pizza/vegetarian: i recommend SO FREE PIZZA

SO FREE WOOD FIRED PIZZA AND CHEESE
No. 28, Lane 283, Roosevelt Rd., Sec. 3
(02) 2364-3351

MRT: Gongguan or Taipower Bldg

website: SoFreePizza's blog

hours: 11:30 AM - 9 PM

$

Kid friendliness: not a lot of seating, but adjacent to a park with a few benches

Visit reviewed: 5/16/2009



The first time I passed by So Free, I wondered what all the people were doing standing around the rustic looking cabin. When I realized it was a pizza place, I had to give it a try.

The menu at So Free Woodfired Pizza and Cheese is short, but sweet. Eight 8 inch pizzas cooked to order in a wood fired oven.

And you can't beat the price at NT$120 for an 8 inch pizza with fresh ingredients, especially in comparison to the fancier options in town- Fifteen Pizzeria and Primo Trattoria pizzas run in the NT$300 range for the same size.

The tradeoff for the lower price is limited seating and the limited selections of pizzas, especially if you're craving some pepperoni. All the pizzas are vegetarian.



But So Free still keeps it interesting. I'm not sure if I'd try the Korean kimchi and Ginger Superman, but the pesto mushroom and rosemary potato sounded appetizing. You can also appeal to your sweet tooth with a dessert pizza topped with apple cinnamon or banana apple.

I tried the Mushroom Asapargus pizza which came fairly loaded with fresh ingredients- chopped asparagus and mushroom with lots of cheese and sauce. The crust is thick enough to hold all the toppings, but pliable enough to fold a slice in half for a bite for your mouth.

The seating at the Gongguan eatery is extremely limited, so you can opt to wait awhile for a barstool seat, or do what we did which was order it to-go (which is still a good 10-15 minute wait when they are busy) and eat it at the adjacent park. It's also close to Tai Yi Milk King, so you can get some shaved ice afterwards if the weather is warm.

I know I still have quite a few pizza places in town to try- some readers have recommended Mary Jane's Pizza and Le Rouge- but I'm slowly working my way through them all! Any others to add to my to-do list? And has anyone tried the dessert pizzas here?


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not taipei/snapshot: Singapore

I hadn't been to Singapore in over five years, but once I got there, it all came back to me. Humidity, humidity, humidity. Not that Taipei doesn't have its share of humidity- because it does- but even in the cool wintertime it feels like July. But the good weather made it perfect for people watching and eating seafood by the beautiful skyline.



After we landed, my relatives wanted to eat some seafood and we were whisked over to No Signboard Seafood Restaurant at the Esplanade.



There was live music, tons of Chinese New Year crowds and I had a good view of the cotton candy vendor who made huge balloon like bundles of pink sugar clouds for kids and adults alike.



Of course, there was too much food, including huge platter of crab...



But also new to me was the Chinese New Year treat, yu sheng, which was like a mixer at the beginning of the meal to ring in the new year, literally. As you're tossing up the multitude of julienned vegetables, sauce and ingredients together with your chopsticks with the rest of your table, you're supposed to say "auspicious wishes" out loud while tossing it high for height in your fortunes.



We had it a couple times over the trip- the first time that night and again in Malaysia- often with raw salmon. In Malaysia, the yu sheng was also prepared with abalone and we tossed it with super long chopsticks.



Truth be told, the sticky plum and ginger flavor and mysterious elements were not my thing.

Wikipedia says the ingredients often include: "daikon (white radish), carrots, red pepper (capsicum), turnips, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges, daun limau nipis (key lime leaves), Chinese parsley, chilli, jellyfish, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder and other ingredients, laced with a sauce using plum sauce, rice vinegar, kumquat paste and sesame oil, for a total of 27 ingredients."

Wow!

I can't think of another dish that's so interactive and meaningful at the start of the meal and the start of the new year. It got everyone at the table talking to each other and smiling and wishing each other the best, and that's a tradition I can definitely believe in.

