There’s really very little I can say about Din Tai Fung that hasn’t already been said in all the various travel books, magazines, and blogs about Taiwan.  Open up any of them, and the top must-visit eatery in Taipei that gets mentioned will just about always be the famous Din Tai Fung.  [...]]]>

There’s really very little I can say about Din Tai Fung that hasn’t already been said in all the various travel books, magazines, and blogs about Taiwan.  Open up any of them, and the top must-visit eatery in Taipei that gets mentioned will just about always be the famous Din Tai Fung.  Any travel guide or tour of Taiwan without it would be incomplete.  Its fame goes back to the 90′s, when it was selected as one of the world’s top ten restaurants by New York Times.

My history with DTF goes way back to my childhood around that same time.  I remember back before my teenage years, I would enjoy coming to Taiwan every summer with my family to visit the family overseas.  And every trip would include a pilgrimage to the Din Tai Fung on XinYi Road (the original location).  At that location, the kitchen is on display right by the front door so that everyone can see what incredible technique they use to make sure each dumpling is uniformly made for consistent cooking.  It’s a very well-oiled machine, and it needs to be, to fulfill the hungry masses that come every minute for their juicy buns, better known as Xiao Long Bao.

These perfectly shaped buns are filled with mostly with pork (sometimes shrimp) and small gelatinous stuff that, when melted in the steamer, give off the juice in the buns.  This picture actually took four tries to take, because at my table, you’re never fast enough to snap a shot of all eight before someone jacks one of them.  Seriously, I have maybe four or five pictures where I have 6 out of 8 buns in shot.  I guess my family got full by the time we ordered our last set.

Since my childhood, they’ve expanded.  A lot.  There’s now branches all over Asia, including many in Japan, China, Australia, and a Southern California outpost in Arcadia.  I’ve been to the one in Arcadia a few times, and honestly, I think it’s just as good.  It’s nowhere near the same experience, but I would have their Xiao Long Bao, fried rice, or chicken soup any day of the week.

These warm buns have a black sesame filling – sweeter stuff for the end of your meal.  You’ll notice that the skins are much thinner and there are many more swirls to the top.  I can’t tell you why that is… I can only tell you that they are yummy.

Man, what’s not good at Din Tai Fung?  Of course, their staple is the delicious Xiao Long Bao, but curious eaters should feel free to explore the rest of their menu.  Personally, I’m as big a fan of their chicken soup as I am of the xiao long bao.  My favorite remedy for the common cold, or an empty stomach.

This will always be my definition of comfort food, even though it is now a huge tourist attraction for Taiwan.

Din Tai Fung (Taipei)
Multiple locations in Taipei and Taiwan

Din Tai Fung (USA)
1088 South Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, CA 91007

But be warned as it’s not for the faint of heart.  [...]]]> Szechuan (Sichuan) knows how to bring the heat.  One of my absolute favorite types of Chinese cuisine, it gets its bold flavors from no-holds-barred uses of chili, spices, and garlic on almost everything.  The result is usually something that’s packed with flavor and also mouth-numbingly spicy.

But be warned as it’s not for the faint of heart.  Sichuan spicy is usually for those who love everything as spicy as they can get, or just enjoy pain in their mouths.

I haven’t had Sichuan food in a while, so I was very excited when we pulled up to this restaurant and my relatives told me it would be spicy.  (Side note: aside from dining with family, I never eat at Chinese restaurants.  Except for two exceptions–Christmas Day and post-clubbing with Asians.  I could count the times I’ve ordered Chinese food with my two hands probably.  And I had never heard of Kung Pao Chicken until this year at Panda Express.  An epiphany I just had while writing this.  Now I’ve probably just lost all credibility when it comes to writing about Chinese food).

KiKi is a chain restaurant with a couple shops around Taipei, the easiest one to find on FuXing S. Road across from the Breeze Center Mall.  My cousin tells me it was started by a celebrity, but I hadn’t heard of the name.  I also have no idea if it has anything to do with Hayao Miyazaki’s classic film KiKi’s Delivery Service (1989), one of my childhood favorites, but the cat image looks too similar to believe otherwise.  A Japanese animated film and Sichuan food doesn’t sound like it’d be related though.

Onto the food.  This is stir fried minced pork with Chinese chives and fermented black beans. This is typically a very spicy dish that goes well on top of your bowl of rice.  You just eat it all up together.  I love this dish and probably could eat all of this if I didn’t have to share.  We also went with “little spicy” on all our dishes so as to not cause pain for those that didn’t want it.

