Taipei: Snacking around [Oct 2013]

Taiwanese breakfast Taiwanese breakfast Taiwanese breakfast.  That's all I could think about when I landed.  However, it was late at night, so I got to my aunt's, changed, and somehow fell asleep while thinking about that fantuan.

Surprisingly not much jetlag so when I woke up, it was close to 10am already, and there still was a line when I got to Yung Ho for breakfast.

Masters at work, making the sesame bread and the youtiao!

My egg wrapped fan tuan.  There's probably 10+ pictures of this same thing here already, but who cares, I love it.  

Decided to splurge a little and got the turnip cake.  Perfect with a bit of soy sauce.

Hmmm perfection.

After breakfast, I was just about to head out to explore, then I saw an old man selling some zhuabing (hand-grabbed green onion cake), so I had to get it.  With egg of course.

清玉, which is a "new" chain known for their lemon drinks.  They are not that new, but new to me :P  Oolong milk tea just to check it out.  A little bit sweet, even at half sugar.

Needed to get some work done so went to Cafe Trouve near 師大.  Recommended by Cyeh and Diana Cheng haha.  I guess there's lots of these homey, hipster cafes popping up in Taipei now!

Iced latte.

Why not some beef noodle soup?  Decided to try 龍泉街牛肉麵.  Pretty packed when I went.  There's also some awards displayed that they won from the Beef Noodle Festival.

How does it compare?  Not too bad!  The soup's lighter even though it looks quite oily.  Beef brisket is pretty cooked.  I liked the tendon a lot more though.  The preserved greens were whatevers.


Hot spring egg.  Ordered it on the side.  Definitely Japanese influenced.  Essentially a poached egg with a light soy sauce.  I just added it to the beef noodle soup haha.


So while I was walking back from 師大 to 科技大樓, I saw a frying stand, so had to stop by and get some late night snack.  Picked up an oolong milk tea too haha.


Popcorn chicken and pig's blood!  The cool thing about this spot is that they add garlic.  Lots of it!  Pretty generous with the basil too.


Garlic goodness :]

Coming up: my day trip to Yilan, Taiwan!

Philadelphia: Federal Donuts & By George! for Cheesesteaks

I asked a bunch of people what is a must in Philly and they all told me that I must visit Federal Donuts, which is this gourmet/hipster donut shop that sells donuts and fried chicken!  It was bit far from from the convention center, but I was determined to try it, so I made the 20 minute trek to Federal Donuts' location in Center City during lunch.

Just realized that I visit a donut shop in every city I've been to and it's always some cool, new, hip thang.  Where's LA's hipster donut shop??

Federal Donuts

1632 Sansom St 

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Rittenhouse Square, Penn Center 

federaldonuts.com

Federal Donuts!  Went with my coworker again.  He always said that if he follows me around, he'll be sure to try something good haha.

Coffee, donuts, and chicken.  Genius.

Inside.  Very simple but pretty cool decor.

So for the donuts, they have two categories: fancy and hot fresh.  Fancy donuts cost a bit more and exactly like the name implies, fancier than your average donuts.  They only had two different ones left.  Got the Blueberry Muffin, and it is a donut covered with blueberry glaze, then sprinkled with blueberry muffin crumbs!

Strawberry Lemonade!  Lemonade glaze with strawberry icing.  When I took that first bite, my brain was so confused because it really did taste like a strawberry lemonade, but I was eating a donut.  I got the last one too!

Besides donuts, also got a 1/2 order of the fried chicken.  I'm actually not too sure which seasoning I got... since I ordered the Shabazzi but may have gotten the honey ginger.  In any case, ridiculously good fried chicken.  It's done like the Korean-style fried chicken, so a nice crunch outside and moist inside. They also give you a small side of Japanese cucumber pickles.

With every order of the fried chicken, you get a honey donut!  It's part of the hot fresh, so they fry it on the spot.  Nothing better than fresh donuts

Some fried chicken and three donuts later, I went back a really happy dude.  Good thing I had that short work too just to work some of it off.  Dammit.  LA needs a place that sells donuts and fried chicken!

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For my last day in Philly, I figured I should at least eat cheesesteak once.  It's just I've had a few cheesesteaks, and they have never lived up to the hype.  Yelped a bit, and found this vendor, By Geroge!, inside the Reading Terminal Market that sells Italian food and cheesesteaks.  A little skeptical, but all the other cheesesteak spots had crazy long lines, so I went for it.