NO SIGNBOARD SEAFOOD
8 Raffles Avenue
#01-14/16 Esplanade Mall
Singapore
Tel: +65 6336 9959

western: HOOK

HOOK
No. 1, Alley 7, Lane 205, ZhongXiao E Rd, Sec 4
(02) 2771-7107

MRT: ZhongXiao/DunHua

Hours：11:30AM -2AM

$$ (Cash only)

Kid friendliness: eating area is in basement so stairway down may not be stroller friendly; space is dim with a few quirky decorations, some that might be inappropriate for young children

Visit reviewed: 12/29/2009



What's the hook for HOOK? Well, in a city where the consensus for Best Hot Dog is frequently Costco, the idea was a good one. A hot dog place with everything from chili dogs to cheese and onion dogs with a side of fries and an ice cold drink.

When you first get to Hook, you'll spot the open kitchen and the stairway to the left of the open kitchen.



Some places, like pizza joints and sushi bars, are meant for open kitchens where you can admire your food being prepared. But hot dog ingredients are not as drool-worthy as seared tuna and woodfire ovens.



But you're not really meant to look too long at the kitchen- instead you'll head down here.



It felt kind of like being in a college boyfriend's garage/frat house bordering on creepy- memorabilia and graffiti on the walls, a B-movie on the TV screen,




and a weird mannequin with a scary mask in the hallway entrance that startled us for a second since we were the first customers there.



The English and Chinese menu had a dozen or so hot dog options, along with some random appetizers and desserts like quesadillas, bbq pork spare ribs, pesto or meat sauce spaghetti, caramel waffle and brownie. To remind you that you're in Taiwan, the menu offers up some unusual options like tuna salad dog, Korea hot dog, curry hot dog or tuna cheese hot dog.



Or "master chicken hot dog with master sauce." Hmmm.

I ended up sticking to the basics and getting a chili dog. I wanted to get it with some cheese, but they said their cheese was the nacho sauce kind rather than the shredded kind, so I opted without it. You can order just a hot dog (NT$130-150) or make it a combo with fries and a drink by adding NT$80.

Our heavy mugs of ice cold drinks came quickly, but our food didn't. We were wondering if they forgot our order somehow as we asked about it a couple times since we were the only customers there. Eventually, another table arrived and so did our food, probably about 20-30 minutes, which is pretty long considering we just ordered hot dogs and fries.

We waited f-o-r-e- v- e- r and the restaurant only had us two customers- I can't imagine how long the wait would be if they were semi-full.

By the time our food came, we were starving. My chili dog with jalapenos was spicy and too much for me, even after taking off the jalapenos. I'd consider myself being able to eat a fair amount of heat, but the chili powder and bits of jalapeno in the chili was so overwhelming, I had to scrape most of it off after a couple bites. Perhaps it's good for those with an iron tongue, but I prefer my chili to have a little bit of sweet to go with the spicy.



The bun was soft and chewy, but the hot dog was a much smaller than expected. Tiny for the price. The fries were crisp and devoured quickly with a mysterious white sauce that I think was garlic mayo.



The worst part of the lunch is that an hour later I felt awful- I was meeting up for afternoon tea with another friend and I could barely sit up at the table. I just wanted to lay down or throw up and drinking a bit of warm water helped. I can't say if it's coincidence or not since my lunch date, Tina from ablendofboth.com didn't say she felt sick afterwards, but then again, she didn't get a chili dog. I felt sick that whole night and most of the day afterwards, but luckily recovered for New Year's Eve. I won't say that "I don't recommend" Hook based on one visit and one menu item, but I probably won't be back there anytime soon, especially for the price.

So in my book, Costco is still undefeated champion for best hot dog, and it comes with a drink for only NT$50. You can eat 4 for the price of one from Hook.


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not taipei: LA CABANITA

I have writer's block. Or I guess blogger's block.

So more pictures, less words will probably be the theme of the next few posts. In the meanwhile, let's mull over this memory of carnitas tacos, smoky and sweet mole enchiladas and an addictive basket of warm chips and salsa from La Cabanita in Glendale.

And wishful thinking that we can someday have So-Cal worthy Mexican food in Taipei?

