Night Market in Taipei – The one to go October 8, 2013
Posted by hslu in Chinese, Chinese Food, Taipei, Taiwan, Travel.Tags: Chinese language, 肉羹, 臭豆腐, 饶河街夜市, food, Night market, Stinky tofu, Street food, Taipei, Taiwan, 台北
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If you only have enough time to visit one night market in Taipei, go to Rao He Jie Night market; 饶和街夜市 provided that you like food more than shopping like I do。
饶河街夜市
We have been here a few times and we like its lively spirit, variety of street foods and wave after wave of visitors for most of every evening. This guarantees the freshness of food sold here.
It also offers plenty of opportunities to buy a thing or two cheap which you already have a few in the closet or garage at your home.
I do a lot of street watching as my wife looked around the stores for stuff she doesn’t need. All I care about are Chinese street food I can’t get in the United States.
It is kind of far away from the city center but you can get there by taxi for a few US dollars. Coming back to your hotel around midnight, taxi is probably the only option though.
So keep this in mind.
The night market offers many kinds of street food but we only like some of them because we prefer foods with lower cholesterol and lower in saturated fat. However, we used to eat them a few years ago when we were a little younger. I do like to watch other people enjoying themselves chowing down plate after plate of seafood and roasted beef.
We go for authentic Chinese stuff such as stinky tofu and a few other items.
Deep fried shrimps and two kinds of river snares; much smaller in size than escargot.
Sticky rice (油饭）and pork nuggets and shredded bamboo shoots in thick broth （肉焿。） Great with cilantro and a dash of white pepper. Some people, actually many people, like to eat it with black vinegar. Not me though.
Some cilantro will be even better。
They have been in business, probably at the same location, for 100 years.
Pan fried pork buns. 此乃“水煎包”也！
Very affordable and very rewarding too。
Braised beef in broth with noodle goes for US$4. I particularly like 阳春面：noodles in chicken broth with bean sprouts, shanghai cabbage and topped with dried, deep fried onions. A hard boiled egg slow stewed in meat sauce makes it a wonderful meal. I do skip the egg yolk though. It goes for US$1.75. Houston’s Chinatown offers authentic 阳春面 for about $4. This comes closest to what’s available here in Taipei.
Once in a while, you come up with a stall like this: it is about something to kill cockroaches. It kills ants, termites and mice too。
Well，no need to add anything else here。I do hope it doesn’t stay out like this for too long。
Boiled pork meat pie。I guess。
Don’t ask me where the name of this roast beef come from. The second word on that plank is “pee” and I have no idea what “撒尿.” I wouldn’t try it because I think it”不登大雅之堂。“ It sells very good though。
In case you are wondering, they are all made by hand: one piece at a time. I would say that they are all within +- 3 mm. This is called “实在是好工夫。”
Not sure what the pictures are for。It must have been there for years。
This is stinky tofu as well: stewed instead of deep fried. This kind of 臭豆腐 is too much for me I only like the deep fried kind。
These squid balls take a long time to make。Very high in cholesterol though。
Seafood hot pot。You choose what to put in
Deep fired chicken filet. Very tasty but not greasy at all. Very moist inside and crunch on the outside. Our son introduced this to us about 3 years ago when he was in Taipei.
Haven’t tried this yet.
We used to eat this when we have some change. 50 cents each. You can get eight for about US$3.50. I only like the red bean filling type, the kind we used to eat.
Glass making.
忙里偷闲自吹自楽。
成双成对，相亲相爱。
- Chinese chives and ground pork buns。
韭菜肉包。
That‘s a backpack。
The greasier the better; for the 20 to 50 years old. 3 for US$1.50.
Steak Taiwanese style: a laddle full of gravy is pour on top of the steak; about 1/4“ thick and usually grilled on flat iron or over flame.
These are small purses. Angry bird is up there too.
Chicken nuggets with a lot of black pepper.
Brown sugar blocks. US$1.70 each. Good for plum juice.
No empty seats.
Cute little shoes.
Sticky tofu: US $1.33 per order.
You might like it after you read this over.
Got to have shaved ice for dessert. Very popular in Taiwan because it can be very hot in the summer.
Not sure hot to make “Frying Milk” because it was closed when we got there.
新利大雅餐厅,台北西门町, Taipei September 7, 2013
Posted by hslu in Chinese Food, Restaurants, Taiwan, Travel.Tags: 福州, 福州菜, 西门町, food, 台北, 新利大雅
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Just flew in from 上海 earlier today and after doing all we could do, my wife wanted to try a dish she had a long time ago when she was growing up in Taipei: 海鲜米粉, Seafood Rice Noodle Soup, at 新利大雅餐厅 in ximending, 西门町 台北 Taipei。
Well,all I could say was ” 实在 不怎么样” or “just so so at most”
The moment I saw the Seafood Rice Noodle Soup I knew I would not like it. You can see it for yourself.
The rice noodles were all broken up into small pieces which told me that these came from the bottom of the basket (Well, it was close to quitting time when we got there at a little past 9 pm. It doesn’t look like the one shown in the picture above.
The vegetables were over cooked too. In fact, it looked like the entire bowl we got was the very last batch from today’s big batch.
Very bad.
The sour cabbage and pork stomach soup I ordered was light in taste and the meat had a slight after taste. The sour cabbage had been soaked in the soup for days if not weeks. It was totally bland. I bet that all the chefs had already gone for the day and a new kitchen helper probably did the very first dish of his new career.
