not taipei: breakfast, sushi rolls, THE COUNTER, YOGURTLAND and KWIK E MART

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted... I'm back in Taipei after a short trip to the states. Everytime I go to LA, I tell myself that it means time to write up and post all the backlog posts that I have to work on, but the opposite is true- I'm soo busy that I barely have time to read other people's blogs much less work on my own.

But I did take a few pictures to show and tell. WARNING TO MY TAIPEI READERS- not in Taipei! So don't browse if you are hungry, since you will probably not be able to find something similar to satiate you in Taipei. (If you can, let me know!) Ugh, I'm getting hungry just looking at the pictures again.

I ate A LOT of American style breakfasts while I was in LA. One- the jetlag and short trip made sure that I was up early and hungry, so that was the perfect excuse to go have some waffles.

I had breakfast for the first time at Mimi's Cafe which was supersized and full of families. The food and service is what you'd expect from a chain restaurant- the muffin was cake-like, the breakfast burrito was lunch-like, I didn't taste any crab in the crab corn asparagus quiche, but we still left stuffed.

On the other hand, I savored the fluffy and maple syrup drenched french toast and a few bites of a awesome huge goat cheese, sundried tomato, basil omelette at Novel Cafe.




It's surprisingly usually not crowded, the service was friendly and everything (except the pancakes) tasted like it had just come out of the kitchen of someone who cared about how their food tasted and made with fresh ingredients.

I revisited my love for what I think may be the near perfect waffle at Campanile on La Brea. I even had time to make my own waffle and eggs at home, though I didn't really care for the Archer Farms apple strudel mix I bought from Target.



I had lunch with friends at the Westwood Farmer's Market which has moved since the last time I went. Sarah at the Delicious Life reminded me how much I wanted I wanted to go again. I bought some fresh flowers, basil and hummus, ate some tamales (get the blue corn over the regular corn and the pork carnitas) and gyros, drank a not-big-enough $2 cup of strawberry lemonade and walked around eating samples of hummus, cheesecake, fruit and honey in the LA sunshine.




Although I don't have any evidence in pictures, I ate my share of carnitas and chicken enchiladas on this trip. The food is simple, but always hits the spot unlike the chore and surprise of not knowing what are you going to get when you "Mexican" food in Taipei.

And though I found spicy tuna finally in Taipei, I loaded up on the monster Theta Animaniac (a snowball of spicy tuna over fried crispy rice) and rolls from California Roll Factory as well as tried out rolls from Ami's. I wasn't in love with their baby lobster roll (a bit dry and well, isn't it crawfish?), but the Las Vegas roll was good, though their spicy tuna seems to have an extra dash of Tabasco than I'm used to.




Although I had heard about Yogurtland from Elmomonster, it's not the same unless you visit it. A row of self serve yogurt machines, you can pile on the yogurt and fresh fruit and toppings to your stomach's delight, at the cost of US$0.30 an ounce. You might think the pint sized empty paper cup is too big, but it makes you (or made us) pull the levers until we had about 1 pound of yogurt plus fruit. The picture isn't pretty with melted yogurt of half a dozen flavors and colors, but it tasted good. If I had to go again, I'd get the chocolate mint, blueberry tart and mango flavors. Avoid the artificial tasting peach flavor.



It's pretty brillant since the customer gets to do it exactly the way they like it, and maybe you don't feel like $3-4 dollars worth of yogurt, you can just get a taste. But since you don't know how much it actually weighs, you might pay more than you think. I guess the more you go, the better you'd get at doing it.

I even got to wander around a Kwik E Mart in Burbank- with offerings like Buzz Cola, Sprinklicious donuts, Squishees and other Simpsons stuff for the tourists and fans. There are only 10 in the world and who knows how long they will be around now that the Simpson's movie is coming out. I had to wait a bit for parking, avoid the kids who were trying to find the Buzz cold that one lucky girl had in line, and avoid the people taking pictures with the signs.




I bet the 7-11 owners wish that it could be permanently a Kwik E Mart since I've never seen a 7-11 so busily trafficked. I almost wish I had picked up some pink frosted Krispy Kremes.

Last but not least, the you could go to the Counter and eat a different burger everytime you go, since you can choose your cheese, toppings and bun. On this day, I picked feta cheese, corn salsa, roasted red peppers and onions on an English muffin which is not strong enough to hold everything.