LA CABANITA
3445 N Verdugo Rd
Glendale, CA 91208
(818) 957-2711

not taipei/snapshot: LA, OC and Las Vegas

Hi everyone! I've been in the states for about a month now, trying out new places and old favorites. I've been so busy that I haven't even really spent very much time in LA- I went to Irvine, Newport, San Diego, Las Vegas and Park City.

But despite being on food blogging vacation, I had to take a few pictures to share. Here are some highlights of my trip:



- the Scallop salad at Gulfstream in Century City, CA is one of my favorites. This salad was the beginning of my love for beets. Now I even get a huge scoop of beets when I go to Souplantation. haha! I also can't leave Gulfstream without getting the lemon meringue pie (lusciously light meringue and tart and sweet lemon filling) and the hot fudge sundae that you just can't find in Taipei.



- Deep dish mushroom and sausage pizza at Tony's Little Italy Pizza in Placentia, CA. Definitely no Zachary's, but it hit the spot after I had been searching for deep dish pizza in Southern California for a long time. A tiny restaurant in a strip mall, it was packed on a weekend night. We called ahead with our pizza order (it takes around 45 minutes to bake) and we still had to wait awhile for our food. The meatballs on the spaghetti were huge, but the pizza was better. The hot cheese oozed everywhere and and each slice was dense and filling.



- I am in LOVE with the Spicy Tuna Don with brown rice at Fukada in Irvine, CA and I think everyone else is too. The lines on the weekends are painfully long, but this is so so so good. Not too spicy with a touch of sweet, the texture of the brown rice compliments the tuna. The combo special also includes a bowl of udon or soba!



- It's hard to capture how HUGE the Snickers Pancake at Hash House A Go Go in Las Vegas, NV was, but maybe you can kind of see with my iPhone in the picture for scale. I gasped when I saw how big it was- the size of a small to medium pizza and enough to feed at least four people. This busy brunch place off the strip was featured on Man Vs. Food for its fried chicken benedicts (which were equally huge) and it was worth the trip off the strip. (Though the Wynn weekend buffet with fresh guacamole and prime rib was pretty enticing too).



- There were a lot of new things to try at Bazaar, in Los Angeles, CA, but the cotton candy foie gras had to be one of the most unusual. The melt in your mouth sugary and savory flavors and textures was to be tried in one bite and tasted like you would imagine. When I get back to Taipei, I want to post up the pictures from the rest of the food that night!

So that's a little bit from me right now... I'm fighting a cold and it's raining and I have so many places I want to eat and not enough time, but I'll be back to Taipei in a few days and should be back to regularly scheduled blogging in no time!

snack: i strongly recommend MOGOO POPCORN

MOGOO POPCORN
No. 38, Lane 190, Dun Hua S. Road, Sec. 1
(02) 2772-5208

MRT: Zhong Xiao/Fuxing

website: mogoo.com.tw Chinese only

$

Kid friendliness: kids will love the different flavors

Visit reviewed: 12/31/2009



Mushroom kernel popcorn. Have you heard about it before? I hadn't before I tried Mogoo Popcorn. What's the big deal? It's round, it's fluffy, it's easy to munch until you're wanting to get another bucket at 9pm, an hour before they close. Mogoo Popcorn uses only mushroom kernels, so therefore its name in Chinese- Mogoo, the Chinese word for mushroom.



The first time I spotted the shop was seeing the bright yellow sign after eating dinner at Pho Hoa across the street. The first time I tried Mogoo Popcorn in the store I wasn't that impressed. Perhaps it was the stale samples. Maybe the other flavors- seaweed, cheddar cheese, chocolate- were not my thing.



But I'm sure glad my friend Cynthia gave me a bucket as a gift so that I could become a fan. Their "American Original" flavor was pretty much kettle corn, it was light, crunchy, sweet, but not too sweet, with almost intangible taste of sea salt. The shape of the popped mushroom kernel gives it a round shape that gets pretty evenly coated and satisfying texture when you eat it.



The original flavor is my favorite, but if you want something sweeter, you can try their "American Caramel," "Hazelnut Caramel" or "Okinawan Brown Sugar". If you want something different, you can get the "Black Forest Chocolate" or Seaweed.

