mei eats

1010 Hunan Pop - 1010 新湘菜

Posted in Chinese on February 1st, 2008 by mei| | 1 Comments.

I was going to write a blog post sometime ago entitled, “Beat this Meat” (in reference to 1010 Hunan Pop’s signature ribs, not man-meat, m’dears :>) but a previous visit and a lackluster serving of ribs made me forget about this restaurant. Until this week.

This visit has redeemed 1010 Hunan Pop to be Mei’s favorite Chinese restaurant in Taipei.

I don’t dole out accolades perfunctorily. I also lose interest fast if an establishment effs up. Well, here you have it - a restaurant that has finally managed to catch my attention and keep it. This is one restaurant where I’d gladly order anything on the menu. A small warning for those who can’t handle their spices - Hunan cuisine is hot stuff. Moreover, this is probably not the most vegetarian-friendly place to dine. However, pescetarians and those who would partake in seafood could appreciate the handful of surf( if not turf) offerings.

I’m not going to make many recommendations here since I believe that you can’t go too wrong with any of the dishes here but here are a few suggestions:
-preserved egg with roasted chilies (燒椒皮蛋 - I’m not a huge fan of preserved eggs but, boy, were these done right. I’ve never had chilies roasted and peeled in the Italian fashion before but it’s good stuff.)
-beef with pinenuts and rice cakes (松子年糕牛肉 - It’s one of the few non-incendiary dishes.)
-seared peppers in fermented bean sauce (虎皮青尖椒 - [pictured top right] I thought that it was the pièce de résistance during my most recent visit.)

If you would like a non-firery veggie dish I’d recommend the stir-fried green sprouts (炒荳苗）since it’s a veggie that Is not all together that common in most Chinese restaurants.

The cumin-encrusted pork ribs (神仙孜然肋排骨) is a very popular dish at 1010 and it was a dish I had inhaled during my first few visits. However, I feel that the quality has gone done and that the ribs weren’t as flavorful as I recalled them to be.

Desserts don’t deliver the wow factor. But they are agreeable. I’d go for the warm chestnut soup with longan fruit (桂圓栗子湯）or the black sesame soup (either warm or cold) with tapioca pearls (芝麻西米露).

Read Prince Roy’s blog post about 1010. I can’t help but nod my head vigorously in agreement with pretty much everything he says.

1010 Hunan Pop 1010 新湘菜
www.1010restaurant.com (It’s currently not much of a website but if you want more information about the restaurant google the restaurant name in Mandarin and you’ll see how popular it is in the Taiwan blogsphere.)
Eslite Xinyi branch - 6F, No. 11, Song Gao Road
02 2722 0583
Fuxing North branch - No. 301 Fuxing North Road
02 2713 6345

Land of Plenty - 天府家常菜

Posted in Chinese on January 28th, 2008 by mei| | 1 Comments.

“Good spicy food shouldn’t leave the arsehole burning the day after,” so some say.

In that case I must’ve hit the jackpot at the Land of Plenty*.

Yours truly has been hearing quite a bit about this Shichuan restaurant out by the Dingxi MRT station through the grapevine and naturally, I just had to go and try it out for myself. In Mei style, let me give you my final judgement first - the place served solid, authentic Shichuan cuisine that would probably hard to beat in Taipei. Well worth visiting again.

However, and this is not necessarily a bad thing, I would probably go with the other dishes than the ones me and my masticating posse ordered.

Here’s what we had:
-husband and wife lung strips （夫婦肺片）
-steamed spareribs （排骨粉蒸）
-eggplant in garlic and peppercorn sauce（魚香茄子）
-steamed whole fish （I didn’t catch the Chinese name for this, but I believed that we had the seabass)
-seasonal greens (時蔡 - which happened to be 菠菜, or spinach)
-pickled vegetable soup with mung bean vermicelli (酸菜粉絲湯）

The first dish, the appetizer (pictured above), ended up being my favorite of the night. The thinly sliced lung pieces was drizzled with a spicy dressing (soy sauce, sesame oil and chili oil, methinks) and tossed with coriander and roasted peanuts. The heat packed a punch and was just perfect for getting my mouth juices (that’s saliva, you) running. I’m normally not the biggest fan of offal but I could have licked this plate clean.