So it's back to Taipei and my love hate relationship with the food here. I've heard about a few new places, so hopefully we'll have to time to visit them!

MIMI's CAFE
25343 Crenshaw Blvd
Torrance, CA 90505
(310) 326-4477

NOVEL CAFE
1101 Gayley Ave
Westwood, CA 90024
(310) 208-6410

WESTWOOD FARMER's MARKET
Thursday 12-7pm
at the end of Davis at Constitution
310- 861-8

CALIFORNIA ROLL FACTORY
11629 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone:310-996-2366

AMI JAPANESE RESTAURANT
1051 Broxton Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90024 (310) 209-1802

YOGURTLAND
14775 Jeffrey Road, Suite J
Irvine, CA 92618

KWIK E MART
611 West Olive Avenue (at Verdugo)
Burbank, CA 91506

THE COUNTER
2901 Ocean Park Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 399-8383

japanese: i don't recommend KYOMOMOYAMA

KYOMOMOYAMA
Japanese restaurant next to SABOTEN
Mitsukoshi XinYi, A9, 6th FL
No. 9, Song Shou Road Taipei
(02) 2720-5533

$$

Visit reviewed: 6/11/2007

It looked promising. The packaging for to-go was pretty. But the taste... bleech.

Who puts ginger inside a tempura shrimp roll (NT$300+)? Who wants to eat unagi don (NT$500+) where the eel's bone are prickly rather than cooked until soft? I certainly don't.




While this Japanese eatery seemed semi-upscale and good for family sit down dinners, next to the popular tonkatsu place Saboten and a Korean bbq restaurant I want to try- our to-go experience left me hungry for something else.

Anything else.

other locations:
Tien Mu Mitsukoshi
No. 68, Tien Mu E Road, 7FL
(02) 2875-5055

Miramar Mall
No. 20, Jing Ye 3rd Road
DaZhi, Taipei
(02) 2175-3558

bakeries: i recommend JOHAN

JOHAN BAKERY
at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi
A4: 19 Sung Kao Rd, B2
A8: 12 Sung Kao Rd, B2

website: johan.co.jp in Japanese with some French

$

Kid friendliness: don't let the grabby kids wander here unless you are keeping an eye on them or are willing to take home a lot of doughnuts. everything is out in the open and at kid-eye level.

Visit reviewed: 4/27/2007 and 6/9/2007

All the random bake shops across town are great for picking up a quick snack, but not so great for avoiding carbs. Oh well, right? As long as the taste is worth it.

Johan is seemingly a Japanese owned French inspired/styled bakery... couldn't find much info about it online other than the Japanese website.



There are two shops I've been to in the different A4 and A5 basements of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi which both have various sweet and salty breads including doughnuts and deep fried breads with curry inside, featuring the top 5 (of the day? of all time?) in the center.



All the signs are in Chinese with no English in site, so you have to identify by guessing with your gut or trying to make out the Chinese. A few months ago I picked up two HUGE pieces of toast- one with coffee flavor and one with butter and sugar, as well as a roll of sesame bread with cheese.



As you can see close up, there was a thin coating of sugar which with the crust made a sweet and toasted crust for the soft inside. I thought I would like the butter and sugar one more, but I ended up inhaling the coffee toast. I tore off a bite and keep tearing off another bite until it was all gone... in like 1 minute. It was scary.

I went back yesterday to buy some more, but it was in the later end of the day and they were sold out. Plenty of butter and sugar toast left, but it was too much butter for me. The coffee toast is way better- it's as if someone has dipped the toast in coffee but it's not soggy!

I also prefer the regular cheese toast (Number 1 yesterday on the table) over the sesame cheese toast. The regular cheese roll is crusty and chewy with a skin of cheese over the cheese blocks inside, which the sesame and cheese flavors just don't mesh. It also tastes as good as the more expensive cheese roll from Maison Kayser.

Yesterday I also got a chocolate bread roll (NT$30), which is featured on their website.



It looks like mini white bread roll marblized with chocolate and looks very sweet, but the flavor is actually not overwhelming and addicting with the faint chocolate notes.

You might also spot a huge line during certain times of the day when their freshly baked french bread comes out- it's so huge it takes a couple people to carry it out, but then you can buy a slice to take home. I've never been patient enough to wait in the line, but maybe one of these days.

