Taiwan 2010 Part Two

Okay, so I lied about having my second entry on Taiwan published within a month. Here I am on Christmas of all days to write about the warmer days I spent in hot, humid and rainy Taiwan. J and I spent our first night in Taipei in our very comfortable hotel room in the Da-an district of Taipei. Our warm hostess, W already informed us in the car that she’d be chauffeuring us to Taizhong (it literally means the middle of Taiwan) so we can feast on their famous “ma la” hotpot. Ma la means a lot of spicy Sichuan peppercorns, which is just what J loves. In fact, he likes any kind of spicy pepper. I had previously introduced J to hotpot/shabu shabu a couple of years ago in Flushing. First we started him off with the simple seaweed soup base, but he was envious of my mom’s kimchi soup base. Then the next time we went, my mom got the ma la soup base while he moved up to the kimchi soup base. Again, he was envious of my mom’s soup. I knew then that he’d love the shabu shabu/hotpot in Taiwan!

Anyhow, it is about a 2.5-3 hour drive from Taipei to Taizhong. My little sister and I had taken the wonderfully comfortable high-speed rail to Taizhong a couple a years in 45 minutes! So amazing. After some traffic, W, her friend, J and I arrived at the bustling restaurant, Ding Wang Spicy Hotpot (鼎王麻辣鍋). This is a chain in Taiwan, and there is a location in Taipei, but W said the Taizhong one is much better. We ordered both the ma la hotpot as well as the non-spicy hotpot. When the hotpot came out, I was really impressed with how authentic it looked. This was no ordinary pot. It had legs!

Look at our cool hotpot!

We had a wonderful meal accompanied by some plum juice. Apparently this is how they do it in Taiwan. After our meal, we ended up at a bubble tea cafe to have a late afternoon “snack” before heading back to Taipei. I love hotpot!

A trip to Taiwan wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory meal at Din Tai Fung. I am a huge fan of soup dumplings, but the crowds and tourists really kind of ruin Din Tai Fung for me. Also, the prices are pretty expensive for Taipei. I know that I could have a meal for half the price at a restaurant around the corner. However, their dumplings are quite tasty and they have really good soups (my personal favorite is their chicken soup, which is very pure). J, W and I went to the “original” location for lunch after J and I toured around Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. There was a line, but the employees at Din Tai Fung are very efficient. I was handed an order sheet as soon as I put my name down. After parking the car, W met us at the front of the restaurant and she took care of the ordering. After 20 or so minutes, we were called and we headed upstairs to our table. W handed our order sheet to our waitress and we waited. All our food came out relatively fast. I don’t remember all the items we ordered, but here is what I can remember: soup dumplings, hot and sour soup, Chinese spaghetti (zha jiang mian) and hollow stem vegetables. I was surprised with how tasty the Chinese spaghetti was. Who knew their noodles would be so good? I used to own a Din Tai Fung dumpling phone attachment, but alas it broke. I wish they still gave those out to customers!

Mmm dumplings

Besides all the carbs I enjoy in Taiwan, my other favorite food to enjoy is the really awesome fruit. I hate to say this, but their pineapple is sweeter than Hawaii’s. I know this because we went to Taiwan after a family reunion in Hawaii years ago and it was pretty obvious that Taiwan’s pineapple was superior. I love how at the fruit markets in Taipei you can buy pineapple cored and peeled ready to eat. If you want, they even have them cut up with toothpicks. It’s great. However, my favorite fruit is not the pineapple, as I get a mouth rash when I eat too many of them. My favorite fruit in the whole world at this moment is lian wu. I believe that one of its many English names is “wax apple“. It’s found in Asian countries such as Taiwan and Malaysia. W’s wonderful mom and my grandma were able to procure me some of these wax apples even though it technically wasn’t in season. It seems to always be out of season when I’m in Taiwan. Or usually the crop will be depleted because of some huge typhoon that recently hit. It’s really hard to describe this fruit. It has the texture of a star fruit, but the sweetness of an apple. It’s refreshing!

My favorite fruit in the world!

