Korean Brunch at Mandu and then off to the National Air and Space Museum

I woke up craving a delicious Bloody Mary… I had nightmares all night, I’m such a 2 year old, due to ALL that yummy food from last night… hahaha probably ate too late and ate way too much for my own good – thank goodness my metabolism still semi-works – but YES woke up not hungry.. and then suddenly turned STARVING! SOOOOOOO… why not have a Korean brunch?!  Yeah, never had a korean brunch.. but then we walked downto Mandu, sooo pretty out, and I saw “Soju Bloody Mary” on a sign outside and my heart skipped a beat. WOOHOOOOOOOO

[if you’re curious about the Korean Brunch Plate, as was I, I ordered it the next time I came here for brunch! YUM]

MMMMMMMMMMMM so happy!!!!! We sat at the bar and ordered…

Soju Bloody Mary

THIS WAS SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD – I’m a huge fan of Soju AND Bloody Marys so why not all together?! HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!

Everyone at the bar got a little yogurt drink treat – YUM! My fav!

Banchan 반찬

INHALED – note: INHALED!!!! MMMM I love the spicy pickled cucumbers… kimchi cucs <3

Kimchi Jjigae

kimchi soup w/ pork and tofu

WEEEEEEEEEEEE spicy and happy and piping hot :] SUCH A comfort food of mine.. makes me miss going to BCD Tofu House for takeout all the time when living in the City.

Duru Jjigee

marinated and spiced pork belly sauteed w/
kimchi and rice cakes, served with steamed tofu

Fatty juicy tender pork, YUMMMY chewy QQ Duk and tender steamed tofu :] NOM – Now I know why W always gets this when he comes here! YUM What a great way to start off the day.. I’m always pretty weaksauce when it comes to first meals.. good thing we have plans for later on…. UNTIL then….

National Air and Space Museum

POOP BAG

Where’s Tom Hanks?!

I crawled into the kiddie tunnel, like dove head first into it – SOOO cramped and tiny.. but now I feel like one of the cool kids.. literally.. kids…

HAHA. They found Uranus’ Rings :D GET IT? GET IT? #dirtylittleboyhumor

SOOOOO Thirsty and SOOOOO hungry, plus the museum is gonna be closing soon… ANNNNNND the food event is about to start… time to Lamb Jam!

菊島 – 澎湖海鮮餐廳 Seafood Restaurant

Dressed up and headed off to Hsinchu to see some relatives and eat some good grub early this morning…. new Tod’s foxfur purple bag and furry Prada boots :]  I gots my hair curled and wore some cute short shorts!! HUZZAH!!

Eating Wax Apples/Bell Fruit/蓮霧 on the HSR :] One of my favorite fruits EVER AND I’ve only ever since it here in Asia – none in the States :[ BOO!

When we got to the station we waited for some of my aunts to get there, I was starved so I stopped by the 7 to get some grub…

Salads… For Men, For Women…

Fried Patties? In the fridge?!… interesting…

Steamed bunnnsss!!!

SNAUUUUUSAGES!!!

And then I got some of this yummies

Deliciousness!!!

YAYYYY!!! My fav sort of cheap eats…

Daikon :D

We got to my uncles house and had our own little tea time…
Aren’t these tea strainers and cups cute?! They’re from Starbucks!! How come we don’t sell these in the States? BOO!!!

The most delicious cheesecake in Taiwan :] From a little bakery in Taichung near my aunt’s house!!

Eating cheesecake, peanuts, oranges, cookies and others ALL right before dinner time… :]

菊島 – 澎湖海鮮餐廳 Seafood Restaurant has been open for only a month or so…

A nice welcoming sign :] The lady of the house was a pretty young lady by the name of Sophia!!! She was so nice and came to talk to us :]

My Uncle is pretty VIP and has already been to this restaurant like 4x so we got the Chef’s Tasting… we had no idea how many courses or what was coming out, just a set price and lots of yummies brought out to us!

Housemade super spicy Kimchi. DELICIOUS!

Salad with a Japanese dressing…

Corn, okra, cucumber, apple, asparagus, onions and lettuce!! YUM!!!

Conch and Sashimi plate!

Delicious crunchy fresh conch and tender super super fresh sashimi!!!! :D

Blowfish Skin Sashimi & Quickly Poached Oysters

You pour this garlicky sauce over the raw blowfish skin.. it was crunchy and SO good. A little fishy but fantastic. What a great experience.  The poached oysters were fat and juicy and full of flavor.. but it was the skin that totally won my tummy over.

