter through Nozomi bakery and then make your way to the second floor through the hallway and into the large dining hall.
Even at an early 5:30PM dinner shift, the restaurant is completely booked and we are warned that we must finish dinner by 6:45PM for seating their next 7PM dinner reservation. So since they have to turn the tables over, food and service is fairly brisk. So be sure to make reservations early- they had no tables available for walk in customers.
Can you imagine- this whole banquet full of families excited to be grubbing on vegetarian food?! Haha.
While we were most excited about the vegetarian dim sum, there is a huge menu of Cantonese appetizers, dishes and Chef specials to try out. So the more people you have, the more things you can try. If you love mushrooms, tofu or greens, this is the place for you.
Some of my favorites that I recommend ordering and have ordered on repeat visits were the Cantonese barbecued vegetarian ham pastry (NT$108)- with endless flaky puff pastry layers that meld into the sweet, red sauce and "cha siu" inside.
I liked the baked cheese cabbage (NT$128), which is covered with a blanket of hot cheese hiding creamy chinese cabbage underneath, cooked until it's fork tender.
I usually order xian shui jiao whenever I spot it on a dim sum menu, so I had to try its vegetarian cousin here. The egg shaped deep fried stuffed mushroom dumpling (NT$98) tastes almost like deep fried mochi with a crispy shell and is soft and chewy in the inside, stuffed with bits of mushroom.
Fried pumpkin vegetable hand roll (NT$80 each) with crispy ribbons of crunchy fried pumpkin and julienned cucumber gives a nice crunch. They also have avocado and asparagus hand rolls.
Family favorite of Cantonese chow mein (NT$240) with lots of bok choy, bamboo, baby corn, and wood ear mushrooms. I always like to get a mix of the crispy noodles and some of the soggier parts drenched in sauce.
Not the healthiest meal since we ended up ordering a lot of fried foods and dim sum, but Yang Shin's dim sum versions were close enough that you didn't miss the real thing.
I wouldn't order these next dishes again, they were a bit too out there for me--
Pinenut and vegetable cheese roll (NT$180 for 4) - the waitress encouraged us to order this, but I did not like it.
The almond tofu was surprisingly too sweet- the milk it came in was almost syrupy sweet and the almond tofu itself was sweet as well, and I would have preferred to have the traditional peaches and pears in it rather than watermelon and kiwi.
Vegetarian food doesn't have to mean just salads and pasta/pizza/risotto adorned with mushrooms, which is what my mom usually ends up eating when she eats out with us. So we've happily been back to Yang Shin a few times, usually getting a huge table in the back of the restaurant.
Now those of you with gluten free restaurant questions? That's a tougher problem to solve in Taipei.
This past week has been full of firsts for me, in a big way, as well as the first time exploring some of the mountain sides and ocean cities on the edges of Taipei. It was also my first time to Shenkeng Old Street or Shenkeng Lao Jie, which is famous for having a row of restaurants and stands serving up stinky tofu, spicy tofu, fried tofu, bbq tofu, duo hua dessert tofu, almond tofu and tofu ice cream! Shenkeng is about a half hour drive outside of Taipei, on the southeast past the Taipei Zoo and Muzha, so you could combine the two for a day trip.
Before entering tofu street, I spotted this ice cream wrap vendor with the bright green sign and block of peanut candy across from the entrance of the Old Street, and you know me, I had to stop to get one.
One wrap is NT$40 with a choice of pineapple, taro, plum or vanilla for your three scoops, or there's a rainbow sherbet type swirl action going on if you don't specify a preference. Just to be clear the ice cream here is NOT made with tofu, since it sits outside the tofu street zone. Haha.
A layer of freshly shaven peanut candy, a layer of ice cream, another douse of peanut candy bits and a sprinkle of cilantro and then the thin wrap is folded in and rolled. ICE CREAM BURRITO for a little over a dollar!! One of my favorite Taiwan street snacks!! Ice cream wrap, spring roll, popiah, burrito, run bing- call it whatever you want because it's essentially the same thing, just with ice cream inside it!
