Taiwan Day 11: Eat and Drink at Saute Restaurant, a Quick Fry Shop / 在33區熱炒生猛海鮮邊吃邊喝 (Taipei: Zhongshan District / 台北市: 中山區)

Quick fry stores are Taiwan's way of combining the restaurant and bar.  It is a blend of food and drink that fuses together so many styles of eating that it is not easy to describe the kind of venue that it is.  While it is frequented after work as a venue for a combined happy hour and dinner, it really brings together aspects of Chinese dim sum, Japanese izakaya, Spanish tapas, and American happy hour all under the same roof.  Dishes can range from grilled meat on sticks, both raw and cooked seafood, deep fried pub food, and the ever popular Chinese style stir fry presented on small plates.  All of the food is meant to be consumed with beer or wine.  Art, Diana, and I dropped in to Saute Restaurant (33區 熱炒生猛海鮮) to get our grub and guzzle on.

What goes better with beer than fried chicken wings (南乳炸雞翅)? It's almost obligatory.  Thin and crisp skin on the outside with juicy meat on the inside make for an irresistible starting snack.

Food on a stick is just about as good as anything deep fried when it comes to pairing food with beer.  These cumin lamb skewers (孜然羊肉串) really hit the spot.  They were well seasoned from tip to tail with an earthy spice that begged for a chasing of beer.

Speaking of beer, the three of us were having Taiwan Beer (台湾啤酒).  The national namesake has a special taste as it incorporates the locally grown Formosa rice (蓬萊米) into its brew, adding a subtle hint of sweetness and making it very drinkable.  Taiwan Beer comes in many varieties.  Art and Diana tested out the new mango and grape flavors; they are sweeter and have less alcohol content.  I stuck with the draft version.  Its short 18 day shelf life keeps it fresh.

I have had so much chilled bamboo (鮮竹筍) on the trip already that you would think I have exhausted my taste for it, but this panda food has got such a cleansing mouth feel that it is tough to avoid.  It works as a great palate cleanser between the greasy appetizers and the forthcoming courses.

Being from an island nation that was formerly a Japanese colony, the Taiwanese are big fans of fresh seafood, and nothing is fresher than fish recently hauled in from the Pacific.  We actually saw the restaurant staff haul in a massive tuna fish into the restaurant while we were eating, so we had no choice but to order the tuna sashimi (鮪魚刺身).  We also ordered the salmon sashimi (鮭魚刺身) for good measure.

This happened in the middle of our meal... pretty neat.  It is always good to see restaurants using the freshest ingredients for their customers.  That was one massive monster of a maguro.

A favorite of any Taiwanese establishment, whether restaurant or bar, is three cup chicken (三杯雞腿).  33區 uses thigh and leg meat only in their preparation.  The result is an undeniably juicy soy and wine infused chicken.  The abundant use of garlic, ginger, and fresh basil is simply mouth watering.  Great with rice, great with beer... just so good.

Veggies! It just so happens that the three of us are on the same page regarding the vegetable consumption.  Loofah and clams (蛤蜊絲瓜) is a homey dish that we have all had during our childhood.  While more famously known for its body cleaning purposes, loofah is actually a squash like vegetable that, to me, is like a cross between cucumber and zucchini.  The fresh clams adds a seafood essence to the dish.

As the meal draws to a close, the yearning for heartier and more substantial fare grows.  Scrambled eggs and shrimp (滑蛋蝦仁) warmed us up and balanced out all the cold beer we had.  The greasy eggs and succulent shrimp provided a warmth that we really needed.  But even then, I'm pretty sure we drank some more.

There were two more dishes, but by this time in the meal, we had so consumed so many bottles of beer that it was not easy to recollect the names of the dishes... or even what we had eaten for that matter.  I would bank them being stir-fried seafood dishes though.  Cheers!