By George! Pizza, Pasta & Cheesesteaks

Reading Terminal Market 

51 N 12th St 

Market East

Philadelphia, PA 19107

readingterminalmarket.org

Still a line, but definitely not as long.  There's one vendor that had to use a security guard to direct the line.  That place wasn't even that good.

After about 20 minutes, my cheesesteak with whiz, onions, and bacon was finally ready!  It is a biiiig sandwich.  When I was walking back, I held it in the palm, in a horizontal position so the juices wouldn't all drip to one spot, and man my arm actually got tired.

Damn that's a lot of steak!

Bacon!  Someone told me that I had to get it this way.  Good thing I took his suggestion haha.

There is a layer of cheese whiz on the bottom so when you take your bite, after you go through the bread, your tongue hits the cheese!

Not gonna lie, it is probably the best cheesesteak I've had anywhere.  Tons of steak, tasty cheese whiz, and sturdy bread that held up to everything.  I'm sure the bacon helped too.  It was the last thing I ate in Philly and I'm glad it was that huge sandwich.

Vancouver: The Original Guu on Thurlow

Last time I came to Vancouver, I didn't get to check out any of the Guu family of restaurants, so this time, made sure that was a stop.

There's several Guu in Vancouver, but each location is somewhat unique.  We decided to go to the original, an izakaya, and where it all started.  Why izakaya?  There's plenty in LA!  Well, I like visiting izakayas in different cities if I can because izakayas are generally much more casual, menu reflects local ingredients, menu changes often, and it's just a good way to relax with friends after traveling.  Beer + food!

Guu

838 Thurlow Street 

West End, Downtown

Vancouver, BC V6E 1W2 

guu-izakaya.com

Outside.  Of course, being an izakaya, it's not a big place and it was packed!  It's located near a popular street (Robson) so it is located at a good spot in terms of location.  Ended up waiting over an hour since we had a large group (Alice's friends).

Open style kitchen.  Place wasn't that big so we were separated into two tables.

Menu.  Ordered half the menu for three haha.

Specials that night.  Ordered a good amount from this menu too haha.

Of course, gotta get beer at an izakaya.

First up, Kabocha Croquette!  Sorta like a Japanese version of the Scottish Egg.

Mashed pumpkin squash with boiled egg croquette.

Kakuni.  One of the softest and tastiest pork belly I've ever had.  Sorry for the bad picture but I was really excited when this came hahah.  Who can resist that shiny looking pork belly.

Salmon Yukke.  Yukke means tartar but it is pretty much a soy marinated poke.  British Columbia salmon!  They also give you a quail egg on the side to mix it in for that tartar element.

Salmon on the shrimp cracker.

One of the specials, Gyoza Eggrolls.  Instead of stuffing gyoza fillings into dumpling skins, they used egg roll skins.

Tastes just like gyoza, except muuuuch crunchier.

Takoyaki.  Octopus ball.

Karubi.  Japanese version of the Korean kalbi.  On the sweeter side.

Grilled Smoked Salmon Neck from the special menu.  Fish collar is one of my favorite part of the fish.  A bit tough from the smoking but it is packed with flavor.

Gyu Tan.  Grilled beef tongue.  I'm... still not a fan haha.

Kaarage!  Fried chicken!

Tontoro.  Grilled pork jowl.  Don't know where they get their pork but it's awesome.

Love the texture of this cut of pork.  Fatty but with some tendon for that bite.

Shrimp Wonton Dan Dan Noodles.  It was sorta funny cause when we ordered it, the waitress was like "Very spicy!!" and kept on insisting that only order if we can eat spicy foods.  Calvin, Alice, and I ate it like it is nothing haha.  The peanut sauce part of it probably lessened the spiciness.  A few of the other staff stopped by and asked if it was spicy too.  Pretty legit for Japanese dan dan noodles!

The shrimp wontons.  There's even some preserved mustard green!  Impressed.

Was it worth the long wait?  Yes.  I get why Vancouver loves Guu.  It's a izakaya with tasty food, and the atmosphere is exactly how an izakaya should be: loud, busy, and a little smoky!  Next time, Guu Garlic for sure!