As with any freshly baked goods, you want to eat it within a day or so. The sugar on the butter toast got soft after that day and I lost interest in it. My cheese bread went soft the next day, which I didn't like, but was saved with the toaster. The chocolate bread was good for a few days as well. There's new bread everyday so it's better to just buy a little and go back for fresh refills!

my kitchen: udon

Udon is one of those things that I don't like to order in restaurants because I feel like I could make it better the way I like it at home. Especially when I'm paying US$7 or something like that for a bowl of noodles. Same goes for ramen. Or hotpot in LA which can go up to $15-20 and pretty much includes all the things that I like in my udon.

And it's so easy!

But what's great is that I found really fresh tasting "QQ" udon! Once you taste chewy al dente style udon, you won't want to eat the soggy, soft udon again. I picked some up at the new green Sogo (Zhong Xiao - Fu Xing MRT) after getting suckered by the freeee samples they were handing out. I think part of the key to making really chewy udon is to (1) buy the frozen kind and (2) don't boil it for too long. It's already cooked, so you just have to cook it for a minute or so.



This is their house brand and comes with three udon blocks in one pack with or without packet for broth flavoring.





My perfect bowl of noodles has chinese cabbage, mushrooms (shiitake and golden), tempura, thin slices of pork or beef, light seasoning in the broth and an egg with runny yolk.

2 years and counting...

27,000 visits since I started the blog two years ago. Wow and thank you.

shabu shabu/japanese: SHABURI

as of October 2007: REMODELING/CLOSED!

SHABURI
at Dun Nan Sogo, B2
No. 246, Dun Hua South Road, Sec 1
(02) 8771-5548

website: shaburi.com.tw Chinese only

hours: Sunday to Thursday 11 AM - 9:30 PM
Friday and Saturday 11 AM - 10 PM

$$-$$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available though, not many booths to accomodate and lackluster service. be careful of hot pot with antsy kids, but have wide menu besides hotpot and frozen yogurt at the end of the meal.

Visit reviewed: 6/12/2007



Shaburi is a nice corner for shabu shabu in the basement of Dun Hua Sogo with a huge menu of choices (in English and Chinese)- you can choose from moderately price set menus of NT$399 or splurge on options like lobster or kobe beef for a lot more. There are also non-hot pot Japanese menus such as sushi, sashimi and noodles, though when I asked about their eel avocado roll, they said they were out of avocado.

The service can be slow, though they have a lot of things to bring to you. First the dual sauces, then your set menu salad and your hotpot items, lastly your drink and dessert.

The set menu salad is a bit sad looking, but they do offer you a shrimp.



The cheapest beef on the menu is still pretty tender and comes with an array of veggies including your choice of noodle.



The thing I like about Shaburi's hotpots is that each one is divided into 2 sections, so you can dine with your friend yet have control of your own pot. In this case, I was eating with a vegetarian, so we could still sit at the same table (unlike many hot pot places that have communal hot pots) and eat from the same pot.

I like the sesame sauce better than the soy chili sauce, which can be quite spicy, but you can ask them to make it more or less spicy.



The vegetarian hotpot comes with cabbage, mushrooms, corn, tofu, vegetarian tempura, tomatoes, taro and noodles. You can also get an upgraded vegetarian Mushroom hotpot which I assume comes with even more mushrooms.



I was pretty hungry, so I ended up ordering an extra plate of sliced beef, which made my lunch more expensive than usual.

The black sesame vanilla frozen yogurt gives extra brownie points to this shabu shabu place over others. You can also choose from tea or coffee and we forgot to ask for it earlier, so got it at the end of dinner.




We walked into Shaburi for lunch without a reservation and it filled up fairly quickly throughout the lunch hour. I would recommend reservations for dinner or weekends especially if you have a large group. It's a bit nicer than the mom and pop hot pot places for business lunches or family dinners, though keep in mind you can have all you can eat for simliar prices at such places like Mo Mo Paradise. However, it seems that Shaburi have sprung up in NY where good shabu shabu is a bit harder to find and made a name for itself there.

also spotted at 101 Mall foodcourt, B2

CLOSED/korean: i recommend JIN LUO DAO KOREAN RESTAURANT

CLOSED!