Until next time, get your drink on.  Let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

33區熱炒生猛海鮮 (Area 33 Quick Fry Seafood)
台北市中山區長安東路一段63-1號
No. 63-1, Chang An East Rd., Section 1, Zhongshan District, Taipei City

An equally authentic establishment in Los Angeles:
Uncle Yu's Indian Theme Restaurant
633 S. San Gabriel Blvd.  Suite 105
San Gabriel, CA 91776

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156. Bay Area - Gathering for Bo Ssam at Namu Gaji (SF: Mission)

While waiting in line for Bi-Rite Creamery, have you ever peered in through the windows of the restaurant next door to see what those happy hipster looking people are eating? Well, near the windows it is likely that you will find an interesting array of Asian American fusion cuisine based on Korean roots, like a grass fed burger with kimchi relish or a bowl of handmade ramen with 4505 hot dogs.  At the communal table in the center of the restaurant you may find a crowd pleasing bo ssam pork belly dinner.  This is what Namu Gaji is known for.  The dinner feeds at least five hungry hippos with divinely crisp pork belly, raw oysters, fresh local vegetables, pickles, kimchi, and all the lettuce, cabbage, and sauce imaginable.  It is similar to the bo ssam dinner from David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar in New York, but unlike Momofuku, it doesn't take forever and a day to get a reservation for the meal.  And rather than just being a hip spot to meet up, Namu offers a nostalgia from the Lee brothers' childhood that gets transcended into the food. 


I gathered my friends from my study abroad program for a little catch up dinner in the city.  It has been five years since we left Shanghai, and it was time for a family style meal for us to share food and share updates on our lives.  Just like old times, Joyce suggested the restaurant, and I did the ordering.  Before we began our extravaganza of wrapping pork belly in various vegetables, we started with the Sichuan pepper chicken wings and the okonomiyaki.  The chicken wings wowed with its numbing peppery spice, and the okonomiyaki awed with its ever eerie dancing bonito shavings.  The Japanese quiche like pancake was more authentic than it was modern Asian, and I can appreciate that.  It was hot in temperature (it comes on a skillet) but warm in the emotion that it was served with.

The homeyness of the food on the menu was just enough to make my friends from Fudan feel comfortable and right at home, which made for an ideal spot to convene and connect.  Until the next gathering, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Namu Gaji
499 Dolores St. @ 18th St.
Mission District
San Francisco, CA 94110

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154. Bay Area - Tasty Indian Pizza and Wings (Bay Area: Sunnyvale)

Tasty Indian Pizza combines the best of Indian fare and arguably the most cherished American food to bring a unique Indian-American perspective on bar favorites like pizza, wings, and nachos.  I like that the name of the restaurant tells you exactly what you are getting.  But hey, if you don't like the insides of a samosa on top of your pizza, then there is good ol' pepperoni for you too.

My friends and I hit up Tasty Indian Pizza not for the pepperoni but for, well, the tasty Indian pizza.  We ordered half of the 3 Idiots and half the Saagar.  The 3 Idiots half of our pizza was adorned with Indian butter chicken, which is really just the dark meat portion of chicken tikka masala, and garnished with chilies and jalapeños, making for a spicy taste that can be easily washed down with cold beer.  The 3 Idiots, as I have since learned, is a major Indian blockbuster that was the highest grossing Bollywood film when it was released.

The Saagar half of the pizza was mainly a creamy spinach pizza with pineapple, jalapeño, red onion, and cilantro.  The pineapple sounds absolutely bizarre in that mix of ingredients, but once that spiciness creeps up onto your taste buds, you'll be glad that the sweetness of the pineapple is there to put out the fire. 

We also order the spicy tandoori wings.  The outside resembles the glowing red chicken fired up in the tandoori oven, but the inside is even more tender than the traditional version.  The skin is just slightly crisp, not enough to produce a real crunch, but one bite into it, and the meat oozes with juiciness.  It is now one of my favorite ways to have chicken wings.  A fair warning though... the chicken is hot in both temperature and spice.  Be prepared to sweat.


What is cool about Tasty Indian Pizza is that not only does it have seriously delicious food, it is also an ideal spot to gather your friends for football and beer.  Sounds like a perfect spot for Sunday, doesn't it? We have already declared we would return for the other pizzas on the menu.

