Food Intelligence

One of the specialty dishes along the Danshui boardwalk is Age, pronounced Ah-gay (not eye-gay, they may look at you funny, …or not!). Some signs will say Arcade. Because it is like an arcade in your mouth when you eat it. We stopped by this stall for lunch, and had to come back here for dinner because the kids and parents both loved it.

Let’s see, how to describe it. It’s a fried tofu with the insides taken out and substituted with vermicelli noodles and topped with a ground meat/poultry topping. It’s amazing. And cheap. Only thing is, if you get there right when a batch is ready, you’re lucky–especially if there are any left for you. Most likely you’ll need to wait, and it takes about 10-15 minutes for these to cook all the way through. But it’s well worth the wait. Plus you can walk around and order some of the other stuff around, like stinky tofu. Which I think is just a couple stalls down.

Right after you eat Age and before you go eat it again, you can stop by for some candy coated strawberries-and-tomato (Bev says the tomato is gross…not sure why there’s a tomato at the end). And the black dou-hua is nearby as well. Again, limitless possibilities, and if the second floor is open, sit up there because the view is beautiful. Just remember to bring bug spray or you’ll get bit on the face like poor Careese.

Sorry the posts are getting more and more brief. I KNOW if I don’t get through this Taiwan set of pictures that you may not see me post again until next year! Plus, I’m sure I’ll be frequenting these places again this year, so as I refresh myself with the food details, I will add more details to the posts!

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.

I need to share with you some of my staple foods that I absolutely must get every time I go to Taiwan. My mom grew up in Shihlin, so after she moved to the states and had us there, every time we went back to Taipei, there were a few certain places we would always frequent in the area.

Ah-liang’s noodles has the best “o-ah mee-sua” around. Don’t listen to what everyone else says – they’ll tell you to go to Ximending to try a famous place there. But this place here is a classic. Easy to find. You find the temple within the Shihlin Night Market, it’s set up right in front. You tell them what you want, which, really you just say large or small, drop the money on the counter, grab your own change if necessary, and the food comes out to you. Cheap. Delicious. Sign says they’ve been around for 35 years. I guess I’ve been alive for 30 of it. Plus, if it’s not good, I think you’re only out about $1.50 or so. This is the magic of night markets. If by chance you find something that tastes bad, you can go try something else the next stall over, and you’re not out a whole lotta money. Unlike if you walk into a bad restaurant, there goes your night and your karaoke money.

Pao Pao Bing. This is somewhere in between gelato and shaved ice. It mixes shaved ice with thick stuff like peanut butter or…can’t think of any others because that’s what I get all the time. Peanut butter with red beans. Again. Amazing. The old location was actually further outside the “main” night market, but within the last decade, they made a huge food pavilion to house a lot of the food stalls, so this is one store that opened there. It’s convenient since it’s just outside the Jiantan MRT station. The original store is probably still there, just haven’t gone in a while.

The Pao Pao Bing place is also right next to the fried chicken place. How convenient. This place is amazing. The lines get long, so don’t be surprised if you need to wait 15, 20, maybe even 30 minutes. Go with a friend and have him/her grab other food from other stalls while you’re waiting in line. There is so much to try. This fried chicken is the size of a 8.5″ x 11″ paper – folded in half (yeah, sorry to lead you on!). It’s huge. That’s all these guys sell. You can get it with or without chili pepper powder. That’s the only option. Go there early while the oil is “fresh”.

And don’t tell Mr. Huang I sent you. Or that I visited that place.

You know it’s bad when you’ve had so many beef noodle soups that you can’t remember where or what you had. This was one image I cannot remember ANY details for. I’ll have to ask Mr. Huang, my trusty friend and Taiwan food guide. Unless any of you have any idea? It was good enough to take a picture!

Taipei Main Station definitely pales in comparison with some of the larger hubs in Asia, but their food court upstairs is a nice, clean, cool getaway from the summer heat and humidity. And there’s one particular section that I never have enough time to go through here – the Beef Noodle Soup showdown area. There are probably about eight popular BNS places in this little area, all with differing tastes, all claiming to have won some BNS competition during some year for one of their soups.

