OMG. Best Peking Duck EVER.

 

Now that’s what I call good presentation.

For our last big family meal, we headed to Dragon Restaurant instead of our usual dim sum place.  My sister PY researched the best place for Peking duck, since she had promised me roast duck as a belated birthday present. I didn’t remember such a thing, but when someone offers you free Peking duck, you rise to the challenge!

 

Dig in!

Now, I’ve had some good duck and not-so-good duck, but this was the Best Duck Ever. Seriously. The combination of perfectly sliced, tender and juicy duck served with freshly steamed pancakes, Hoisin sauce, and sprigs of scallion (wrapped in optional red pepper) could not be beat. However, the Best Ever Duck comes with a hefty price tag: NT$1200 (roughly US$40)! The good news is that you can choose to add another duck-related dish, such as duck bone porridge or stir fried duck with vegetables, for only US$6 more, per dish.

So yummy!

 

The rest of the meal was pretty darn amazing as well:

My favorite dish: seafood and tofu claypot, with baby bok choy.

My second favorite: crab vermicelli. Not much crab but plenty of tasty noodles.

Steamed whole fish with soy, scallions, and cilantro.

Ground pork and egg soup

The restaurant also serves dim sum, which looked pretty good but we didn’t order any. It’s also a little touristy — Dragon Restaurant has a solid reputation among the Japanese tourists. So, if you go, be sure to make a reservation!

 

(FYI, here’s a blog post with helpful information for English directions to the restaurant: http://mykafkaesquelife.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-duck-in-taipei.html)

 

Tea Time!

When I was in Taipei, my sister PY took us to Smith & Hsu, a hip tea place with modern, Scandinavian decor. It was SO hip, in fact, that I wasn’t allowed to take any photos of the shelves or displays, lest I steal their interior design elements. Actually, the servers were quite nice about it, apologizing to me as they told me not to take pictures of their cake display because it’s proprietary information. *sigh*

 

Cheers!

Anyway, it turned out to be a quite relaxing and delicious lunch. We opted to share the afternoon tea, even though it was barely noon, which included two pots of tea (unlimited refill) and a 3-tiered stand of mini-sandwiches, cakes, and scones. After smelling the tray of 45+ teas, JS and I chose an Earl Grey variety and a Chinese tea (was it Jasmine? or Pu Er? I can’t recall). Both were delicious.

 

Selecting the tea was hard work!

The sandwiches were a nice departure from all of the Chinese food I had been devouring for a week and the cakes (Tiramisu and chocolate raspberry) were scrumptious. But the best part? The scones. I never thought that I’d taste some of the best scones EVER in Taipei, of all places, but these were buttery, warm, and awesome. They came with the best clotted cream and jams — lemon curd (*YUM*) and blueberry.

 

 

Our savory and sweet treats

... the other side

Buffets of Taiwan

Happy New Year! Hope everyone is having a great start to 2011 so far. Do you have any food-related resolutions? I don’t usually believe in making resolutions, but if I had to state a couple I’ve been working on since the end of 2010, they are:

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables.
2. Become a part-time vegetarian. This is related to #1 for health reasons, and also for environmental reasons.
3. Learn to cook something new at least once a month.

So far, so good. I’ve been making some simple, yet delicious veggie dishes and sides. When I come across a winner, I’ll post the recipe here.

Back to the blog! I’m going to overindulge you with photos, just as I overindulged in Taipei. It was a real shame that I wasn’t more hungry when I visited the following buffets. I felt truly hungry maybe two times in the two weeks I was there, and a tinge of hunger less than 5 times. For reals. I still tried to adhere to my buffet rules, though I’m fairly certain I didn’t get my money’s worth. Sad face.

First up: a Japanese buffet. It doesn’t really matter about the name because it wasn’t that good. It gets good marks for pretty presentation, but the food was just so-so and the desserts were very disappointing. I had a nice time with my family though!

 

The sushi station (with guy giving me a funny look, to the left). Also, check out the ginormous carrots!

 

The dessert table looked appetizing but ended up being disappointing.

Again, a beautiful presentation of mussels that didn't deliver in taste.

 

"Look, Ma, no hands!"

They had made-to-order hand rolls. Not bad.

 

 

This poor shrimp was no match for my appetite.

Since the desserts sucked, I had star fruit and passion fruit instead.

 

Next: my family and I took a mini-vacation to Yilan, a city 1.5 hours southeast of Taipei by train. We stayed at the lovely Silks Place hotel, where we were given complimentary vouchers to the breakfast buffet. This breakfast smorgasboard was amazing, featuring a wide selection of Chinese, Japanese, and Western-style morning treats. My sisters and I especially loved the porridge bar, where every conceivable topping was available (it doesn’t take much to make us happy).

 

Freshly steamed buns (man tou)

My first round, clockwise from top left: fried egg with hot sauce, porridge with goodies, plate of bacon, croissant, and Japanese rice, and a cafe latte.

Fun with fruit!

Everyone was very happy with their food.

 

Finally, we went to the Japanese buffet at Wasabi, in the Taipei 101 mall. My mom had discount vouchers, reducing the price of lunch from $25 to a more affordable $17. I enjoyed my food; it was all very fresh and high quality, but we were annoyed that they charged my 4 year old nephew (who only ate rice and a few pieces of veggie tempura) $12. Lamesauce.

 

The view of Wasabi from the mall.

My first round at Wasabi: lots and lots of fish and other sea creatures.

My sister and dad, with a plate of fried food. Someone decided not to follow my buffet rules!

My mom and I ready to chow down!

A very minimalist dessert. I was stuffed! Upper left: fruit; lower right: various mochis.

The mochi was really good. Two thumbs up!