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It's my dad's birthday and so we baked him this almond cake with berries. We wanted to go all out with this crazy cake, but my dad is mildly diabetic and we didn't want to send him into insulin shock on his birthday. So we settled on this cake.
Back when we had a normal sized oven, we used to make this quite often. Sadly, the cake pan doesn't fit into our Easy-Bake Oven in Taipei, so we hadn't made this cake in quite awhile, which makes it seem to taste even better this time around.
The recipe is courtesy of Gourmet, and it's really easy to make - it takes about an hour or so, and in the end you get this delicious cake. It's light, it's summery, and it's pretty to look at. And every one liked it and I think my dad had a nice birthday.
I know that every food blogger and their mom has posted about "Ratatouille" already, but this movie just came out in Taiwan a couple of weeks ago, so that's why I was slow in jumping on the "Ratatouille" bandwagon. But for food lovers and non-food lovers alike, this movie is definitely worth watching. Luke wrote a much better review than anything I could ever write here, so read his review and then go watch the movie!
When my husband and I first moved to Taipei about a year ago, I would crave non-Asian food so much that I would force Luke to eat at all the American chain restaurants like TGIFridays, Chilis, and sometimes even – gasp! – McDonald’s, just to have a taste of home. It’s funny because these were the sorts of places that I looked down my foodie nose at back in the States – places that were too “mainstream,” not to mention unhealthy. But the first few weeks here, we didn’t know of any places besides the big chain restaurants, and sometimes I was really homesick and just wanted to be somewhere that reminded me of home, even if it meant that I had to eat hamburgers the size of my head.
Luckily for us and our waistlines, we discovered Olala not long after we came here, and were thrilled. The French cuisine at Olala is authentic and fantastic, with a cozy ambience and friendly staff.
For 1000NT, you can get a set meal that comes with a soup, salad, entrée, dessert and coffee/tea. I recommend going for this option, since unlike some other restaurants that have it so that you don’t have a choice of the entrée in a set meal, at Olala you can pick your entrée off the regular menu. You definitely get more bang for your buck this way.
Usually I’ll order the special set meal of the day, which doesn’t include soup but does include a pasta. My husband likes the duck confit, so he almost always orders that. The last time we went though, I ended up ordering the duck confit and he got the special set meal of the day.
Carrot soup with creme fraiche.
Romaine and frisee salad.
The skin on my duck confit was nice and crispy, and the meat was so tender that it just fell off the bone when you cut into it.
Here’s Luke’s steak and frites, cooked "si fen so" (medium rare). Last time he ordered his steak "wu fen so," (medium) and he said it's better "si fen so."
For dessert I had the crepe flambee with a scoop of strawberry ice-cream, and Luke had the crème brulee. As an added bonus, the ice-cream was from Movenpick, which happens to be my favorite brand of ice-cream here.
Oh, and they also have special nights that feature salsa and other kinds of dancing. I think they might have lessons on those nights as well. We’ve never been to any of those, but maybe we’ll check it out sometime.
Olala
Ren Ai Road, Section 4, No. 371*
(02) 2773 – 9577
*I would recommend calling for directions; it might be a little bit hard to find the first time you go, since it’s a little hard to spot it from Ren Ai.
We discovered Shin Yeh back when we first moved to Taipei, and my father-in-law was here on some business and very thoughtfully lugged along all our Gourmet magazines that we had been missing so. Flipping open the October 2006 issue, we discovered that an entire article had been devoted to the food and restaurants in Taiwan. What luck! Shin Yeh was one of the restaurants not only mentioned, but also glowingly praised, so we were intrigued and checked it out. Now it’s one of our favorite places to eat.
Most of the time when we go, we try to order a mix of old favorites and new dishes. The portions are a little bit on the smaller size, so we usually order about four dishes and a bowl of di gua zhou (sweet potato congee), and we find that that’s a good amount for two people.
Last night we tried for the first time the clams (NT160). The description in the menu said that these were supposed to be served with leeks, but when the dish came out there was not a leek in sight. No matter. Instead, we were treated to a dish of cold, tiny clams with raw garlic. Each clam was bursting with juices, and the garlic provided a nice kick as you slurped it down.
We also tried the beef tenderloin with Taiwanese barbeque sauce (NT285). While the dish was cooked perfectly fine, it wasn’t that exciting, and my husband says that there’s another beef dish on the menu – the beef with garlic – that he likes better. I can’t remember the dish, so I’ll just have to take his word for it. His palette is better than mine, anyway.
Whenever we come to Shin Yeh, we almost always order the egg omelet with salted radish (yum) and the gua bao, which is a steamed Taiwanese bun with sliced stewed pork. When I was a kid – ok, up until maybe last year or so – the thought of eating pure fat would make me throw up in my mouth a little. And be forewarned, this bao is really just fat in a bun. Sure, there’s some vegetables and meat, but the main component of this bao is the FAT. And I thought I’d never say this, but what delicious fat it is indeed. Mmmm, fat.
