Never Gets Old

The three salad combo at Clementine. Attempted to be adventurous by trying two items that I'd never had before. Grilled cauliflower with midget raisins and pine nuts, beet salad with blood orange, avocado, and walnuts, and cold sesame chicken noodles. Yum.

Happy "Niu" Year!

It's the year of the ox, or "niu", but I didn't eat any "niu" at the le cub's family's Chinese New Year meal in Minnesota. Mama Huang's chicken was pretty damn good though.

Disappointment

I haven't been to Tom Colicchio's famed Gramercy Tavern, nor have I been to his other joint, Craft. But I'm really hoping that both are far-far-FAR better than the grub served at 'Wichcraft. Neither of the above sandwiches (Roasted pork panini and Turkey-avocado-bacon warm sandwich) made my tummy smile. We realize that 'Wichcraft is meant to be his answer to fast food, but neither of the above-pictured sandwiches would've won a quick-fire challenge on his show (one of our favorite shows), Top Chef. That said, both le cub and I were hugely disappointed.

Colicchio, please pack your knives and go.

Reigning Champion

One of the best wood-fired grilled pizzas I've ever had. The Bosco pizza, with its thin, crisp crust, is superb. Wild mushrooms, Robiola cheese and white truffle oil...
Need I say more?!?

The prosciutto-pear salad is another must-have.

Stratta
Wynn Las Vegas
3131 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV, 8910

Vegas, Baby!

Le cub and I are at it again... Traveling and ingesting all sorts of yummy.

Pictured: The best croque madame I've ever had (yes, better than the one I had at Bouchon) can be had at Payard Patisserie & Bistro at Caesars Palace.

Crack Snack

Pictured: A hearty bowl of mixed-variety Taiwanese fishcakes (tian bu la), daikon, and pork balls (gong wan). "Xia Men" is a tian bu la chain that has been in business in Taiwan for over 35 years and they supposedly make the best. All-you-can-drink soup is an additional perk! A real bargain of a snack at 45 NTD (roughly $1.50).

Xia Men Tempura
Food Court of Mitsukoshi in the XinYi district

Happy "Niu" Year!

"Niu" in Mandarin Chinese, means "cow". According to the Chinese zodiac, this year is the year of the cow. That said, how fitting is it that this next entry shall be about beef noodles?!? Did you know that the City of Taipei styles itself as the "World Capital of Beef Noodles"? In fact, Taipei recently started to host an annual Taipei Beef Noodles Festival... this is mayjah~!

Pictured: XO scallop fried rice (perfection. amaaaazingly flavorful...) and beef noodles at The Regent. The photo does not do this bowl of noodles justice. It was delish! The chunks of tendon (jing) melted in my mouth. And the braised egg... I didn't even get to taste it! Le cub hoovered it. Yum, yummy, yum. Not usually one to venture to fancy shmancy hotels to eat "small eats", I must give credit to my mom for this wonderful discovery.

Azie
The Grand Formosa Regent Taipei
41 Chung Shan North Road, Section 2
Taipei , Taiwan

Bowl of Balls

Pictured: Fish balls (yu wan), pork balls, dan dan noodles (dan zai mian), and "side-of-mouth-meat"(ko bian ro) at a stall in Jiu Fen, a traditional mountain village which, as of late, has gotten a tad touristy. In the foreground is the mixed variety bowl of balls (hehe, "bowl of balls")that le cub, my mom, and I had ordered to share. Tossed into the bowl as a ball made of shark flesh! Mmm... very Q! ("Q" is the way Taiwanese people describe perfectly chewy texture.) The bowl of dry dan dan noodles immersed in clear broth topped with minced pork and bean paste was also spectacular...

Unable to translate the name of the stall we ate at, I took a photo. Better than nothing!

Taiwan is Belly Fun

Pictured: Beef sukiyaki, rice with mountain veggies, homemade agedashi tofu and shrimp. Merely snippets of the amazing lunch special offered daily at Sumie Nouvelle Cuisine Japonaise at the San Want Hotel. My heavenly main course came accompanied with a hearty salad, assorted sashimi (really fresh fish), three small plates (the appetizers vary day to day), rice with mountain vegetables, miso soup, dessert (mine was a piece of tiramisu mochi), and coffee/tea. Extravagant much?!

Total damage: 750 NTD, which comes out to be roughly US$23

Sumie Nouvelle Cuisine Japonaise
San Want Hotel
172 Sec 4 Chung Hsiao East Road
Taipei, 106 TW

I love Taipei. I attended middle school and high school there, my parents still live there, and gosh darn it, the food in Taipei is to-die-for.

As usual, much of my voyage home this past winter was spent chowing down. And why not? We're the Chows! With le cub in tow, I felt a great sense of responsibility. It was my duty to not only show him a good time, but good grub as well! With my epicurian momma nearby, le cub would surely leave Taipei with his tummy not only smiling, but bulging.

For the sake of aesthetics (I personally detest uber-long blog entries because they look ugly), the following Taipei food entries will be kept short. Photo, location, and maybe a tip on ordering? That should do. After checking out our photos, perhaps you'll find that a trip to Taipei for YOU is long overdue!

Happy New Year!!!

Our tummies are smiling,
Le cub and cougar