Fried octopus balls and Fried seafood/chinese chives rolls

I completely fell in love with the octopus balls, they may have been fried but were super light and the innards were ALL octopus, no batter so definitely not like takoyaki.  These were SO good and dense of octopus, tender octopus.  The seaweed rolls were filled with unrecognizable parts of seafood… me thinking squid and sorts. and lots of chinese chives.

Seaweed with  Baby Clams

The seaweed was cooked to the point of mushy but so goood… delicious seaweed taste and simply cooked with juicy tender fresh baby clams! YUM!

Thinly sliced Sirloin with Ginger and Gingko

Each piece of beef had a thin slice of ginger on it.  Simply cooked in a light broth filled with plump juicy gingko seeds.

Sake Shot :]

Partway thru the beginning of dinner we started drinking cold shots of sake – SO YUM!

They brought out a HUGE plate of mixed veggies and mushrooms.. filled with lily bulbs, gingko seeds and a variety of wild mushrooms YUM

Spicy Fried Fish [烏魚 – Mullet] Belly over Flash Fried Basil

The flash fried basil just melted on your tongue into a delicious basil-y goodness… the fish belly was thick and tender and super juicy and mixed with a spicy spice blend and fried. SO GOOD!

Next came Scorpionfish cooked over pickled cabbage and thickly sliced raw scallions
Tender and while not meaty, we had this earlier before and I was so in love with the pickled cabbage… YUM!  Wish it was meatier.. :[ Hahah I probably could’ve eaten the whole thing by myself in minutes… but #mustbealady ;D

Miso Fish Soup

A nice huge hunk of fish.. while boney, so delicious and lots of daikon

Pumpkin Rice Noodles [米粉] stir-fried with Pumpkin, Fatty Pork and baby Clams

Apparently this stuff is famous in HsinChu… oh oh oh oh oh so yummy!!!

I got a nice big bowl of it and ate it all up.  The noodles were tender and orange and pumpkin-y all on it’s own.. not to mention TONS of slivers of tenderly cooked pumpkin with the occasional bite of baby clam or fatty pork. YUM!

After a satisfying and totally delicious meal, out came a light dessert.. Asian ppl have fruit for dessert ;]

Jelly made from 愛玉 [Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang] flavored with caramel and a splash of lemon juice

SO good and refreshing!!!

This place was delicious and totally recommended!!!  It’s brand new and hopefully here to stay.. hopefully it just gets better :] YUM!

Craving Korean after a Good Workout

I hadn’t been to the gym in almost a year.. I’m lazy, what can I say, unless the gym is in the same building as me, I probably won’t go. I’m also a germaphobe and hate showering in public places.. but due to no power or hot water, I gave in – I’m glad I did, hope to get back into the routine of going to the gym daily.. although I already broke it today. Anyways.  After my first day back I was craving hot warm soup.. quality comfort food.. I was gonna go for a salad but REALLY wanted a nice REAL meal in my tummy… so. Korean. Which was, thankfully, just down the street from my gym.. a short drive later… I arrived at Dabin. A Japanese & Korean restaurant that’s been in my old hometown for.. as long as I can remember – apparently they opened in 1996 :]  Smack dab in the middle of Lexington Center… great location but just far away enough from the tourists :D Phew..

As much as I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE sashimi, I opted out and decided to go all Korean, minus the edamame ;D Besides, extra banchan is always a plus!!!

Btw, I opted for Hot Tea and Water, since I figured I just worked out and I need to be “healthy” for an ill minute and not get Soju ;D

Ban Chan

Fishcakes, Cucumber Kimchi, Cabbage Kimchi and Marinated Sprouts

All were delicious. I’m not a huge fishcake person but I LOOOOOVE kimchi… the cucumbers were the tastiest IMO :D

Edamame

Huge, cooked to perfection :] NOM! Perfectly salted – just a tiny bit but on every single bit!

Ban Chan round 2 :]

Kimchi Pajeon: Kimchi, Seafood & Scallions

The sauce is basically soy sauce and lots of scallions.. a bit too salty since the pancake was already salty.. but the pancake was OH so crispy :D Maybe a tinnnyyy bit greasy but SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD… so worth the fattiness.. MMMM… FULL of delicious kimchi and SOOO much yummy seafood in it.. calamari, scallop, etc… SO GOOD!!