For dessert we like to order the dan ta (egg custard tart). They always come up piping hot from the oven, with the egg custard sweet (but not too much so) and silky, and the crust nice and flaky. You also get served complimentary mochi rolled in sugar and peanut flour.
We like to bring friends who are visiting us to Shin Yeh to give them a taste of traditional Taiwanese cuisine, albeit Taiwanese foods kicked up a notch. It’s a great way to showcase all the delights Taiwan has to offer, food-wise. Or it’s just a delicious meal on a Tuesday night. Either way, it’s always a treat to eat at Shin Yeh.
Shin Yeh
Zhongxiao East Road, Section 4, No. 112, 2nd Floor
(02) 2752-9299
Let’s say if you wake up one morning and you think, Man, I could really go for some bacon and eggs with a side of hummus, and a falafel on top, then Sababa’s the place for you. Though it’s not the best breakfast food I’ve had in Taipei – and to be honest, I think their hummus is good, but not as great as I’ve heard some people rave – it’s decent fare and it is something different from the old bacon/eggs/do jiang/you tiao standby.
I got the regular Sababa breakfast (NT158), which comes with eggs, pita bread, a chopped salad, and hummus. I also added bacon for NT18, and all breakfast plates come with either coffee or tea. Like I said before, the hummus was good, but I thought it could have been a little bit more garlicky.
My husband got the same thing, but insisted that I also take a picture of his breakfast, because his was “prettier.” Oh, and he added a falafel to his, also for NT18.
While we were satisfied with our meals, we weren’t really blown away. And to be fair, we did order the most boring things on the menu, so I would like to go back sometime and check out their other dishes.
Sababa
Roosevelt Road, Section 3, Lane 283, No. 17
(02) 2363-8009
The thing I’ve really grown to appreciate about eating in Taipei is the quality of the food courts here. Back in the States, a typical food court consists of a McDonalds next to a Burger King next to an Americanized Chinese take-out joint, and so on and so forth. The awesome thing about the food courts here are that you can get a tasty and relatively nutritious meal that’s also cheap. We’ve been hitting the food courts pretty frequently lately, since we’ve been too hot and lazy to cook.
We found a pretty good udon and tempura place in the food court located in the basement of New York New York. I actually still like the udon a lot better at the place over on Fuxing, but the tempura at 海老天 (hai lao tian) is a lot better, since that’s their specialty there.
I usually get either the udon or soba noodle soup set meal, which comes with tempura, salad and a small bowl of seaweed. Not too shabby for NT420.
Last time we were here, my husband got the curry udon noodles. He did not like them. There was too much curry, and because the tempura came with on top of the noodles, it got all soggy. He does recommend that if you happen to order this, ask for the tempura on the side.
So if you’re ever in New York New York and want a decent meal quickly and for pretty cheap, check out 海老天.
海老天
New York New York, Level B1
(02)2729-1100
Last week was our one-year anniversary, and we celebrated by treating ourselves to a fabulous dinner at a Japanese restaurant named Sumie. It is a bit on the pricey side (we ordered the second to least expensive set menu, which was NT2000 per person), but worth every penny. This was truly Japanese cuisine in its finest form.
We started off with this, uh…jello ball? (Unfortunately, I don't know what anything is called beyond its generic name, because the menu didn't list any names or descriptions with its set menu, probably because it changes frequently.) Basically, it was a ball of gelatin filled with shrimp, abalone, and okra, served with vinegar and soy sauce. It sounds weird, but it was very light and refreshing and just what we needed to whet our appetites.
Then out came the sashimi. I almost didn’t want to eat it because it was so pretty. In fact, the presentation of all the dishes at Sumie was absolutely stunning. Our sashimi came served inside a long, thinly sliced piece of cucumber, and topped with a huge leaf of some sort. I think about the guy whose job it is to slice all these perfect, thin slices of cucumber, and I feel sort of bad for him. But he sure was good at it:
For our sashimi we got a piece of toro and some other fish whose name I don’t know but was incredibly good. It was very lightly grilled, and there was just a hint of smoky flavor to it.
Next we got baked eggplant topped with a miso paste. Inside the eggplant were pieces of shrimp and scallop. This was my husband’s favorite.
I liked that our salad wasn’t just your typical garden salad. Ours came with pieces of bamboo and crispy noodles sprinkled on top, and the vinaigrette was made with passionfruit and pineapple.
Ok, now comes the best part of the meal. Actually, this wasn’t even included in our set menu, but we ordered these lamb chops because we had heard they were good. Oh, they were so, so good. Just so juicy and tender and bursting with flavor…I’m sorry, I have to take a minute to wipe the drool off my keyboard.
