Food Intelligence

I must blog about this place. Master Hong’s Beef Noodle Soup. Mr. Huang brought me here my first night in Taipei in 2009, and it was an instant hit. First of all, come on, the signs all over the store saying which soups they have won awards for during the Beef Noodle Soup Festivals?! That makes it easy for a first-timer in deciding what to order. And if you didn’t see it all over the walls, they put it on the ordering checklist next to the item in parenthesis. Of course you’ll need to read Chinese. If you don’t, just look for the parenthesis or just point to what’s on the wall.

I can’t seem to recall for the life of me what makes these dumplings green…spinach? Nah, too obvious. I’ll have to ask next time I’m over there. But they were pretty good. The noodles are their specialty here, of course. If you’re into dao-xiao noodles, which are thick noodles, this place will not disappoint. They have thin noodles here as well, but I’m a big noodle fan myself.

Yeah there’s beef tripe in there too. You can get it with just brisket only. I grew up on tripe so it was cool to see it in BNS…usually only see it in Pho. The soup isn’t too oily, and it wasn’t overly crowded. The one we were at had a main level and a basement. Can’t remember which one it was (maybe Zhonghsiao? It was close to my hotel I think!). They have four locations, three in Taipei, one in Keelung.

But wait, there’s more! This place also has the BEST beef jerky known to man. My HAFE buddy Adrian can attest to this as we had some at the top of Mt. Fuji.

American beef jerky is dry and salty. It’s good, don’t get me wrong. Chinese beef jerky is moist. Plenty of flavor. I’m going to have to grab a piece after I’m done with this post. Good thing my mother picked up a few bags for me when she came to visit! Pictured is the Mexico flavor. Ever wonder what Mexico tasted like? Much more amazing than you think…especially if you think Tijuana or Nogales

Look – they even have a website here complete with directions, products, and an order form!!  Order today!  Send one my way as well please.

Hate getting those pesky fingerprints on your beautiful iPhone’s capacitive touch screen? Too cold to use your fingers on the iPhone? Need to play Taiko Drums but don’t want to use your fingers because you’ll bruise them or you’re a hand model and can’t afford to harm them? Try CJ Snack Sausages. They’re supposed to represent meaty fingers. Just don’t think about that when you eat them. Link to the post of the post here.

Another snapshot of the large fried chicken for size reference. This one has chili powder. Are there chickens this big? Boneless. I don’t want to see what this chicken looked like alive.

After a nice long vacation in the states, it is hard to come back to Japan. Don’t get me wrong. I love the place. But do you know how hard it is to find good large bowls of Pho around here? Sure, there are a few Vietnamese, Thai, even Cambodian restaurants nearby. There are plenty of Chinese restaurants. But just like in the states where there is plenty of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food geared for Americans (Sweet and Sour Chicken, Beef with Broccoli, Fortune Cookies, California Rolls, etc), there is plenty of the same food geared for Japanese. What does this mean in general? One – there won’t be very much meat – at least not for cheap. It’s expensive here. People off-base look for us to bring the meat for the BBQ because the cost is 1/4 as much–at least. Two – food won’t be very extreme. Not super spicy, not super rich, not super salty. Three – actually, this could have been rolled up with the first point – portions are small and cost is high. Pho comes in large portions and cost is relatively low! What gives? Anyway, it’s all of this, and perhaps because we have other favorites we just miss, that we come back “moping” just a little bit, well, at least our stomachs do. Japanese food is great though. Fresh fish and vegetables, great fried tempura, the best rice, etc etc. But that counts as just one cuisine in our pallette of world tastes.

Not long after we returned from Seattle, we decided to stop by a small Thai place outside Atsugi Naval Air Station. Small place upstairs with a litte Thai grocery store connected to it. Probably had seating for 20 at most. Smoking is still allowed in restaurants around Japan; we were kind of used to it, but there was another American couple at another table that told one guy, who was related to the restaurant owner, to stop smoking because she was pregnant. I think Bev was at the time too, so it was kind of a relief.

Pictured was their attempt at beef noodles. Better than What the Pho? because it wasn’t trying to mimick the traditional Pho, and moreover, it wasn’t their “specialty,” but still a far cry from what we’re used to. You can tell by the meat cuts. The bowl looks bigger than it actually was. I learned this trick while living here. Everything in the pictures and posters is much, much bigger than what you will get. For example, a small drink by American standards is, what, at least 12 ounces? Here, think Dixie cup. Large here? Maybe you get a full 8 ounces, not to mention the ice! We saw this at a “Juicer” bar while getting on/off the train. We thought they were handing out samples…nope. Somebody paid for that shot of fresh orange juice.