The royal Mr. Tanenbaum wanted the second dish, steamed ribs with sweet potatoes and erm, mush. While it was good, I can’t say that I was altogether too impressed. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I could order this dish at dozens of restaurants in town, all comparably good, and maybe it has something to do with the fact I found the ribs too lacking in meat and too oozing in gristly fat.

I love eggplant. Especially, when it’s cooked fork-tender (chopstick-tender in our case, m’dears :>). I really can’t complain about this dish but I was done when I popped a Shichuan peppercorn in my mouth. It left the strangest numbing sensation ever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The spicy steamed seabass was the favorite among my friends. Why didn’t I chose it? Well, it was good. Noting at all wrong with it. It was just that my parents were in the seafood biz and I’ve been super-spoiled. I was like, “Nice! Filled my omega-3 fatty acid needs… Now, moving on…”

The spinach and the soup, while both irreproachable in quality, were buh-buh-boooorrring. Why venture out to Taipei county (cue, gasp) to have spinach and pickled veggie soup when I can order these run-of-the-mill dishes just about anywhere downtown? Okay, so we needed some greens. And a soup. But I wanted something uniquely Shichuanese and with more oomph.

I’m ordering the mouth watering chicken (口水雞）and the poached beef slices in chili oil (水煮牛肉) the next time I go. I might even have room for the kungpao chicken. (While also a staple in most Chinese restaurants, I am interested to see how much pizzazz the restaurant would be able to inject into this classic.)

Fellow Taipei bloggers Prince Roy and Spicy Girl have written excellent blog posts about the place. You can read them here and here respectively.

*On a slightly non-sequitur note, Land of Plenty is not the restaurant’s real name. 天府家常菜 does not translate very nicely into English but the closest I can think of is probably along the lines of “Food from the Celestial Land of Plenty.” Prince Roy wrote a bit about the name of the restaurant in his other blog post.

I’m having dinner tomorrow at 1010 Hunan Pop which is a favorite of mine (I am slightly surprised I haven’t blogged about the place yet). Hunan cuisine, like its Shichuan counterpart, tends to pack in the heat but if the adage proves to be true once again, my fanny will still be free from flames.

Land of Plenty 天府家常菜
No. 5, Renai Road, Yonghe City, Taipei County (Dingxi MRT - accessible within walking distance from either of the two exits)
台北縣永和市仁愛路五號（捷運頂溪站）
02 8660 0190
Open 11:30am-2pm for lunch and 5:30pm-8:30pm for dinner, closed on Monday. Caveat - technically 8:30pm is the closing time but I’ve been warned that the restaurant runs out of food fast. Go early.

Yu’s Almond Tofu

Posted in Chinese, Desserts on January 20th, 2008 by mei| | 0 Comments.

Yes, I know. I haven’t been blogging. I’ve just been too busy with work. Truth be told, I’ve also been spending a wad of cash on another hobby of mine, photography, and so I’m lacking the wherewithal to grubstake my grub habits. (Check out my new flickr page here!) I’m also planning an uber big backpacking trip this year so that’s going to eat up mucho moolah and I’m going to have to live like a Jew. That’s not to say that I haven’t been eating out at all. Actually, I have but back to the whole spending too much resources on my other hobby… I simply don’t have time! However, props to my tech guy - Mr. Bobino - for reminding me not to abandon my fan base. So allow me to make my super smooth segue into today’s blog post…

