Taipei City - Take Five

Take Five is a place to be going if your'e wanting to wind down in a comfortable atmosphere with a salad and something a bit more delicately put together than the 熱炒 restaurants or the 滷肉飯 institutions. Don't get me wrong, those places are firm favourites and I will keep going back day in day out, but Take Five offers something just a little bit different.  

From the outside there is the lovely big tree hanging over the 2-3 tables you can choose to sit out at. It is somewhat reminiscent of holidays spent in Greece as a child, with a nice big tree shielding you from the sunshine. Anyway, down to the food:

1. Spinach and ricotta quiche.

2. Salmon and salad sandwich.

3. Prosciutto salad.

4. Chicken and mango salad sandwich.

5. Creme brulee.

For this review, I am going to keep it all English. This is due to the fact that they do speak English in here, and it is actually more simple to point anyway, as the whole counter is covered with glass, so you can see everything anyway. 

1. Spinach and ricotta quiche.

Quiche? Has to be. Love it. This was a staple growing up, with my nana being able to whip up a storm in the kitchen. So it brings back memories whenever I see it on a menu. This didn't disappoint, it was actually pretty good. It took a while to get to the table (maybe over 10 minutes), which is a bit strange as it is only reheated. Nevertheless, as you can see inside, it doesn't lack of filling. You can see on the crust that the pastry is a little bit dry, however, combined with the filling inside it balances it out quite nicely. The smoothness of the ricotta cheese balances out the iron taste of the spinach very nicely, and there is clearly a little dusting of cheese on the top, too. The egg is nicely cooked: not too runny and not too hard, so overall, it's a pretty good effort and quite nice. I wouldn't say it's the best quiche I have ever tasted, but in the same vein it is definitely not the worst. 

2. Salmon and salad sandwich.

The salmon is plentiful, the salad is plentiful and the bread is very nice indeed. 2-3 thinly sliced pieces of smoked salmon, mixed lettuce leaves, onion and a big wedge of tomato sit within a white bread bun with toasted oats on top. The salmon was wonderfully creamy and fresh, the salad was washed and crunchy and the bread was soft and clearly cooked that morning. All of these 3 components, put together into a sandwich = winner.

3. Prosciutto salad.

You can see that within the salad we have a multitude of mixed lettuce leaves, all of varying textures and crunches, quarters of baby tomatoes, 5-6 wafers of prosciutto ham and some peach halves, for good measure, served with a light salad vinaigrette. The salad in Take Five tends to be really fresh, washed thoroughly and nicely crunchy. Honestly, I find it difficult to get a salad in Taipei, so this is a welcomed change to the plentiful vegetable dishes. Its fresh, its not overpowered by any onions and the vinaigrette compliments it, rather than making it. 

4. Chicken and mango salad sandwich.

Barbecued chicken breast, salad and some slices of mango. I'll be honest, it does sound weird. But, like I've said before (and I'll say again, no doubt) bear with me.. The chicken was clearly marinated for some time, then lightly barbecued. It didn't hold a strong barbecued taste, and it was moist in the middle, too. There were less salad leaves sat within this sandwich, compared with the salmon sandwich. However, we have the addition of the mango. Now, ordinarily, I would never think of putting mango together with chicken (unless it is in a curry), but, it works. It does make it a little sweeter, and providing the mango isn't overly ripe or 'mushy', it can add some nice texture to compliment the meaty chicken, too. All of this encased in a lovely bread bun, top notch. 

5. Creme brulee.

Dessert? Yes, please. Creme Brulee? Yes, please! Big fan of this dessert. Fortunately, everyone in Taipei seems to love Paris which means that most desserts of this ilk are quite easy to find. However, it is more difficult to find a good one (so I will do the searching for you). This, for my money, is a pretty good creme brulee. For me, a creme brulee should be rich whilst still remaining light, sugary without being too sweet, crunchy (on top) without being too crunchy and vanillary (made up word) without being too vanillary. You can see that this was made using real vanilla pods, as you can see the flecks of vanilla seed throughout the entire dish. More often, vanilla extract or vanilla essence is used, and it has a slightly synthetic taste and often can taste too strong. The use of the pod is more delicate, I feel, and also adds to the aesthetic quality of a dessert. You can also see a light dusting of sugar which has then been topped off with a blow torch to give it its wonderful golden colour. All in all, it was pretty good, actually. 

Overall, I am happy about my recent trip to Take Five and when I am around the popular area again, I will probably dive in and see what they have to offer once more. 

Best dish: 4. Chicken and mango salad sandwich. BBQ chicken, mango, salad, soft bread, toasted oats = winner.

Dish I won't order again: I would probably order all of them again, with only the quiche being on the borderline of re-order or not. 