JIN LUO DAO (GOLDEN LUO ROAD)
No. 2, Lane 345, Alley 4, Ren Ai Road, Sec 2
(02) 8771-9655

$

date visited: 5/17/2007

I spotted this random korean place on the corner on the way home from a spa appointment with my friend. It was on the corner and had a window for take away orders, sort of how some taco places have a counter for people who didn't necessarily want to sit inside. Everything was in Chinese, but there were enough pictures on the wall to point to what I wanted- they had all the main things- seafood pancake (NT$120), stone bim bim bap (NT$150), spicy stir fried rice cake (NT$100-120), hot pot (NT$100). I only had time to get something to go, so I ordered the seafood pancake.

When I got back to the office, to my surprise, they included a soup, a dessert grass jelly soup and a side of deep fried taro and tofu. That was a good deal to me!



The taro was so crispy it was almost carmelized. With sugar coating, it was right up my sweet tooth alley, but my guy friend who didn't expect it to be sweet didn't like it.



The freebie sides and the taste of the seafood pancake definitely picqued my interest. Next time, I will try sit down at their small corner shop and see if the other menu items are just as good.

chinese: CHAO PING JI

CHAO PING JI
at San Want Hotel, 2 FL
172, Sec. 4, Zhong Xiao East Rd.
(02) 2772-2121 ext. 2200, 2201

website: sanwant.com English, Chinese and Japanese

M-F
Lunch 11:30am - 2:30pm
Dinner 5:30pm - 9:00pm

Saturday~Sunday
Lunch 11:00am - 2:30pm
Dinner 5:30pm - 9:00pm

$$

Visit reviewed: 5/11/2007

Six large private rooms make it a convienent place for group parties and family celebrations- very helpful and accomodating service, but both hits and misses for mutli-course dishes served. Dim sum a stand out- would like to return during lunch for dim sum in the future.

The evening got off to a bumpy start as we tried to squeeze in extra seats to an already crowded, very large table of over 25 people. But the servers switched out the chairs and moved out the place settings without any complaints and as quickly as they could. It's possible we might have gotten annoyed furtive looks at another restaurant, but I didn't feel anything of the sort as we all settled in.

This was a group company dinner so the menu and prices were already pre-set. Some of the dishes I thought were very tasty- such as the bamboo wrapped sticky rice - but some of the others were just overdone- just as the sweet and sour spare ribs.

My pictures are in the order that the food was served. Despite really enjoying all the other restaurants at San Want, I found myself quite underwhelmed with the food overall at Chao Ping Ji. It might have been because it was a "group menu" and maybe one of the less expensive ones- however, I don't think that should be an excuse for not serving the best at that price range.

The starter appetizer was not bad with the tofu and goose. The shark fin was watery and piece-y.



The fried shrimp was a bit hard to eat, but tasty with vermicelli used as a wrap instead of batter or egg roll skin.



The mushroom tasted better than the abalone in this dish, and the spicy XO scallop seemed a little burnt. Or maybe I don't like XO sauce- I believe I did not like a previous experience with XO sauce at another restaurant.




The spare ribs looked promising and had a nice sweet glaze, but with one bite, it was obvious that they were too tough to chew with the meat cooked dry rather than being tender. Around the room, I could see waitresses taking away untouched plates from the table as it seemed many others felt the same way.



Despite the sauce on top, I found the actual fish itself to be a bit bland. I just was not having any luck with the seafood here.



The sticky rice and the "char siu sau" was the saving grace of the dinner. It brought the flavor and yum factor that had been missing all night (or maybe I was especially hungry at that point). The char siu sau was flaky and the bbq pork inside was sweet. The sticky rice, well really, how can you mess with sticky rice? I quickly devoured my portion and eyed the others on the table, but didn't say anything.




By the time the tapioca dessert came, I was ready to head home.



Taipei Fun says that Chao Ping Ji was "voted as one of the best Chao Chow restaurants in Taipei" so maybe I'll have better luck ordering ala carte or dim sum next time.

american: i recommend TGI FRIDAYS

TGI Fridays
at Miramar Entertainment Park and Mall, 2nd FL
22, JingYe 3rd Road
Da Zhi, Taipei

(02) 2175-3358

website: tgifridays.com.tw Mostly Chinese, though Menu has some English. Addresses are all in Chinese. :I

hours: 11 AM- 12 midnight

$$

kid friendly?: Extremely. With both high chairs as well as booster chairs, kids menus, balloons, crayons and family ambience. TGIF was one of the most kid friendly places in Taipei with its American style "extras."