Yu’s Almond Tofu. If you like almonds, you’ll love this place. The store sells almonds in its multifarious forms - almond crips (杏仁瓦片 - 129nt), almond nougat (杏仁牛軋糖 - 129nt), almond popsicles (杏仁冰棒 - 25nt), almond milk (杏仁汁 - 105nt/bottle; 42nt/cup), almond shaved ice (杏仁雪花冰 - 60nt to 80nt depending on toppings), almond milk with tapioca pearls (杏仁汁加珍珠 - 48nt/cup), purple rice porridge with almond tofu (紫米杏仁豆腐 - 58nt)… My personal faves are the almond tofu (杏仁豆腐 - 43nt) and the almond tofu in warm almond milk (熱杏仁豆腐 - 53nt; ad pictured top left). I just had the latter and it was awesome. It contained light but chewy pieces of almond tofu bathing in a delicious pool of mildly sweet almond milk. You can have the option of sprinkling the concoction with grounded almonds as well (I nixed that). You could also choose to add extra toppings for 5nt a pop. I chose my standard chinese dessert toppings : taro and sweet potato nuggets and pearl barley (I like to add these into my hot red bean and grass jelly soups as well).

Just writing about this is making me hungry again. Blarg.

Yu’s Almond Tofu 于記杏仁豆腐
Tong Hua Store - No. 109, Tong Hua Street 通化街109號 02 2378 1898
Guang Fu Store - No. 5-1, Guang Fu North Road 02 2756 5395
Heng Yang Store - No. 101, Heng Yang Street (Ximen MRT exit 4) 衡陽路101號 (西門捷運4號出口) 02 2370 1998
Le Hua Store - No. 168, Yong Ping Road, Yonghe (within Le Hua Night Market) 永和市永平路168號 (樂華夜室內) 02 3233 3933

Tripod Pot

Posted in Chinese on November 22nd, 2007 by mei| | 4 Comments.

So, apparently I just had dinner at the it hot pot stop in town.

Tripod King (鼎王麻辣鍋) is a hot pot chain that started out in Taichung and has just recently made its way to Taipei. And oh, there’s a three hour wait to get a table for dinner.

I’m not going to wax lyrical about the joint but allow me to highlight in bullet points.
-order the yin yang pot (鴛鴦鍋) [half spicy and half basic broth (pictured above)].
-get the handmade seafood dumplings (pictured below)!
-try the two dipping sauces (pictured bottom right)
-wash everything down with Taiwan Beer (why, of course).

Yah. Best hot pot I’ve had in a damn long time.

(Kudos out to Pei Pei, my high school classmate, for ~~passive-aggressively coercing my lazy ass into joining~~ arranging this din din ;-> Congratulations once again on your engagement!)

To the rest of my (hopefully) loyal readers: Yes, Mei’s back. Sorta.

Tripod King 鼎王麻辣鍋
No. 89, Guangfu North Road
光復北路89號
02 2742 1166, 02 2528 2819
www.tripodking.com.tw

Songs Fit for a Foodie

Posted in Breakfast, Chinese, Foodie Fun on August 20th, 2007 by mei| | 0 Comments.

Love is like soy milk and oil sticks? How cute.

Currently listening to:
豆漿油條 by 林俊傑.
(Lyrics and translation from Ting Dong)

喝純白的豆漿是純白的浪漫
望著你可愛臉龐和你純真的模樣

我傻傻對你笑是你憂愁解藥
你說我就像油條很簡單卻很美好

我知道你和我就像是豆漿油條
要一起吃下去味道才會是最好
你需要我的傻笑我需要你的擁抱
愛情就是要這樣它才不會淡掉

我知道有時候也需要吵吵鬧鬧
但始終也知道只有你對我最好
豆漿離不開油條讓我愛你愛到老
愛情就是要這樣它才幸福美好

我知道都知道你知道你都知道
好不好別偷笑笑讓我知道 (就好)

我喝完熱豆漿卻念著還想要
你吃完金黃油條愛情又要再發酵

A Perfect Match by JJ Lin

Drinking pure white soy milk, it’s pure white romance
Looking at your cute face, and your innocent appearance