Mommy’s Galbi Ooguji Guk
Stew of Short Ribs & Oriental Veggies

The broth was rich and thick.. more so than a regular Galbi Tang… HUUUUGE chunks of short ribs that just melted off the bone and not too fatty :] Tons of delicious veggies which my mommy gobbled up.. but she was too greedy with the Pajeon earlier so she had no more tummy to eat all the meat :[ Poo…  Next time we’re gonna ask for it to be spicy!!!

My Soft Tofu Jjigae
with extra Kimchi and extra Spicy… Uncured Tofu  & Seafood

It was soooo good and thick full of veggies and a delcious thick stew… I am OBSESSED with Jjigae, especially when I need comfort food.. this could’ve been spicier but had a nice sodium level, a lot of the time I get salt overload from their kimchi jjigaes… [which I usually get, but I didn’t want pork tonight] There were clams, fishcakes, calamari, scallops, fish and oysters… tons of kimchi and scallions MMM MMMM… the scallops were way overcooked so I didn’t eat them but other than that… I licked the bowl clean.. mmmm I love uncured softtt tofu :]

Ended up bringing back the rest of the Pajeon – it’s HUUUUUGE and the rest of the edamame.. MM MMMM.. great midnight snack!!! The Pajeon wasn’t really crispy anymore but SOOO GOOD.. wish the sauce had more scallions and lessss salty.. but yum yum.

Read more about my no power adventures…

T is for Tuesday and Takashi but not Four Loko

When I say Takashi, you think of???…. First Stomachs, Second Stomachs…. Hearts, Livers, Tongues, etc :D For the longest time I’ve been hearing Z talk about this place. Nom nom nom, and this kobe beef uni sashimi appetizer. SO. It only seemed normal that we finally make it out here to this cute little bbq eatery.

We were offered a place at the bar but I refused to NOT sit at the table. Hahaha, so we got a table ;D

This weird suction thingie for the grill freaked me out, it also bothered me because when you start grilling, they pull it down [I guess to suck the hot air out – still hot tho] AND if you sit in the middle facing each other, you can’t see each other’s faces. So I ended up sitting diagonally so I could actually SEE Z’s face while we talked. FAIL!

Free munchies while we BROOOOOOOOOWSED the menu
Cabbage “salad”, Peanut Bean Sprouts, Kimchi

Best part of the menu:
Korean Soju “Not for the faint of heart” Seriously? I must have a strong heart then. I love soju. But HELLO, Japanese eatery, we got creamy unfiltered sake :D And I kept getting flower petals in mine….

I loved that it was “pick your cup” – I was confused between this pink one and a sparkly crystal one, but of course PINK FTW!

Akiles-Yubiki
(flash-boiled shredded achilles tendon)

The tendon was cut into too small of bites and was super crunchy. It was good but I like chewy soft large pieces of tendon. The flavors were great but the texture wasn’t my favorite – especially since they were so hard to pick up with my chopsticks. It was like eating tendon rice.

Yooke

(thinly-sliced chuck eye tartare in special sauce)

I’ve been craving a good tartare and this was delicious. DEEERRRICIOUS as a fob would say [cough* the girls sitting next to us aka FOB CENTRAL] ANYWAYS. This was sooo clean tasting and I loved the size and texture of the beef. AMAZING. Light and just, FLUFFFYYYY okay, not fluffy as in “fluffy” but fluffy as in FREAKING AMAZING. [I watch too much Despicable Me]

FLUFFY!!!

And then came the dish that makes Z’s world go round…

Niku-Uni

(chuck flap topped with sea urchin and fresh wasabi)

Delicious raw beef sashimi with a HUGE delicious sweetass helping of Uni on top. A little wasabi and a quick dunk in the soy sauce and nom nom away with the seaweed and shiso leaf. I wish you could taste the beef more but it’s just creamy melt in your mouth happy pleasure. The shiso and the uni totally take over the flavors – but the crunch of the seaweed and the chew of the beef really help it last :]

The soup for the Shabu getting hot and our sauces being served to us…..

Fresh vegetables

(includes special miso mayo)

Z had fun trying to grill radishes.. but they’re so much better just fresh. I ate them with my grilled meats and innards while Z would use the shabu to steam them :] He did grill the hot chillis which gave it a nice char taste to it – yum.

Akasen (fourth stomach)

I think these were my favorite of the night. SO fatty and chewy it was SOOOO freaking delicious. You need to cook this well until it looks like a nice char on both sides, but SO worth the wait – AMAZING.