At first bite, I noticed that there seemed to be a hit of salt in the peanuts' sweetness, and the owner confirmed that they do make their peanut candy differently with the addition of salt. It totally accentuates the flavors the same way that we love anything salted carmel. The ice cream is the perfect temperature- creamy and melt in your mouth and you get the crunch from the peanut candy. Hit up one of the restaurants for stinky tofu and then come here for a palate cleanser!
I have gotten so behind on food blogging that sometimes restaurants close down before I have a chance to write about them. I'm going to post about some that I wish were still around, partially to document the constantly changing Taipei food scene. Very sad to see Ari Tofu House had closed. It was usually busy, but not too crowded to take us when we dropped by last minute when I was feeling like some spicy Korean tofu stew and some kalbi. In the same alley as Osteria by Angie, Amigos and Fifteen Pizza, this area near Sun Yat Sen has fierce food competition. If only someone would open a good all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ in Taipei.
It's exciting to that a retail space in Taipei can redesign and innovate its space into an entire floor of eateries and Instagram worthy corners. Note to other malls- Why not have a little fun with it? Instead of just plopping a bunch of restaurants on one floor, they created a whimsical walk into a wonderland full of cafes and dessert shops.
I've seen hints of the Alice In Wonderland theme before, at Love Lovely, but here it's in full scale with rabbits guarding entrances marked Midnight and Afternoon, white Roman numerals marching along the tops of the hallways near the ceiling and even a projection of a blond haired, blue dress wearing Alice upon a misty steam, creating a hologram effect usually seen after hours at Disneyland.
After each entrance with a black or white rabbit, there's a centerpiece display. On the Midnight section, it's a cascade of champagne glasses under a ceiling full of bubble glass lights, with a slightly creepy dressed in black mannequin in a canoe that you might see at Venetian or some new hotel in Las Vegas. The first time I walked through the fourth floor, I just looked and looked, in awe of all the details and so many things to take photos of.
New cafes and restaurants in the midnight section include- Opa! Greek Cafe, Movenpick, Cupid On, Carousel, La Mere Poulad . In the afternoon section, NOLA Kitchen, Cutty Sark, Love One and more... Here's a little peek.
With so many cafes and restaurants on one floor, it's a good destination for when you can't decide on what to eat, so if one places is crowded, you just wander to the next one until you find one that looks good or has seats, if you are in a hurry.
On the 6th floor, Belgian Beer Cafe closed before I had a chance to write it up (some good dishes, but uneven service and expensive for the portions, especially the ridiculously small appetizers), and was replaced by Fat Angelos (which moved over from Bellavita and looks like Belgian Beer Cafe except with a new sign and red checkered table cloths).
The 5F also went through a revamp, with the closure of BANNCHAN and San Yuan (so sad. no more chocolate xiao long boas with the 101 view) to make room for a Mr. Onion, Dubu House and Bite 2 Eat. A lot to shop and eat at ATT4Fun, with Gap and Zara Home to browse downstairs and the new Quiznos and Pizza Denise to grab a quick bite.
Things spotted on my recent Costco run- skillet bake it yourself cookies (tempting!), sun dried tomatoes, bacon mac and cheese, bulk fortune cookies (LOL! can you imagine a restaurant in Taipei serving these?), Snyders Honey Mustard pretzel, soft baked chocolate cookies, bottled frappucinos, and Christmas in full swing- trees, wrapping paper, decorations, candy and gifts.
Tofu Village holds the prize for being the first (and only) restaurant that I've seen in Taipei that has galbi jjim on the menu. For those of you who have never had galbi jjim, it's a delicious beef short rib dish that is steamed or braised in a sweet soy sauce until it is fall off the bone tender. The pureed Korean pear, onions and kiwi in the recipe tenderizes the meat as well as adds layers of sweetness, so the sometimes tough short rib becomes melt in your mouth goodness. My standard for galbi jjim is from a little restaurant in Koreatown LA called Seong Buk Dong, which charges a small ransom for the homemade dish, but I still pay it because it's that good. I even begged a friend for crib notes of their family's recipe and made it with a thinner cut short rib that was pretty amazing.