Dish #2 is crispy deep fried egg tofu. It’s actually not crispy like the menu states.  It’s like most fried tofu you can find on the streets except for one key difference.  The insides are super tender, almost like a poached egg.  They make this dish very well.

Now this dish is why I get so excited about Sichuan cuisine.  For many adolescent years I’ve eaten suan ni bai rou (thinly sliced boiled pork in a piquant garlic dressing) at a Sichuan restaurant in the bay with my family, so this takes me back.  While looking very different from what I remember, trust me.  There is nothing bad I can say about pork in spicy garlic sauce.  I loved every bite of it.

And then we capped the dinner off with a whole pan roasted fish in chili and soy sauce. The seasoning was sweet, salty, and spicy all at the same time, and the meat just melted in your mouth.

Now I’m on a mission to find me a good Sichuan restaurant back in LA.

KiKi
Various locations in Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.kiki1991.com/

At the north end of ShiDa night market is a small, popular stand that’s made a living for many years selling only one thing: Sheng Jian Bao‘s.  They make only one thing, but they make it very, very well.  When you stand there, you’ll be amazed at how a handful of people are able to stuff [...]]]>

At the north end of ShiDa night market is a small, popular stand that’s made a living for many years selling only one thing: Sheng Jian Bao‘s.  They make only one thing, but they make it very, very well.  When you stand there, you’ll be amazed at how a handful of people are able to stuff and fry these pork buns fast enough to feed the hordes of hungry nightcrawlers that come upon ShiDa every night.

Find the crowd gathering around this food stand at night.  You’ll have to pull a number and wait for it to be called.  When your number is called, just let them know how many you want and they’ll bring it right out.  1 for 7 NT, 5 for 30 NT (about $1).  If you buy a dozen, they’ll give you a box.  I would highly recommend going that route if you can, because the buns have a tendency to stick to the bags once they start cooling.

Spent too long trying to find a spot to eat and take a picture that they ended up cooling down and sticking to the inside of the bag.  They’re not as juicy as xiao long baos, but you still don’t want to rip them open or let them cool down.  If I wasn’t in such a need to budget my bites at each stand, I so would have gone back and ordered more of these little guys.  At around $2 for a dozen buns freshly made from scratch, they’re truly a steal for any hungry foreigner.

The main difference between the sheng jian bao and xiao long bao, as I understand it, is that SJBs are slightly larger and are fried as opposed to steamed.  It’s like clockwork at this food stand.  Only two fryers but not a second is ever wasted.  As soon as the last bun is gone from one, it’s quickly used to heat up a completely new batch.  Simultaneously, the other fryer’s load will be completely done and ready to be served up as well.  You’ll notice that they only need one lid to get the job done.

No bottlenecks anywhere.  As far as I could tell, the only thing that slowed them down was collecting money from the amount of traffic they were getting (a dreamy dilemma for any businessman).  It’s an amazing and delicious process.  You gotta see and taste for yourself.

ShiDa Night Market
Taipower Building (Tai Dian Da Lou) MRT Station
Exit #3 and follow ShiDa Road to the North
Night Market is in alleyways on right hand side once you see a park to the left

I love stumbling on something good.  It’s like a revelation when you accidentally come across something that you should have been looking for all along.  Well, this is that something.  Once I took a bite of this peppered bun (hu jiao bin), I realized that this is the best thing I’ve eaten in Taipei (well, so [...]]]>

I love stumbling on something good.  It’s like a revelation when you accidentally come across something that you should have been looking for all along.  Well, this is that something.  Once I took a bite of this peppered bun (hu jiao bin), I realized that this is the best thing I’ve eaten in Taipei (well, so far anyway).

I got laughed at for taking a bus cross-town all the way to NingXia Street when there’s a much bigger, famous RaoHe Street Night Market within walking distance from my Grandma’s place.  So, early on a Friday evening I headed out there for some dinner, night market style.

Browsing the aisles, I saw all sorts of delicacies: Indian kabobs, Japanese okonomiyaki, grilled whole squid, beef noodle soup, oyster omelets, and the list goes on.  So much food, only one stomach… what do I eat tonight?

