Monday, June 22, 2015

CLOSED! new in town/dessert: i recommend VOODOO DOUGHNUT TAIWAN's maple baconbar



CLOSED! a/o 1/2017

VOODOO DOUGHNUT 
No. 28, Lane 553, ZhongXiao S. Rd, Sec. 4
忠孝東路四段553巷28號
(02) 2763-5593

MRT: SYS Memorial Hall or Taipei City Hall 

hours: 9:30AM - 10PM, closed Monday and Tuesday

website: Voodoo Doughnut Taiwan's FB page

$-$$ (Cash only)

Kid friendliness: lots of room for seating and strollers and kids likely to want their own donuts! 

Visit reviewed: 6/18/2015


Look what's popped into Taipei?! This past week saw the openings of Dominique Ansel Bakery in Tokyo and now we have Voodoo Doughnut from Portland, Oregon  in Taipei (and our own cronuts at @dripcafe). Is Taipei ready for "weird" American style sugary donuts (now that their Krispy Kreme #sugarhigh has faded?) 

Thanks to instagram, I found out about Voodoo Doughnut's arrival last Thursday night and I was obsessing all afternoon and night long about being able to eat a maple bacon doughnut the next day. 

So bright and early on Friday, I headed over to the little alley near Songshan Cultural Park and Songyan Eslite. Early meaning 11AM since in Taipei, people don't eat donuts for breakfast and many restaurants open at noon. I wasn't even sure if they would be open, but luckily they were. Their FB page updated and states they open at 9:30AM, but are closed Mondays and Tuesdays.



It's easy to spot, with a bright pink neon sign and its voodoo doll character.



Once inside, behind the counter there was a wall of pink donut boxes over racks of doughnuts ready to go, a familiar sight to those who grew up in the US. The colorful chalkboard menu listed over 35 doughnuts in English and Chinese, organizing them into cake doughnuts and raised doughnuts. Doughnuts twirled around on tiered glass displays on each side of the counter, giving a glimpse of what to order. There's also considerable room for sitting and snacking and enjoying a cup of coffee with your doughnut.






Since I had never been to Portland and wasn't that familiar with Voodoo's doughnuts (being mostly in Taipei for the last 11 years), I had to quiz the server what some of the specialties were, such as Old Dirty Bastard, No Name, Portland Cream, Triple Chocolate Penetration and Tex-Ass. (I wonder how these are translated into Chinese?! Haha) Mainly, I looked at the doughnuts in the display and asked what the ones I didn't know were and glanced back and forth from the menu and display. 

Cake doughnuts and Old Fashioned cake doughnuts are the cheapest (NT35-50), while the Devil's Food cake chocolate doughnuts and crullers are NT$45-70. The raised doughnuts are the yeasted donuts- raised bars, rings and filled doughnuts are NT$30-95 and the fritters and specialty doughnuts are bigger and most expensive from NT$115-175. There are plain, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, vanilla with sprinkles, maple, glazed and doughnuts topped with coconut, cereal and bacon. They also made a special Taipei Cream donut that's available only in Taipei.


Even though I am familiar with doughnuts and know what I generally like (old fashioned, fritters, maple bacon doughnuts), I asked a ton of questions because the doughnuts in the display aren't labeled and the names on the chalkboard didn't have descriptions. I guess in the future, they could print a few photo menus to have on the counter with mini descriptions to help first timers get familiar with what they want to order and prevent a bottleneck at the counter. Luckily Voodoo Doughnuts had just been open for a few days and was still in their soft opening so I had the store to myself to figure out what I wanted. I think also they should figure out some sampler pack of their bestsellers so that people can just choose a Voodoo dozen, which they had written on the chalkboard but was not available yet. 



So I made my own sampler box! I thought they would have smaller sized boxes, but the boxes are large enough to fit two layers of doughnuts, in which they'll put the "dry" doughnuts on the bottom, and layer a wax paper layer of more delicate doughnuts on the top layer. I wanted to try different doughnuts with my friends and family so I was ambitious and tried to get a variety, but I think it's best not to get more than you can eat the same day since most of the doughnuts got softer and greasier the next day, especially the cereals on top of the doughnuts which should be crunchy but were soggy since they surprisingly didn't get eaten that day. Especially knowing how humid Taiwan is. I also think I've been in Taiwan too long, the cake donuts were a bit greasy and heavy to me.

I picked some cake and old fashioned on purpose knowing they were cheaper, but my order of 15 doughnuts was still NT$947. I was originally going to get a few boxes for friends, but I didn't since there wasn't a price break and I didn't want to get too many doughnuts if they weren't going to eat them. A dozen of assorted doughnuts at Krispy Kreme Taipei is NT$350 and I mostly like the glazed original doughnuts (NT$300/dozen). 