Our sushi rolls were good, but nothing to write home about. But we were also in a rush to make it to a concert we were going to on time, so at that point we were just stuffing everything into our mouths as fast as we could, so that could be the reason why we didn't think they were that special.
Our last course before the dessert was a miso soup with lobster. I liked this soup a lot and really wish now that I had taken the time to savor it, especially the lobster.
Finally, our dessert was a mochi filled with custard and sprinkled with chocolate powder on top. It tasted like a tiramisu mochi. I ate this in one bite. God, now that I think about it, I hope no one was watching us eating. We must have looked like jackals or something.
All in all, though, this was a delicious meal. Maybe not the sort of thing you’d eat every day, but definitely great for special occasions.
Sumie
Zhongxiao East Road, Section 4, No. 172
San Want Hotel, 4th Floor
(02) 2781-6909
My dad is Cantonese, so I’ve always had an especial fondness for Cantonese cuisine. In fact, one of my favorite foods in the world is “xi fan*,” otherwise known as congee. Yes, I know it’s considered a “low” food, but in my opinion there’s nothing better than a bowl of xi fan on a cold winter day. Though there aren't really any cold winter days here, so I guess maybe I meant to say there’s nothing better than xi fan on a sweltering summer day at high noon.
But I digress. Anyway, Hong Kong (in Chinese it’s called 茶水攤) is my favorite Cantonese restaurant in Taipei, though sadly, they don’t seem to serve xi fan. Bummer. But, there’s still a ton of other fantastic dishes on the menu, like this rice and meat combo that my husband always orders. It’s this mishmash of fried ham and fried pork chop topped with an over easy egg (hmm, I guess if you have heart problems you should avoid this dish) served with some rice and vegetables.
I myself like to order the he fen, which are wide rice noodles served with beef (you can also get it with pork.) The beef is tender and well seasoned, and the noodles are nice and firm. Add a dash of hot sauce, and it’s perfect.
HK also serves up a variety of “小吃,” where you’ll find all the typical dim sum favorites. Definitely try their buo lo mian bao, which I actually haven’t seen at any other Cantonese places. This “pineapple bread” is their specialty, and it is scrumptious indeed. So simple, but so good! All it is is a piece of buo lo mian bao, lightly toasted – and this is the key part – with a slice of cold butter inside. The cold butter is genius, because it melts as you eat it, so that your bread doesn’t get all soggy before it comes to your table. Even though we’ve only eaten this during dinner, I actually think that this would be a perfect breakfast food.
Here is a curry squid ball/other unidentifiable foods dish that was NOT good. Do not order this. My husband decided that because there was a picture of it on the menu, it must be good, but alas, it was not. It was the equivalent of eating a sponge soaked in curry.
However, everything else we’ve ordered we’ve usually been satisfied with. The desserts are also really good. I’m not sure why, but I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of the desserts. Probably because I was too busy shoveling them into my mouth. The prices here are really reasonable as well – we usually spend no more than NT800**, and that’s because we order a lot of food. This is definitely one of those places where you can eat really well for just a few hundred NT. But before you all rush out to try this place, though, be forewarned that there is almost always at least a 15 minute wait, and they don’t take reservations. Also, the menu is entirely in Chinese. My husband and I aren’t fluent readers by any means, but between the two of us we can cobble together a decent understanding. There are some pictures that you can point to, but for the most part, if you don’t speak or read Chinese at all, it might help to bring someone who does.
(By the way, this place is in the same alley as the jin bing/beef noodle place I reviewed in a previous post, so if the wait is too much for you, you can just pop over there instead.)
Here’s a picture of the outside of the restaurant. You can see all the people waiting. That’s me in the gray tank with the bad posture, trying to use my laser eyes to burn into the minds of the people inside to hurry up and finish eating.
EDIT: *My husband read this, and he says that what I mean is actually "zhou." He says that "xi fan" is just the plain white rice congee, and that zhou is the Cantonese style one with the duck egg, pork, etc. added. But in our house it was always the other way around. Anyone care to clear this up?
**Apparently I just wrote everything in this blog wrong. Again, my husband read this and then very adamantly burst out with, "We have NEVER spent NT800 there! Never never NEVER! The MOST we've spent is 500!" Ok there. I guess I take back what I said, and the most we've spent at HK is NT500.
Hong Kong 茶水攤
Yangji Street, Alley 136, No. 6-2
(02) 2772-5252
Is there something wrong with blogger, or is there something wrong with my head? Why do my pictures from my previous post and from my header keep disappearing? I've re-uploaded the pictures from my VVG Bistro review FIVE times now, only to have them keep on mysteriously disappearing into the void every other day. It is driving me insane! Hopefully everyone can see the pictures from VVG Bistro now, but if they go again, then I give up and everyone will just have to use their imaginations. Grrr.