Shibire (sweetbreads)

These were creamy and so delicious. We cooked them until they were crisp on the outside and just melt in your mouth creamy on the inside.

Tang shabu (tongue hotpot)

I think I still prefer my tongue grilled, but these tongues were SO super fresh, thinly sliced and very very tender — we just flash-boiled them really quick and ate them with some sauce and scallions.

Scallion vinaigrette

You have to order this seperately but it tastes SO good with tongue.Or well, with anything, I’m obsessed with scallions and while the vinaigrette is a little sweet, I love how plentiful of scallions they gave you – freaking scallion salad <3

Harami (outside skirt)
Nothing like a good skirt steak.

*SPECIAL: Beef Belly

These were SO fatty and juicy – I’m SO glad I saw it on the little flap of paper that said specials of the day…Z totally missed it – phew. I will NEVER pass up anything belly. Fish belly, Pork belly…. BEEF belly.. :D Best belly :D Can you believe our server told us to cook these medium? Hahaha…. like Z would ever listen.

Tsurami (cheek)

Cheek meat is amazing, haven’t you had fish cheeks? Pig cheeks? Cow cheeks are the same. Tender, fatty, juicy and derrrricious :D

Constipated/Angry

He was behind me, creeper

We could’ve eaten more, we both know that, but why be disgustingly full when you can be happy and still moveable even after all that meat?!… so we walked…

We ended the night by taking a walk to Grom… along the way we found these:

Half Baci [my choice] Half Creme di Grom [his choice] AMAZING – I could’ve eaten a tub.. but I guess I need to start watching my figure, ain’t getting any younger….. hahaha.. so we shared a medium cup.

BTW, Four Loko Scrabble is probably not the “SMARTEST” drinking game to play…. so hard to think of words after a few….

my sweet six-twen part duex

I woke up to flowers, balloons and pancakes & crepes w/eggs and bacon in bed… well.. in couch, while watching the Ren&Stimpy marathon all day.

The second chosen Birthday Dress :]

Elizabeth & James Dress, YSL Shoes and my new Chanel Bag

amuse bouche

creamy chickpea puree with pickled melon
We were sitting around looking at the menus when this delicious and creamy concoction came to us… smooth rich chickpeas emulsified into the creamiest I’ve ever had… with the surprising crunch of the pickled melon with a drizzle of fruity evoo on top.

The best bread and butter I’ve ever had… I literally ate more than 20 pieces of this… apparently NO one has eaten this much bread and butter before and they ended up serving us huge baskets – instead of pails of it :]

happy birthday part UN – piggie/clown style

I’m all about birthdays, especially when it’s mine…as a child I HATED having my birthday in the summer. Everyone else got punch and cupcakes during class and I would be one of the few that couldn’t. Sometimes I would celebrate it in June before school let out. I felt left out :[ But it’s been awhile since the days of ABC, eating playdoh and finger puppets. I LOVE having my birthday in the summer. Sunshine, great tans, and August is the easiest month to get out of work – slowest month of the year.

I abuse the fact that it’s my birthday and I tend to celebrate for the whole month of August. Thankfully all my friends and family are down with it and just go along with me. This year I decided to start early and have my first party on July 31 :]

What can I say, I’m addicted to birthday parties.. and finding the perfect bday dresses ;D — of course good food is a must… Remember last year?!

I have a HUGE crush on David Chang and his food and of course, pork… so it only seemed appropriate to go to Momofuku Ssam Bar

We got the 6-Course Prixe Fix Menu… but then added on a lot of other items.. because I’m a fatty like that ;D I’ll star * the items that we added on…

* greek sardine –

arugula, strawberry, toasted rice
Amazing. I don’t get why anyone would not like sardines.. it’s fishy, because it’s supposed to be. Salty, fresh and delicious. The strawberries and the arugula just added so much to it.

spanish mackerel –

melon, mustard
Not fishy at all.. super tender and I loved the sweetness that balanced off the slight savory to it.

bread + butter –

sea salt butter (vt) + whipped lardo
Apparently I’m the only one that was super excited about having whipped lardo ;D Pork fat is an amazing thing…. we had a few plates of the bread and it was demolished asap. We were all starved… we got to the place at 545 but we probably didn’t really start eating til way after 630. What can I say, my friends always roll late – haha LAME. But we had gotten our drink on by then.. especially with the help of Matt’s White Dog.. one sip and I was done…. except.. I kept going…

White dog is what distillers call whiskey when it comes off the still, but before it goes into the barrel. It is, in other words, raw whiskey, without the mellow flavors and rich hue that the barrel brings. It is as clear as water and if it is destined for the barrel, as opposed to the bottle, is strong.