So back to Tofu Village- was their galbi jjim worth ordering?
Korean soondubu tofu stews have become quite popular in the last few years in Taipei, so we've seen the opening of a lot of sit down restaurants, whereas before I could only find it in the mall food courts or localized Korean spots. (That's actually one reason I was surprised to see that Ari Tofu House had closed down).
The menu at Tofu Village has a couple pages of appetizers- Korean pancake, pork fried kimchi, spicy Korean rice cake (tteokbokki) which they call rice pasta, and japchae - as well as meat dishes- spicy chicken, spicy pan fried pork and vegetables, bulgogi, and galbi jjim. There's about 13 tofu stews on the menu, including vegetarian, kimchi, clam, mushroom, seafood and ham & cheese.
I ordered the Seafood Beef combo tofu stew (NT$279)which came with shrimp, clams, oyster and beef, in a mild spiciness as well as a bowl of purple rice. Good amount of tofu, soup and stuff inside- I finished it.
The galbi jjim (NT$480) looked promising when it arrived at the table, but the meat was so tough, it was impossible to take bites of the beef. Either they didn't marinate it with the right tenderizing recipe or they didn't cook it long enough? After we showed the server, they offered to replace it and whisked it away. But the replacement dish was even worse than the first time, with a sauce and meat being too salty to eat and the meat was still rubbery. So unfortunately, I'm going to have just make it at home until I find another place that makes it. Thanks A for the recipe tips!!
And at the end of the meal, you can opt to get some ice cream made from tofu. I thought it had a weird flavor, but it's complimentary so you can give it a try. Tofu Village is decent enough that I'd come back for the tofu stews and try a few other of their dishes, but I wouldn't go out of my way eat here unless I was nearby. This particular location is in the middle of a ton of shopping centers- there's Carrefour (Taipei's Kmart), RT Mart (which has a Nike outlet), HOLA (Taipei's Bed Bath and Beyond), B&Q (hardware store, reminded me of Home Depot), and last but not least, Costco, all in walking distance from each other.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Even though no one gets the day/weekend off in Taipei for Thanksgiving, my stomach still starts to crave a little turkey with candied yams this time of year. There's nothing like a plate of a pile of homemade sides with juicy turkey, but the next best thing is a hot plate with no need to clean up in the kitchen.
This year I made salted caramel apple pie pops for the first time! It wasn't as difficult or as time consuming as I thought it would be, of course since I used some short cuts like boxed pie crust and a pink pie pop machine I picked up last summer back in LA when it was on sale. Warming myself up to making a whole apple pie.
Here's a few places to call up if you decide you want to have some turkey today in Taipei. If you have a restaurant or know of one that's also doing Thanksgiving, please include it below and I'll include it on my next list!
The last few years I've been ordering whole turkey to carve at home and make my favorite sides like candied yams and cornbread. If you want to order a cooked whole turkey or ham for Christmas, please check out my round up from a few years ago.
And even if you don't have turkey this year, take a moment in our crazy lives to think about who and what we are grateful for and share a meal with your loved ones.
When the construction started popping up in the already crowded Xinyi area for new shopping centers, I thought, "Seriously? Do we need more malls when there's already Taipei 101, ATT4Fun, Vieshow, four Shin Kong Mitsukoshis, Bellavita, Eslite and Hankyu all in a few blocks of each other?" But once Breeze Song Gao opened with its huge hot pink sign and a new Ice Monster, I gave in to curiosity and had to check it out.
Breeze Song Gao sits next to the new-ish boutique hotel, Humble House, across from Bellavita and next to Xinyi Mituskoshi A8. You can spot the recently opened TEXAS ROADHOUSE from the front as well.