When football season is over, let's get Tasty Indian Pizza take-out and stream 3 Idiots, yeah? I'll take your silence as consent.  Until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Tasty Indian Pizza (AKA Tasty Subs and Pizza)
528 Lawrence Expressway
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

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151. Bay Area - Yummy Yummy Vietnamese Raw Beef Salad / 火車頭牛肉粉 (SF: Inner Sunset)

Yummy Yummy in the Inner Sunset is one of those places you never forget.  Though pho is written in Vietnamese on the yellow awning over the door, this restaurant makes more than just bowls of rice noodles.  The raw beef salad is one of the most popular items, and it is what I remembered from my first visit here three years ago.  It is almost absurd as to how squeamish I was about eating raw beef just three years ago because I would easily select fresh steak tartare off any restaurant menu, particularly from Olympic Provisions in Portland.

Thin, almost translucent, sheets of rosy red beef gets showered with such a healthy dose of lemony citrus that it almost cooks the protein.  The fragrance comes from the fried shallots and chopped basil, and the toasted peanuts provide a complementary crunch to the smoothly soft beef.  I detect some quickly fried garlic in there too, and my tongue likes it.

The fish sauce fried chicken wings is a must order item just as much as the raw beef salad is.  The skin is crisp.  The glaze is spicy.  And the chicken itself is damned hot.  There is a big chance of burning your fingers, so if you can manage eating chicken wings with chopsticks, I would highly recommend it. 

The main attraction at Yummy Yummy is arguably the whole crab.  There are about half a dozen different seasonings on the menu.  We ordered cua rang moi, the house special salt and pepper and crab.  The restaurant provides each person a shell cracker, thankfully, and the three of us tore through that sucker and demolished its tender soft inner meat.  Real good stuff... this is the traditional way of eating seafood before Boiling Crab ever came along.


There is much more on the menu... from the requisite variations of pho to rice cakes and rice dishes... to grilled beef, frog, eel, and even a large vegetarian section.  I have yet to try those because I order the raw beef salad, chicken wings, and whole crab whenever I come here, but I don't doubt that I see some cooked beef and rice cakes in the future.  Until then, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Yummy Yummy
1015 Irving St.
Inner Sunset
San Francisco, CA 94122

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Post 115: Portland - Finally Made it to Pok Pok Thai (Portland: Southeast/Richmond/Clinton)

I finally made it to Pok Pok in Portland.  I have heard about this place from many, many friends for a long, long time.  Anyone who lives in Portland, has been to Portland, or is about to make a trip to Portland knows about this place.  Is this the best Thai restaurant in Portland? Possibly.  Is there even a large ethnic Thai population in Portland? Hardly.  So why have people have said that this is the most authentic, non-authentic Thai food they have ever eaten outside of Thailand? What the hell does that even mean?

Well, the creator and head chef of Pok Pok is Andy Ricker, and he is a white man.  The common culinary conception is that a white man cannot make good Asian food.  But if that is the rule, then there are always exceptions to the rule.  Chef Andy Ricker is the exception.  He presents what he calls Northern Thai peasant food to the people of Portland (and now Brooklyn) with recipes and ideas that he picked up from his travels to the Land of a Thousand Smiles.  But let's not get it twisted.  No one comes here to eat pad thai.  It isn't even on the menu.

What the people of Portland come to eat on the patios of Pok Pok is pure and unpretentious peasant food.  It is the people's food... dishes that Northern Thai people make at home on a daily basis.  It is not the food that can be found at restaurants or at the typical street stall down some soi in Bangkok.  It is food like muu paa kham waan, a charcoal grilled boar collar dish.  It is rubbed down with garlic, coriander root, black pepper before cooking and glazed with sugar and soy.  Sliced and served with a sauce of spicy chili, lime, and garlic, it is considered a great pairing with alcohol.  With its fatty succulence and the fiery spice, it is definitely something that should be eaten with beer.  Rather, it is something that must be eaten.