台北大安區青田街6巷15號

No. 15, Lane 6, Qingtian St, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan

Happy Eating!

Taipei City - Emperor Foods: the best pork chop in town!

This is it, look no further, I've found what you've been looking for! 

I'm guessing you've seen this place around, there are a few branches dotted around Taipei. The name is 君悅 排骨 (jun1yue4pai2gu3). The menu isn't extensive, but it doesn't need to be because what it does well, it really does do well. What we ordered:

1. 排骨飯 (pai2gu3fan4) Pork Chop with rice.

Nothing else needs to be ordered, because this dish is in the name and it really is fantastic. 

1. 排骨飯 (pai2gu3fan4) Pork Chop with rice.

First to come is your main bowl, with a bamboo shoot soup. Inside the main bowl, we have some cabbage, bean sprouts, meat gravy and pickled vegetables all served on top of a generous dollop of rice. Honestly, the bowl of veggies is just alright. It is a good accompaniment for the pork chop that arrived around 5mins after. 

排骨 is a famous dish around China and Taiwan. The fantastic flavour comes from a specific spice used on the pork itself, called 五香粉 (wu5xiang1fen1) which is a Chinese five-spice. If you haven't cooked with, or aren't sure if you've eaten it before, it is made of: cinnamon, star anise, cloves, fennel seeds and also szechuan pepper. It's not spicy, per se, but it does lift the meat with a little sweetness and a very mild peppery spice.

As you can see, there is a generous amount of fat and meat in these pork chops. The meat always remains perfectly moist. Served on top are some sweet pickled cucumbers. Sweetness, meatiness, moistness, delicate. Really, this pork chop is great. It's one that I will just continue to keep going back to eat. However, if pork isn't your thing, they do also do other dishes. I have previously had the 雞腿飯 (ji1tui3fan4) Chicken leg and rice. This dish is good, but everytime I go I just have to eat the pork, because it is so damn good. In addition to the main dishes, they do also have some nice small plates 小菜 such as tofu with century egg, kimchi, pickled cucumbers, pickled radish etc. The price for the 排骨 is a little more than you may pay at other places, but I can assure you that the taste is worth the price. 

One of the great things of this chain, is that the food they turn out at each of their branches is of equal quality. I know what I want for lunch today! 

Happy Eating! 

Taipei City - 小六食堂 Little Six Restaurant

Like sushi? Well, Taiwan is a pretty good place for it, with a plethora of different places offering sashimi, rolls or nigiri. This place is tucked behind a few back streets not too far from XingTian Temple Station 捷運行天宮站. The outside is not too dissimilar to many other sushi places, but the line at the door is a sure way to say that this place is held in high regards. Best bit? It's not expensive, especially compared to western sushi restaurants! 

The menu is quite small, so don't get too worried. Tick a few boxes, and see what arrives. Or, if you'd like to have educated guesses on what you may be eating, then this is what we ordered:

1.小六生魚丼 (xiao3liu4sheng1yu2jing3) House special sashimi rice bowl

2. 特製海鮮丼 (te4zhi4hai3xian1jing3) Specially selected seafood bowl

3. 寒天山葵章魚 (han2tian1shan1kui2zhang1yu2) Wasabi octopus

One good thing to note about this restaurant, is that if you put a tick on the right column of your order, then you will pay an extra $100 but have the set meal of tea (bottom right, and delicious), tofu with okra (top right corner, not that great), steamed egg with mushroom (middle top, pretty good), miso soup (biggest bowl, not bad) and finally: sesame dessert (really nice, and not at all sweet). In my opinion, if you are wanting just a meal, and not really looking to taste a wide variety of the different pieces on the menu, then 定食 (ding4shi2) the fixed meal option, is probably the best way to go. 

1.小六生魚丼 (xiao3liu4sheng1yu2jing3) House special sashimi rice bowl

This dish is the house special, and we have salmon, tuna, two helpings of a white fish (don't know the specific fish, sorry), egg roll, ginger, shrimp roe and all sat on top a generous helping of steaming hot rice, accompanied by a monstrous piece of wasabi. The tuna is great quality, and if you see on the picture below, it is taken from a huge chunk of meat. The salmon is also very good, and it melts in your mouth. The white fish towards the front of the picture has some sort of curing done to it, which means it has a slightly harder exterior to protect the delicate fish inside. The taste is good, but I prefer the white fish towards the back right of the bowl. The ginger is fresh and not too hot, and the shrimp roe is nice and fresh too. Usually when we go to a Japanese sushi place, we like to get a plate of the egg roll you can see towards the back, right side of the bowl. However, it's not on the menu. The egg roll was good, with a little bit of sweetness. 

