my kitchen: homemade bulgogi kimchi tacos

I'm. Too. Busy. Eating.

to give you better looking pictures than these from my iPhone, but trust me, when I say, I now "get it."

Bulgogi + Kimchi + corn tortillas + onion/mushrooms = frickin deliciousness
(made possible by Costco in Taipei and tortillas from LA)

I never made the leap to wait-in-line-for-hours for the all-over-LA Kogi trucks, but once had my sister's cold leftovers which left me unenthusiastic. But having it hot out of the kitchen- it's a weirdly odd satisfying combination that works. The smoky sweetness of the marinated beef mixed with the spicy heat from the pickled cabbage held together by the fragile corn tortillas. I'm sure the imaginative and adventurous have been creating other fusion combos, but the basic one is best.

I already inhaled 4.

Could this work in Taipei? They like the kimchee here, and not so much the cheese, so maybe if I had a little taco truck, I could make some cash on the side?

teppanyaki/Japanese: i recommend DA FANG REGIMEN CATE TEPPANYAKI

DA FANG REGIMEN CATE TEPPANYAKI
No. 18-1, Xinyi Road, Sec. 5
(02) 2758 1019

website: dafang-regimen-cate.com/

hours: 11:30 AM -2 PM; 5:30 PM -9:30 PM

$$$

Kid friendliness:

Visit reviewed: 4/9/2009



If you're the kind of person who likes to glance at the desserts first while looking at the menu, I won't mind if you scroll down and peek at the dessert. It was a teppanyaki first me for- popcorn! They heated up the carmalized popcorn on the surface and the sugary smell made us all drool.

Da Fang Regimen Teppanyaki is full of surprises, and as a "good for you" restaurant, it's a great place to splurge for a fun night out with friends or family. With the ongoing bite size parts of an upscale multi-course meal, you might not think you'd get full, but you leave satisfied. Across from the 101 mall, it's a bit hidden behind the current MRT construction on Xinyi in a non-descript building.

I've always kind of balked at how expensive teppanyaki can be, but part of the price is for the skill and time of the chef and a privately cooked meal. And it's an especially nice treat if friends are treating! So thanks to K and C for dinner and for introducing me to it!

Da Fang's website says that it has "the recognition and combinations for properties of food items" and since Taipei is a "hot" city, it tries to present foods that are "cool." They also have organic foods and use mountain rose salt and minimal oil. They have lunch and dinner set menus as well as ala carte. The menu changes seasonally, so what you see here might not be what you get the next time you eat there.



This set menu (NT$1980) you can choose the main element of sirloin beef, chicken, pork or seafood. I chose sirloin beef.

Okay, so onto the dishes:

1- Soup. I think this was a milky fish soup with tofu.



2- Appetizers & bread. The flower on the loofah was edible and fragrant. They asked that you enjoy the smell and then eat it.






3 and 4- Surf and turf.. First was the perfectly cooked shrimp, cod and lobsters. Then, mmmm.. pan fried oysters. By coating it with crispy bits, it tasted like it was deep fried.



5- The Veggies. Cabbage and shitake mushrooms. Simple and good.




I also throughly enjoyed their "salsa" which was raw onions and diced fruit (I think guava and melon) which I would eat when I was waiting for everything to be cooked. They constantly refilled it, and I would eat more of it.



6- I think we got three rolls of bitesize beef- one with shiso leaf and roe, one with foie gras, one with with spicy chili pepper. This definitely left you wanting more. YUM. How much did I want to steal the beef and foie gras from my friend's plate? Ha ha.




7- From what I understood from the Chinese explanation, this tea is supposed to help you lose weight. Or was it help you with your kidneys? One or the other. I think the alien looking root in there was a beet.



8- Fried rice and salad. Especially needed to get full. The soup in the tomato salad was good too.




9- Omelette- I didn't really like the omelette. Is was sort of weird to be a dessert, since it wasn't sweet.



10- Popcorn. How cool is that?! The popcorn (made from organic corn and brown sugar) wasn't as good as freshly popped kettle corn, but I definitely attacked our huge pile with gusto. When they put it on the heated surface, it melted the sugar and made sticky caramel strings between the popped kernels.



So my favorite part of the meal was definitely the seafood and beef. The teppan grill and method of grilling brings out natural flavors in each since there's only a bit of oil and salt/pepper used. I enjoyed watching the chef make each part for everyone.