I also enjoy Taiwan’s guava and mangoes. They are just so much sweeter than the ones I can get in the US. In fact, in Taizhong, I was able to have some pink guava. W stopped by a fruit truck in Taizhong on the way to Ding Wang so we were able to have a nice tasty treat! Yum.

I have always been a huge fan of pork and pork jerky specifically. In my favorite Taipei alley near my grandparents’ old apartment (they recently moved to a modern apartment building WITH an elevator), there is a pork jerky store. I can still remember vividly walking through the alley to Nanjing East Road and smelling the delicious dry pork floss scent in the air. These days, the dry pork floss machine is enclosed in glass so there’s no more fragrant smell. However, their pork jerky is still just as good. They have a few flavors of pork jerky. I recently tried the lemon pork jerky per my Cousin Jane’s recommendation. I was not a huge fan because it just tasted wrong to me. It wasn’t gross or anything, just not my cup of tea. I also think they have a pepper flavor, which I have yet to try. Besides these flavors, you can get the jerky in thick ham-like slices or crispy thin. I like both and usually get a bag of each to snack on during the week. Then I’ll go back towards the end of my vacation and get more pork jerky have for “snack” during my flight back to the US.

My delicious bowl of beef noodle soup!

For those who aren’t beef noodle soup aficionados, there is a yearly Beef Noodle Soup Festival in Taipei. In this festival, the top beef noodle soup restaurants will compete to be crowned as the best beef noodle soup in Taipei. This is a very serious accolade to attain and from what I hear, different restaurants get crowned year to year. While J and I were staying at the hotel in Da-an, we ventured out to one of the famous restaurants that previously won by Yong Kang Street. Even though I fully researched the address of Old Zhang’s Beef Noodle (Lao Zhang Niurou Mian), we managed to get lost anyway. There are so many little alleys and streets in Taipei. I asked an employee at a bubble tea shop and he told me that I was very close and it was just a block away! We finally arrived at the restaurant and I was impressed with the decor. It looked newly renovated. I am used to the older and dirtier Old Liao’s Beef Noodle restaurant, as that’s where I usually go when I’m in Taipei. However, this time I decided to go to a new place to compare. Also, I wasn’t sure how to get to Old Liao’s without a car. We were lucky that there was no wait. It could be because we went there after 7:30pm. Our waitress handed me an order sheet. I was a bit puzzled because they had all types of beef noodle soup and I wasn’t able to read all of them. I asked our waitress to read some out to me, and she did something even better! She came back with an English menu with PICTURES! J and I decided on the spicy beef noodle soup for him and the original for myself. We also shared a cold dish of spicy cucumbers. It was super spicy and fresh. Yum! Our food arrived quickly and I was quite pleased. The beef was very tender and the broth was rich. These are two things that I look for in a good bowl of beef noodle soup. If the beef is too difficult to chew, then I am not happy! Also, I don’t like any tendons in my beef noodle soup. I know many people love this, but not me! J’s spicy beef noodle soup was also a big hit. The broth was spicy and the beef was also tender. All in all, we were both quite satisfied with our dinner. I do wish I had time to have another bowl of beef noodle soup during my vacation, but I did not have enough meals as I was under house arrest at my grandma’s apartment during my second week in Taiwan! I am excited to go back to Taiwan in the near future. Hopefully, I’ll be able to try out some new restaurants the next time I’m there.

Back from Taiwan

Hello my few readers! I just got back from my vacation in Taiwan with my wonderful boyfriend. OK, it’s been two weeks, but who’s counting? I wish I was STILL on vacation. I thought about whether I should write about my food adventures in Taiwan, and the logistics are a bit difficult since I don’t know all the names/addresses of these places I visited during my stay, but I’ll do my best. I will just go over a few of the places I dined at while in Taiwan. We’ll start with Taiwanese breakfast since there are limited options here in New York. My boyfriend, J and I stayed at a hotel in the Da-An District at a very cute and modern Fullerton South Hotel thanks to my Mom’s recommendation. The staff was extremely helpful and our room was clean and compact. We even got a welcoming plate of fruit. I devoured the mini pomelo and was surprised how sweet it was!

My daily breakfast in Taipei for a week!