Anyway, can’t remember the name of the place. It was that forgettable. The store was nice, the Golden Mountain Soy Sauce (one of the best soy sauces we’ve used) costed half as much as it did in Yokohama, but that isn’t saying much — 600 yen (about 6 dollars at the time) in Yokohama, not to mention the time and cost of getting there. Atsugi – about 400 yen (4 dollars). In the US? Not even 2 bucks. Thailand? Don’t wanna know.

Ok. Found it. Love Google. Why doesn’t Camp Zama have a food guide of local eats??? Atsugi has one! Right, not the Army way. I didn’t say that.
Name: Kruwa Thai.
Location: Across the street from the Gorilla Pachinko. 2-30-13 Higashi-kashiwagaya, Ebina.

I work on an old Army depot. There is nothing here on base. Many Japanese radicals think we do some kind of secret biological/chemical weapons testing and protest that the land should be returned to them. I agree. Not that we’re doing testing, but that they should get the land back. Eventually. I mean, Japanese houses are literally built up all the way to the fence, and then this base is just wide open land, with a couple shipping containers. No secret weapons. Just mattresses to support the warfighter. No joke. When we moved in to our house, we got two new mattresses from the Housing department, and on the labels, it says “Sagami Depot”. If these extremists only knew!

Uh, yes, so, nothing on base. Yes. We have one cafeteria. Sagami Lounge. The menu doesn’t change. They have a daily special. You can count on more Japanese workers to come on the buffet days. Food is okay if you’re in a hurry and don’t want to go off base – which the first restaurant is, what, a few minutes walk after leaving the gate? Anyway. The one thing I enjoy getting here consistently…er…occasionally is the Depot Burger with cheese. It’s either a 2/3 lb burger with one leaf (I kid you not, you get more lettuce from McDonalds) of lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and school cafeteria fries. I enjoy this thing, but most of my coworkers say the spices the Japanese cooks add to the burger don’t agree with them. You’d think it’d knock me out for the rest of the work day. And about 50% of the time it does. But I like it. More than the Burger King Whopper they have selling at the Food Court at Zama. Maybe the Whopper changes when it goes through customs? The only thing that joint seems to make right is the Tendercrisp.

Yes, these are all things I should be eating less of in moderation, so I limit myself to like once a week. And then a light dinner. It’ll probably be all nixed out when I finally get off my rear and do the P90X I’ve been wanting to do…

If you’re ever on Route 16 around Sagamihara and need a break (because everyone needs a break if you’re on Route 16 – it sucks!), look me up and I’ll treat you to a Depot Burger. You can try the Depot Burger Challenge as well – 4 patties! The current record is 10 patties. I saw a poor Army sap trying to break the record, but alas, he fell short, only 9 1/2 patties. They only give you one hour. But he finished all the fixins – which is a requirement – all the fries need to be finished. Saw him the next day with his buddies eating, he was only drinking water, and had that hunched over, gonna puke if I smell any ground beef for…the rest of my life…look. Wonder how he is now!

Location: See below. Pretty easy to spot.

Map shot from Google Maps

One of the things we’d always do when we go back to Seattle is stop by L&L Hawaiian Barbeque in Lynnwood (gasp! I know, don’t get me started), mainly for nostalgia really. I shouldn’t be eating so much food these days, but that’s what New Year’s Resolutions are for. Beverly and I spent our honeymoon in Hawaii, and we got married in May. We make our annual hajj to Seattle in May to celebrate our anniversary (since the only way to celebrate is to get rid of the kids…er…put the kids in trusted hands like their grandparents), and it’s never complete without a taste of our honeymoon. Of course, if we lived in Seattle, we could simply hop on a Hawaiian or Alaska (yeah, go figure) Airlines round trip flight to Honolulu for under $300 and relive the moment, but since we’re already spending more than double that amount just getting to Seattle, well, L&L in Lynnwood will do. You get a “healthy” portion of whatever you want, from mixed plate to loco moco, complete with mac salad and rice from an ice cream scoop. And don’t forget the Hawaiian prices! Still cheaper than a roundtrip ticket, though! Someone needs to open a Matsumoto Shaved Ice and Ted’s Bakery in Seattle…although I don’t think Shaved Ice will do too well. Anyway, I always come out of this place regretting buying a combo plate lunch AND eating it all in one go. Usually when we go to Seattle for vacation I leave looking like Doraemon.

Location: 19709 Highway 99 Ste F, Lynnwood, WA 98036