Um. Depends on what gets delivered.

I am grossly perturbed by my visit to O Sole Mio just now. The last time I visited I had to rush home to post glowing praises but today I also rushed home to post – but for very different reasons. I had to post lest I loose my street cred as a foodie.

First and foremost, there was no pistachio gelato in sight! I really should have gotten the plain frozen yogurt since the pistachio gelato was out but I couldn’t resist the temptation to try other flavors. The chocolate gelato wasn’t very chocolate-y. The strawberry fro-yo also didn’t taste very strawberry-ish somehow. I don’t even remember the other flavors I tried.

I ended up ordering the passion fruit gelato but, surprise, it didn’t taste very passion fruity. I felt that the sugar to fruit flavor ratio was way out of whack – too sweet. While there were no icy particles of DEATH there were some questionable lumps that I could have done without. All in all, it was a disappointing experience.

Have any of you readers the other flavors at O Sole Mio? Did repeat visits prove the joint to be consistent? I beseech you to message me!

In the mean time I think I’d head back to Yogurt Me. Hungry Girl in Taipei has a post about the place here.

“Pistachio gelato? No way.”

Way.

I’ve been a fan of The Girl Who Ate Everything for quite some time now and she definitely knows how to make my life sound incomplete without experiencing pistachio gelato. Not surprisingly, that’s exactly what I ordered at O Sole Mio.

I’m no expert on gelato (*sigh* doctor’s orders not to have anything cold in fact) but here are my findings – O Sole Mio serves gelato that is very rich and creamy and at 97% fat-free it sounds too good to be true. The store also carries frozen yogurt which I thought was satisfyingly creamy and it is the type of fro-yo that actually imparts the yogurt flavor. Will definitely visit again.

The pistachio flavor could have been stronger but I’ll admit I have nothing to base this on. My senses could have been numbed after bite #3 anyways.

I was also happy to know that the milk used to make the icy treats is from Taidong (台東初鹿 company to be exact) and not imported. Eat local!

A small tub of gelato is 70nt and for the frozen yogurt, 60nt.

O Sole Mio
Tonghua Store – No. 14, Tonghua Street
通化街14號
02 2754 7979

Heng Yang Store – No. 57, Heng Yang Road
衡陽路57號
02 2313 1189

Taichung Store – No. 122, Yi Zhong Street, Taichung
台中市一中街122號
04 2229 3168

I thought I’d be using my time wisely during the Chinese New Year break to catch up on some seriously back-logged blogging. But no. Between stuffing my face and sleeping in, I’ve been secretly watching a lot of food porn. I have a short attention span and a one track mind – but I stopped dead in my cyber-tracks when I came across this site.

My words are not going to do justice to Keiko’s blog – www.nordljus.co.uk. View it for yourself and you’ll see for yourself why I’m even bothering to write this blog post at 3:03 am on a Saturday night. And no, it’s not because I don’t have a life.

The simple lay out of the site is spot on. Her writing lets her sensitivity and gentle impartialness shine through. She never gushes about a popular ingredient or dish like many a food blogger I know. Praise is awarded where it’s needed and is heartfelt. The photographs are not only gorgeous, but Keiko is also one of the few fellow food bloggers with such amazing talent who openly shares information on the cameras she uses and the techniques she employs to create such results. From the comments, I could see that she’s been asked such questions times again but she always responds willingly and with humility. I haven’t seen a blog as inspiring as hers in a very long time.

Keiko, if you are ever reading this – here’s a quick shout to you in my rusty 日本語.　おいかわさん、ブログは本当にすばらしいです。写真も私に深い感銘を与えた。よくアップデートして下さいね！

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

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.

If I could muster the courage to eat out of the loo (at Marton. Boy, was that a shitty restaurant. Pun very intended ) this should be a piece of cake. Or two.

Moon Star Rotating Restaurant is located on the 120th floor of the Beitou Incinerator (北投焚化廠). It is the only rotating restaurant in Taipei and I daresay it’s the only one in the world that sits atop a municipal refuse burner.