After my good friend W dropped us off at the hotel, she mentioned that there was a famous Taiwanese breakfast place just down the street from our hotel. I was very excited since I love carbs and Taiwanese breakfast is every carbaholic’s dream come true. On the first morning, J and I headed to the hotel’s free breakfast buffet. I had an omelette and some fruit. The rest of the buffet wasn’t too interesting to me. It was mostly western style, which meant I didn’t want to waste my time/calories with it. The following morning, I only had fruit at the buffet and then told J I was heading to Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang – 永和豆漿大王 [King of Yong He (city/province of Taiwan famous for soymilk) Soy Milk] breakfast place to check it out. It was glorious! There was a long line, but it moved briskly. This was the first time I witnessed a man making fresh shao bing (sesame pancake/bun that can be used to contain anything your heart desires). I love shao bing because you can put whatever you want inside. A common dish in Taiwanese breakfast is shao bing you tiao － 燒餅油條 (sesame pancake bun with a fried crueller). It’s really good! However, I controlled myself and stuck to my “healthy” breakfast which is shao bing jia dan－ 燒餅加蛋 which is the shao bing with a scallion egg omelette inside. I also am a big fan of xian fan tuan － 咸飯團 which is a salty sticky rice roll with dried pork floss, salty pickled turnip and chopped up you tiao all inside. After my first breakfast at Yong He, I never went back to the hotel buffet again! I even convinced the boyfriend to try my egg sandwich and soon I converted him as well!

The next item I will discuss before my drool all over my keyboard is my love for noodles. It began when I was young. I remember vividly eating dinner with my sister and parents in Flushing on the weekends. My sister and I would get Pork Chop and Noodle Soup (Pai gu mian – 排骨麵）and it just became something I look forward to as a child. Then my parents took me to Taiwan and I became obsessed. I always told my mom that I should be a Northern Chinese because all they eat are noodles. I always begged my mom to make noodles instead of rice for dinner. How could anyone eat rice EVERYDAY? Noodles yes please. I like almost all noodles, but I especially like thick chewy (QQ) noodles. Fresh noodles are always a plus for me.

My favorite noodle dish at my favorite noodle shop in Taipei!

Well, everyone, Taiwan is full of noodle/dumpling shops. It is my dreamland! I could probably have noodles for two meals a day in Taiwan and be insanely happy (of course I’d have Taiwanese breakfast for breakfast). However, J is not a big noodles fan so I had to save my carb overloading to later in my vacation. My dad and I stopped by my favorite noodle place near my grandparents’ old apartment. We arrived at 11:15am (it was a bit early) and I almost cried when I saw the “Closed until 5pm” sign on the door. I asked my dad if there was a holiday? He said nope, but then I spotted an employee inside the dimly lit restaurant. Then I spotted one of the owners and I forced my dad to ask her if they were indeed closed until 5pm (I know they are open for lunch!!) She said of course they are open and let us into the restaurant. We were the first customers of the day! Then I saw the other owner (they are sisters) and she warmly greeted me with “You’re back?” Anyhow, we placed our orders. I ordered my usual, zha cai rou si mian- 榨菜肉絲麵, which the literal translation is pressed vegetables with shredded pork and noodle. I don’t even remember what my dad got because I was too busy waiting anxiously for my dishes. I believe he ordered some kind of soup and fried noodle. We also ordered some green veggies to get some fiber. My noodles came out quickly and they looked and tasted just like I remembered them to. The noodles were thick and chewy and there was a lot of the salty pressed veggies. I find that it’s hard to find a good version of this noodle soup in New York. Sometimes the pressed vegetables are not crunchy enough and usually there’s not a lot of it in the soup. My friend W suggested that I ask the owner if I could buy the pressed vegetables so I could bring it back to the states. Unfortunately, the last time I was in that alley, it was before they were open so I did not have the chance to ask. I’m sure she woud have laughed at me! Perhaps I will do this on my next trip to Taiwan!

Due to Taiwan’s extremely hot and humid weather for the most part of the year, there are bubble/shaved ice shops at every corner. This was great for J since he loves ice and cold drinks. We made sure to have a tea drink/icy/shaved ice at least once a day. I stuck to my regular Passion fruit with Green Tea (half sugar) and J would get a mango icy. However, I made sure that we visited the famous Ice Monster (now Yong Kang 15) right by the famous Din Tai Fung (more on this restaurant in a future post) for dessert. Even though mango was out of season in the rest of Taiwan, they had sweet and ripe mango available (could it be canned?).