Breeze Song Gao did a good job bringing some new things to their mall that you can't find in the nearby malls or Xinyi area- the number one thing being ICE MONSTER. With a prime window spot on the first floor, it's hard to miss, and with the shortage of great shaved ice in this Xinyi area in general, I can definitely see them drawing crowds to their mall. Mango shaved ice lovers get ready to line up next summer!
AGNES B. CAFE sits in the front of the first floor for sandwiches and coffee. Their expansion has been pretty impressive- almost like a Taiwanese Starbucks, in that there's one on each corner and they always seem to be filled with customers. On the way to the MRT, you can hit two more Agnes B Cafe's at Xinyi Eslite and Hankyu.
Breeze Song Gao doesn't have a food court, but rather a floor of restaurants with each place having its own seating area. On the day that I went, the Japanese restaurants seemed the most popular, while TJB Pho, Pepper Steak, Kiwi Cafe and Liz Gastronomie offer some variety.
Here's a quick first look at the restaurants on B2 floor. Leave a comment below if you've tried any and what you think!
OOTOYA KITCHEN/ 大戶屋- Japanese katsu, udon, katsu don, soba dishes
SHENG SHI TONKATSU/ 勝勢豬排- this is definitely the next place I want to try. I spotted their black tonkatsu on instagram and they had one of the longest lines to get in.
TJB PHO - have yet to try any of the TJB Cafes or TJB dim sum so it's interesting to see that they've expanded to pho! Kind of how Dazzling expanded to Thai....
LADERACH - Laderach's chocolate bark are SO good and I occasionally get them as gifts or gift to myself. My favorite is their raspberry blackberry chocolate and recently discovered their chocolate covered orange peels. It's a bit pricey, but it's made in Switzerland and imported from there. Ask for samples if you ever pass by. They also have a store in Taipei 101.
TRINE AND ZEN- at Breeze Fuxing, Trine and Zen took over the ex-Dean and Deluca space so it's a deli/cafe. Didn't get a chance to see if it's also a deli here, or just a cafe.
MENYA MUSASHI RAMEN/ 麵屋武藏- I ended up here for lunch after making a circle around B2. Menya Musashi is a popular ramen shop from Japan, and also has locations in Hong Kong and Singapore. They have tonkotsu, ship and miso ramens as well as tsukemen dipping ramen. I'll post more pictures and details in a separate review.
LIZ GASTRONOMIE- bakery and desserts. Didn't spot this place behind the escalators until I went to the bathroom. Haha! It's a bit hidden, but I guess you'll pass by it if you are looking for the restroom.
With new malls come new food courts and restaurants to explore, making the competition for everyone's dining dollars fiercer than ever. It's really insane the density of food available now in just the shopping areas alone, I think it hurts some of the nearby restaurants since it's easier to meet at a mall and walk around to find a place that can seat you when you're with a bunch of friends, than to walk across the street to the shops behind Zhongxiao. While it is convenient to be able to have so much available in the area, the downside is that it's sure to increase the traffic which was already so horrific in this area during rush hours.
I'm excited to check out the rest of Breeze Song Gao later, since there's another floor of eats on B1, including Dairy Queen, Beard Papa Cream Puffs and Favvi Cafe. I'm also curious to see what the bigger Breeze Xinyi will have when they open.
For months, I passed by this giant red sign that burned brighter and taller than anything nearby on Xinyi Road. For months, I was curious about this restaurant, figuring that a lit sign at its prime location meant the restaurant was open for business, but was wrong when I walked up to a dark restaurant still under construction back in October. Who would be bold enough to make signage had no Chinese and name their restaurant with a Spanish word? Asado in Spanish means "roast" referring to meats. Would it be a Spanish restaurant, or Mexican? I dared not to have any hopes.
When I finally had a chance to check it out this weekend, I walked into an empty restaurant. It had been open for only one month, but I always wonder when the restaurant is empty, should I go somewhere else instead? But my curiosity had been stirred for so long, I had to just see what it was all about.
Asado Steak and Seafood's decor is decidedly setting the mood- black and white cowboy photos line a red brick wall, antler chandeliers line the center of the room, lots of room to seat big groups. Why does the also newly opened Texas Roadhouse get all the buzz, and not a place like this? Location? Owner? Better PR Machine? Branding?