My laughing foolishly at you is the antidote to your troubles
You say I’m just like dough sticks, very simple but very nice

I know you and I are just like soy milk and dough sticks
You need to eat them together for the flavor to be best
You need my foolish laughter, I need your embrace
Love needs to be like this, to not lose its flavor

I know it sometimes needs to be clamorous*
But all along, I’ve known you’re one who’ll treat me best
Soy milk can’t leave dough sticks, let me love you until we’re old
Love needs to be like this, to be happy and good

I know, know it all, you know, you know it all
Is it good? Don’t secretly laugh, let(ting) me know (is good)

I’ve finished drinking hot soy milk, but I still long for more
You’ve finished eating golden dough sticks, love will ferment again

Another good one is 宮保雞丁 by 陶吉吉 (Kung Pao Chicken by David Tao).
Too tired to post lyrics up now but you can find them here.

Tainan Ta-da!

Posted in Chinese on June 20th, 2007 by mei| | 1 Comments.

Wow. I can’t believe I am this backlogged. I haven’t had even the most minute of minutes to sit down and blog (let alone the time to cook and EAT!).

I promised my loyal readers food fodder from Tainan. Then there’s scrumptious Singapore. I better throw out news about the Taipei International Food Show (June 21-24, 2007) now or else I would be remiss to not inform Taipei foodies on time. Your truly also needs to make note of the yum-yum wedding dinner party at the Far Eastern hotel at some point.. and then there’s Taidong and Green Island eats…

Tainan. If you haven’t been there… go! It’s every Taiwan foodie’s mecca. Now with the High Speed Rail in commission one really doesn’t have a reason why not to make it. You can get there in less than an hour and a half, eat to your heart’s (and tummy’s) content and still make it back to Taipei for dinner. If you decide to stay over in Tainan for a few days, yours truly would highly recommend staying at the Evergreen Hotel - especially if you get there on a weekday. Among my three friends and I, each ended up spending about 30 bucks US a night (and trust you me, my room at the ramshackle hotel on Green Island costs the same) and we even got breakfast vouchers and coupons to use at certain eateries in town. Now, this foodie would normally cast askance looks when someone mentions hotel buffets and food vouchers but I tell you the smoked salmon at the hotel breakfast was TOTALLY WORTH IT. That dreamy lemony capery mustardy dilly sauce used as an accoutrement needs to be documented IN STONE somewhere!!! I heart smoked salmon.

Next - food vouchers. I forgot the exact amount the hotel gave for the four of us (all foodies in our own rights) to split but it was a fair amount. It wasn’t just a few NT dollars and then you end up paying a huge balance at the end of the meal. You could use the vouchers at three of the restaurants in town. I didn’t really care for the latter two but I have to say the first restaurant was splendid.

Chi Kan Dan Tsi Noodles to me was the perfect place to get my fill of Tainan’s famous Dan Tsi noodles (top left: broth variety pictured in the foreground, soup-less variety in the background). My friends an I also ordered a number of other dishes such as steamed milkfish (老豆辦蒸虱目魚肚), milkfish ball soup (縣煮虱目魚肚湯), pork trotters (赤坎招牌精燉滷豬腳) and rice tube pudding (廟口竹筒米糕)(pictured to the right). What really took the cake (or pudding, if you will) was the last item: dreamy glutinous rice steamed and flavoured with stock in a bamboo container, served with pork floss on top. My prosaic description does this divine culinary item no justice. Just go and eat it.

Chi Kan Dan Tsi Noodles 赤崁擔仔麵
No. 180, Minzhu Road, Section 2
Tainan (Next to the Chi Kan Towers)
06 2205336
台南市民族路二段180號 (赤崁樓旁)
website (Mandarin only): http://www.chikan.com.tw/index.asp?le=tchines

Tainan is also famous for its fried shrimp rolls. I’ve had them at several eateries in Tainan but just found them okay. Not bad. Not superb. Just okay. I repeat - my favorite food item in Tainan was the rice tube pudding.