For the "American Original" flavor, Mogoo offers three different sizes- small is a long bag (NT$90), medium is (NT$150) and large comes in a extra large long bag (NT$200), and the bucket is NT$110. The other flavors have slightly different prices.



I like getting it in medium because the bucket keeps the popcorn from getting stale and is just the right size for not eating way too much. The smell of freshly made kettle corn was permeating the store and there was no way I wasn't getting a bucket.



Off to the right side of the store, you can spot the popcorn makers doing their magic. None of that premade movie theater popcorn here. I would totally sneak in some of this in rather than buy the often stale sweet popcorn at the theater.



Boxes also crowded the store making it almost hard to walk around. I guess it had become a popular option for gift giving, as my friend had also given us all a bucket at a lunch date a few months ago.



But if you find yourself addicted to the mushroom shaped popcorn, don't blame me! Just take back your bucket for refills like my friends do to get a NT$20 discount. Ooh, mushroom flavored popcorn, now that's something I'd definitely try.

western/dessert: i recommend MOM's PIES

MOM'S AMERICAN STYLE HOMEMADE PIES
75 Neihu Road, Section 2
Neihu District
(02) 8797-1716

Various delivery locations around Taipei
Mr. Hsu 0935-504-554
Ms. Wu 0922-091-113
Mr. Hsieh 0922-324-060
Mr. Huang 0931-311-215

website: imomi.com.tw Chinese and English (worked for me in Taipei, but not in LA)

hours: check website for hours/locations

$

Kid friendliness: some flavors might be too dense for kids, but what kid doesn't love pie?

Visit reviewed: 6/19/2009



Taipei is a city full of desserts- you can easily find cake-by-the-slice in every coffee shop or bakery; fruit topped shaved ice or scoops of ice cream for the summer days; colorful macarons and delicate napoleons, and now even frozen yogurt.

But pie?

Pie seems to be an elusive Bigfoot in the world of Taipei desserts. Look long enough, and you'll find it offered on the menu of a few American places like Jake's Country Cafe, ACC, or the Diner, or your best bet for pumpkin pie around Thanksgiving time- Costco, or randomly in the basement of Sogo at a little shop called Rose Pie.

When I was craving a slice of lemon meringue pie a few years ago, I started searching for pie places in Taipei, and started hearing about Mom's Pies. It sounded so mysterious. It was sold off a truck? Would it taste American style homemade like its name promised? Most importantly, was it good?

So when I was having lunch with a friend at Happy Korean and spotted a woman at the table next to us with a bag that said Mom's Pies, I quizzed her about where she got it. She said it was just right around the corner of the restaurant, on the sidewalk across the street from AIT, and kindly gave me her flier.



So my friend and I paid the bill, hurried outside and sure enough, a woman with a table full of pies was on the street corner. We'd found Bigfoot! I'd heard about it for so long, it was weird to finally see it in person. Although some people would think twice about buying a pie from the street, this made sense to me since Taipei is a city where you could buy practically anything from a street vendor, before LA was the city where you could buy almost anything off a truck.

But instead of a truck, Mom's Pies has been driving a van and selling it around different spots in town from Tuesday to Friday- the updated weekly schedule can be found on their website, though it is only in Chinese. You can also call for free delivery if you order more than 2 pies.



I spotted lots of flavors- pumpkin, chocolate, peach, cream cheese, cherry cream cheese, blueberry cream cheese, and chocolate cream cheese, and I know they have some more interesting flavors like red bean, taro, green tea cheesecake, purple yam and oatmeal (?!?!).

But still no lemon meringue. :(

The slice of pecan pie(NT$45) was full of large pecans and had a good sweet, sticky filling and the crust was flaky. A whole pie of the same flavor is NT$300 with 8 slices.



I've had their cheesecakes after finding them this day- coincidentally, someone gave a relative of mine a pie of different slices (NT$360) and their cheesecakes are dense and a bit heavy. They are so thick that you could pick up the whole thing by the slice and it would be a solid piece. The red bean and green bean flavors also kind of weirded me out (not really American homestyle), but I want to try the peach and apple in the future.