The menu had a lot of selections with Signature Steaks, entrees, pasta & rice and appetizers. A glance at another part of the menu revealed brunch and pancakes, including an unusual sounding Mexicano Chicken Pancakes. We quizzed the waiter on the specials and settled on the Grilled USDA Short Rib (NT$690) and Grilled USDA Ribeye Steak (NT$980). There's also burger, grilled duck breast, pork ribs, pork chops, seafood, pig knuckle, charbroiled leg of lamb and veal on the menu.
Sets are available separately from the dinner for an additional NT$300 for appetizer, mixed green salad, soup, drink and dessert, but we opted for an ala carte Caesar Salad (NT$200) instead. Warm house made bread with butter and salsa also came to the table.
When we ordered the Grilled USDA Short Rib (NT$690), the waiter let us know that it was a thicker cut of short rib. It was the first time having such a fat piece that was grilled, (usually I've had it sliced thinner and grilled korean style) but it was tender with a good bite, cooked at the recommended 7/10 medium well done.
The owner of Asado used to own another Western restaurant in Tianmu (The Brasserie, which is now closed) and brought in a chef from Chez Jimmy to his new kitchen. Some of the popular menu items such as pig knuckle (as well as the same menu font it seems) from that restaurant can be found at Asado. Overall, I enjoyed my meal at Asado and I was satisfied with what I got for what I paid and glad I gave it a try to fulfill my curiosity, but I guess I was hoping for a meal and flavors that were more bold and memorable like the brazen neon sign outside.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Happy holidays! Happy new year! Wishing everyone a happy and delicious holiday season and lots of good eats throughout 2015! Stay warm and see you at the night market!
There's always something to explore at Huashan 1914 and today was the first time I wandered into Fab Cafe. Besides the cafe itself, which was full of diners, there's a space next to it that displayed Art Project 365 by different artists.
Fab Cafe originated in Japan as a creative cafe space, not only equipped with new technologies such as 3D printers and laser cutters for people to use, but also as gathering spot for events, workshops and Fab meetups. With other branches in Tokyo, Barcelona, Bangkok and Sitges, it's such a cool concept that I'm sure will make its way to the states someday. Taipei actually has a lot of creativity sprouting up in places like Huashan 1914 and central places like these will foster even more opportunities for people to be inspired.
This was one of my favorite art pieces- a giant circular board covered in individual drawings cut out and fit together like a puzzle. Could be a fun thing to do at home... cover a wall with a drawing a day.
Next post will be more about Huashan 1914 in general and some of the exhibits going on right now! Just thought Fab Cafe was so cool, it should have its own post. So if you've been itching to make your own fantastic 3D printed creations but don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a machine, you know now where to go.
Pizza isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think Taipei, but finding good pizza is pretty important to those of us who live here. Yesterday Taipei had such beautiful sunny weather that we had a picnic at DaAn park and my friend brought a couple of boxes of from Chicago Pizza Factory, which I haven't had in probably over a year (and last wrote about in 2009) One slice of the combo pizza and it kickstarted my appreciation for their delicious pizza- the pliable chewy yet crispy crust, the plentiful toppings and the proportion of sauce to cheese to toppings to crust. Note to Chicago Pizza Factory fans, they are moving to a new location in March of this year-- hope they will let us know where.
Then I ended up making a collage of all the pizzas I instagrammed and ate and made a new tag (#taipeipizza)...
I haven't been to Sweet Dynasty in years, and I've always gone with people from out of town, so this was the first time I've been since they moved to their new location near Luxy and Starbucks on ZhongXiao, at the former Shin Yeh Table location. It's definitely amusing reading my old review in 2005 and seeing how much I've improved at taking photos (and how much better our cameras/iphones/easy photo editing tools are now)! I used to just say whatever I wanted, not worrying about the readers or the haters and letting my thoughts just flow. So being a new year, I hope to be able to do the same in 2015- not overthink things, share photos and places sooner than later and hopefully still help you guys find some good places to eat in Taipei.
