New York: Nan Shian Dumpling House / Katz Delicatessen

Since I got some downtime on this work trip, I'll post about my 2-day trip to New York back in August of 2010. I went for work and so I used the opportunity to convince a few of my colleagues and co-workers to try these two spots I've had my eyes on!

First was Nan Shian Dumpling House. I've been craving good xiao long bao for some reason and I figured Flushing in NY gotta have something good, so I yelped and Nan Shian was what popped up!

Nan Shian Dumpling House

38-12 Prince St.

Flushing, NY 11354

Nan Shian. They actually used the name of a really popular Northern Chinese restaurant in Shanghai so I figured it can't be that bad or else they wouldn't be able to live up to the Nan Shian name.

Xiao Long Bao!! I seriously love xiao long bao. I love how the juices from the pork gets released during the steaming process and it gets trapped so when you take a bite into the bao, all the juices can be slurped up. It's pretty good here but the skin is a little bit thicker than what I considered the best, Ding Tai Fung.

This was intense: beef wrapped green onion cake. Typically it is just normal beef wraps but they use green onion cakes here to wrap their beef. Nice braised slices of beef and the fried green onion cake makes a nice crunch when you bite into it.

Pig ear in red oil. Good stuff.

Fu Qi Fei Pian. Honestly I don't know what theirs is but it is usually thin slices of beef, beef lung, beef intestine, and beef tongue... marinated, so take your guess at what it is hahaha.

After all that spicy stuff, need something refreshing. Sliced marinated cucumber!

Of course, there's some sort of cold seaweed dish. May look spicy with all that chili peppers but it's more for colors really.

A good spot to grab lunch or dinner but is it comparable to Ding Tai Fung? Well I have strong attachment to Ding Tai Fung so no... but it's good!

-

On day 2, after visiting a few places, we wanted to grab lunch before our flight so I convinced everybody to go to Katz Delicatessen.

If you don't know what Katz is, well it is pretty much famous for its hot dogs, corned beef, and of course, pastrami. It's been opened since 1888 so it's got a bit of history as well. It is also one of the location in Where Harry Met Sally and several other movies.

Katz Delicatessen

205 E Houston St (between Avenue A & Essex St)

Lower East Side, New York, NY 10002

www.katzdeli.com

Katz!

The GLORIOUS pastrami sandwich. It's so simple: pastrami on rye bread with a bit of mustard. It is the best pastrami I've had. Anywhere. Period. The pastrami melts right in your mouth and it's incredibly juicy from all the fat. It doesn't feel greasy at all however. I love how it is handcarved in front of you and the carver present you with a sample from the piece they are cutting it from to see if it is to your liking. You can request it fattier or leaner, depending on your taste. These guys are good, carving each piece at the right thickness. OMG I can keep talking about it forever but just know that it is amazing.

It is sorta expensive though... I remember it being around $15 for that sandwich, but who the hell cares! Too. Damn. Good.

They have a sign where Meg Ryan sat in the movie hahaha.

There are way too many spots in NY that I want to check out. Sometimes I really hate myself that I don't live in NY but maybe it's a good thing since I'll be poor and fat as hell if I really do live in NY haha.

Taiwan: 老董牛肉麵 [Dong's Beef Noodle Soup]

If you didn't know, 牛肉麵 beef noodle soup is absolutely one of my favorite of all time, but it's really hard to find a place with good noodle soup here in the States. Whenever I go back to Taiwan, I eat it as much as I can and this time I decided to try the beef noodle soup from 老董, which won first place at the Beef Noodle Festival that Taipei holds every year.

Got their 半筋半肉牛肉麵 [tendon and meat beef noodle soup]. The soup was really light and you can really taste the flavor from the beef. They use a much more fatty part of the cow so the the beef was tender but a little bit too much fat for my liking. The beef tendon was amazing though. You can tell how long they've been braising and cooking it just from taking one bite since it's so soft. Usually tendons are really hard to cook through.

Their 酸菜 that you add to the noodle soup, which is actually pretty light compared to a lot of places. Nothing special really.

Traditional green onion cake. It's a little different in that they coil it into the shape seen above. My favorite item from 老董.

Their 牛肉捲餅 beef wraps, that's covered with sesame. The inside's marinated beef along with cucumber, green onion, and sauce. It's the first time I've seen a beef wrap that's coated with sesame. Gives it a different texture and flavor!

