Relaxing in Encinitas

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie Friday · Travel TuesdayTags: · · · · · 1 Comment

Just north of San Diego, there is the wonderful town of Encinitas.  It is a nice relaxing surfer (or beach bum) town with excellent dining in the heart of the town itself. Juanitas Taco Shop A great little taco shop right off of North Coast Highway 101 that is not your normal tourist cafe – which is perfect!  While normally a corn tortilla fan, they have the best wheat tortillas.  This is a picture of the to-go carnitas plate where the beans are creamy, the rice is delicious yet light, the meat is flavorful, and the avocado and salsa were…

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A touch of Shanghai cuisine (in this case, in Taichung 台中)

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie FridayTags: · · Leave a comment

When I’m in Taiwan – it’s all about the Taiwanese small eats (台灣小吃).  These little shops (you cannot even call them restaurants) line alley ways and markets have some of the most delicious food (though lacking amenities). And if you’re in Taichung (台中), you typically will continue that trend – if for no other reason it has the largest night market in Taiwan (Fengjia Night Market – 逢甲夜市). Yet through all the food chaos, sometimes (albeit only very occasionally) a sit down restaurant is in order. You still want good food, but with service, a place to actually sit down,…

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An all too brief stop over in Tainan (台南)

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie Friday · Travel TuesdayTags: · · · · 6 Comments

For anyone who regularly visits Taiwan, the city of Tainan can easily be missed with the other three major cites of Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung.  Yet that would be a grave mistake if you consider yourself a foodie.  A word of warning, driving in Tainan is atrocious – there are only two major roads going into the city off of Highway 1.  Yet if you brave the driving conditions and/or decide take the train (HSR or TRA), make your way to the old historic district and you will be pleasantly satiated with all sorts of Taiwanese small eats (台灣小吃).  This…

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Taipei Main Train Station has some good eats!

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie Friday · Travel TuesdayTags: · · · Leave a comment

Like many other big cities, the Taipei Main Train Station is a major transportation hub that handles the Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR), Taiwan Railway (TRA), and the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Subway system.  But in all of the chaos and craziness of moving thousands of people daily is a gold mine of great Taiwanese food – also known as Taiwan Small Eats (台灣小吃).   Here are a couple of my favorites. Potstickers and Hot & Sour Soup This little shop on the 2nd floor of the train station is technically a dim sum restaurant called 小南門點心世界（微風美食廣場）.  Its been around…

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Foodie Friday: Ton Kiang Barbeque Noodle House

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie FridayTags: 1 Comment

Do you really like Hong Kong style Barbeque pig and duck (or poultry for that matter), live in the Emerald City, and just cannot afford to head to Hong Kong on a regular basis?  Well, the best option for those living the Seattle area is Ton Kiang Barbeque Noodle House – I may get into a lot of trouble here, but this BBQ house is comparable to BBQ houses in Vancouver – even the ones off of No. 3 Road (gasp!). Before I start a proverbial debate among the Seattle Chinese community (food is easily the easiest topic to debate…

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Foodie Friday: Joi’s Seafood Restaurant–Dim Sum in Bellevue

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie FridayTags: 2 Comments

I’m a big fan of dim sum and in the Bellevue area, I am a frequent visitor of Top Gun Seafood Restaurant.  But when I heard dim sum right in downtown Bellevue, I have to admit I was skeptical at first.  If you look at the Yelp reviews for the restaurant (http://www.yelp.com/biz/jois-chinese-seafood-restaurant-bellevue-2) – it’s mixed at best – though the more recent reviews tend to be positive. I will definitely agree with the more recent reviews as the Dim Sum is quite good and even better they do not use a lot of MSG.  It is very common to go…

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Foodie Friday:肉圓 (Ba-Wan) at 林員肉圓 near Banciao Station, Taipei

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie FridayTags: 5 Comments

As some of you may have known, I had the opportunity to travel and stay in Taiwan earlier in the year.  Amazingly, I’m still super behind in my my Foodie Friday blog posts of great places to eat. . For today’s post, this is a great local Taiwanese dish known as 肉圓 or Ba-Wan.  It is a Taiwanese snack food that literally means “meat sphere”.  In this case, this is a 肉圓 that is made of pork within rice-paper translucent dough.  The sauce is savory, the meat is quite fatty (in a good way), served nice and hot!  For more…

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Foodie Sunday: Fugu at 虎福亭 in Tokyo

by dennyglee Categories: Foodie Friday · Travel TuesdayTags: · · · · · · Leave a comment

Okay, normally the foodie posts are done on Friday but after some tweets back and forth, I was inspired to write up the awesome experience eating Fugu (河豚) when we got a chance to visit Tokyo a few years back (thanks for the inspiration @sqlbelle!). For starters, you have to make sure that you order fugu from a sushi chef that has a long history of experience with fugu – one wrong slice and … you’re not going to do so well, eh!?  Near the front of the restaurants that serve fugu, they have a sign showing the number of…

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