Hualien Fare

Hualien City, Taiwan 

So the train after lunch at Mr. Brown’s coffee shop in Taipei, brought us to Hualien. Nice city / township, very small and quiet unlike Taipei.

It was dinnertime when we arrived, so we had a walk around the night markets to look for dinner. Stopped by a little restaurant whose name I’ve forgotten, and had regular Taiwanese food. They were advertising that they make their own noodles so we tried that.

To start I got us some century eggs. I love this shit, as you can tell from here. Apparently they are good anywhere around the world.

I had the seafood soup noodle. Not much seafood here, just a few squid rings and I don’t remember what else. Only so-so.

 

My friend had stir-fried vegetables with kimchi sauce on rice, I don’t know how that went. 

 

Some home-made noodle slices here in kimchi sauce, stir-fried as well. They’re probably not what you’d call noodles, just dough that’s cut into trapezoid slices. But this was good.

Then some stir-fried beef and vegetables to share, these were very flavourful as you can tell from the thick sauce. A tad too salty to be had alone but we all had noodle/rice so that’s fine. Not bad, I was satisfied.

Continuing on we had some dessert but I only have this one pic of hot Tau Fu Fa with peanuts. My friend had the other one, a black herbal drink that I didn’t try, and since it’s just a cup of black liquid I decided not to take any photos either.

While they were buying dessert I went across the street to the convenience store, Family Mart if I’m not wrong, to buy me some of my kinda dessert, the local brews. This was the only one left by the time we got back to the dorm. Seen here posing in front of the Laphroaig which I picked up at the airport on my way into Taiwan.

I am too lazy to go thru all my old posts to check if I mentioned this, but if not, another thing about Taiwan, alcohol there is so effin cheap, so cheap I want to move there. I’m serious too. I was totally entertaining that thought each time I step out of the 711 or bottle shop with a new purchase. This can? It’s 500ml, that’s a pint, and only $1.30.

DAAAAAAAAAAyyyyyyyymmmnnnnnnnnnnnnn……

Beef Noodle Soup from Shilin Night Market - $~1.40

Shilin, Taipei, Taiwan

Happy 2010 everyone, just back from a 3 week long trip around Taiwan. Well, 3 weeks ago, but I only have time to post now.

I’ve taken over 100 shots of the stuff I ate there, so I’ll probably be posting for weeks to come. I also probably won’t be as descriptive as before, and instead go ahead with mostly photos and accompanying captions. Since I don’t speak a word of Mandarin I should say now that I’ll be making up the names for most of the dishes. Also, I never took note of how much each and every dish were so guesstimates are all you’re gonna get. You’re welcome. Also, all the shots were taken using only a point and shoot. It may be a spectacular camera my S90, but with little to no photographic forethought before each shot, it can only do so much, so excuse the quality and lack of artistic flare.

We start off at Shilin Night Market, one of the more famous night markets in Taiwan. We went there on our very first night in Taiwan, but ended up there on our final night in Taiwan as well so expect to see more from this place much later on.

Here we have Beef Noodle Soup, from one of the many noodle stalls within the night market. More specifically, it’s beef chunks, tripe and stomach. You get to pick what type of noodle you want, for example egg noodles, rice noodles, vermicelli, etc. Nothing incredibly special about this. The price is between $1-1.40.

This is what my friend ate, rice with beef stew. Pretty unappetizing IMO. The beef stew was not all meat, half of it was fat. It’s not much of a complete meal, probably more of a snack or space filler or a deal closer and as such only costs about $0.60 maybe? I noticed it was really glistening with oil so I went to look for where this was prepared, and found the source. This is what the “stew” looks like. Ugh.. however I discover later that it’s sold all over Taiwan, so it must be a well known Taiwanese dish, and now I kinda regret not trying it.

Since I took a few more shots that night, I’ll include them in this post. It’s the only time you’ll see SLR shots of food, as it was the first day and I was excited enough to want to shoot everything  with the SLR.

The drink was a letdown, I think it’s supposed to be primarily kumquat juice with a bit of herbal tea and jelly. Well I only tasted the kumquat which is fine, but the jelly had no taste at all, yet it is served in pretty big bite-sized chunks. So when I was done with the drink I had about over a quarter cup of jelly with absolutely no taste. Probably cost me around $0.30 - $0.60.