If you really can’t make it to Tainan (tsk tsk) check out this famous Tainan eatery in downtown Taipei:

Du Xiao Yue　（also known Internationally as “Slack Season Dan Tsi Noodles”)　度小月
No. 12, Alley 8, Lane 216
Zhong Xiao East Raod, Section 4
02 2773 1244
台北市忠孝東路四段216巷8弄12號
website (Mandarin only): http://www.iddi.com.tw/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=b22&Category=123069

Taipei Beef Noodle Competition - NOT

Posted in Chinese on May 26th, 2007 by mei| | 2 Comments.

I was so happy to read this in today’s Taipei Times.

I have to say I only buy the Friday copy of TT just so that I can read the restaurant reviews. For the most part I’d side with the reviewers but that’s not saying a whole lot since the write-ups are usually only mildly opinionated IMHO… but today’s article on a certain beef noodle shop in Ximending put a ear to ear smile on my face… and a destination for dinner.

I actually had a similar experience to Jules (the TT staff reporter). Years back, I recall sitting in a cab listening to the taxi driver rant and rave about this one beef noodle restaurant in Ximending (trust me to remember anything food related, my dears) and although I didn’t follow through with that piece of info proffered to me, I am now thinking Mr. Beef-Noodle-Espouser could very possibly be the same guy singing his praises to Ms. Jules.

The “prize-winning beef noodle shop” that Jules had originally aimed for could only be… well, the one I had bashed in an earlier post. And, yeah, it really isn’t any good. Mr. Beef-Noodle-Espouser really wasn’t lying.

Tonight I had the Beef Tendon with Wide Homemade Noodles (牛筋寬麵). Beef is alright with me but tendon is always what I lurve in beef, I mean, tendon noodle soup. It has to be done right though. The tendons have to be stewed to the point where the sinewy bits are cooked to a soft mass, albeit one that still holds its shape. The broth was so slurpable. Thank god I went alone (mental note: not a date place?).

There were two choices of noodles: thin and wide. Naturally, the carb greedy beast in me opted for the wide noodles. So fre*king gooooood! Homemade - check. Cooked al dente - check. Happiness? Check! None of the mass produced mess the supposed king of beef noodle shops use.

Service was great as well. I was even offered more broth when one of the staff saw me licking my bowl. BTW, take note - there’s a cute girl working there.

So there. You have it. Another Beef Noodle recommendation. I do still remain faithful to Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodle Soup　林東芳牛肉麵 from my Top Ten Taipei Tucks post. Don’t ask me to compare these two places. They are both really good… but different. You’ve got to just try them out for yourself.

There’s also Ma Na 嗎哪 in my neighborhood of Anhe Road which I thought was good but slightly on the expensive side.

Funny. None of these places made it on the list of top Taipei Beef Noodle Shops in 2006.
Tsk tsk.

Niu Dian 牛店
91 Kunming Street
Ximending
02 2389 5577
西門丁昆明街91號
Open daily from 11am to 10pm,
except Mondays

Ma Na 嗎哪
No. 4, Alley 74
Anhe Road, Section 2
02 2706 4436
安和路2段74巷4號

Battle of the Bian Dangs

Posted in Chinese on May 22nd, 2007 by mei| | 1 Comments.

Yours truly has been in Taipei for over x number of years now and I can (proudly?) say that I’ve never had a single 7-11 biang dang (便當) yet. Given that many Taipei-rens dine in and out of convenient stores, I’d say this is quite a feat! Now, before I proceed any further, what exactly is a bian dang?

In two words, “boxed lunch.” (Not “lunch box” as so many Taiwanese folks I encounter seem to say. I don’t eat 7-11 bian dangs and I definitely won’t eat hardware.) To those who may be familiar with the Japanese bentos, bian dangs are the Taiwanese variations.

