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Ahhh.. I can't believe I've been back from Taiwan for almost a month now. Time flies. Need to do posts.... There's a lot so I tried to categorize them.
We stayed at the Fu-Hau Hotel in Tapei. It's next to Da-an MRT station. Super convenient. And free breakfast every morning.
Hotel Breakfast (All You Can Eat):
Black Sesame & Matcha Milk
Black Sesame Steamed Bun
Breakfast Sandwich place
Bacon Sandwich plus Egg NT$45~
Ham & Egg Pancake NT$30~
A must go for me for breakfast in Taipei. In this little alleyway, the best rice noodles with all sorts of sides. Pig Intestine, pork, tofu, kelp, and more. The best!!
We discovered that 7-Eleven had the best soft serve. Made with milk from Hokkaido. It's magnificent. And 7-Eleven's are EVERYWHERE! We had a lot of these.
One day we decided to go light on the food and just eat a little from place to place. I took him to this gua bao place by my grandma's. Their gua baos are huge, one is enough to sustain you.
Loaded with fatty pork and lean pork, and a bunch of other stuff. The buns are steamed to perfection and holds everything together so well. He loved it. After we finished the owner lady actually ran out after us to ask how he liked it. And she told us they had been in business for almost 60 years now, spanning 3 generations! We wanted to go back again, but didn't have time. :(
I got hungry while shopping in the underground shopping street (under Sogo), and got some potstickers. (From left to right) Curry, Original, Korean Spicy. All very good. I think the curry was my fav.
Traditional Taiwanese Breakfast: Rice Balls! Stuffed with all different types of things but generally a Chinese donut (yo-tiao), some shredded dried pork, pickled veggies, maybe an egg. Deeeee-licious! And it's grab and go food!
I finally tried Mos Burger. My sister's bf wanted to try it too. And a friend of mine is so shocked that I've never had one. There's just so much other stuff to try when we're in Asia, I never got around to it. So on the way to lunch, we bought one to share among 4 people. The one with the rice buns of course!!
We got the beef patty one with rice buns, lettuce, onions, an egg, and some sort of sauce. NT$105~
And we had them cut it in half and wrap it separately. For a fast food place, it wasn't so fast... I think we waited about 10 minutes to get this burger. And it's so pricey! I can get cheaper and better at McDonald's. I didn't care for it at all. The rice bun was soft, the patty was soft, everything was one texture. The flavor was ok. But totally didn't get the hype. At least I can say I've had it now!
We went to the Taipei Zoo one afternoon, and they had a McDonald's inside. Of course... Mickey D's are everywhere! They had a tea flavored McFlurry. So when you eat it with the soft serve, it's like milk tea. Pretty pretty awesome!
After the zoo we went to ride the Maokong Gondola to go up the mountain. It was sunset and soooo beautiful. The sun made the whole city look like it's on fire! At the top of the mountain there were some street food so we got a snack. It was about a 30 minute ride up so we got hungry. haha. The guys got to try Stinky Tofu for the first time!
Needless to say, they hated it. It smells like the name, it's pretty dang stinky. And it's an acquired taste. You either love it or hate it. And if you love it, once you start eating, you don't smell it anymore. And if you hate it... well... stop eating then!
We also got some interesting Green Onion Pancakes.
Black Sesame Ice Cream in one of the mall food courts. It was super black sesame-y. Love it!
Gotta hit up the night markets at least a few times right? :P
This wasn't technically a "night market" but XiMenDing has a ton of street food, shops, vendors, and performers. It's where all the young people go. Good for people watching!
Yilan Onion Pie. These small pan fried things filled with green onions and soup. HOT soup... be careful when eating! And assume a squatting stance so it doesn't get on your shoes!!
Fried Chicken. We got one regular and one spicy. Also got fried squid!
Black Sesame Milk Tea. Noms!
Super Matcha Latte! Good but this place, Tsujiri, was soooooo expensive. I could've gotten 4-5 pearl milk teas for this one drink!
The last morning, at the Taipei airport, I got some breakfast as a last hurrah. Congee with pork, thousand year egg, chinese donut, and green onions. Huge bowl! The 2 of us shared it and it was more than enough. And really really good. :)
~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
So...last week, while we had snow day, I discovered this amazing new place basically in my own backyard! I've heard about Modmarket and their opening but I didn't realize it was 2 minutes from my house. Another healthy food place... I was skeptical and didn't pay much attention to it. Usually they either don't fill you up, or is too expensive, or both!
Modmarket
8400 Preston Road, Suite 100
Plano, TX 75024
(469)573-6074
http://modmarket.com
Price: $$
So on our snow day last week... (I get cabin fever really easily btw) I was working from home and I called up a friend of mine who works near by to see if he wanted to lunch! He'd been to Modmarket before and said it was pretty good. I literally drove for 5 minutes (the extra 3 due to the slush on the roads) and I'm there.
I love the look and feel of the place. Lots of wood paneling and tables, very cute, health food-esque feel. You order at the counter and they give you a buzzer. Sometimes they bring the food out to you too.
My friend got the Thai Coconut Salad (mixed greens, sweet potato, cucumber, grated coconut, roasted chicken, peanut mango dressing) Full $9.10~
It was huge!! I tried a little bite since it had coconut grated all over it. Not a fan of that. It didn't even need the dressing. Lots of flavor already. I can't have the dressing anyways since it has mango, but he said it's very peanuty.
I couldn't decide so I got 2 things.