Well, when in doubt in a new place, ALWAYS go with the longest line.  Trust everyone else to know something that you don’t.  So I wandered from the Western gate all the way through the entire market before I ended up at this cart just inside the Eastern gate of RaoHe Street.  It easily had the longest line of the entire market, queued up at least 30 deep.  I even arrived early at the opening of the night market too, around 5 PM.  This MUST be good.

Really?  How good could it be?  I had to wonder.  By the looks of things, it was another juicy meat bun.  Just like the kind that’s available all over Taiwan.  They called it the peppered bun too, but I don’t really see any more pepper than usual.  So what makes this so special that people wait around for it?  Well, the secret is in what the guy is reaching into.

They use a tandoor oven to cook these buns!  There’s a guy that slaps them onto the side of the oven to let cook and harden, then comes back to scrape them off when done baking.  The whole assembly line itself is a show actually.  Very efficient and mouth-watering to watch.

The result is the bottom of the bun has a baked crust that’s also been seasoned by the sides of the oven.  The insides are juicy and meaty.  The top of the sesame bun also has a crispy flakiness to it.  All in all, it’s the perfect bun.

It costs 45 NT per, which amounts to a buck fifty in American dollars.  Geez, why would I ever go back to California now?

Hu Jiao Bin (peppered buns)
Eastern gate of RaoHe Street

So, it was so good the first time that I decided to go back for another!  I’m now staying with my Grandma during the week, which I love for my random wanderings because she’s much closer to Taipei’s downtown hotspots.  And more importantly, she falls asleep early so there’s nobody to check out with.  Off we [...]]]>

So, it was so good the first time that I decided to go back for another!  I’m now staying with my Grandma during the week, which I love for my random wanderings because she’s much closer to Taipei’s downtown hotspots.  And more importantly, she falls asleep early so there’s nobody to check out with.  Off we go.

After a couple trips of wandering, I spotted this sausage cart and smiled with glee.  A wave of old nostalgia hit me and brought me back to my high school days.  This was the first night market snack I’ve ever had on my own.  Why?  It’s because it was one of the only signs that I could read with perfect Chinese at the time.  Plus, once you take a look, it’s meat and rice sausages.  Very friendly to a foreign kid”s tastes.

Here it is: Big Sausage Wraps Little Sausage.  It’s a Taiwanese take on the hot dog.  Just as it sounds, it’s a meat sausage wrapped with a larger rice sausage, then filled with a bit of cucumber and relish inside.  It’s definitely a neat novelty to have in Taipei, but I would probably prefer a bread bun (being American and all).  Once you start breaking the casing for the rice sausage, it starts to come apart on you rather fast and doesn’t serve well as a vehicle for your meat sausage.  I think it’s much more manageable to eat them separately.

I do love to order this late night snack, but this location wasn’t my favorite.  It’s also a pricier than what I’ve seen at TongHua Rd. and Shih-Lin night markets (35 NT instead of 50).

Okay, that’s all for NingXia Rd.  On to the next one!

After eating steak, Dunkin’ Donuts (twice), Thai food, and Burger King during my first 48 hours in Taiwan, I finally got to taste some of the good stuff!  As soon as I landed, people asked me what I wanted to eat in Taipei. I’d reply right away with all the usual Taiwanese eats: oyster omelets (o’ya [...]]]>

After eating steak, Dunkin’ Donuts (twice), Thai food, and Burger King during my first 48 hours in Taiwan, I finally got to taste some of the good stuff!  As soon as I landed, people asked me what I wanted to eat in Taipei. I’d reply right away with all the usual Taiwanese eats: oyster omelets (o’ya jian), chinese donut wrapped in bun (sao bing yiou tiao), stinky tofu, spicy-numb hot pot, and on and on.  Problem was nobody could take me out until the weekend, so I waited.  When it finally came around, I piled into a car with my sis, her hubby, and my uncle & aunt, and headed out to NingXia Road for all the good stuff.

I figured this place must be good cause we went a long way from my Aunt’s place in the outer-lying district of Neihu.  We actually passed a much larger night market that I frequent called Shi-Ling for this small strip of land, so they must all know something that I didn’t.  When we get there, I discover that this place is really tiny–just a city block’s length of eateries.  Oh but there’s plenty to choose from!  Just about every street food you could think of is here–frog eggs, octopus balls, corn dogs, meats on sticks, and even bacon wrapped hot dogs Chinese style.

