mei eats

Tomato Time

Posted in Condiments on July 24th, 2007 by mei| | 0 Comments.

And TANTRUM Time.

Some a-hole keeps smoking in the bathroom and given that the ventilation ducts of the apartments in my building are all connected, I have to inhale this effing smoke every single night and wake up with a very congested and sensitive nose. Granted that I already have a bad nose and live in an apartment facing a busy (read: dusty) road, I think I have enough bad air issues to deal with. Moreover, a congested nose means that I can’t smell my food… and when something messes with my ability to taste FOOD I GET MAD!

I am so going to smoke this bastard out.

On a slightly more positive note, I’ve been eating out quite a bit these days. The roster of eats includes a (disappointing) Japanese restaurant somewhere in an alley off Dunhua South (the place just looks fancy but once you have sushi by the famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo at 6am there’s really no turning back), a (very disappointing) Thai restaurant near Liuchangli MRT station run by Thai proprietors (ordering in Thai didn’t get my food tasting any more authentic than the usual bastardized fodder…and for the love of The King how can you proprietors say that yellow curry IS the Masaman curry that I wanted?! And the chicken in that that yellow-ish curry was waaay too tough.), a very good Laksa hole-in-the-wall (will go back!), a wholesome Sri Lankan curry place (taste-wise just so-so IMHO), Ayam Goreng (fried chicken) at my favorite Indonesian restaurant in town and a surprisingly good scrambled egg/spinach/feta foccacia sammich at Salt & Peanuts, a cafe in the Shida area.

I’ve also been cooking my fair share - delicious grilled miso eggplant, mint cous cous, roasted bell pepper and walnut pesto with tortellini… Well, what does any of this have to do with the oven dried tomato photo posted above?

Nothing.

I was just reading FatFree Vegan Kitchen’s latest post and this reminded me to post up my own photos of oven roasted tomatoes. I lurve oven roasted tomatoes. I really do. Halve some tomatoes, rub them with olive oil, place in a pan cut side up, sprinkle with salt and pepper (cut side up) and slow roast in an oven at low temperature (say, 100 degrees C - this really varies and you should adjust cooking time accordingly but I personally find that caramelizing works best a lower temperature and longer periods of roasting time. I usually roast my tomatoes until I get a jammy preserve-like consistency) and there you go… the most delicious tomatoes ever!

There. I feel better already.

Gib Mot

Posted in Desserts on July 18th, 2007 by mei| | 1 Comments.

I heart Big Tom.

My attempts to cut out sugar and dairy has failed miserably and as my loyal readers may have noticed, I definitely have a yen for ice cream these days. I already have two quarts of Swensen’s ice cream to my name but that’s not keeping me from trying out fatty-gooey-dreamy-pore-clogging dairy delights from joints around town.

A few weeks back Levenade and I went to this place that I’ve always wanted to check out - Big Tom. We had the house specialty which was a brownie with vanilla ice cream flambéed with red wine. I thought the brownie was just enh (still haven’t found any decent brownies in Taipei… anybody who knows where I can get some let me know!!!) and the flavor of wine was too strong (although I’ll admit I did ask the wait staff to go heavier on the wine). The criticisms notwithstanding, I do like their ice cream. The vanilla ice cream was nicely specked and was rich and creamy enough that made me believe that there are still some zaftig cows left in this country of emaciated bovines.

We also had the Cookies and Cream (pictured near left) and what I believe to be some caramel swirly thing (pictured far left)(I plead guilty to memory loss as a result of food coma). I have to say I was happy with both choices. Happy? Mmmm. Maybe that was an understatement.

The interior of Big Tom’s is quite interesting. I’m not so sure what to make of the cow print upholstery but I sure like that there’s a al fresco dining area outside over looking a lake behind Sun Yat Sen Memorial. Levenade said that it looks like a “date” place. Date? Erm. With whom? With Tom? Mmm… Nevermind.

Anyway, my final verdict? I likey.

One lick and you’ll be scrambling back to Big Tom for another mouthful of his dream cream.
Amen.

Big Tom 美國冰淇淋文化館
No. 505 Renai Road, Section 4 (Next to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall Parking Lot. The entrance is actually on Guang Fu)
仁愛路四段505號
02 2345 4213

Correction and Addition

Posted in Food News on July 11th, 2007 by mei| | 0 Comments.

I made a lil’ boo boo on yesterday’s post. Swensen’s does not include pints on the buy one get one free promotion. But then why buy pints when you can… buy quarts? Bigger IS always better.

Moreover, yours truly found out (in-between sampling the rum raisin and vanilla ice creams) that there’s also a buy one get one free voucher promotion. Well, how does this work? You buy one voucher (440nt) which can be exchanged for a quart of ice cream - any flavor… and you get another voucher free. No flavor limitations like the current quart promotion (Yay, after all I am not too excited about taro ice cream… nor about getting two quarts of my fave cookies and cream). The only catch is that you have to wait till August 1st before you can start using the vouchers.

I can wait that long. I think.

Sweet Summer Swensen’s

Posted in Food News on July 10th, 2007 by mei| | 2 Comments.

My eyes are glazing over due to food coma. Dexterity and cerebral response time - sloooowww. But here I am typing away, albeit with great effort, for yours truly have important news to announce.

SWENSEN’S IS HAVING A BUY ONE GET ONE FREE ICE CREAM PROMOTION!!!!!!

Only until July 10th so you better hurry! Quarts, pints, scoops, what have you… buy one get one… FREE!!!! I believe the quarts are limited to certain flavors but you have the most of the main yummy classic flavors on the list anyhow (say, cookies and cream and strawberry). The only catch is that you have to show up there at the store. No pre-ordering. And it’s take-out only I believe. I don’t know about any of the other Swensen’s branches but this pertains in particular to the Swensen’s on the Renai Circle.

Guess where I’ll be during my lunch break tomorrow.

And sorry folks, yet another blog post with no photos. Blarg.

Swensen’s 双聖西餐頂級冰淇淋
No. 109, Renai Road Section 4
仁愛路四段109號
02 2772 6174

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