Crimini Kale Pizza (roasted crimini mushrooms, kale, red onions, organic red sauce) Half $4.50~ I just got half on this since it was just for me. This dish is vegan btw. It was huge! And looked so good! Lots of toppings, lots of flavor, and it was under 200 calories. Wow! The pizza is super thin, but the crust was still doughy and chewy which I like. No complaints what-so-ever! And I ate the whole thing. :P
Cashew Butternut Soup (with a whole wheat toast) $4~ This is gluten free and vegan. It was a bigger bowl than I expected. The toast on the side was a bit dry but the soup was fantastic. It was warming on such a snowy day. And I liked dipping the pizza crust in it.
Red Velvet Cookie $1~ This was an impulse buy since they had homemade treats all around the front register. It was really good. Soft and pillowy and you can really taste the red velvet. Wasn't artificial tasting as sometimes red velvets can get. It was just a little small. hehe.
Needless to say. I loved it!! And my over all meal (minus the cookie) was only like 360 calories or something. They include the nutritional information on your receipt. :)
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I loved this place so much, I was telling my sister and some friends about it later that night and they wanted to go. I was gonna go home for dinner but I decided to tag along. haha. It's so good!!
Farmer Salad (mixed greens, roasted chicken, grapes, feta, corn, almond, champagne vinaigrette) Full $9.50~
This is gluten free. I got it to share with a friend. Again, huge portion, lots of flavors, we didn't even need the dressing. We both didn't liked feta so we took that off. Everything else was great. Mixture of flavors from the sweet grapes, to the smokey roasted corn, to the tender chicken. And all sorts of textures too. Loves it! I will totally get this again. And it was so big we only made it through 2/3rds of it. I took the rest to go as my lunch the next day.
Basil Chicken Sandwich (roasted chicken, basil aioli, tomato, onion, provolone, arugula; on ciabatta) Half $4.50~
I got this to supplement the salad. I loved the basil aioli on this. The chicken was super tender and the bread held everything together really well. Thumbs up!
Bianco Pizza (roasted garlic puree, baby spinach, fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, basil, parmesan) Half $5.50~ My friend who I shared the salad with got this. All the ingredients were really fresh. It was yummy.
My sister and another friend shared the Wild Mushroom Pizza (seared wild mushrooms, creme fraiche, gorgonzola, red onion, 3 cheese blend, wilted arugula) Full $9.50~
It looked so delicious. They both loved it. I tried a bite...if you love mushrooms this is totally for you. They each got a soup to supplement the pizza. (sorry no picture) We were all extremely full after.
So yea, one of my favorite new places. Yummy, healthy and affordable! And it's so close! I will definitely be back for sure. In fact, I think I'm going again tonight!! :P
Quality of Food:
Service:
Ambiance:
Value:
Overall Experience:
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The day after V-Day we went downtown to meet up with one of my fiance's friends from Austin. He was in Ft. Worth visiting his gf. We initially went to Smoke, but there was an hour wait...and the line never seemed to get shorter. So we made our way over to Savor. It was a nice day, so we could also walk around Klyde Warren Park!
Savor Gastropub
2000 Woodall Rodgers Freeway
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 306-5597
http://savor-relish.com/savor/
Price (for brunch): $$
Having been here for brunch once before, I knew I wanted to get the French Toast because it's awesome! We were seated immediately. Our waiter was very nice but from the time we sat down to when we got our food, we had a series of not-so-good situations, all with cleanliness and maintenance of their stuff. When he brought us our waters, he noticed 2 of the glasses were cracked. He said that they just got new glasses and they seem to crack very easily. I ordered a hot water, and when he brought it, I noticed lipstick stains around the rim. Ick. He was very apologetic and immediately brought me a new one. When we were waiting for our food, we noticed that my fiance's fork was dirty. Still had crusty food bits on it. Yuck! Again, we showed it to our waiter and he was so embarrassed and immediately replaced it. I noticed some parts of our table wasn't very clean either but I decided not to make the waiter feel worse. But they really need to step it up with their quality control!! No one wants to eat at a dirty restaurant no matter how good the food is! (well... there ARE exceptions. hahaha) Anyways, there's my rant. Everything else was great.
My fiance got the Moscow Mule (Sobieski vodka, citrus, ginger beer) $12~ I always like it when they serve it in the copper cups. It was pretty good.
For our entrees both girls ordered the Lemon Ricotta Stuffed French Toast (brioche, blueberry jam, spiced pecan brittle) $14~
My fiance and I were fighting about who got to order this. haha. I won, of course. :P It was everything I remembered it to be. So freaking light and fluffy. You don't feel heavy after eating it. Pretty damn amazing. The other girl was a vegetarian so her choices were limited, but she also loved this.
Both guys ended up getting The "Croque" (open faced, shaved ham, stout soaked Gruyere, fried egg, mornay sauce, croissant; service with choice of fries, salad, or soup) $14~
It looked amazing! And tasted great. The combination of the ham, egg, croissant, and mornay sauce was soooo good. I totally recommend this. The soup was pretty good, I've had better tomato basil before though. But the soup and sandwich combo was great.
Again, fantastic food here. I think their French Toast is in my top 3. But again... they need to clean more!! Hopefully no more dirty forks or stained cups next time we go.
Quality of Food:
Service:
Ambiance:
Value:
Overall Experience:
After brunch we walked around the park. There were lots of food trucks there including Coolhaus! So I had to get something.
We got a scoop of the Thai Iced Tea (top) and a scoop of the Pistachio Black Truffle $7~
Pretty pricy for 2 small scoops but I know they make these funky interesting combos so it's a novelty. Their cups are so tiny, it made it a little hard to eat... I kept thinking the top scoop was going to fall off! I wasn't a fan of the Thai Tea... Old Town Creamery in Plano makes a wayyyy better one. But loved the pistachio truffle. You can actually taste both flavors! And it had black truffle mushroom shavings in it. That was a nice little addition. :)
Overall:
~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
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