i love 銀座

A local Japanese restaurant nearby. It's one of my favorites and first on my list of eats every time I come home. You know it's good when it's a weekday and 3 out of 4 of the surrounding tables are occupied by Japanese men with their fancy briefcases. Either they order sake or ask for their handle of hard liquor that they leave with the restaurant for convenience since they visit so often. Whenever I go with my family, we always order the sea urchin rice, some pizza sushi, fish chin, sashimi and miso soup. It usually comes down to like 2100NT. Their food is unique. Tasty.

{sea urchin and ikura with rice}

{pizza sushi}

銀座
No.105 DeXing E. Rd.
(02) 2832 6501

holy moly guacamole

{guacamole made from the rosa mexicana recipe}

Unfortunately for me and most of my high school friends, going home for Thanksgiving was just not an option. Thus, we spent Thanksgiving with the pseudo-family we did have around. As we all congregated in  NYC for the break, we chose to eat our Thanksgiving dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant, Rosa Mexicano. Totally multi-cultural. Our waiter suggested that we start with their special guacamole. So we did. It was prepared right in front of us and served in a volcanic stone bowl. I still have wonderful dreams about that guacamole.

So, reminicient of that night, I attempted to replicate that guacamole. Since it has been a while, I'm not quite sure how successful mine was. It did taste fine though.

TO MAKE THE PASTE:

1 tablespoon of chopped onions

1/2 teaspoon of chopped jalapeno peppers

1/2 teaspoon of chopped cilantro

1/2 teaspoon of salt

TO ADD IN LATER:

1 ripe Hass avocado

3 tablespoons of chopped onions

1 teaspoon of finely chopped jalapeno peppers

1/2 teaspoon of finely chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons of seedless, juiceless chopped tomatoes

as much salt as you like

So first off, you make the paste by mixing all the "paste ingredientes" together. I used a mortar and pestle just because I felt like it. Once the paste is all mashed up, scoop out the avocado and add it to the paste while folding in the mixture. It's nice when the guacamole is clumpier. Mine seemed a little bit too mushy. Then, add in the rest of the ingredients and continue folding the mixture. Add as much salt as you like but be careful. I added a little bit too much to mine. Also, I seeded my jalapenos because I'm a little weak when it comes to spicy stuff. It's up to you.

Serve with tortilla chips.

i love the 1885 burger store

{bbq pineapple burger + fresh mozzarella cheese} 

After a couple days of eating seafood, gosh, I felt like I was going to turn into a mermaid. Actually, what exactly do mermaids eat? Plankton? Hmm... But regardless, I had a HUGE ASS CRAVING, for some American food so what else satisfies such a craving better than good ol' wholesome all-American burgers. Yum. My all-time favorite burger is still that Jack Daniel's Burger from TGIFRIDAYS. But this comes in at a close second. Just look at it. It's so adorable... and juicy. The wheat bun is crispy on the outside and warm and fluffy on the inside and they provide plenty of veggies on the side. You see, they don't put the onions, tomatoes, pickles and lettuce inside for you. You can choose! I hate onions. Like, I pretend to be allergic to onions to avoid eating them. And I like to eat pickles by themselves. Not inside a burger. So... perfection! The burger patty is an inch thick and juicy. The pineapple slice is almost an inch thick as well so clearly I had problems putting all that into my mouth. But you know what they say, the bigger the better.

All this talk of burgers, and none of fries. Must not neglect the fries. At other Western family restaurants, there's usually the option to opt for mashed potatoes instead of fries. But it makes no difference because the fries are delicioussssss. They're seasoned with spices and put in a pail! THEY'RE PUT IN A PAIL! SO CUTE! Fridays better start upping their game or else... 

It's been a year since I've been to 1885 Burger Store. It's good to be back.

From a year ago:

{bbq bacon cheese burger - oh i love my beebeeQ}

Oh myyy.

But a word of caution. We had to wait about 45 minutes to get a seat. Outside. In the humid Taipei weather. Geez. They had those misty sprinkler things outside which helped a little. I played Infinity Blade and Fruit Ninja to pass the time so it wasn't so bad. By the time we started eating, it was around 8:20PM. This may be due to the fact that we went during a weekend peak dinner time and there was also a huge sausage-fest consisting of around 30 dudes celebrating someone's birthday. But we got our food quite speedily and the jaw-breaking burger helped us forget the wait.

1885 BURGER STORE
24-1 PuCheng St
(02) 2367-8258 


TO GET THERE: I took the MRT to Taipower Building Station, exited through Exit 3 and walked straight till I hit PuCheng St. Then took a right and ta-da! 50 meters in, there it was! From the MRT Station to the restaurant took a total of 5 minutes of brisk tummy-growling walking.

five seconds on the highway

Today I drove onto the highway. On accident.

Since I only received my license a couple weeks ago, my protective parents refuse to let me drive out of the district. The public transportation system in Taipei is way too reliable so none of my friends feel the need to get a license. Or they tried, and didn't pass. Thus today, when the situation called for a car, I was the one to drive drive drive around the TMC. I don't mind. It's nice. Especially at night with a car full of friends. We just drove around, got some eggs and bagels, missed a dozen exits and got lost. A good bonding experience. On the way home from downtown, we followed the GPS but somehow managed to miss a couple turns and ended up in a completely wrong area of the city, headed straight for the highway. Whoops whoops. But all was swell as we ended up exiting at the first exit we saw and ta-da! Home sweet home. 

{taipei highway}

It wasn't that bad. Not many cars were around anyways. I blame the GPS.
But seriously, don't tell my parents.

i love pho hoa

Take me on a date and you can never go wrong with pho. I love pho. Like, ridiculously. I think it's the synesthesia. Takes me back a couple years to the pho restaurant back home in San Diego that my parents used visit quite frequently. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was called Pho Cow. Pho back in SD was delicious with authentic Vietnamese chefs and ingredients. I was a rare and delightful discovery that my boyfriend and I stumbled across this small pho shop in one of the small alleys of ZhongXiao Dunhua. It is quite hard to find pho in Taiwan, even harder to find pho that tastes as genuine as this.

{excuse the fatty oils - my bowl of raw beef pho}

Provided with basil, hot sauce, lime, some brownish pho sauce, and other green leaves on the side, this bowl of pho cost me 140NT. Usually I proceed with a small squirt of lime and a spare squeeze of the brownish liquid into my soup. Pho Hoa gives a surprisingly decent amount of noodles which always leaves me satisfied. I love love loveee it here. I want to go back tomorrow :(


PHO HOA
No. 43, Lane 190, Tunhua S. Road, Sec. 1
(02) 2751-5578 
noodle.zeelive.com.tw