New York: Fried Chicken Dinner at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Sandy was hitting Manhattan Sunday night, so we contemplated about whether or not we should head out for our reservation at Momofuku Noodle Bar for the Fried Chicken Dinner.  Eventually we decided to make it to our reservation since we were gonna be stuck indoors for the majority of the next day.  Might as well get the most out of our trip before Sandy shuts everything down! 

The Fried Chicken Dinner is Momofuku Noodle Bar's large format dinner like the Bossam Dinner at Ssam Bar.  They give you a plate of Southern-style fried chicken and Korean fried chicken, and you can make your own wraps or just eat it straight up.  Of course, it is served family style, for 4-8 people, at $100, and you have to make a reservation for it!

Momofuku Noodle Bar

171 1st Ave 

Between 10th St & 11th St

East Village

New York, NY 10003

momofuku.com

Oct 28th dinner menu.

We found out the fried chicken itself is probably not enough food, so Edwin and I decided to get everything on this part of the menu, except for the dried noodles :P

Momofuku's famous Pork Buns, with pork belly, scallions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce.  I posted about it before and mentioned how it is very similar to Taiwanese guabao.

The super fatty and delicious pork belly.

Shrimp Bun.  I didn't try this at Ssam Bar last time.  It's essentially a fried shrimp cake, with spicy mayo, pickled shallots, and iceberg lettuce.

Fried shrimp cake.

I didn't think I'd like it since I don't like mayo-based sauce, but it's actually very good!

Usually there's a 3rd bun on the menu, and they change it up all the time.  That night, they had the Shiitake Bun.

 Fried shiitake, scallions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce.  Very similar to the pork bun, but flavor's totally different.  Crunchy shiitake is great, although a few pieces were overcooked so it was a bit bitter.

The Momofuku Ramen.  Soup base is much lighter versus tonkotsu-based broth.  Ramen noodle is great, but I wasn't too crazy about the soup.  

Pork shoulder and poached egg topping.  Pork shoulder was more like shredded pork.  Kinda got lost in the soup though.  Poached egg was awesome since once broken apart, the yolk slowly immerses itself with the soup.

Pork belly.  Same as the Pork Bun.

Spicy Miso Ramen, with smoked chicken, scallion, and sesame.  This was a big disappointment for Edwin and me.  Couldn't taste much of the smoke flavor from the chicken, and it just wasn't spicy enough.  Not much miso flavor either.

After the ramen, they started to bring out everything for the Fried Chicken Dinner.

Hoisin sauce and gochujang.  Chinese + Korean combo here.

Scallion sauce.  This was probably my favorite from the bossam dinner at Ssam Bar.  Glad to see they provided here too.

Soy sauce dressing with garlic and jalapeno.  A little bit of sweetness too.

Herb basket (basil, mint cilantro) with baby carrots, red ball radishes, shiso leaves, and bibb lettuce.

Mushu wraps.  They provide these so you can make your own wraps.

The fried chicken arrives!  The two types: Southern-style fried chicken & Korean fried chicken.

Southern-style chicken is fried with a buttermilk and old bay batter.  Extremely hard crust.  It was like biting into a shell.  We wanted it to be crunchy, but not break our teeth off..  Seasoning was good though.  Drumstick and smaller pieces were pretty juicy but some of the bigger pieces were really dry.

Korean fried chicken is triple fried and served with a light spicy glaze.  I definitely prefer this over the Southern-style.  The glaze is mouthwatering and goes really well with all the sauces.  Crust is not as hard, more on the crunchy side probably due to a lighter batter?

Making a wrap with the mushu wrap.  Chicken, cilantro, scallion sauce, basil...

I added a bit of the hoisin sauce to give the Southern style a little Asian flavor.  It was the only wrap I made though.  When the wraps got cold, it became extremely chewy and hard to eat, so we didn't eat much of it.

It was a meal we were looking forward to, but I think the hype killed it for us.  We were expecting a lot out of the ramen, but none of it really delivered for us.  We're spoiled with all the ramen spots in California.  The Fried Chicken Dinner sounded awesome, but it was just too good to be true..  I gotta admit though, Momofuku knows how to make some bombass buns.  I would order all 3 that I tried in a heartbeat.