The next you see someone frying vegetables and Ho Chien, or omelette with oysters which I believe is Hokkien. I never sampled it in Taiwan, cos from the many times I’ve seen   it cooked, I wasn’t really in the mood to. One thing I noticed about Taiwanese cooking, it’s oily as hell. I mean ridiculously oily. Like 7 layers of paper towel under this dish and it’d still soak right thru oily. But anyways we get this dish here in Malaysia so I’ll do a follow up one day.

Finally the last pic shows someone grilling Taiwanese pork sausages. These are available EVERYWHERE but I only ate this later on in the trip and not here where I took the pic, so I’ll post about it later.

The night isn’t even over yet, after this we walked on and found some more stuff to eat, but I’ll talk about that in another post.

See, told you I’d keep it short didn’t I?

Chow Kueh Teow from Pinang Asian Cuisine - $8.00

218 Louviers Drive, Newark, DE - 302.368.2298

This is "Malaysian Famous stir-fried flat rice noodles with fresh shrimp, squid, bean sprouts, eggs, soy sauce and chili paste."

You know those Chinese dishes that lack all taste because they're so oily? Well, this dish matches that description to a T. Bland, greasy, and chewy. I can deal with the chewy part, but the rest of the dish needs a makeover.

Szechwan Cold Noodles from Katy's Dumpling House - $7.00??

665 North Cass Avenue, Westmont, IL - (630) 323-9393

Katy's Dumpling House is a great little gem of a restaurant tucked away in the corner of a shopping center. Supposedly, they hand-make their noodles every morning and results are well worth the effort.

This was my first time eating here, and the noodles were a wee bit on the tough side, but my friend said that's not the usual case. In spite of this fault, the dish was still fantastic. It's harder for me to find spicy food in Delaware, so the chili oil on there really hit the spot. But even with the oil, this dish still lacks the greasiness that plagues most Chinese noodle dishes.

Anyway, I should note that Katy's Dumpling House closed on Wednesdays. In addition to that, they ONLY ACCEPT CASH so be prepared before you go.

Beef With Chinese Broccoli Over Rice Noodles from Tong's Polynesian Village - $8.99

1239 East Ogden Avenue, Naperville, IL - 630.357.7120

Here's a dish I loved so much, that I still remembered its name even after it mysteriously disappeared from their menu. The owner couldn't locate the item on the menu either, but knew exactly what I was referring to, so he still had it made for me and charged me the same price as a similar item. Very nice people. It's a shame to see that their restaurant shrank since my previous visit about three years ago.

Anyway, the dish name is pretty self-explanatory. Chinese broccoli is sometimes referred to as kai-lan or Chinese kale too. These rice noodles are fluffier and stickier than the ones you might receive from a Thai restaurant, but I love them just as much, if not more. The sauce is just a typical brown sauce you get in a Chinese dish - probably oyster sauce - but when you put that with other three ingredients, it's magic.

One more thing to note - you can't tell from the picture, but the serving size is pretty enormous. It's tough for me to finish the entire thing in a single sitting, which if you've seen me eat, you know means a lot.

Pad Thai from Joy Yee's Noodles - $8.50

1163 East Ogden Avenue, Naperville, IL - 630.579.6800

Pad Thai is a dish of stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce, tamarind juice, red chilli pepper, plus any combination of bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, garnished with crushed peanuts and coriander. It is normally served with a piece of lime, the juice of which can be added along with Thai condiments.
- Excerpt from wikipedia

I did a post on this same dish before here and now I'm showing you another restaurant's take on it. Joy Yee's Noodles is a fairly prestigious shop in Chinatown of Chicago, but this is one of their newer shops in the suburbs. Also, I believe they are more famously known for their bubble tea instead of their food.

Anyway, I have reached the conclusion that just about every dish at Joy Yee's is good, but not great, but they make up for their lack of awesomeness by giving you huge portions. That's definitely okay with me. Another handy feature is their ginormous menu with pictures of nearly every dish.

But that's beside the point. Today, I'm criticizing their pad thai and like I stated about the rest of their food, it's good, but not great. If you're only looking to leave stuffed to the brim with some decent quality food at a fair price, then this place is for you. But if you're seeking something to tantalize your tastebuds, then I recommend driving a few miles from there to Lao Sze Chuan (which I'll post about later).