I went to this place with too much hype and expectations. I do love that it's not oily like some places but don't think it deserves the #1 title. It is an old school place since they've been there for so long. It's a good place to go for really old school beef noodle soup that's light on the palate.

Taiwan: 宜蘭 [Yi'Lan]

So, Yi'Lan is my mom's hometown. It's about an hour and a half away by train and 40 minutes by bus from Taipei. It's known for hot springs, and pretty much really good food. A lot of people from Taipei go to Yi'Lan for the weekend to relax and enjoy the nightmarkets there. The 羅東 nightmarket is really well known since it has a lot of specialities that other nightmarkets just doesn't have. I go to Yi'Lan almost everytime I go back to Taiwan, just to see my grandma and my aunts, and of course, eat :]

Taiwanese-style green onion cake with egg. It's from this one stand that has people waiting in line since 8am in the morning. Crazay. He fries the dough with green onions on a hot skillet then adds an egg on top so it fuses together. After, he adds a soy sauce based sauce to it and that's pretty much it. Absolutely gdamn delcious.

Yessir :]

打磕麵 "snoring noodles." It's called snoring noodles because the line is so long that it's said people start falling asleep waiting for it HAHA. Awesome. It's a little bit of pork fat mixed with celery, vinegar, hot chili sauce, and black pepper. You stir it and it's ready to eat. So simple, yet so good.

Their 餛飩湯 wonton soup, which is famous also.

It only looks slightly empty cause we went at 11. By the time we finished, the wait was about 40-50 minutes!

After the noodles, we saw a stand that sold 仆鴨, which is fried duck meat, but instead of it being salty, the mixture they dip into into before they fry it is sweet. Pretty interesting.

羅東nightmarket during the day, which is pretty... dead haha. Afterall, it is a nightmarket but still plenty of vendors selling food :D

龍鳳腿, which they wrap cabbage, ground pork, and mayo with pig skin membrane, then fried. I know it sounds nasty, but it's surprisingly good hahah. Mom said she used to eat this as a kid in Yi'Lan.

The famous 龍鳳腿.

Giganitc 碳烤炸雞排. They fried these big pieces of chicken steak, then they grill it with coals, coating it with the sauce or flavoring that you chose. I had it with teriyaki suace cause the lady recommended it haha. Can't really go wrong with fried chicken! :]

AND when night comes, my aunt went out and bought these delicious goodies :D

Of course, popcorn chicken, done the RIGHT way (fried with basil)

Fried tempura, pig blood, and yams from the same stand. Glorious.

Then she also got an assortment of braised and marinated items. Duck wings, pork intestines, pig blood, cabbage, and... some stuff I have no idea what it is, but it's delicious haha.

Next day, my aunt took us to a place where they've gone and ate Taiwanese food since they were a kid. It's owned by the neighbors so they always give discounts to my grandma and aunts whenever they go. Had to get 魯肉飯 (minced meat rice) of course hahaha.

Dish #1: marinated clams. Just soy sauce, rice wine, ginger, chili peppers. So simple. Best I've had in Taiwan too.

魷魚羹 squid soup? I don't know how to translate it, but it's damn good haha. This restaurant is known for it, as well as...

... this! It's 鯊魚煙 smoked shark, and you dip it in this sauce made from soy sauce paste and minced garlic. So damn good.

腮棒肉 pork cheek. It's just boiled pork cheek meat and you dip it in the same sauce as the shark meat, with a little bit of ginger.

燙A菜 boiled vegetables (potato leaves). They just boil the vegetable then they add minced meat over it with soy sauce paste.

溫泉蛋 hot spring eggs. Since 宜蘭 has a lot of hot springs, a lot of their dishes are named after it. They boil the eggs so it's half done, then they add soy sauce and other flavoring to season it. Heavenly.

After we ate, my aunt took us to the last place we'd visit before my sister and I went back to Taipei, to this place called 橘之鄉, which sells all sorts of preserved fruits and meat jerky, but mostly snacks made from 金柑 (kumquats).

This is preserved kumquat using salt. Interesting taste compared to what you usually think of citrus fruits.

Same kumquat, preserved with sugar. A lot more familiar tasting than the salted one.

Sour preserved kumquat. They just let these dry and let the natural flavors take over.

Made from a different fruit... totally forgot what it was but it's good hahaha.

I love Yi'Lan :]