THe first time I ate teppanyaki was probably at Benihana's a long time ago. The chefs at Da Fang don't do any of the cheesy tricks that Benihana's made famous, but they are quite friendly and will answer any questions you might have.


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american/steak: TOSCANA at SHERWOOD HOTEL

TOSCANA
at Sherwood Hotel, 1 FL
No. 111, MinSheng E Road, Sec. 3
(02) 2718-1188

website: sherwood.com.tw

hours: 11:30 AM - 10:30 PM

$$-$$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available. lots of finger foods available in salad/antipasti and dessert bar.

Visit reviewed: 3/8/2008



Toscana offers fine Italian dining and steaks in an upscale European setting. Make sure you don't miss the sprawling salad and antipasti bar, (which runs over NT$700 just by itself) as well as the dessert bar hiding in the back. The salad bar had a lot of build your own salad components, as well as freshly made Caesar salad, cheese platters (yum, Brie!) and lots of filling antipasto.

Our friend who chose the restaurant proclaimed that the grilled dry aged Smith and Wollensky New York cut steak was his favorite and that Toscana was the only restaurant here in Taipei that had chefs trained to prepare them.

I'm not a steak expert, I just like to eat them. Sometimes I can barely remember what kind of cut I like best. I tend to like my steaks juicy (probably = fatty) so I tend to lean toward the ribeye. Is that the right cut for me?

I got the set menu which included a soup, salad/antipasto bar, pasta, steak and dessert bar.



I have a faint recollection that our set menu was under NT$2000, but my friend was treating a group of us and I didn't take a picture of the menu, so I'm not sure. Currently, Toscana's set dinner menus run about NT$2650. Toscana is definitely a place to splurge, impress your date or use the corporate card.



I think I remember liking everything, but not being blown away. For an expensive dinner, personally I think you should definitely be gasping in delight over something, otherwise, why pay the higher price. But maybe the steak experts out there can divulge- is dry aged steak all that? Or maybe it's more appreciated when paired with the right wine?





So I'm slowly working through my list of backlogged posts. This one was for you, dessertobsessed!


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snapshot: i recommend swedish meatballs at IKEA

IKEA
at Asia World Shopping Mall
No. 100, Dun Hua N. Road, B1
Song Shan District
(02)2716-8900

MRT: Zhong Shan Middle School or Nanjing E Road (10 minute walk)

website: www.ikea.com.tw

hours: Sun-Thur 10 AM - 9:30 PM; Fri/Sat 10 AM - 10 PM

$$

Kid friendliness: bite sized for kid mouths! roomy food court

Visit reviewed: 5/25/2009

Fifteen swedish meatballs and fries (I changed it to mashed potatoes) for NT$139 makes for pretty decent food court food. They give a good gravy and a sweet berry sauce, which combined gives it a sweet and savory flavor. It definitely can't compare to the way Flavors restaurant rocks their meatballs, but you can't beat the price. They also sell frozen swedish meatballs to take home.

Any other good stuff that I missed? I don't like the ice cream or the hot dogs at the downstairs food court. It's not as good as the ice cream in the states.

And on the way to the food court, you can pick up some furniture, dinner ware or frames.


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korean: i recommend LIANG BAN JIA KOREAN BBQ

LIANG BAN JIA KOREAN BBQ
at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A9, 6 FL
No. 9, Song Shou Road
(02) 2720-1980

MRT: Taipei City Hall

website: skm.com.tw

hours: 11 AM - 9:30 PM

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available. just keep hands away from hot grill.

Visit reviewed: 5/18/2009



Liang Ban Jia is a modern looking restaurant offering an extensive menu of Korean bbq meats, seafood, Korean hotpot soups and traditional dishes in Xinyi Mitsukoshi shopping mall, on the same floor as Saboten, a shabu shabu place, a Japanese restaurant and a Chinese restaurant.

I always walked by this place and assumed it would be too expensive, but actually if you have a group of people, you can get a lot of food for an affordable price. My aunt wanted to treat my visiting sister and I to dinner and we ended up getting the combo for 5 people for NT$2500. They have combination sets for 2-5 people which works out to be about NT$400-500 a person, which can also be cheaper than ordering different things ala carte.




Mostly everything was good, but the best parts of the dinner was the beef "galb" (NT$580 ala carte) and the stone bim bim bap. It might have been the biggest stone pot I'd ever seen!



The main beef I had (beef, hee hee) was that we finished a few of our panchans side dishes early and asked for refills. They said that refills cost extra. It kind of sucked that they didn't give more since we had more people.



