DIN TAI FUNG TAIWAN

This is a much delayed and anticipated (?) post.  Din Tai Fung, a very popular dumpling place specializing in xiao long bao was visited December of 2011 to what else….have those dumplings infused with savory broth and to sample its other offerings.  Din Tai Fung’s branch at Taipei 101 was the place of choice as it is located a level up from a basement filled with an assortment of food items and a supermarket.

After food shopping at the basement, we headed for Din Tai Fung which had  a queue of people waiting to get in.  We weren’t surprised as this was expected in all branches even at an early time of 10am.

A welcome sight for those waiting…Operation dumpling! Dumpling makers dressed in white, masks, caps and gloves on looking like doctors in an operating room, rolling, pounding and filling those handmade wrappers.  All these happening in a glass enclosed preparation area. A public treat alright. Bottom right shows queue of people as early as 10am.

Menu. This is a one Michelin star restaurant.

TBW immediately liked the service.  Upon seeing our shopping bags, the lady attendant provided us with folding canvas containers similar to a clothes hamper, to put bags in.  And to complete the service experience, linen covers were placed on top for security and aesthetic purposes.

Great idea!

Dipping sauces made of ginger slivers & black vinegar waiting for the piece de resistance. We also ordered this appetizer dish which looks like a mould of hay, but can’t recall name as it’s been some time.  It is made of tofu and is a typical Taiwanese dish.

Finally….two baskets of xiao long bao plus an order of shrimp siomai.

And more….L-R: fried radish cake, shrimp & mushroom dumpling, vegetable dumpling, Din Tai Fung mascot. All yummy minus the mascot.

Queue of people still outside waiting to have happy faces & fulfilled stomachs like ours =)

SIMPLY BINONDO

President’s restaurant (not the tea house) is a very popular dining place for lunch and dinner in the Binondo area.  A recent quick food trip brought us these gustatory delights.  Simple, nothing fancy but full of flavor.  So unpretentious.  My kind of food. And people…who by the way, were my foodiemates that day =)

L-R Live lapu-lapu steamed with soy, sesame oil & wansoy. Frog legs in black bean sauce. Beef Chinese style.

Simple happiness!

MARKET CAFE DINNER

Dinner at Market Cafe of Hyatt Hotel and Casino proved to be an interesting food journey through Asia.  Several stations representing popular Asian cuisines and a number of international dishes are made available for the hungry diner wanting quick & freshly cooked buffet food.

Breads

Chinese station

Salad inclusions

An array of meats & seafood for grilling

Fresh prawns...

 …and oysters cooked any way you want.

Open grill area

à la minute grilled prawns & baked oysters

Assorted freshly grilled meats (fillet mignon, lamb, chicken, steak kebab)

Indian station

Melange of faves: lamb briyani, papadum, chutney, raita

Naan bread newly cooked in Market Cafe's tandoor oven.

A Filipino station serving kare-kare, chicharon and other usual pinoy delights is well represented.

Prime rib roast carving

Best part for TBW...ze bone

The best for moi...teppanyaki. Beef teppan superbly done by the cooky chef.

Sushi & sashimi counter

Japanese station and its various offerings

Dessert

Chocolate fountain, a fixture in every dessert buffet.

Another fave. Made on the premises: dalandan sorbet, mango sugar-free sorbet, orange yogurt, bailey's ice cream with a rolled brittle. Yum x 2!

Sparkling wine

Cheers!

Market Cafe buffet dinner is priced at 1,600 pesos net per person inclusive of unlimited canned soda and local beer.

Location:  Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila. 1588 Pedro Gil corner M.H. del Pilar streets, Malate, Manila. Call 2451234 for reservations.  

MADE IN CHINA 2

These are some goodies found in China and enjoyed sporadically in Manila.

Box of different cooked beef & duck parts...

...vacuum packed in foil and conveniently labeled. Duck meat, paws & wing tips, Ox tongue & tripe among others.

Ox tongue

Spicy duck meat

Sweet, thin almond crisps

Actual content. Similar to Conti's almondine cookies but theses are less sweeter.

Crispy soy nuts individually packaged in bite-size air-filled triangle containers. Also available are walnuts, almonds, pistachio, pop beans & wasabi peas.

Walnut sweet cube cakes. Similar to polvoron in texture.

Always good to keep a stack of goodies for a quick hunger pang fix!  Have a good weekend =)

 

A CHINESE BEE IN LAGUNA

The number of people wanting to dine and are actually dining are some indicatives that a restaurant has good food.  If it were a restaurant serving foreign cuisine, the number of foreigners representing that cuisine’s country is another indication.