Source

country hams tasting  —



finville ham (finchville, ky)
broadbent ham (kuttawa, ky)
edward’s wigwam ham (surry, va)
Delicious!!! I don’t know which was which and they didn’t have the smoked ones – boo – but they were delish!

Feeling Pure — Going Raw/Vegan

After much anticipation and a few years of wanting to visit the famous One Lucky Duck store sister [I buy stuff from there ALL. THE. TIME.] … last week I finally got to try out Pure Food and Wine

Before I begin – I must say that Sarma is amazing. She is gorgeous and just so inspiring. I own both her books and love her snacks from the online store. Once I bought chia seeds thru her and they were expired, she apologized and quickly sent me several bags.. what a sweetheart.

It was a super hot night… it was in the high 90s and around 700 or 730 when we got there. I was on a veg kick – and thought that refreshing raw and vegan would be PERFECT for a hot summer night meal.

We ordered some of their famous white sangria… filled with tons of fruit, like a sweet juice :]

We ordered two pitchers, but beware, they had a kick… and it didn’t kick in til a bit later – sweet sangria is so deadly ;D

In our usual style, we ordered a few of everything… :D How could we resist?

Nori Rolls of House Made Kim-Chee and Dr. Cow Creamy Tree Nut Cheese

watercress, baby bok choi, hijiki seaweed, avocado, scallions

Bacon, Beer, myers + chang, Beer and more Beer…

My friend and I went to the @eatBoston & SoWa Bacon/Beer Fest last saturday in Boston……

While it was fun [and filled with tons and tons of beer] the bacon part just wasn’t up to par to what we expected – especially after just having gone to the Bacon Fest Chicago…. In general it just wasn’t bacon-y enough :[

Fav of the event:

The Fireplace’s Bacon and Succotash

The midst of a million crazy beer/bacon people :] With my trusty beer cup :D

____

We were still starving – and a tiny bit tipsy – afterwards so we decided to get some lunch at Myers+Chang [esp after the Banh Mi from the Bacon/Beer Fest] since we were in the neighborhood…

Baconfest Chicago 2010

The shirt I picked to wear to BACONFEST… I thought it was hilarious.

PLEASE DON’T EAT ME…

Well it was funny until on one of the tv interviews we did…. the guy asked me if I was a vegetarian. No, seriously. He asked me if I was a vegetarian….. okay… end rant… cuz I’m too excited to talk about BaconFest :D Yep, so now, back to BaconFest….

Yes, My travel buddy and I traveled from the East Coast to the… errr.. Mid…dle North Part of America… just to come to BaconFest[well and for me to see Rick and Carlos, but that’s for the next entry or so… AND I wanted to show my buddy-in-crime just why Chi-town was so awesome… esp in their food scene] but going to BaconFest was highly motivating.

Modern Toilet – Taipei

I’ve been wanting to try Modern Toilet since I first read and saw pictures about it a few years ago when it first opened. I have a family friend who went there when it first opened. It’s right next to the famous Shilin Night Market.

It was a lot tinier than it seemed to be in the pictures I had seen…

We first pass a row of toilets…

And then we got to our table for 3 :D Yayayayyyy… so cute… little toilets…

Cathy got the regular hot pot mix with pork… she ate everything but some of the rice. :] See, the hotpots also come with the sauce all ready for us to dip our food in…. it had tons and tonssss of greens in it :D

Her boyfriend got the fried chicken :] — at first he was gonna get the curry chicken but we decided it was a little too close to, um… uncomfort, then it should be :] — just think curry… in a toilet… hahahaha…. he didn’t like the soup it came with too much, but he ate most of it super fast.

I, predictably, got the kimchi seafood hot pot — it was pretty fresh.. I just didn’t like the fish paste balls and such that it came with – just subpar. But the kimchi broth was good and it came with tonnnnns of kimchi.

The food wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t bad either…. it’s just a really really fun place to go to. It’s not that pricey and an awesome place to take friends and tourists to visit :] I still prefer eating the yummy night market food. Everything comes in a set… you get your food, rice, whatever it comes with and a drink.. [we all got iced tea… which is sweet]

Oh, and you get complimentary chocolate soft serve in a toilet bowl after your meal ;D