Er Dong is was one of my favorites. I came here last year with some friends and thought it was better that time around. This time around it seemed a little too oily and not as flavorful. Oh well. That’s why there are yearly BNS festivals–so the weak can improve! When I’m traveling around Taipei alone, I try to hit up a BNS shack at least once a day. This is something that is truly a Taiwan specialty. Cantonese, Northern/Southern Chinese, Japanese, even Overseas Taiwanese can’t get it right. There are a lot of these gems that can only be found in Taiwan – and not anywhere within Taiwan – there are certain specific markets to get certain specific foods. Some will try to mass market it, but it’s not the same. I’ll try to direct you to some of the don’t miss spots in future posts.

For now, try one or eight of these places at the train station. It’s clean, not crowded, air conditioned, and convenient if you’re catching the THSR somewhere or need to connect from the blue to the red lines. Comes with a price, but it’s not a bad tradeoff. If you want the real experience, though, you’ll need to find a less clean, crowded, out of the way hole in the wall. Which I will also post about soon!

I’m an instant noodle junkie. I collect ramen. Brands I haven’t tried, I must try it once in my life. Well, back when I was in Japan the first time in 2001, I was introduced to UFO. Yes, Unidentified Flying Object. Also known as instant yakisoba. You boil water, pour it in the bowl, cover it for a few minutes, drain it out the “closed” end that actually has a lift cover for small holes so water comes out and not the noodles and previously-dehydrated cabbage, and then you put the sauce and the nori in, stir it up and enjoy. It’s one of those noodles only the consumer enjoys because the only thing people around you smell is fart. Who cares. It’s good. Besides, all they think is, who farted? Not, who’s eating fart?

So what was the downside to the UFO? It had a big batsu, or a big X on the microwave. You cannot put the UFO in the microwave and warm up your noodles that way. Not allowed. No way, no how. Why? Nobody knows. It’s a mystery. Who wanted to test it? I sure didn’t. I have the Panasonic Mr. Genius microwave, and I sure am not going to nuke a UFO and suffer the consequences. Mr. Genius already isn’t happy that he has to operate in a 50V environment. His clock is not set because it runs too fast. He was made for 60V and probably doesn’t like that change. Plus should Mr. Genius die, it’s a little harder for us to bring him back stateside to return at a Costco there for a replacement. We’ve already done that once, that was back when we were living in Fairfax County. So no, no UFO in the microwave for us. Have others tried? I’m sure they have. Did they survive? Who knows, haven’t seen anyone write about it!

Luckily for us, Nissin came out with a solution in 2007: UFO Next Generation. Yes, years, probably decades after the original UFO, finally, a UFO that can finally endure the onslaught of a microwave. Is anything else different? Nope. Everything’s still the same. Same fart smell, same vegetables. Just microwaveable. Costs more, too. Lists for 190 yen – 2 bucks nowadays! Definitely on the high end of the ramen spectrum. I mean, Top Ramen and Maruchan Ramen were alternating off at Safeway and other places at 10 for $1, right? But it’s not ramen we’re talking about. It’s yakisoba.

And it’s not a U-FO-NG.

The end.

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 have to admit, it is extremely hard for me to pay for Cambodian food after being fed it for two years “for free” while serving as a missionary for the LDS Church. I remember the good old days where I could eat three bowls of kuyteav after filling up on little mini egg rolls, or half a dozen or more banh chiao, or samloh machu all night. Kind of surprised I didn’t come out looking 300 lbs., although if you see some of the pictures of me in the latter part of my mission, I am a little portly – Bev laughs every time she sees it. “If I find the picture,” I’ll post it. Anyway, enter Phnom Penh Noodle House. Typical looking restaurant in Seattle’s International District, but the food is amazing. The kuyteav here is great – bev loves the duck one. I enjoy anything on the menu, and the best part is dessert. I think I missed out on enjoying dessert on my mission–well, I take that back. I was too full by the time dessert rolled around that I wasn’t able to enjoy dessert. This place has an amazing multi-bean (three-bean?) dessert. Yes, beans for dessert may sound weird to y’all, but I grew up with red, green, and soy beans for dessert, so this was right up my alley. And now that I’m paying for food, I eat less more balanced, so I can actually taste dessert and not my esophagus.