Sweet Dynasty is a Cantonese restaurant known for its desserts and dim sum and its new digs are roomier, more stylish and perfect for a night of modern Chinese dining. If you have room and enough people, order the soy tofu in the bucket that you can scoop out yourself. Unfortunately, we didn't have room that night for it, so I don't have pictures of it, but maybe another night.
The menu is thick with pages of noodles, congee, dim sum, seafood, rice and stir-fried family style dishes, but if you only have two people like we did that night, you can still find some options. Large photos highlight popular menu items and the menu is in both English and Chinese.
The wonton & beef brisket noodle soup (NT$200) comes with four rotund pork and vegetable wontons, beef brisket and egg noodles- perfect if you want to have a taste of both wontons and beef, though remember that the noodles and broth are Cantonese style and not Taiwanese beef noodle soup style. Pretty decent sized bowl and amount of wontons and noodles and we finished the bowl.
I always have to order the xian shui jiao or deep fried crispy glutinous rice shrimp dumpling (NT$100) when I see it on the menu, and I'm glad I did. Perfect crisp on the outside, sticky and sweet on the inside of the shell and plenty of filling on the inside. So good, but so bad for you.
I pretty much forgot that the truffle shu mai was coming as it came much much later after we had finished our food. We were pretty much ready for the bill when it finally came.
And it wasn't until we had left the restaurant that I realized we didn't even get the matcha dessert that Clarissa had ordered. It's too bad since I did want to try it, but I was pretty full by the time the shu mai came, so it ended up not being a big deal to us. Trip Advisor has overwhelmingly negative reviews for Sweet Dynasty, but besides the ordering issue, the service was fine for me that night.
With the opening of two Taipei branches of Michelin starred Tim Ho Wan (review coming soon!), all the dim sum joints in Taipei have some fierce competition and should step up their game. But not everyone wants to wait one hour plus for food, so if you're looking for a chill place for some noodle soup and dim sum in the East District (Dong Qu) then you could give Sweet Dynasty a try (even at 4AM since they are open 24 hours, and then you can wander over to 24 hour Eslite bookstore down the street). Thanks Clarissa for dinner and conversation- it's always great to meet other food lovers/writers and I look forward to following your adventures this year.
Over the past few years, I've found myself at Huashan 1914 Cultural Park more and more. Not only has it grown over the years, it is constantly changing so there's always something to explore. What is Huashan Cultural Park and what's inside?
In 1997, a Taiwanese theater company discovered an abandoned wine & sake factory and was drawn to staging plays there. It grew into a cultural art center as local artists and the creative community used it over the years as a work space, and it became official in 2005-2007 when they restored it and it became Huashan 1914 Creative Park. The collective of buildings provides space for rotating exhibits and events, restaurants/cafes, as well as concert/music venue Legacy and SPOT Theater which shows many independent films and hosts various local film festivals.
Sometimes you might chance upon some very cool exhibits. On this weekend in December, there was a Le Petit Prince exhibit, Aranzi exhibit, Beatles exhibit, and Sony Playstation.. Usually there's an entry fee and sometimes some are open to the public for free, like this Sony Playstation 20th anniversary event. The exhibits usually feature a number of installations and photos and take about 10-30 minutes to walk around, depending on how thorough you want to read everything and how crowded it is. TEDxTaipei has also been held here for the past few years.
The Beatles exhibition and other ones are running from December to March 2015 so if you want to have a leisurely gander then I recommend going on a weekday morning, when it will be least crowded.
The main place people were waiting in line for was this little mock living room area where they set up various TVs and games and consoles from different years.
If it's your first time, you can find a red kiosk and take a look at the restaurants guide for the thirteen or so cafes and restaurants, including Alleycats, Trio Cafe, Deja Vu, Casa Della Pasta, VVG Thinking, and Fab Cafe which I posted about recently. There are two sections to the Huashan, divided by a parking lot, so don't forget to explore both sides if you have enough time.