First stop: Stinky Tofu.  Those who know Taiwanese specialties or watch travel documentaries of Taiwan know how special this is to the island.  Don’t let the scent throw you, it’s actually quite tasty and has a flavor completely unlike what you smell.  Here it’s boiled and served with duck blood and sour cabbage soup.  Exotic comfort food.

Personally, I like my stinky tofu fried.  It’s easier to handle for those who aren’t used to the smell and I just like the crispy shell and sweet sauce.

Numbing and Hot Stinky Tofu Store

This is the oyster omelet (o’ya jian) that we came all the way for.  The thing that I love about these Taiwan streetside food courts is that every store or cart sells one or two things only, but they do it so well day in and day out.  This tiny hole in the wall has been around for over 40 years in this location and remains one of the busiest eateries on Ningxia Street.  Even with tons of other ones that have popped up, we had to wait for to get a taste of their specialty.

The insides:  Oysters, gelatinous batter, greens, and egg.  Topped with the oyster sauce.

Yuan Hai Bian O’ Ya Jian:  One of the finest for oyster omelets.

Ningxia Street is located just east of ChongQing N. Rd between MinSheng W. and Nanjing W. Rds.  It’s a very short walk from either the ZhongShan or ShuangLien Metro Stations.  Open through the night.

Yes, that’s right.  My first real dinner in Taiwan was spent eating Western-style steak.  It probably should have been oyster omelets, stinky tofu, and beef noodle soup washed down with Taiwan beer, but my relatives decided that I probably don’t get enough steak in California and brought me to Wang Steak for dinner.

The place [...]]]>

Yes, that’s right.  My first real dinner in Taiwan was spent eating Western-style steak.  It probably should have been oyster omelets, stinky tofu, and beef noodle soup washed down with Taiwan beer, but my relatives decided that I probably don’t get enough steak in California and brought me to Wang Steak for dinner.

The place has many hints of steakhouses back home, such as Ruth’s Chris or Mortons, and without looking at the servers or Chinese menu, you’d probably believe you never left the country.  Much like all western steakhouses, you get a level of service that you’re not used to in Taiwan.  There’s a valet out front for your vehicle, your server’s name card is on the table, and a small militia of helpers work your table.

When you come here, you’ll have to make reservations, which can be hard on a good night.  My cousin called all five locations in Taipei and was only able to secure a 4 person Saturday night reservation at one store (Guangfu S. Road).  Your dinner also will likely take two hours to serve you all seven courses.

Seafood salad for starters.  Cold shrimp and octopus tentacles.  Salad’s never really that noteworthy for me.  They also serve bread and mini croissants with pate, a nice touch.

You can’t tell by looking at this, but it’s actually oxtail soup underneath.  I love oxtail soup, but it seems a bit weird to have a flaky crust over a clear broth.  It’s much better to dip into something creamy and chowdery, so I just kicked it aside and concentrated on the flavorful liquid underneath.

Now, the main course: Wang Steak.  My Chinese is really rough, but from what I gathered, this bone-in rib meat was raised and imported from New Zealand.  You get a choice between New Zealand with bone or North American without bone, so I opted for the cow that I’m less likely to get in California.  This actually isn’t recommended by my waitress or now, by me.  The continental cow is fattier and more tender than its rougher yet flavorful kiwi brother.  Either way you choose, however, you have no choice in how it’s cooked.  They will only do well done for this cut, which would probably elicit shudders from my rare-plus steak loving friend.  Fortunately, they have a crusted tenderloin and other menu options that can be cooked to order.

Other courses that come with the meal include wine, sour plum juice, and a fruit plate.  Here is the dessert I ordered because I’m a sucker for almond tofu.  It’s almond tofu pudding topped with black sesame ice cream – totally delicious.  But, I’m not a fan of the still frozen raspberries that they serve on the side.  I know they’re not a native fruit, but with so many options on the island, why import and serve a frozen berry?

All in all, it’s a pretty good steak house.  A meal here ran us about $40 a person (before coupon), so it’s rather high for Taiwan people but not for foreigners with steak cravings.  It’s not one I would probably frequent if it were in LA or think about going to if I only had 72 hours in Taipei, but if you’re here for a longer time and feeling like something fancy, this is definitely a restaurant that would form the beginning of the line.  Well, that is, until I eat at the Lawry’s in the Core Pacific Mall.

Fear not, I am eating a ton of Taiwanese delicacies as well.  More to come!

Happy New Years [...]]]>

Happy New Years from Taipei!