Forgive me for being crass, but to me all good ramen pretty much taste the same. Sure, the broth may be thicker at one place, the chashu fattier at another place, and the noodles thinner at yet a third place, but when it comes right down to it, when the flavours and textures meld together to become mouthful after mouthful of noodle soup in my … Continue reading Ramen is Ramen is Ramen: Ramen Danbo
They could not have been more honest about who they were and what they were about to do to you. Pirates. Kyzock(s). Thieves of the sea. For a few bucks more, they’ll give you a lot less than the competition. What a value proposition! They propose to rob you blind right in front of your eyes in broad daylight. High sea hijinks at the expense … Continue reading Bona Fide Pirates: Kyzock
I know what I want. I dream about it. I daydream about it. The images are vivid and the images are not just images. They are 8K resolution real. They are smell-o-matically aromatic. They are taste-buds-plugged-into-Oculus-Rift-Ten.Point.OH MY HALLUCINATING brain cells aromatically real. Damn those foodstuffs in Taipei. They infect your mind like twenty days before you actually get there. And then when your plane lands … Continue reading Taipei: Fresh And Aged – December 2014
You see something enough times and your mind starts getting its own ideas. You don’t want your mind to take over. You want your brain to stay firmly planted in the present, in reality; you hate it when it wanders off into a mind of its own and becomes that mind. You want it to plainly process the information your eyes pass on and for … Continue reading Food Truck: Eat Chicken Wraps
It seemed entirely possible to bypass the brunt of the thing with a quick five minute drive to the restaurant. The basement was its usual damp-smelling self when I went down to pick up the car. There were a few little puddles here and there, but those came more from the carwash lady washing the cars than from any sort of flooding. And the rain … Continue reading Taipei: Fresh Station
There are many things I don’t know about the city, like how this stretch of Kingsway, with Vietnamese storefronts slightly outnumbering their Anglo and Chinese counterparts, is known as Little Saigon. I also have no idea that Tung Hing Bakery is supposed to be a bahn mi destination. The present tense gives me goose bumps in a bad way. I type in the present tense … Continue reading Present Tense Suck: Tung Hing Bakery
Dihua street. Oldest street in Taipei. Old money. Lots of it. Crouching tiger hidden dragon – meaning you would not know it if you weren’t told about it. Multi-millionaires, billionaires, and multi-billionaires walking amongst their employee hundred-thousand-aires, and the common, pedestrian ten-thousand-aires milling about grocery shopping or Chinese medicine seeking. Old money I am not and old I was not when I was growing up … Continue reading Taipei: Marlin rice noodles
Dear pho of Baoqi, Embrace me. Take me into your arms. Envelop me with you warm, sweet fragrant stock. Allow me to stroke the tendrils of your velvety rice noodles. Caress me all over with slices of your tender, raw beef. Overwhelm my senses with you unending leafs of basil. Nurture me with the the pure manna within your bean sprouts. Throw me upon the … Continue reading Ardor: Baoqi
I had imagined that we were going to have a grand ole’ time trying out the board games at the restaurant and I was right. I almost felt like I wanted the pizzas to come later to our table than the more-than-a-long-while that it took them to arrive. I know for a fact that the kids weren’t particularly happy to be served their lunches in the … Continue reading The New York Slice: Ludica Pizzeria
Sad as it may be, I have to face the facts. The fact is that my two-sentence post two days ago – by far my most word-economical – has become my most “liked” post. Ever. It appears that people would much rather read my silence than my babble. So I’m going to give it to you one more time. …I’ll just say this: Every single … Continue reading Tokyo: Shiseido Salon De Cafe
What I Talk About When I Talk About Food 