After conducting a prayer group session in Santa Rosa Laguna, our Centering Prayer Group (CPG) wanted a quick dinner and trooped to King Bee, a Chinese restaurant located in front of Paseo de Sta. Rosa, on the right side along the road leading to Tagaytay.  We have never heard of the restaurant but decided to eat there because of the indicatives.  There were many people dining and all the tables were practically full.  As people left, more would come in.  In fact, a long table of 25 diners was at the center of the restaurant and the private room was booked.  And this was a Thursday, a day not considered busy for most restaurants.  As for Chinese people dining, well…Filipino ancestry is Chinese laden, so consider the place packed with most.

The menu was extensive offering mostly Cantonese cuisine.  The food was good.  No frills, no fuss, just simple,delicious food.  Portions were quite large and with reasonable prices.  A successful formula alright.

Salted fish with diced chicken fried rice

Group's favorite. Lohanchay. 3 different mushrooms with baby corn, carrots & bokchoy in a light oyster sauce.

A tasty beef brisket with curry hot pot.

The winner: Steamed prawns with garlic. We waited a while for this and it was worth it. Prawns were large & firm. Garlic infused prawn drippings made the vermicelli bed so flavorful & was a perfect accompaniment. Quite a creative presentation, too. This is a must order.

Dessert was had literally next door at Purple Grapes premium frozen yogurt. We learned that the owner is connected with King Bee and that explains the proximity of both places.

Purple Grapes yogurt.

Yogurt here tastes like White Hat without the price tag. Service by the lonesome attendant was fantastic, too. Worth coming back if within the area.

A Chinese bee

King Bee

Sta. Rosa Branch (10:00 am – 10:00 pm)
Sta. Rosa Estate, Brgy. Don Jose, Sta. Rosa City, Laguna. (Fronting Paseo de Sta Rosa)
Tel. nos.  (049) 544-0895 / (049) 544-0989 / (049) 302-5065

FAMILY DINNER INSIDE AND OUT

Lest dear readers be “China’d out” from reading successive posts about this country, TBW will temporarily set aside a couple of China drafts  for future use and redirect focus on other topics but still centering on food =)

Having casual dinners at home with the entire family and serving some of our favorite food is unfailingly a joyous moment for all.

Appetizers: Portobello mushrooms drizzled generously with evoo and grilled 'til tender. No other marinade or seasoning. Let the mushroom's natural juices ease out & mix with the olive oil. Unpretentious delight.

Norwegian smoked salmon with dill sauce.

Table staple: Sheep cheese

Santi's had no lamb pastrami available so beef pastrami it was instead.

Brought from Nanjing, China, soy roasted duck, hygienically vacuum packed and sealed for easy transport.

Soy roast duck vacuum packed.

Actual duck, approximately 1 kilo in weight.

In the absence of hoisin & plum sauce, try having roast duck with cranberry & caramelized red onion chutney for that sweet & savory tastes Available at Wine depot Alabang

Angus rib eye for the carnivores in the family. Just add salt & pepper. Pan sear in evoo. Serve au jus.

A wondrous discovery! Slice potobello mushroom that was grilled with evoo and position on an iceberg lettuce leaf. Sprinkle grated goat's cheese and add a dollop of home-made ceasar dressing. Wrap, hold with hand and bite. O dear me....the taste combination is remarkably divine! Even the different textures contribute to its divinity. One has to experience this to know what I'm talking about. From the first to the 6th or 7th bite, I'd stare into space and savor its delectableness. Pure palate pleasure.

Going out for an impromptu dinner on a weeknight to a nearby, tried and tested restaurant is always a fun thing to do.

Alma de Cuba's (along Aguirre st. in BF) fried rolls filled with chunky mashed potato served with sour cream & tomato dips.

Grilled pork steak with java rice, corn on the cob and 2 sauces on Alma de Cuba's huge signature plates. The boys also had their favorite BBQ rib platter.

Cross order from Songkran next door. Spicy beef salad.

Super favorite shrimp cakes of Songkran. Crunchy- outside-and-tender-inside patties flavored with lemon grass & other herbs. Sweet & salty syrupy dipping sauce is the perfect accompaniment.

The family that eats a lot together, gains weight together….hahaha but true!!!!!!

MADE IN CHINA

These are some of the many food items that caught TBW’s eye while roaming the streets of China and earned space in this post =)

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire......

Going nuts over nuts. Two types of walnuts.

Nuts galore!

Chicken- in- clay to go

Ebony & ivory corn on the cob: Black and yellow. According to the locals black corn is more natural.

Hawthorn (or "titina" to us) ice pop.

Actual hawthorn ice pop. Very good and refreshing. Really tastes like "titina" with bits of it inside.

The Scorpio in me got attracted to this......

Liquor with a real scorpion inside.

的确在中国制造  =)

STREET FOOD NAMED DESIRE

TBW can have fine dining food and street food with the same level of excitement and feeling of ease. Never was street food disregarded on any trip except perhaps for lack of time for it is an absolute desire to have them.  Not a worry at all as anti-acid and other stomach aids are always in my carry-on just in case =)

An array of skewered goodies in Nanjing. Lamb, chicken wings, intestines & cartilage, sausage, beef meats and different types of vegies.