Shaved ice with mango, kiwi and strawberry topped with mango ice cream

I have a confession to make. I am not a fan of the traditional Taiwanese shaved ice. I am one of the few people who dislikes red bean and chewy sweet things on shaved ice. I do make an exception for Ice Monster/Yong Kang 15. The shaved ice is huge and I recommend sharing it with at least two other people. I heard that they closed the original store due to marital problems with the owners. When they reopened under a new name, they kept one of the owners as an adviser, so I had to find out if it was still good. The final verdict? It’s still good, but the prices are slightly higher (almost $5-6 for a shaved ice). It’s good for a splurge!

I will end my first wordy Taiwan blog with a picture with my favorite passion fruit green tea. I tried to have one everyday, but due to the typhoon and some logistic problems, I was unable to have it on the last two days of my vacation. I guess I’ll survive! I am going to try really hard to write another entry about other Taiwanese delights (shabu shabu, soup dumplings, superior Taiwanese fruit, scallion pancakes, etc). We’ll see if I write it within the next month.

Notice there's fresh passion fruit at the bottom. Yum!

Weekend trek to King 5 Noodle

LTR, ST, MM and I planned a Saturday trip to my favorite Flushing restaurant that does Taiwanese Breakfast: King 5 Noodle. I have been going to this noodle restaurant for years. I remember that during my first ever trip there, the restaurant forgot to bring one of the items we ordered. My dad went Napoleon on the owner and it did not go well. Despite the missing dish, the meal was very good and I was worried that my family would not be welcomed back. Fast-forward a few years, my dad made amends with the owner and my parents were even invited to the owner’s daughter’s wedding!

In order to get this delightful meal, one must travel either by LIRR or the 7 train. During the weekend the 7 runs local so it takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to Flushing. Also, if you live downtown, you could pay about $3 to take the Chinatown->Flushing mini bus and arrive in about 30 minutes. Since I live in the UES, it’s a bit inconvenient. Anyhow, my friends and I met at the Old Navy and perused for a bit since my mom and little sister, JL, were running late. My mom, also a big foodie, was picking up my FAVORITE Taiwanese cake from Red Leaf Bakery. This is the only Chinese/Taiwanese cake I will eat. I find that most other cakes are dry, tasteless, and the canned fruit is not appealing to me.

My favorite is the beef in sesame pancake. They usually run out of the sesame pancake (shao bing), but we were in luck yesterday!

We arrived at King 5 Noodle at about 2:30pm and we were surprised that it was still packed. I was happy because that means business is good! We were lucky to snag the only circle table left for our party of six. I quickly ordered some Taiwanese breakfast items since they were still available on the menu. We started with: beef in sesame pancake, scallion pancakes, fried crueller and an order of pan fried dumplings. We devoured the majority of our “snacks” before JL and my mom arrived. I warned my friends that my mom has a tendency to over order and that they better be ready!

King 5 Noodle's famous Beef Noodle Soup!

JL and my mom arrived. My mom ordered three noodle dishes, water spinach, a squid dish, pork belly (per LTR’s request), soup dumplings, and I can’t remember what else. I was hesitant to try the soup dumplings because I wasn’t really expecting much since King 5 Noodle’s strengths are noodles and Taiwanese breakfast. I really doubted that their soup dumplings would be any good. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dumplings were actually very soupy and the skins were thin. Just the way I like them! For noodles, we got the restaurant’s famous beef noodle soup. The beef was very tender and the broth was very beefy. You can tell that the beef has been stewing for hours. I prefer to have beef noodle soup with minimal tendon/cartilage and this is how they make it at King 5 Noodle. Yum. We also got an order of the “Chinese Spaghetti” as LTR calls it. It’s just noodles with minced pork in soybean sauce. We especially like King 5 Noodle’s version because it has actual soy beans and bean curd in the sauce and makes the dish more hearty. MM ordered Sauteed Noodles with Beef Satay and it was also very good. There was a slight kick to the noodles.