Shrimp Fra Diavolo from Buca di Beppo - $19.99

90 Yorktown Road, Lombard, IL - 630.932.7673

Fra Diavolo (Italian for "Brother Devil") is the name given to a spicy sauce for pasta or seafood. Most versions are tomato-based and use chili peppers for spice, but the term is also used for sauces that include no tomato, or that use cayenne or other forms of pepper.
- Excerpt from wikipedia

Although this pasta looks like it's loaded with peppers, it wasn't all that spicy. In fact, I didn't even know it was supposed to be spicy until I looked up the meaning of "fra diavolo" just now.

In spite of that, the dish was really great. The noodles were a bit dry, but not in a bad way, unless you like your noodles sopping with sauce. The sautéed garlic shrimp were cooked well too. The price may seem steep, but the serving size is large enough to feed two even though we only ordered a small. All in all, I would happily order this dish again, if not for the chance to discover other great dishes on their menu.

Meen Fun Kerr - $?

Meen Fun Kerr

This is called "Meen Fun Kerr" in Hokkien. It's square pieces of noodles, vegetables, shrimp (not in the picture), calamari, fish balls and small slices of pork in a brothy chicken stock based soup. I don't know the history of this dish except that my grandma used to make this for me when I was a kid. My mom made it again for me recently and this is the result. Brings back memories. I like it. It's a simple dish. Maybe it's something my grandma made up along the way, I mean what can be simpler than rolling flour with eggs, throw in some vegetables and meat and whatever else into your chicken stock and then starching it up so it's thicker? But if anybody has a story about this dish, do tell.

Singapore Street Noodles from Ping Pong - $12.00

3322 North Broadway Street, Chicago, IL - (773)281-7575

Here's another dish from the posh restaurant Ping Pong. Unlike the fish tacos I posted earlier, this dish is less bells 'n whistles and more substance.

The rice noodles are spiced with curry and mixed with shrimp, chicken and roast pork. I don't normally like thin pasta such as angel hair, but there's something about these noodles that makes it really enjoyable to fork a tangled bunch and gobble up huge mouthfuls at a time. Anyway, the price is a bit overwhelming for what you get, but as my sister likes to say, "You're paying for the ambience."

Steak Phở Tái from Phở Như Vũ - $7.95

1146 Pulaski Highway, Bear, DE - (302)595-2530

First off, I spent FOREVER trying to look for the correct characters for the restaurant name, so I hope you appreciate it.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, phở tái is basically the signature dish of Vietnamese cuisine. I think it's pronounced fuh. I took my order to go, as usual, and was surprised to see that assembly was required.


The first picture is the beef broth. Simple enough.


This next picture is a baggy of Thai basil, a lime wedge, bean sprouts, and fresh jalapeños. On the side of that same picture, you have a mixture of hoisin sauce, fish sauce, and the Thai hot sauce Sriracha.


In this third picture, you get a box full of rice noodles, raw thinly sliced strips of steak, green onions, white onions, coriander leaves (cilantro), and perhaps a couple things I'm overlooking.


Finally, the fourth and fifth picture are after everything was put together. Being the great chef that I am, I spilled a lot of the broth because I tried dumping everything into the original plastic bucket of broth, but there wasn't enough room for it. Then I tried to transfer it all to my bowl, but there STILL wasn't enough room for it.

Despite all the spillage, the meal was very satisfying considering it was only $7.95 for the large. Also, this is one of the few places that actually served a dish that I considered spicy, so that's another bonus. The restaurant is very new (open about two months now) so I will have to revisit this place again to check out some of their other dishes.

Pad Thai from Tasty Thai - $8.95

287 Christiana Road, New Castle, DE - (302)322-1306

Here is yet another mediocre dish in my neighborhood. As far as I know, Tasty Thai is the only Thai restaurant within a 30 minute radius and the next closest place charges about double this for a smaller serving size. So when I need to have my Thai food fix, this is it right here.

Every trip is an adventure because their chefs are pretty inconsistent. Some dishes are GODAWFUL while others are fairly tasty. Thankfully, the pad thai dish is one of the more respectable ones I've tried, even if it does come in an orange hue.

WARNING: One of the "GODAWFUL" dishes I speak of is the Lad Na - a dish I absolutely ADORE from other restaurants, but this place has a version that makes me want to curl up in fetal position and cry.