After paying the bill of almost US$30 for doughnuts (for this review but never again!), I had to wonder if will Taipei pay a premium for American donuts after the retreats of Dunkin Donuts and Mister Donut the past few years. Dunkin Donuts lasted six years after struggling after a promising opening (tried too hard to localize donuts and sometimes served stale donuts, probably because of lack of turnover) and Mister Donuts closed a number of stand alone shops after expanding too quickly. 

I asked if I could get a price break if I bought a dozen or if they were doing any soft opening promotions (like checking in on instagram and Facebook and getting a free doughnut or something along those lines) and they said no. Krispy Kreme had an intense marketing push giving away tons of free doughnuts and garnering social media word of mouth when they opened, so much that they had people waiting up to four hours in line around the block for almost three months after their launch. Despite people saying for years that Krispy Kreme was too sweet for Taiwanese people, they got people to show up out of curiosity who wanted to post photos with their box of doughnuts.  

Can Voodoo Doughnut succeed by doing a slow launch when it doesn't have the same brand recognition yet in Asia and the culture here just isn't that obsessed with doughnuts? Especially when you are competing not only with other doughnut shops, but with a multitude of bakeries, sweets, street eats and cafes on every corner in Taipei. I think it would help to do some promotions for your early customers and start the Voodoo Dozen pricing since we are the ones who are obsessed and more likely to return. 


So the first one I tried was the maple bacon donut (NT$95), since that was the one I had fallen in love with a few years earlier from DK Donuts in LA. It's like a plate of pancakes, maple syrup butter and bacon on the go. I actually love the flavor combination so much I tried to convince the guys at Drip Cafe to do a maple bacon cronut when I was taking all my friends there before it got crazy. The maple bacon was definitely my favorite out of the bunch with the thick sweet maple glaze and a layer of salty bacon. Devoured it before I got home and it's the doughnut I would go back to Voodoo for and spend my precious calories on. 


There's a good guide to doughnuts on Serious Eats, but I'll post some close ups of the doughnuts with their names so hopefully it'll be a bit faster next time to figure out what to order. I shared most of the other doughnuts with others so I didn't get to try all of them, but I liked the old fashioned and the peanut chocolate cake doughnut that I got a bite of. 

Old Fashioned - Maple (NT$50)

Voodoo Doll  (NT$90) 
Raised yeast doughnut with chocolate icing and raspberry jelly filling

Dirty Snowball (NT$70) 
Devil Food's chocolate cake donut with strawberry icing, topped with shredded coconut and peanut butter in the middle 

The Loop (NT$52) 
Raised doughnut with vanilla frosting covered in fruit loop cereal (Anyone else find it amusing that this is NT$52 instead of NT$50 or NT$55? You'd think it's easier for change to keep all the prices even since they are cash only.)


Triple Chocolate Penetration Doughnut (NT$55) 
Chocolate cake doughnut covered in chocolate frosting and chocolate puff cereal

Old Dirty Bastard (NT$75) 
Raised yeast doughnut with chocolate frosting, crushed Oreos and peanut butter

Chocolate french cruller (NT$45)

Cinnamon Sugar Cake doughnut (NT$45) 

Droolworthy? Let me know if you try Voodoo Doughnuts in Taiwan in the comments and what you thought! I'm constantly fascinated by what foreign/American eats ends up in Taipei and always hope it succeeds and translates and tastes good. I hope Voodoo can find its niche market and be affordable while not adjusting to local tastes, but offer doughnuts that taste like they did back at home. 

Sunday, June 21, 2015

snapshot/instagram: PICO PICO, SQUARE PIZZA, BURGER AND CO., LALOS & CYCLO



This past week on instagram,  I revisited some old favorites, tried new Peruvian and pizza by the slice restaurants and made Hello Kitty rice krispies! And as you should when are you in Taipei,  scarf down a bamboo steamer full of dumplings for breakfast for only NT$45. Thought I would try something new on the blog- to post some instagram highlights every so often to share new restaurants and finds and capture my thoughts before a full blog post. Enjoy!


PICO PICO 

Finally tried Pico Pico, a Peruvian restaurant that my friend C had been telling me about for awhile. Among our favorites were the chicken paella, or arroz con pollo, which had a curry flavor and juicy chicken thigh atop, the charred octopus and the beef heart skewers. Lunch and brunch menus also available.

PICO PICO, No. 28, Lane 102, Anhe Rd, Sec. 1, 安和路一段102巷28號, (02) 2755-1161



SQUARE PIZZA AL TAGLIO

Stopped by newly opened Square Pizza al Taglio for a quick bite. Rectangular pizzas by the slice with toppings like house made porchetta and eggplants with sundried tomatoes. Reminded me of my trip to Italy and the delicious pizzas at Bonci Pizzarium in Rome

SQUARE PIZZA AL TAGLIO, No. 39, Lane 160, Dunhua S. Rd, Sec. 1, 
敦化南路一段160巷39號, (02) 2751-7998



BURGER AND CO 

Listened to old school jams and ate burgers with mustaches at Burger and Co.