2. 特製海鮮丼 (te4zhi4hai3xian1jing3)  Specially selected seafood bowl

The dish looks a lot like the house special, but there two differences: scallop and shrimp. Scallop is one of my favourite things to eat, ever, so I relished the opportunity to eat this delicacy. It was great, it has such a smooth consistency and it doesn't have an over-powering taste like some other types of seafood can tend to have. The shrimp was presented nicely, with the head still on, and also the very end piece of the tail still on, too. However, it didn't need to be peeled, as the body section was ready to be popped straight in. It was possibly the softest shrimp I have ever had and, actually, it is the most unique texture, too. Once I removed the head, I put the shrimp in my mouth and it just melted in an instant. I've never had the luxury of eating quality seafood, and I have yet to visit Japan. But if this is the norm, then I'm certainly booking to go very soon! Was it worth the extra $40NT to get the scallop and shrimp? Totally.

3. 寒天山葵章魚 (han2tian1shan1kui2zhang1yu2) Wasabi octopus

This was disappointing, as you can see. I actually laughed a little when this arrived, because the sheer portion size was a joke, costing $60NT. The taste? It was alright, nothing to go crazy about. The cuts of the octopus were tiny, and the wasabi was abundant. So it was a little spicy, but not really worthy of ordering. 

Best dish: Number 2. The addition of my favourite scallop and also the melt-in-the-mouth shrimp was enough to give it my top spot.

Dish I won't order again: Number 3. The portion size was measly, and the actual taste was just ok. 

台北市中山區松江路259巷8號

Number 8, alley 259, SongJiang Road, ZhongShan District, Taipei City.

Happy Eating!

Taipei City - 高三孝 Breakfast Sandwich

There are many places to get your fill of in Taipei, or New Taipei. But this, this one has me returning again and again. It is behind NanMen Market 南門市場 on Roosevelt Road 羅斯福路, so it is primely placed. 

It does get quite busy here in the mornings, so be prepared to wait. If you can wait, then it is worth it. 

Inside, there are a couple of classroom style tables. These are all well and good for looking good, but really, for a tall person, they are awfully impractical. I am quite tall, so they're not the comfiest, and I find myself with my legs to the side, instead of being able to go under the table. Nevertheless, the atmosphere inside is really good, and you can see the origin of each product, described (in Chinese) in depth.

The top section of the menu are the sandwiches 三明治, toast 吐司 and 'burger like' sandwiches 蘿堡. The bottom half of the menu are the drinks 飲料. I've been here a few times, but didn't review it before. So, this time, we only ordered a sandwich each. Watch this post and I will update it the next time I head there for breakfast.

1. 雞腿排總匯三明治 Spicy Chicken leg sandwich.

2. 豬排總匯三明治 Pork steak sandwich.

3. 牧場鮮奶 Fresh Milk.

4. 牧場鮮奶紅茶 Milky tea.

1. 雞腿排總匯三明治 Spicy Chicken leg sandwich.

The chicken leg meat is lightly spiced, sandwiched between eggs, lettuce and a potato salad. There's a lot of bread, a lot of filling, and a lot of happy faces! It's great, really, it is.

2. 豬排總匯三明治 Pork steak sandwich.

This looks a lot like the previous sandwich, but with just two differences: it's pork, not chicken. And also, there is no potato salad. Instead, it is replaced with shavings of cucumber.

3. 牧場鮮奶 Fresh Milk and 4. 牧場鮮奶紅茶 Milky tea.

In Taiwan, good fresh milk is really difficult to come by. This is milk all the way from KaoSiung. It is rich and creamy, it's milk. There's not a lot I can say about this, it is just milk. But it is good for your fix of pure milk (without any sugar).

As for the milk tea, it is good to have a non sugary, full-fat milk tea (especially for breakfast).

Best dish: 雞腿排總匯三明治 Chicken leg sandwich

Dish I won't order again: I'll order everything again.

台北市中正區南昌路一段31巷11-4號

11-4, Alley 31, Section 1, NanChang Road, ZhongZheng District, Taipei City

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Taipei City - 杭州小籠湯包 Hang Zhou Steamed Soup Dumplings

So, we've probably all been to DingTaiFung 鼎泰豐 once, twice, maybe even more if you're a big fan of Soup Dumplings. But, for a change, we decided to check out this place. It comes highly recommended as the 'next best thing' to 鼎泰豐, so I was excited to check it out. It didn't disappoint:

It is set back on a busy road, between some tall buildings, and with the gate at the front, it looks almost secretive. Lurking at the back is a vast restaurant with a wonderfully open, breathable and friendly feel to it.