The first time I went to Huashan, I was looking for VVG Thinking, which is on the other side of the parking lot which is mostly art galleries, cafes and restaurants in towering red brick buildings. The towering chimney is part of the boiler room for the old plum wine/rice wine/red wine factories and distillery.
Repurposed areas like Huashan and the Songshan Cultural Park in the Xinyi District remind me a bit of 798 Art Zone in Beijing, both taking previously industrial spaces and transforming them into cultural hubs and creative spaces for the community. Restaurant and cafe owners like VVG's Grace Wang play a role in that as well, as the Wall Street Journal noted in their article about how Taipei is "Asia's Answer to Portland, Oregon."
And if you're in the Huashan area and you are a gadgets person, just across the street from Huashan is Guanghua Digital Plaza, as well as the new electronics mall and surrounding streets of gadgets, electronics and accessories. When I left my camera battery charging cord in LA, my dad guided me through a few random shops where I picked a replacement AV cord for a few US dollars. Not the easiest areas to explore if you don't speak Chinese or know what you want, but good if you're looking for something like Fry's Electronics in Taipei.
Taipei has apparently been starved for great Korean BBQ if these lines last week at the Honey Pig opening are any indication. FOUR TO SEVEN HOUR WAITS?! Is this craziness or what? You could fly to Korea for REAL KBBQ in that amount of time. A stream of people on Instagram's Honey Pig location tag declare how long they've waited like badges of honor. Would be diners bundled in coats and scarfs patiently wait outside in a single file line along the building, staring into the windows at diners already inside stuffing their face. At Honey Pig's entrance, a man dressed in a black suit and tie holds a clipboard like a bouncer at a club in K-town while K-pop videos and songs blast from the corner televisions. The servers drift from table to table with refills of kimchi, spicy bean sprouts, fried rice and raw meat to sizzle on the giant iron top grills.
Honey Pig probably expected some great buzz- with the can't-miss it prime location the corner of Xinyi and Keelung, the attention drawing giant sign with English and Korean, and the cartoon smile of big haired co-owner Miki, who was there in person helping serve up customers and posed for selfies- but they probably didn't expect to lines to continue until 3AM onwards, around their open 24 hours clock.
glad we weren't seated along the windows where the lines were so people would be staring at us the whole time!
I've never heard of Honey Pig before last week, when I spotted the Honey Pig sign on Xinyi and whats app messages from my friends started buzzing my phone. The original Honey Pig restaurants are in the states- gained a loyal following at its east coast restaurants in Virginia and Maryland with a sister restaurant in LA- and somehow the first overseas Honey Pig is in Taipei. Luckily I had a friend who had a friend who had a reservation and thankfully asked if I wanted to join last Friday.
When I arrived, food and soju were already on the table and mountains of beef bulgogi and pork belly took turns blanketing the grill. As raw meat came to the table, our server would clear space by moving cooked meats to one corner and spreading out the meats which cooked fairly quickly. Anything that took extra time like the seafood pancake or the cold noodles were not available yet, only the steamed egg and I think tofu stew.
For the pork belly, I preferred the thinly sliced as opposed to the fatty thicker slice and recommend opting for the addition of the spicy sauce. My favorites that I will order again when I return are the spicy pork belly, the shrimp (surprisingly sweet and cooked perfectly so they weren't too dry-although this of course depends on who's doing the cooking for you) and the bulgogi. There are three kinds of beef short rib- #9 boneless rib, #10 kalbi beef rib and #11 LA beef rib.
When we saw the table next to us with rice on their grill we waved down our server and asked for the same. Pretty soon, Miki came by each table with a huge bowl of kimchi rice and scooped some for each table's grill, topped with some seaweed shreds and mixed together. It was probably faster than their usual way of doing it from scratch with a bowl of white rice, but it was faster and everyone just wanted to try it. Didn't quite get any crispy rice bits from the kimchi fried rice being grilled, but it was tasty.