Prices were a lot higher than what we could get from street stalls. The presentation, the color, the taste and the after taste made me wonder that the restaurant first opened in 1949. Ovee the years, the restaurant must have made a lot of money which afford them to move from a small place to a big dinning room on the 7th floor.
I almost forgot: the server gave us a small plate of some kind of sweet cake free of charge. It wasn’t sweet. It was too sticky. And it was tasteless.
Too bad. I was disappointed.
Dogfish Head Alehouse September 1, 2013
Posted by hslu in Food.Tags: Beer, Cheeseburger, Deep frying, Dogfish Head Alehouse, Dogfish Head Brewery, Falls Church, food, VA
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I probably won’t come back because the food was ordinary.
We stopped by around 10:30 Friday night and the restaurant was winding down. The bar was still busy but there were only a handful of tables left.
Our waiter was polite and personal. He treated us well and wanted us to come back. He may be disappointed.
The food wasn’t bad but it was kind like standard bar food and there was nothing to write home about.
The batter of the spicy calamari and onion rings was way too heavy and they were over deep fried. Both probably came from their suppliers Instead of home made. The calamari wasn’t very spicy either.
We also shared a cheeseburger and our waiter asked the kitchen to cut it in two halves which was very nice of him. Well, I didn’t realize it that we had to pay $1 extra for that.
Our cheeseburger was good: medium; the way we liked it. It was juicy in the middle and taste great.
I was also disappointed that our beer came in small brandy glass which was very weird. For that 6 oz of beer, we had to pay $9.50.I say that was a little on the stiff side.
I am now very sure that we won’t go back.
Middle Eastern Food Festival, Northern Virginia August 31, 2013
Posted by hslu in Cooking, Food, Religion.Tags: Eggplant, Fattoush, food, Labor Day, Middle East, Middle Eastern Food Festival, Northern Virginia, Pita
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I didn’t realize that this is the 20th year this church had this food Festival. I also didn’t know that there is a big church on Leiwensville Road even though I have driven by this place hundreds of times.
The festival is held every year over the labor day weekend.
I came here for the food even though I can’t eat a lot.
There were hundreds of people when we got there around 2 pm. There were about 100 people in the big hall already when we got there and there was a line to order food.
We had #3 platter which was M’nezzeleh: roasted egg plant with ground lamb and beef. The sides were rice, salad called fattoush and 2 small pieces of pita bread.
The roast egg plant was great: well cooked and very flavorful. I didn’t think I tasted any lamb thougg and there was little meat to begin with. The rice was a little under cooked though.
Fattoush was fresh and well seasoned. We also got some sweets and we like it too because they weren’t soaked in syrup.
We also had some roasted lamb which took 6 hours to prepare. The lamb meat was tender, juicy and slightly seasoned and best of all was it didn’t have that lamb taste. I like it.
We had a lot of fun.
BTW, 10% if all the proceeds will be donated to people in the Middle East who have been suffering from the war.
Lunch buffet – The Grill Room at Worldgate Marriott Herndon January 18, 2012
Posted by hslu in Food, Restaurants.Tags: Buffet, Business, Dining Guides, food, Grill Room, Recreation, restaurant, Subway, United States, Worldgate Marriott Herndon
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We had intended to try the Japanese restaurant at Herndon Worldgate Center on a Thursday in October 2011 when we saw the “all you can eat buffet” sign at Marriott’s The Grill Room.
Hmm, when did Worldgate Marriott started lunch buffet here? Was it the competition from the Indian buffet or the Chinese buffet in the same shopping center? Or was it from the deep competition from the 15 or 16 restaurants here: TGI Friday, American café, Subway and Qdabo Mexican Grill among others? To attract potential customers into it door, the sign even showed the price: $9.95.
It was a good price for sure, but what about the quality? We had to give it a try. The dining room was very well appointed: clean and quiet, hard wood panel, huge ceiling to floor window for a mice view, dark-colored tables and chairs, clean silverware and nice set up for the salad table and warm food station. There was even a table full of desserts.
Not bad. Not bad at all. The staff was very helpful and when we asked for a dessert that had ran out, the waiter gladly took out some more from the cooler in the kitchen.
We had a great time and we certainly enjoyed the food too. The price was wonderful for the quantity and quality of the food.
Our experience convinced us to give it another try in a future date.
You should too.
Look how much wine I got for $8.
Such a great vale.
My new blogsite: www.polinomicspost.com January 29, 2011
Posted by hslu in Chinese Food, Economics, Food, Life, Death and Yuanfen, misc, My Restaurant, Politics, Restaurants, Shanghai, Travel, Wine.Tags: Blog, China, 生 死 "sheng1 si3", 缘份 "yanu2 fen4", food, Languages, life in the US and China, PHP, Programming, travel, United States, Website, WordPress, www.polinomicspost.com, 命运 "ming4 yun4"
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If you are looking for my blogs on politics and economics, may I present you a new blog site of mine thanks for the help of XB:
xiaohua remains to be my blog on personal matters such as:
food, travel, life in the US and China, 命运 “ming4 yun4”, 生 死 “sheng1 si3” and 缘份 “yanu2 fen4.
A new blog! A new beginning!
It is still evolving and may take a while to reach its final stage.