Ready to grill

Two types of spices are sprinkled for added flavor and umph!

A view to a grill

Freshly grilled products: Potatoes and lamb skewers. Yum!

Fried pork roulade swimming in a sweet sauce. Behind are steamed dumplings & buns.

Fried, boiled & grilled delicacies for the taking.

Grab a pet bottle or tetra pack juice. Peach juice is a must =)

Simple desires.

DINING AT CONFUCIUS TEMPLE

Louis Wang, our host in Nanjing did not stop feeding us.  Not that we minded at all.  We were the perfect guests, accepting and obliging every bit of hospitality thrown our way =)  After an afternoon of strolling around Nanjing’s places of interest, we headed for Confucius Temple.  Confucius Temple was first built in 1034 for local people to pay tribute to Confucius.  Having weathered the ups and downs over the years, the temple has now become a public cultural and entertaining center.  There was a large-scale renovation program in 1985 when all the tea houses, restaurants and stores close by the Temple of Confucius were remodeled or reconstructed in the architectural styles of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.  The restaurants and eateries in this place offer about two hundred kinds of traditional food and delicacies. 

Confucius Temple’s Gourmet street was our destination.

Roger and Candy standing in front of our resto along Gourmet Street in Confucius Temple.

Of course....Nanjing salted duck was served.

Their version of lobsters. Cooked in chili sauce. Went very well with local beer.

Local Jinling beer. Very light and easy to drink as it hardly has a trace of bitter taste.

A very good Xiao long bao in Nanjing. Rich flavorful broth. Dumpling was tasty and succulent. One of the best steamed soup dumpling TBW has had.

Pork braised in a sweet, soy sauce. Very similar to asado. Served with eggs boiled in tea.

We were already more than satisfied with the above but our host had something else up his sleeve.  He ordered several small servings of food.  This reminded me of a Dutch Rijsttafel or rice table which consists of many side dishes, sometimes even reaching forty, served in small portions  accompanied by rice prepared in several different ways.   The several small servings of food ordered by our host reached 15  and served in 3 sets to feed a brood of 5.

The brood plus 1 who was taking the photo.

Those that stood out in taste and novelty were…

A closer look at duck blood soup....another Nanjing specialty.

Dumpling topped with roe

Mango infused custard pudding with tapioca balls. Similar to mango sago but richer.

Our generous host, Louis with his favorite milk ice pop.

A lovely evening with loads of food and laughter!

NANJING CUISINE AT ITS BEST

Traditional Nanjing cuisine is known as Jin Su cuisine and is notable for the emphasis placed on original flavor and carefully selected raw ingredients. Nanjing dishes use moderate amounts of seasoning and oil and are traditionally bright in color. A Jin Su or Nanjing cuisine specialty is salted duck.

At a private room of The Huamao Internatinal Hotel’s Chinese restaurant, a popular choice among the locals, several Nanjing dishes were presented by our host and savored by all happily.

Venue of an elaborate spread of Nanjing cuisine.

Remember this same table setting in Maanshan?

Lunch began with Nanjing's famous salted duck

A super favorite: Two types of beans boiled to perfection with a sweet and savory taste. Crunchy outside and creamy inside. Fantastic combination. One can even have bites of these to cleanse palate. TBW took some of these back to the hotel room as they were truly superb!

A beautifully presented & excellent tasting spinach dish. A distinct nutty flavor is apparent in this dish. Another favorite.

Nanjing's take on pickled cabbage. Has the looks and texture of kimchi but tastes 100% better. TBW is not fond of kimchi but this "kimchi-like" version is absolutely likeable. Sweet & sour tastes with a hint of spice. A light & refreshing dish. Another favorite =)

Are you familiar with century egg? This is exactly like it except for the egg type. This one uses quail egg. Interesting!

Braised spicy goose intestines. These intestines have the texture of crunchy vegetables.

Pork skin gelatin with a spicy chili sauce. Another interesting dish.

A flavorful chicken, bamboo shoots & tofu soup.

Steamed perch (fresh water) fish in soy and sesame oil. Can't go wrong with fresh fish steamed just right.

Crispy fried spare ribs in a sweet & sour sauce. Delicious!

Sauteed tofu squares and pork on top of a burner. The more the dish heats up, the better it tastes.

Very tender beef slices with finger chilies.

Baby bokchoy

Sweet, savory & crunchy baby cabbage. No sugar added. Natural sweetness comes from the vegetables.

A very spicy eggplant dish.

A perfect ending to a sumptuous and abundant meal. Fresh fruits. Sweet and juicy watermelon is always found on a fruit or dessert platter in China.

Another hard-to-forget meal.