The anatomy of a bian dang: Rice, a main protein item - usually meat or fish, several side dishes which would almost always include at least one vegetable item and a soup and/or drink of the day. The options are countless.

My absolute favorite type of bian dang would have to be Chi Shang Bian Dangs (池上便當） which translates to “Paddy-side boxed lunch” in reference to the rice used. What makes these boxed lunches special? Perhaps wooden panel boxes that are used to for the packaging. Perhaps it’s also knowing that you will get the same standard menu when you walk into one of these Chi Shang Bian Dang stores. Regardless of which Chi Shang Bian Dang store I go to, a pork chop (排骨） bian dang will taste just about the same as one bought from another store (mmm… industry secrets? I do have a discerning palate!) and always pretty darn good.

Here’s a list of different Chi Shang Bian Dangs from a local store’s website (with photos but in Mandarin only):
The Recommended (招牌便當), Chicken Leg (雞腿便當), Pork Chop (排骨便當), Chicken Steak (雞排便當), Stewed Pork (爌肉便當), Crispy Chicken (香脆雞飯), Cod (鱈魚便當), Salmon (鮭魚便當).

A lone Chi Shang Bian Dang costs about 70 - 85nt.

What I also like, although not all Chi Shang Bian Dang stores offer this option, is to order my boxed lunch with multi-grain rice （養生米）. The stores usually charge a few more NT$s but what’s pocket change compared to health?

Try these two Chi Shang Bian Dang stores if you live in the Daan and Xinyi areas:
Both stores offer multi-grain rice.

Wu Tao Chi Shang Fan Bao 梧饕池上飯包
(relatively close to the NTU Campus)
No. 299
Fushing South Road, Section 2
02 8732 7427
復興南路二段299號

Shi Chuan Chi Shang Bian Dang　食全池上便當
(close to Liuchangli MRT)
No. 40
Chong De Street
02 2737 2866
崇德街40號

Soup, Sex and Xiao Long Baos

Posted in Chinese on May 5th, 2007 by mei| | 4 Comments.

Three nights of debauchery in a row is pushing it a wee bit. My tonsils feel like they are the size of. um. teabags. And my head seems as if somebody had cracked it open with a glass bottle.

Taipei could be such an evil place.

Nonetheless, you could always find something to provide solace for the soul. I’m under personal omertà to not disclose where to go for intemperate living but I can tell you where to go for a classic soup and xiaolongbao hangover remedy. Check out the menu on the left.

Pardon the lack of my usual wit, eloquence and logical progression but duty has beckoned me to post, if not party.

Taiwanese Spuds

Posted in Baked Goods, Chinese on April 30th, 2007 by mei| | 0 Comments.

I crave sweet potatoes or 地瓜 especially in the winter when they come out of the huge ceramic wells, where they are usually roasted, piping hot. You can get sweet potatoes with either yellow, red or purple flesh - my personal favorite being the former. I find that the yellow ones are sweeter and more fragrant than the other two. As much as I’ve often been told that eating food with robust and varied colors are good for you I just don’t normally fancy root veggies that look like they’ve been dyed in Kool-Aid. Anyhow, the yellow ones are chock-full of wholesome goodness and they make for wonderful mini-meals on the go. They keep really well in the fridge - just pop them in a pre-heated oven to re-heat… Just thinking about the sugars carmelizing under these paper thin sweet potato skin gets me all…hot.

Whole baked sweet potatoes are the way to go in my opinion but they are also quite nice in rice congee (you can usually find them at the 24 hour congee/breakfast places on Fushing South) or as Taiwanese style thick french fries. You can get the latter at any night market “fried chicken nugget” (鹹酥雞） stall.

I get my baked sweet potatoes from this old man in the Tunghua fresh market but try out this specialty store by Jinshan and Hoping:

Big Baked Sweet Potato 大蕃薯炭烤地瓜
No. 190, Jinshan South Road, Section 2
02 2341 2389
金山南路2段190號

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