LTR and her dish of the day. It was a bit spicy, but we all enjoyed it.

After our feast on delicious carbs, my brought out the cake that was chilling in the restaurant’s fridge during our meal. My mom was smart to bring paper plates and utensils. I sliced up this cake that I’m always talking about with my friends. I told them that this cake has “fresh cream” and that’s why my mom ordered the cake. If we were to just buy slices of the cake at the bakery, it would be “regular cream”. I was a little nervous that my friends would not love the cake, but they were all impressed. Most of us forced a second piece down our very full stomachs. I would have loved to bring home the leftovers, but the cake needs to remain chilled otherwise the cream will melt. We offered our delightful leftovers to the owner. She accepted our offering and informed her staff NOT to throw out the cake.

Only my mom would order a cake for no special occasion. Yum!

My friends and I rolled out of the restaurant and then headed to get some bubble tea at Ten Ren. We then resisted going into bakeries and headed food shopping at Hong Kong Supermarket. We all bought a bunch of snacks (pork jerky for me & MM and candies for ST and LTR). We then walked back to the 7 train stop with our stomachs still full and headed back to Manhattan and Brooklyn. I am known to eat a lot and I get hungry easily. I did not have dinner until 9pm (we left Flushing around 5:30pm) and it consisted of a half a Japanese yam. That’s all I really needed after my FEAST!!
 
King 5 Noodle
39-07 Prince Street (between Roosevelt and 39th Avenues)
Flushing, NY 11354
718.888.1268
Cash Only
**Arrive by 12pm to get all the good Taiwanese Breakfast items.

 
Red Leaf Bakery (Yeh’s Bakery)
57-25 Main Street (between 57th Road and 58th Avenue)
Flushing, NY 11355
718.939.1688
Cash Only
**Limited English spoken. Order cakes in advance.

Welcome!

The Haus Bao is on the left and the Chairman Bao is on the right

Hello my lovely viewers.  I started this blog as a joke.  I guess it’ll be good to keep track of all my noodle/food adventures in NYC and in the world!  So let’s get started.  I’ve decided that my first review won’t be of a noodle restaurant, but of a Taiwanese restaurant.

A few weeks ago, I heard through the food blog grapevine that there was a new Taiwanese restaurant in Manhattan (not Chinatown).  This was unheard of because there are literally almost no authentic Taiwanese restaurants in Manhattan.  You can find them mostly in Flushing and in Queens.  I did my research on BaoHaus.  Turns out the owner is my age and learned all his gua bao skills from his mom.  I read up on any reviews I could find.  I posted on Chowhound to let everyone know about this new Taiwanese place.  Trusty Lau took on the job to try out the restaurant following weekend.  Even my own co-workers stopped by and gave it two thumbs up.   Lau wrote a very lengthy and positive review on Chowhound, which convinced me that I should get over my fear of fatty gua bao (I just can’t stomach swallowing all that fat).  Also, according to BaoHaus’s menu, they serve a beef gua bao (Haus Bao), so I was hopeful.  I convinced my eating buddy, LTR, to stop by BaoHaus for a snack (I was told that one would need to eat multiple gua baos to be full).

On that fateful Sunday, we met a couple of friends at BaoHaus and we were surprised just how big the place was.  I guess we were expecting a tiny place with no seating (perhaps like the Xi’an Foods outpost in Chinatown).  We placed our orders and sat at a private table.  Our food arrived within a few minutes.  I ordered the Haus Bao and LTR ordered the Chairman Bao (this is the traditional gua bao with pork).  It was delicious!  Even though Eddie (owner) was using high quality ingredients, he didn’t modify the traditional recipe.  It definitely reminded me of having gua baos at my family get togethers.  I prefer the Haus Bao because there was less visible fat and it was just as tasty as the Chairman Bao.  I definitely would like to come back to BaoHaus in the near future.  I hope Eddie will take my advice and get a shaved ice machine for the summer.  I’m sure this would help attract an even wider clientele!

BaoHaus
137 Rivington Street (between Norfolk Street & Suffolk Street)
New York, NY 10002
646.684.3835
Cash Only!