Ike's Vietnamese fish sauce wings are another must-eat on the Pok Pok menu.  It is not entirely Thai as it actually originates from the Vietnamese home of the restaurant's daytime cook, but it still has a bit of Thai flair with its spiciness.  It is marinated in fish sauce and sugar, deep fried, and then tossed in more fish sauce and minced garlic.  These glorious and spicy chicken wings go great with beer too.  We ordered one spicy and one traditional plate each.

Other daily Northern Thai dishes include kaeng hung leh, a homey sweet pork belly and pork shoulder curry, khao soi, a curry noodle soup, and papaya pok pok, or what we commonly know as green papaya salad.  Since we were in a large group, we tried all of these dishes and more, and I know that I would be happy to eat these dishes at home... peasant or not.

Not knowing how these dishes actually taste in Northern Thailand, though, sparks my curiosity.  Perhaps it is time for a return visit to Thailand.  But for now there is much more food to be had in Portland... and a few drinks too.  Until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

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Post 107: GReat BurGeR by Gordon Ramsay BurGR (Las Vegas: The Strip)

On December 12 of last year (12/12/12), jetBlue held a flash sale for short haul flights to help open the newly remodeled terminal at Long Beach Airport.  Flights from LGB to LAS, SFO, OAK, SAC, PDX, and SEA were only $12 each way with taxes included.  It was cheap enough (less than $24 total for a RT with taxes) to fly to Vegas for dinner and return in time for work the next morning.  Looks like quite a few spontaneous jetsetters had the same idea because the flights to Portland and Seattle sold out instantly... and that is how I ended up in Vegas in the middle of the week.

I met up with Vegas local Amber-Rose Kawewehi, writer of the blog Cheer Up With Food to try out the new Gordon Ramsay BurGR at Planet Hollywood.  Chef Ramsay's new burger joint strives to make the classic American burger and shake combination into a classed up version of comfort food in a casual environment.  Amber-Rose (yes, you can call her Amber for short) brought a friend with her, and I brought my roommate.  The four of us ordered just about everything on the menu.

We started off with the Roasted Jalapeño Poppers.  The outside was breaded with panko, and the interior was stuffed with applewood smoked bacon and English cheddar.  They were dunked into a shot glass of English cheddar ranch with chili oil.  In case you can't handle spicy, you're in luck because out of the half dozen poppers, five of them have had their seeds removed.  One of them, described on the menu as the "fiery surprise," still contained the vein of seeds within.  The odds are that you won't be the one to end up with the fiery surprise, but if you didn't have the best of luck with the roulette wheel on the casino floor, I wouldn't take my chances on this one.  After all, this is Vegas.

Next up we ordered a platter of the Fury Chicken Wings, which were a combination of four tangy hellfire bleu cheese wings and four honey wasabi wings.  The hellfire wings definitely had a bit of heat... maybe even more so than the honey wasabi wings.  The second set of wings had a obvious wasabi bite, but the restaurant was careful not to have the volatile condiment overpower the flavor of the wings.  The Deschutes Chainbreaker White IPA that I was drinking tasted even better with the spicy fried food.  By the way, we ordered our drinks off a portable iPad that our server whisked to us each time we wanted to quench our thirst.  Very cool.

There were only two salads on the menu, and thankfully neither of them were the typical house or classic Caesar salad.  Amber made a great call by ordering the Kale Granny-Apple Caesar Salad.  I love that the salad section actually had a vegetable that was substantial in nutrients without coming across as way too healthy.  The kale was a smart move on Chef Ramsay's part.  And even smarter was the addition of the crispy and slightly tart Granny Smith apple slices.  The apples added a light and fresh touch to a salad that becomes quite heavy with its eponymous dressing.