Visit reviewed: 5/27/2007

I think we unintentionally went Tex-Mex at this meal at TGIF. Usually, I prefer the atmosphere and food of Chili's to TGIF, but today at the Miramar location, I was pleasantly surprised. They had a special promo for appetizer, main dish and dessert for NT$599 (US $18). It sounds like a lot for lunch, but it was a lot of food! We chose the nachos, chicken fajita tower and chocolate cake dessert since they had run out of mud pie.




The nachos are less strange than the individually plated nachos at Chili's, but still no sight of the movie theater liquidy nacho cheese here. Pretty standard with jalapenos, sour cream, pico de gallo and guacamole to dip.



I don't know what I thought would be different about the chicken fajitas tower- it's basically just way to save room on the table by stacking the guac, salsa, cheese above the sizzling plate. I found the Signature Jack Daniel's chicken fajita's tower to be slightly too spicy and watery for my tastes. I preferred the way the chicken and steak is grilled at Chili's because the meat is more tender and doesn't make your tortilla soggy when you wrap it up.



The double decker chicken quesdilla plate was pretty extreme- lots of cheese, but it was good. Hot and crispy- I liked this better than the fajitas. I wish they had given us more pico de gallo rather than salsa, and the yellow "Mexican" rice was mysterious.



Typically, this chocolate cake dessert comes with chocolate mousse, but I don't like mousse and the waitress said they could make it ala mode instead. That was perfect! The cake was soft and light, yet very chocolately. Not as heavy as the mud pie or Chili's warm chocolate cake, but then you feel a little less guilty.



You'd find pretty much everything you'd expect with TGIFridays in the states- similar menu with huge portions including salads, pasta, ribs, hamburgers, sandwiches, appetizers, drinks and desserts, same bar/decorations, even the waiters have the same red and white stripe uniforms. It seems like the waiters at these international chains have been trained to have American style customer service- to give the customer a pleasant dining experience- unlike Taiwan service which is hit or miss depending on the venue.

The last time I went to a Taipei TGI Fridays was awhile ago and at a different location- I didn't love the greasiness and heaviness I felt after the dinner of I don't even remember what we ordered. Ribs and salad? I also think that the Miramar location was more airy and bright with lots of windows than the other locations I had previously been to, I think on Keelung and Chung Hsiao, and it helped that they were so extremely kid friendly to our party.

I don't know if some branches' food and service are better than others--- any opinions??

All in all, it is what it is. You probably won't here if you are coming from the states, looking for the beef noodle soup on Yong Kang St. But if you have been here for awhile and need some Tex Mex or Jack Daniel's ribs for your birthday party of 8, then TGI Fridays is not a bad place to be.


PS. SERIOUSLY, how hard is it to find addresses and phone numbers in English for Taipei restaurants?! (That's probably why you ended up here?)

Googled around for the different locations of TGIF and could find only 1 Taipei Times article. The US website froze on a blank page with loud music, but no Taipei info in sight.

Finally searching for TGI(space)Fridays, not TGIF Taipei or TGIFridays Taipei. I finally found some random information and then the Taiwan site for TGI(space)Fridays, but with addresses only in Chinese. So until I find my business card, here is what I gathered.

You would think that it's not THAT hard to put English addresses for an American restaurant on your official website for all your non-Chinese reading patrons looking for info. Maybe they think that you automatically know where the restaurant is since you'd pass by their signs or your friends will take you there? TGIF and Company, are you listening?? Please put English addresses on your website. Thanks!

other TGI FRIDAY'S locations

Chungching branch
94 Chungching S Rd, Sec 1
(02) 2389-3579

Chunghsiao branch
2 Lane 49, Chunghsiao E Rd, Sec 4
(02) 2711-3579

Hsimen branch
45 Omei St
(02) 2388-0679

CLOSED
Tienmu branch
34 Chungshan N Rd, Sec 7
(02) 2874-7021

Tunhua branch
150 Tunhua N Rd
(02) 2713-3579

World Trade Center
7 Keelung Rd, Sec 2
(02) 2345-2789