Where have you spotted Mom's Pies and did you give it a try? What's your favorite flavor?

japanese/fusion: i strongly recommend DOZO

DOZO IZAKAYA DINING BAR
No. 102, Guang Fu S. Road
(02) 2778-1135

MRT: Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

website: dozoizakaya.com

hours: 6pm to 3am (last food order at 2pm)

$$-$$$

Kid friendliness: loud atmosphere more lounge bar than restaurant

Visit reviewed: 12/4/2009



Dozo- I had heard the name quite a few times, but didn't know much about the menu. Even noticed its grand entrance and glowing red sign when driving by on Guang Fu South Road- it's a few blocks away from SYS Memorial Hall or United Hotel. But I never got a chance to eat there until my friends chose it for late birthday dinner after a screening of New Moon. One of my good friends is a true Twi-hard fan and watching it with her definitely made it more fun.



More Hollywood hotspot than homestyle, Dozo is the perfect sort of trendy place for those birthday dinner and drinks celebrations. On, the first floor, the elevated walkway is more of a runway, but they had reserved a room upstairs in the VIP tatami rooms where you can see if you are louder than the room next to you or the taiko drummers that come out to perform (I think after 10pm).



And like any good izakaya, the Chinese and English picture filled menu offers up many drinks and dishes to choose from, from grilled skewers to deep fried and stir fried dishes, from modern sushi rolls and appetizers to traditional sashimi, from beer bongs to hot sake.




Yup, I said beer bong.



In addition to the Japanese fare, there's a bit of creative fusion going on- Italian-style fried udon or korean style rice in stone bowl- or a new spin on the familiar, like spicy tuna.



Two of my favorite dishes at Dozo were tuna appetizers, especially since I love spicy tuna and it's hard to find it done well here, though I've been slowly finding it at more places. The Seven Spice Flavored Tuna Pate (NT$180) is served in a chilled ceramic dish and you mix the seven spices with the tuna, and scoop it onto the fresh romaine lettuce.




The other was the Tuna and Avocado Salad topped with Shrimp Roe which was also a mix and scoop thing, but this time on toasted bread slices. The texture of the cruncy toast and popping shrimp eggs is a good contrast to the soft tuna and avocado - a spicy tuna bruschetta if you will.



If I came back, I wouldn't order the Grilled Beef Sushi, (NT$220) which was a bit dry.



Instead get the Boneless Beef Spare Ribs which was a plate of bite sized slices of juicy beef.



Or for something different, you can try the Charcoal grilled beef with garlic sauce which was like beef sashimi, as it is pretty much raw. I think the first time I had raw beef, I can't remember where, I just went for it- I didn't even want to think about what I was eating. And it does taste sort of like sashimi, but with the texture of... raw beef. Haha. Something for someone who like their prime rib and steaks rare.



I also found myself going back for more of the Gigantic Grilled Rice Ball- it was basically as the name sounds. If you are like me and like the browned bits of crisped rice at the bottom of a stone bimbimbap bowl, then you'll love this since the entire ball is all crispy rice underneath the bonito.



And the soft Deep fried homemade tofu with peanut which had a distinctive, nutty flavor that was almost dessert like.



I wasn't crazy about some of other seafood dishes- the sashimi "Japanese Jack Mackarel with salsa" (a tad fishy),



the sliced octopus with korean kimchi and mayonaise, and



the Grilled squid with seven spice powder. I don't think I would have remembered these dishes if it wasn't for the pictures.



Instead, you can try the Deep Fried Mini Dumplings which were perfectly crisp,


the rolls like the Avocado and Salmon


and the Assorted skewers with chicken, intestines and beef.



By the time the Spicy Korean rice cakes came, I was too full to really taste more than a bite, but it was very spicy!



As you can see, we had a lot of food and this was only the tip of the extensive menu. If you want to try more things, then it's a great excuse to round up your friends for dinner, try a bite of each dish and reorder what you like. The food came at a good speed for our hungry group, and we added new rounds of orders a few times. Open until 3AM, Dozo is the perfect place to grab a late night bite.



Anyone else been to Dozo? What's your favorite dish there?