I haven't seen that side of the family for over 8 years so imagine how surprised I was when I found out one of my cousin is already a freshman attending college! The last time I saw her she was just starting middle school. Seeing her and the new baby cousin made me feel super old... But of course, what better way to rekindle and catch up than pigging out at a top notch Japanese buffet?
My aunt decided on 欣葉 Shin Yeh, which is one of my favorite buffets anywhere! High quality Japanese food with few items changed to suit a Taiwanese's palate, but for the most part, fairly authentic Japanese items. It's pricey, at $750 NT, even for US's standards but it's definitely worth it! There's several locations but they chose the A11 since it was closer to the bus transfer station.
欣葉日式自助料理 Shin Yeh Japanese Buffet
台北市松壽路11號5樓
新光三越信義店A11館
SongShou Road #11 5F, Taipei City
ShinYi Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A11
Shin Yeh Japanese Buffet!
The drinks station. They have espresso machine, juices, Calpico, cocktails, and even all the beer you want!
Sashimi and cold item section.
Hot food section. My favorite part of the buffet.
Selection of fruits.
This station is a little bit more random, with a variety of salads, steamed items, noodles, and rice.
One of Shin Yeh's most popular item, huge tempura shrimp!
Grilled chicken wings. Lighting seasoned.
Kama, aka fish collar! Nothing crazy like salmon or hamachi fish collar but for a buffet, this is awesome! I don't know what fish it is but I never turn away from a fatty piece of fish collar :D
The wings are prefect with a little bit of white pepper salt.
The fish collar. Grilled with only salt so again, perfect with a bit of white pepper! I think I must've ate 10 of these. They are pretty small :P
Some type of grilled fish. My aunt told me the fish is pretty expensive in Taiwan. No clue what it is but I'm guessing it is 竹魚, which is Japanese horsemackerel.
Unlimited sashimi! Tuna, salmon, swordfish, whitefish!
More sashimi! This time with smoked shark!
The always popular shrimp tempura. It's the combination of huge fresh shrimp with prefect flaky tempura batter, and always fresh-fried.
Chicken cartilage! Weird to some people cause they can't stand the soft and crunchy texture but I love it!
Duck fried rice? Yes.
Started out with a coke cause I was craving it for some reason :P All sodas come in tiny bottles!
Cold soba noodles.
Fried rice and udon.
This is the "healthy living" section with healthy tea pot & steamed egg.
Pork sukiyaki! There's a huge controversy with beef right now due to politicians being stupid so there's essentially no beef on the menu right now.
Salmon roe handroll and shrimp hand roll. I like how the salmon roe handroll is not stuffed with rice. The shrimp handroll is my favorite out of the two cabbage, shrimp, bonito flakes, peanut powder, and a little of Japanese mayo!
Salmon belly miso soup. Miso + seafood is so simple but so good.
Some Calpico to wash it all down!
Now, this is the "healthy" tea pot.
What is it? Well it is essentially just water boiled with some ingredients that are good for you body.
Clams, shrimp, chicken, ginger etc. It 's all about the essence and the flavor.
Steamed egg. So smooooth. Japanese's steamed egg is the best.
Ham carving station. Again, this used to be roast beef or something but Taiwanese people are freaking out about beef because US beef is added with leanness enhancing additives. Meh... been eating beef all my life...
Popular flavors of vinegar drinks! For awhile, flavored vinegar was extremely popular in Taiwan because, well, vinegar is good for you! Looks like people still love it. Personally, I can only take 1 or 2.
For desserts, I started out with red bean soup with hot 湯圓 tang yuan and boba. Japanese buffet offering boba as a topping? Taiwan's buffet is awesome.
Chocolate fountain! I'm sure this is better than the crap Golden Corral serves.
More Asian sweets & pastries.
Ended up with chocolate-covered marshmallow, chocolate-covered tomato, mochi, creme-filled bread, and sesame ball.
Chocolate-covered marshmallow & tomato. I admit, I'm not a good chocolatier :P
Creme-filled bread. Soft spongy bread that's filled with vanilla creme.
Mochi dusted with peanut powder and sesame ball. More traditional items.
Went for more and got creme brulee with a cup of cappucino!
Now... for some reason the milk in Asia always have a much stronger milky flavor so any items that have dairy in it, you get a more flagrant, milky flavor out of it. This creme brulee was so rich, thanks to the milk!
I had to save some room for the fruits!
Guava and passionfruit. The green guava is my favorite fruit! None of these in the US so I always eat as much as I can.
蓮霧 lian wu and starfruit! Again, two fruits that I can't find in the States! Lian wu is also called wax apple, and another one of my favorites.
Decided to end the meal with something cold! It used to be Haagen Daaz but I don't think it is anymore.
Went for the mango and red bean. For the mango, if you've had any Asian mango-flavored candy, you'll know that the flavor is very different from any Western flavored mango food items.
Even though I've been to Shin Yeh several times, I really tried to try everything at least once this time around, so by the end... I was stuffed beyond belief. Funny thing was I didn't even realize I ate that much because I was talking to my relatives for the majority of the meal and not paying attention to exactly how much I've ate.
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