Let me explain why I ate so much during my mission, just to clarify (like I need to justify, but this is my blog-space!). My mother taught me always to eat what was put in front of me regardless of whether or not I liked it — it shows respect to the host/hostess. If we grabbed more food, we needed to eat it, because that was the choice we made. With these Cambodian families that I served, many of them had very little. But whenever we went over to their houses for dinner, there would not be a square inch of space on the floor where there would NOT be food. From the time we walked in, took off our shoes, and sat on the floor, we would be eating non-stop until we were back out the door, and even then, they would be stuffing food in our backpacks to bring home. They had so little, yet offered so much, I felt it would be disrespectful NOT to eat. Plus I just loved food in general. These communities are small – I mentioned earlier – three bowls of kuyteav. I think I set the bar too high too early on my mission, because there was one day I wasn’t feeling too well, and only had maybe one and a half bowls, and the lady asked, “what, you don’t like my food?” Before I could say “no, it’s because I’m feeling a little sick today,” she continued to say “you ate three bowls the other day at the [other family's] house!” So I grinned, put my head down, and put in for another bowl or so. Ah, those were fun times. My stomach is expanding just reminiscing.

Anyway, Phnom Penh Noodle House is excellent! There’s a karaoke system set up there too, although I’ve never tried it, I’m sure it works, otherwise they wouldn’t be Cambodian!

Location: 660 S King Street, Seattle, WA 98104

So where the pho have I been? Sorry. I have hundreds of food photos but no blog entries to prove where I have been. Now that I have this handy-dandy (notebook) wordpress app for my iPhone, I can dump…er…share some of my food thoughts with you. One photo at a time. It’s much like catching up on a journal that you haven’t touched for years…well, that’s another story.

Bev and I finally stopped by this “What the Pho?” joint in Bellevue last May (yes, 2009, right where we left off!) after driving by it so many times.

Unfortunately, you will most likely be thinking “what the pho?” on the way out as well.

For a place that sounds catchy, they can’t seem to get the noodles to al dente – too soggy, melts in your mouth, and the soup was bland. Bev got the tofu vegetable noodles and it was topped with American style vegetables–broccoli, peppers, onions…odd.

Catchy name, get a picture next to it if you see it on the way to Bellevue Square, but don’t go in. You and your wallet will be thanking me later. Plus, hopefully in a later post I will show you some good places for pho.

Location: 10680 NE 8th St, Bellevue, WA 98004

I have to admit, while I was planning my trip to Seoul, I was thinking to myself, “what is there to eat in Seoul?”  I obviously forgot about the old college days at Sam Hawk, eating Bulgogi and Hamul Pajeon, and the older childhood days eating Chao Ma Mian.  And when I finally arrived in Seoul I realized there was so much more.

One of the disadvantages of staying at the W Walkerhill (there aren’t that many) is that it is not close to any malls or local eats.  To make up for it, there is a shuttle that takes you to two major subway stops: Gangbyeon (green line) and Gwangnaru (purple line).  I slept in the morning after I arrived and was starving by about 11am, so I took the shuttle over to Gangbyeon, where there is a Techno Mart, which includes about five floors of consumer electronics, a Lotte Mart supermarket, some other clothing shops, and a food court.  I found this food court after eating at Lotteria, a fast food McDonald’s clone, because that was the first place I saw.  The bulgogi burger was definitely a treat, though, and I recommend the Tandoori chicken burger if you happen to be near one in Japan.  

Anyway, I decided to return to the food court in the evening and stopped at a stall that had food on display, which turned out to be the right choice: the lady sat me down and waited for me to order, and I was waiting for a menu, which, I guess they don’t have, so she pulled me back to the food display and I pointed at the noodle soup above.  She probably said something like, “are you sure, it’s going to be painful”, and I agreed to it.  

It was a refreshing pain.  Everything about the Jjamppong (thanks, Wikipedia) was amazing.  Despite the spicyness, I could still clearly taste all the vegetables and seafood – which, if you were eating more typical spicy noodles like this, you would only feel the burn since your taste buds have been taken out of commission.  I finished it down to the last spoonful of soup (to my mother’s dismay, I always leave the last spoonful of soup in the bowl, because all the leftover spices and junk are there!).

Since that bowl of soup, I am now addicted to Shim Ramyun and Neoguri, both of which are available in our local supermarket (bonus!).  I used to wonder why/how my old college roommate, Gary, could eat that stuff all the time and still be alive.  I now know.

There were some other good eats at the food court, all for your typical food court prices: very cheap.  And as with all food courts, it’s easier to eat solo, but it’s just as easy to bring a family.

Last taste: 13 November 2008.

Location: Techno Mart Food Court, Just Outside Gangbyeon Station (Green Line #214), Seoul, Korea.