Hopefully as the craziness settles down, it would be great to see things like fresh lettuce and thin slices of radishes or rice noodles to wrap the meat in, or meats like beef tongue that they have on their US menus to try out here. And hopefully the service and portions remains the same after the training period is over and the US owners return to the states. Honey Pig is definitely worth trying out, but no restaurant is worth waiting in line for three plus hours when then there's so much to eat in Taipei, much less other Korean restaurants! Avoid the lines and make reservations- you might not be able to eat it until a few weeks later, but at least you won't have to have the stress and hunger pangs of waiting in line!
Even though I love banana bread, I had never made it myself. I just relied on the good fortune of friends who knew how to make it and would share their baking results. So when I found some overripe bananas in my kitchen recently, I finally picked one recipe to give a try (and there are SO many banana bread recipes out there!) and it turned out really great! I like this recipe because it's a one bowl recipe and there's no fuss of mixing dry and wet ingredients separately. I used a muffin tin instead of making a loaf and it comes out just about a dozen muffins unless you fill the cups even more so you get the overflowing muffin tops.
The second time I used this recipe, I used 3/4 cup cake flour and 3/4 cup bread flour and lowered the butter and sugar to 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup sugar. My bananas were also not as overripe and I didn't add the ingredients in the order of the recipe. It turned out less cupcake like and more muffin/bready if that makes sense. It was more brown and beige, not as golden yellow and pretty as the first time, and not as sweet overall. It was still good, but definitely tasted more healthy. That's why baking is so interesting-- can you get the same results all the time or will each time always be different?
Ingredients (I starred the ingredients with a * for the ones I added to or changed from the original recipe)
3 very ripe bananas, peeled
1/3 cup melted butter
*1/2 cup sugar (I used half brown and half white. The original recipe uses 1 cup, but says you can use less)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
*Pinch of salt (I only had salted butter on hand so I used that and omitted the extra pinch of salt)
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
*1 Tablespoon cinnamon (I love the extra layer that cinnamon gives plus it smells so good, but you can add less if you don't want it to be as strong)
*1/2 cup chocolate chips
Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until smooth.
Mix the melted butter into the mashed bananas.
Stir in the baking soda and salt. Mix in the sugar, beaten egg, cinnamon and vanilla extract.
Fold in the flour.
Top with chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into your prepared muffin tin. Bake for 30 minutes (check at 20 minutes) at 350°F (175°C), or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is a nice golden brown.
Remove from oven and cool. Or taste test one hot out of the oven is what I usually like to do!
This is why I love #taipeiso much. Was in search of spring onion pancakes at the street vendors on the corner of Xinyi/DaAnand ended up finding amazing #mochiwaffles instead.
MOCHI WAFFLES!
Crispy and carmelized on the outside, chewy on the inside!!! My mochi waffle was caramel macchiato and I got it hot off the waffle maker. There's also matcha, chocolate, strawberry, cheese and plain. Perfect snack for this chilly day and best nt$35 I've spent in a long time!
There's more #streeteats to explore on this corner- steamed dumplings, knife cut beef noodle soup- check out my past review for pictures! But if your heart is set on trying the mochi waffles, then look for the street cart right near the corner with this blue sign- Jimmi Bobo. I think it's a new version of the Jimmy boba milk tea cart from my last visit.
Where did February go? I was so good at putting up new posts in January and now it's March. March is going to be busy... because I'm going to Italy for the first time! It's been a trip that's been over a year in the making and I'm very excited to be able to eat my way through Rome, Florence, Tuscany and Venice. A bit nervous too, but fingers crossed it will be a good trip.
Taipei has been a busy city with lots of new restaurants opening up recently, and I've been lucky enough to eat at some of them. To name a few that you might have been seeing your friends post on FB or Instagram. I know I didn't catch them all, so please add to the list below!
Recent new restaurants in Taipei (which ones do you want to see posts about first??)
Bakery 49 (will miss their clam chowder and gumbo and chicken and waffles from the first few months when they opened with the original chef from SF. where did she go??)