Yours truly missed out on lunch but made it there for Moon Star’s afternoon tea buffet. It’s all you can eat cakes, sandwiches, and miscellaneous nonsense (drinks included) for 299nt plus tax. As you can probably tell, I was not impressed. The tea sandwiches were ridiculously tiny and have as much substance as a piece of floor wipe. I had two bites of my chocolate cake but I did finish all of the pumpkin cheese cake. The latter was smooth and light and the pumpkin flavor was just subtle enough. I would have to say, however, that most of the cakes look unimpressive and could pass a the fodder available in any ol’ Taiwanese bakery. The selection wasn’t even that great and ran out pretty fast (I got there around half past two and supposedly the afternoon tea session only started at two).

My verdict – don’t go for the food, go for the view.

I even thought the service to be pretty dismal. You have to fetch your own cakes at the counter. Normally, so spake the waitstaff, sandwiches are displayed along side the cakes but since there were quite a number of people there that day the staff brought them to you as soon as they were made. Well, they took a darn long time making them and usually ran out before reaching my table. I also thought it rather rude to be asked to pay upfront. For somebody who used to work in restaurants, this is tantamount to shooing away your customer. And oh, forget having a romantic tête-à-tête here. The afternoon tea was a family affair with kids running around creating miniature melees.

The view was great, however. The restaurant is situated even higher than the observatory (which is four floors down, on the 116th). Even on a cloudy day, I was quite happy with the vista. The ambience really perked up in the evening when the streets below and the restaurant were lighted. I can’t say much about dinner since I didn’t get to dine there but a nice lady who was in the elevator with me on the way up told me that the food is terrible. And with prices from 500nt to 100nt for dinner sets, it hardly sounds like a good deal.

In fact, eating at this dumpster was pretty darn expensive.

Moon Star Revolving Restaurant 星月旋轉餐廳
www.moonstar2007.com for the restaurant’s site (still under construction)
www.ptrip.gov.tw for the Beitou Incinerator website
120F, No. 271 Chou Mei Street, Beitou
北投區洲美街271號120F
(It is about a kilometer away from the closest MRT station, Qulian.)
02 2837 7122

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

I came across a stall selling this curious sounding drink, the “Kenting Egg Egg Duai Milk” (墾丁蛋蛋ㄉㄨㄞ奶) in Gongguan this evening. It’s not much of a pitch but the real clincher was seeing the round-the-block queue. Apropos to the Taiwanese way, I just had to join the line.

The drink ended up just being a combination of tapioca pearls floating in a mix of black sugar syrup and diluted “whole” milk (trust the Taiwanese to come up with trite and hyperbolic ways of advertising their products, man). As interesting as it was, it’s nothing I’d pine over any time soon. I’d much rather stick with a good ol’ classic Boba milk tea.

It’s high time I paid homage to Taiwan’s (quasi) national drink. I can’t really tell you the best place to go for bubble milk teas since it’s something that most stalls don’t eff up. However, I do quite like the ones from 50 Lan (50嵐), also known as “The Tea of Cool. Craving. Content.” *Shakes head* Just look for the ubiquitous blue and yellow signs.

Spring Water Pavillion (春水堂) – one of the stores in Taichung that claims to be the originator of the boba tea – while not bad is pretty darn expensive. Be prepared to pay 100nt – 200nt a pop. If you like a frou frou cup of boba milk tea this is your place. No need to travel to Taichung – there’s a store in the basement of the Xinyi Mitsukoshi A9.

For those who’d like a cuppa after a late night could try the Bubble Milk Tea Lane behind the California Fitness at the Chung Hsiao-Dun Hua MRT (read: Luxy). Though crowded and not the cheapest place for a boba milk tea fix, it’s a decent place to chill and people watch.

A personal favorite is Jimmy（吉米茶坊). The place knows how to make one mean coffee jelly bubble milk tea.

50 Lan 50嵐
various locations
www.50lan.com.tw

Spring Water Pavillion 春水堂
B1 of Xinyi Mitsukoshi A9
02 2723 9913
various other locations
www.icetea.com.tw

Bubble Milk Tea Lane
street parallel to Chung Hsiao behind Luxy and the California Fitness Center

Jimmy 吉米茶坊
South West corner of Xinyi and Daan roads

I ran the 9km run today! *Beams*
Waiting for the official timing but from my
calculations I ran it in 1 hour and 4 minutes.
Not too shabby given next to no training.

Hopefully, I’ll work up to the 21km/half marathon next year.

Tee hee. Totally made my day.

Here is where i got this from.