Although there were other items on the menu we wanted to try such as the Honey-Pig Bao Buns and the Devil Dawgs, we stuck to the classic burgers and fries combo.  Our highly attentive server Charlie expertly explained that the meat used in the burgers were 100% beef, a blend of beef brisket, chuck, and short rib.  They are all grilled with an English Devonshire butter, but no other seasonings or sauces were added.  Two types of wood were used for creating the fire under the grill... applewood, which created a smoky flavor, and alderwood, which created a sweeter flavor.  After the detailed description, we knew that ordering burgers was the way to go.

I ordered the Farm Burger from under the Stacked section of the menu.  It came with a sizable portion of duck breast bacon and a runny fried egg, which ended up dripping into the sharp English cheddar cheese.  The duck bacon was more tender, more crispy, and even more decadent than the typical breakfast pork bacon.  The bun was more than just buttery.  Biting into the crispy yet pillowy bun was like biting into a soft, buttery crouton.  Absolutely delicious.

Amber ordered the Britannia Burger, which was made with mango chutney, sharp English cheddar and a layer of arugula.  I wasn't quite sure what was so Britannia about this burger... not that it needed a Union Jack to scream Britain or anything.  It could have been the mango chutney, which would have been a nod to the heavy influence of Indian cuisine on English cooking.  The mango chutney was a nice touch, especially since its sweetness contrasted the peppery arugula leaves.  But really, it was simply creative.  When was the last time you had mango in your burger?

Amber's friend Byron ordered the Uber Cheese Burger.  Just from its profile we could tell that it was loaded with cheese.  This cheeseburger had a trifecta of fontina, reclette and goat cheese all melted between the patty and the bun.  It oozed out and covered the circumference of the patty to give it enough more moisture and juiciness.

We couldn't leave without ordering the Hell's Kitchen Burger.  It had a good amount of asadero cheese melted over the patty along with roasted jalapeño peppers, oven roasted tomato, and freshly sliced avocado.  Needless to say, this burger was stacked.  I appreciated the oven roasted tomato, and I liked the creaminess of the Mexican asadero cheese... but what really made this burger good was the spiciness from the peppers.  Angela, by the way, was the lucky one that picked the popper with the seeds still inside it.  Looks like heat followed her in burger form this time.

The four of us split an order of the Just Fries, an order of the Truffle Parmesan Fries and an order of the Sweet Potato Fries.  The truffle fries looked as if it were covered with Parmesan snow.  The truffle salt and truffle aioli made the cheesy fries extra salty and finger licking good.  The sweet potato fries were surprising in that the two accompaniments provided completely different tastes.  One was a vanilla powdered sugar, which made the naturally sweet fries even more sweet.  The other was a honey jalapeño mayo, which was both sweet and spicy at the same time.  The orders of fries were so big that the four of us couldn't finish, so we took them home for the next day to eat.  Usually that isn't a very smart idea, especially for fried foods, but the sweet potato fries held up well and were still tasty the following day.

We could barely finish the big burgers and phenomenal fries, so we chose to pass up on the milkshakes.  The milkshakes, though, looked absolutely intense.  Each of them were served with a pudding (choices included caramel, coconut, butterscot, banana, and chocolate hazlenut) and topped off with a cookie (choices included toffee, chocolate, snicker-doodle, gingersnap, and praline).  What we could eat though were the Sticky Toffee Pudding Push Up Pops.  The interactive dessert was made with layers of sticky toffee pudding, salted peanut ice cream and dusted with cocoa powder.  It brought a sense of nostalgia to those of us who grew up eating Push-Up ice cream pops.  These things were not easy to eat, but that may have been the point... to create the sticky mess that we made as children perhaps brought the nostalgia closer to home.

But mess or no mess, Gordon Ramsay made some great burgers.  They may not have been the best burgers I have ever eaten (what burger can top In-N-Out, really?), but the burgers were definitely worthy of at least one visit... at least.  Thank you to all the local Vegas bloggers that I was in contact with.  But a huge thank you goes out to Amber-Rose for meeting me at PH.  Cheers to more blog collaborations this year, and to meeting many more food bloggers out there.  Until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Cheer up with Amber-Rose's post on Gordon Ramsay BurGR here.

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