From the pavement

Within the gates

You get to see the kitchen staff making the dumplings from within the steaming part of the kitchen

The decor inside is fun and bright, everything wooden and inviting

We arrived around 11:45 and it wasn't busy yet, but as we sat and ate it did start to get busier, with a lot of tables reserved. So, if you don't reserve a table, I would probably suggest getting there before 12 to guarantee you not having to wait.

What we ordered:

1. 小籠湯包 Steamed soup dumplings

2. 蟹黃小籠包 Crab roe steamed soup dumplings 

3. 南瓜鮮魚餃 Pumpkin flavoured fish dumplings

4. 大餅捲牛肉 Beef pancake roll

5. 芋頭西米露 Taro and sago dessert 

6. 豆沙鍋餅 Red bean fried pancake

7. 流沙奶黃包 Custard bun

1. 小籠包 xiao3long2bao1 Steamed soup dumplings:

This is the signature dish of this restaurant, and they were pretty good. The dumpling itself was really nice and thin, meaning that I could probably take down a whole bamboo steamer (籠 long2) to myself. However, I didn't, today I shared. We opted for the 4 because we wanted to check out the other dumplings, but there is also an option to get 8 in a larger bamboo steamer. The meat inside was plentiful, but it was just OK - nothing really to write home about. It is always pork meat inside, and the combination can sometimes change, but it is mostly a pork meat and scallion combination. The soup inside was delicious, however, and I was left wanting more! For those of you who don't know, I will break down the eating process for Soup Dumplings:

First, take the dumpling with your chopsticks and dip into your ginger soy/ginger vinegar or ginger whatever combination.

Next, place your dumpling on your spoon and carefully tear a small hole in the bottom of the dumpling, allowing the fantastic cooking juices to ooze out.

Then, pick the dumpling up with your chopsticks to further allow every last drop of liquid gold to come out from within the beautiful dumpling casing.

Finally, you can choose whether to eat your dumpling first or drink your soup first.

2. 蟹黃小籠包 Crab roe steamed soup dumplings 

For me, these were the stars of the show. The meat inside was a pork and crab roe mix, with some crab roe for decoration and added decadence on top of the dumpling. The meat inside was perfectly moist and it was truly delicious. The skin is the same as of the 小籠包, so it was thin and amazing. My only negative thing to say? I wish we ordered the 8, instead of the 4. 

3. 南瓜鮮魚餃 Pumpkin flavoured fish dumplings

These are visually wonderful, and whilst the taste doesn't match up to the beauty of the dumpling, it was still good enough for me to want more. The dumpling skin is made with pumpkin, which makes it a tiny bit sweeter than the other dumplings. The different crimping style of these means that they aren't quite as light as the 小籠包, and they don't have any soup inside. I would probably order these again, but only the 4.

4. 大餅捲牛肉 Beef pancake roll

As can be seen in my YongHe Beef Noodle Soup Restaurant post, I am a big fan of the beef roll. I'm not going to go into much detail about it on this page in particular, because I've already described the make-up of this delicious roll. However, I can say, that this is one of the better beef rolls I have had the pleasure of eating, and it is also plentiful! 

5. 芋頭西米露 Taro and sago dessert

Don't dismiss this dish based on the look: a lot of Taro dishes can be bright purple or a greyish purple colour. However, I have very much been turned into a regular taro eater. This dish contains small chunks of delicately cooked taro, and also several helpings of sago (a little bit like tapioca). It is made with milk and a syrup, but it isn't too sweet. I think it cleans the palette well and it's a solid order for other restaurants from me, too. 

6. 豆沙鍋餅 Red bean fried pancake

This sort of dish is often found in steamed dumpling places (although I don't really know why). It is comprised of two pancakes, with a sweet red bean paste to within, then a generous sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. It is panfried, which makes the sesame seeds on the outside crunchy, and allowing the sweet red bean paste within, to become hot and gain a deeper red bean flavour.

7. 流沙奶黃包 Custard bun

On a diet? Don't get these. They are heaven, but in line with many things taste amazing, it isn't healthy at all. Nestled within these steamed miniature bread balls, is a melted butter, sugar and cream concoction. You have to allow the ball to breath for a little first, at no point should you just take a bite - as you will burn everything inside your mouth. They're awesome, nothing more needs to be said, but just stick to one each, as they are also quite sickly. 

Best dish: 2, it was really, really, good! 

Dish I won't order again: I'd order all of the dishes again, and again, and again...

Overall, I can highly recommend this place for your fix of everything steamed. It isn't hugely cheap, but it is worth the extra few pennies! And, the menu is in Chinese and English, even better.

http://www.thebestxiaolongbao.com/

台北市松山區民生東路三段 118 號

No.118, Sec. 3, Minsheng E. Rd., Songshan District, Taipei City

Happy Eating!