Because the place was relatively empty, the server was able to cook all the meat for us and was very attentive at serving everyone.



My aunt said when it's busy, the servers have to work between a few tables, and the meat is definitely better when the experts cook it with their expert tongs-manship. There's even lettuce and two dipping sauces for your meat.



The pacing was pretty quick and after going through the seafood pancake, grilled mushroom, pork, beef, more pork, scallops, shrimp and fish, we barely had enough room for the bimbimbap rice and the seafood hotpot.



If I go again, I'd probably try the other options of ginseng chicken or kimchee hotpot since the seafood hotpot was a bit bland.



The seafood pancake was thick and crispy and stuffed with crab, squid and vegetables.



I thought the scallops were a bit dry and the fish and shrimp were just so so. At that point, I was wishing there was more beef kalbi instead, which was the most tender and juicy of all the grilled meats.




Mmm.. the bimbimbap was a nice way to end the meal. The crispy bits of rice and all the mixed in vegetable, egg and sauce.



Liang Ban Jia is perfect for business lunch and a great option for a tasty Korean meal with a group of friends or family. It's not as great a bargain as a place like Happy Korean, but it's roomier and less rowdy than Mindong and walkable for those craving Korean near 101.


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mexican/western: i recommend GOOD DAY

CLOSED! at this location a/o summer 2010

GOOD DAY
at Shin Kong Mituskoshi, A8
12 Sung Kao Rd, B2
(02) 2723-5220

MRT: Taipei City Hall

$

Kid friendliness: small roomy seating area away from the food court

website: gooddaytw.com Chinese only

Visit reviewed: 5/13/2009
Previous visit of different location: 11/29/2007

Maybe I've been in Taiwan too long. Or maybe the gooey burrito from Good Day and freshly fried crispy tortilla chips were actually decent. Either way, I'm recommending that all of you missing Taco Bell (admit it, you do) or Mexican food in Taipei, give Good Day a try.

If you were circling the food court at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, you wouldn't even find it. But if you went towards the other side, glancing past the random Japanese pastries and Johan bakery, then you'd spot the random gingerbread man wearing a sombero.



What?



Maybe it's an appropriate mascot for its equally random menu. Good Day's worldly menu includes not only burritos, tacos and quesadillas, but also burgers, cuban sandwiches, a few all day American breakfasts and Uruguyuan sandwiches.



Again... what??

Not quite the foods I picture being the demand of Taiwanese tastebuds, but maybe that's what's so cool about Good Day. It dares to offer it amidst the sea of rice and noodle dishes. If they build it, will people come?



Though I had a so-so experience at its Dun Hua location with the chicken tacos awhile back, I thought I'd give it a second chance.

The blue uniformed employees were helpful in explaining what items were and answering questions about the menu. Though not everyone there was sure about English names of items when I mentioned them, but we worked it out when I'd point to the menu names.

I'd suggest getting a beef burrito (NT$230 (combo with chips, fries and 1 dipping sauce). I was pleasantly surprised with how big it was, almost the size of a burrito you'd get back home- though I did end up digging out most of the mushy rice and not eating it. The salsa and seasoned ground beef was pretty good though, and I liked the melted cheese. I think it also helped I put some of my Costco avocados onto it.



The chips were warm and crackly crisp and great with my little side of nacho cheese.

I also tried the Classic Cuban (NT$190), but didn't get past a bite after eating my burrito. But it tasted great the next day- especially if you are feeling like a sandwich. For those of you who've never had a Cuban sandwich, it's a variation of a pressed ham and cheese sandwich. The bread wasn't as toasty as I'd like, but I think it might be because I got it to go.



The pickles and mustard give the Classic Cuban a nice zing, and while it compared nothing to my first experience eating a Cuban sandwich at the popular Porto's a few months ago, it's pretty amazing that you can even find a Cuban sandwich in Taipei. Although I don't know how authentic the variations (tuna, turkey or ham & smoked chicken) are.

So those of you who haven't yet had the time to trek to Danshui for Mexican food, take yourself to Good Day and let me know what you think. While it's not as festive an atmosphere as Amigo or Tequila Sunrise, the prices are cheaper and I might even try the all day brunch or one of their 10 or so burgers next time. Their website says there's a NT$100 lunch special for burger of the day plus fries. Sounds like the start of a good day to me.


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Other location:

No. 18, Lane 177, Dun Hua South Road, Sec 1
(02) 8771-0703