BURGER AND CO.,  No. 49 TongAn St., 通安街49號, (02) 2784-0182



LALOS BAKERY 

Liked the perfectly tangy lemon tart with meringue at Lalos Bakery on Renai Street. I also love their honey citron bread and chouquettes. 

LALOS BAKERY, No. 91, Anhe Road, Sec. 1, 安和路一段91號 



CYCLO 洛城牛肉粉

Visited the new location of Cyclo for the first time near Sogo/DaAn Road. The original location serving up LA style pho near Renai closed last year. Get the pho with brisket, meatballs and tendon. 

CYCLO 洛城牛肉粉, No. 9, Lane 75, DaAn Road, Sec. 1 大安路1段75巷9號 , (02) 2752-8666




my kitchen: happy dragon boat festival!




Happy dragon boat festival weekend. Tried my hand at helping wrap the sticky rice dumplings/ zong zi this year. Some tricks are to try to pick evenly sized leaves for wrapping, bend the leaves in half then pick a point three quarters of the way to twist into a cone like pocket for putting the rice, and pinching in the sides with your left hand before folding over the top flap to make a nice pointy pyramid shape. 

Practice makes perfect! 


Friday, June 19, 2015

snapshots/western: i still recommend IKEA



Something about the meatballs at IKEA that makes me stop at their food court every so often. Seems like everyone else had the same idea since the tables were all occupied and it took awhile to snag one. I also realized that I'd never seen pork knuckle on the menu at IKEA in LA. It wasn't bad for NT$200-- huge portion and slightly crisped skin, tender meat underneath. Perfect for the land of pigs feet lovers. 

One of these days I'll get the mega huge IKEA in Hsinchuang. Heard it's US sized and even has a US sized parking lot. 





IKEA TAIPEI
No. 100 Dunhua S. Road
台北市敦化北路100號

OTHER LOCATIONS

Kaohsiung, Taoyuan and Taichung

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

snapshot/taipei: 7-ELEVEN X MISTER DONUT




7-Eleven X Mister Donut 

Spotted at 7-Eleven in Taipei 101 today. I wonder if it's just at a few locations, or there will be Taiwan-wide displays to tempt you while you wait in line at the front check out. 

It's a smart move by Mister Donut considering they shut down most of their stores a few years ago. Even the one I went to most often at Xinyi Mitsukoshi closed. Now I can only think of the one at  Hankyu.  

Will Krispy Kreme vie to be next to pop up?

Monday, June 15, 2015

revisited/western: i still recommend NONZERO




NONZERO
& MONOCLE SHOP TAIPEI
No. 5, Alley 4, Lane 27, Ren Ai Rd, Sec. 4
(02) 2772-1630

MRT: Zhongxiao/Fuxing

website: nonzero.com.tw

hours: 11:30AM - 8PM

$$

Kid friendliness: no high chairs spotted. smaller seating area and limited menu

Visit reviewed: 5/11/2015
Previous review: 12/2007



It's been a long time since I have been to Nonzero (over seven years), so when a friend who was "eating clean" asked to meet there, it was a good opportunity to try out their current menu. I had also heard about its recent revamp turning half of its dining space into a Monocle Shop. Where there used to be a huge table for shared seating and a section for take home veggies, is now an assortment of colorful home goods, notebooks and accessories for "high end global lifestyle."

Nonzero's menu is also notedly different than its previous typical Taipei set menu where soup and desserts are included. Nonzero now serves "comfort food from around the world" that's "healthy and delicious" as well as friendly to solo diners. With less than 10 menu items to choose from, like masala vegetable stew, lemon thyme fish with roasted potato and beef bourguignon, there's a flavor profile here that's rare in Taipei.







 





Nonzero lunch set NT$500 meal of the day, quinoa rice or bread, salad and americano or Aveda tea. The meal of the day was stewed lamb. The lamb was tender and I like this better than the off the menu Malaysian curry chicken which had a strong spice that I didn't love.




The rice was a quinoa rice blend, so it wasn't completely quinoa, but maybe more palatable to those unfamiliar to quinoa.




Off the menu special- Malaysian chicken curry (NT$350) which was slightly spicy and had large chunks of potato.



Lemon thyme fish with roasted potato (NT$550) was very light, but healthy with thin strips of zucchini wrapped around the fish. I liked the roasted baby potatoes that came with the fish too. Fish was fork tender and fresh. 



Nonzero's menu might not be for everyone, but those looking for distinct flavors can probably tell from the menu and photos if it's for you. At the very least, Monocle fans can browse the shop. Next time I go, I want to try the desserts- the cherry clafoutis, lemon cake and the strawberries with balsamic strawberry compote.

:)