Peking Duck House- Chinatown, NYC

I have always wanted to visit Peking Duck House since my cousin raved about it all the time. Though I am of Chinese decent, I have probably only had Peking duck once, maybe twice, when I was little. My mom wasn’t a big fan of it since it is not all that healthy- fat, oily, but delicious!

Anyway, I finally made a trip to the Peking Duck House in Chinatown the other day. What a surprise for me it was. I am so used to the dirtier, dingier (but delicious) places in Chinatown, I definitely didn’t see this fancier, trying-to-be-upscale restaurant in the heart of Chinatown.

Of course, for the three of us, we ordered one duck. The head chef came to the table with a roasted duck and sliced it in front of us.

Then we have a plate of juicy, greasy, delicious smelling duck meat, WITH SKIN!

Here we have a bowl of Hoisin sauce.

A plate of sliced scallions and cucumber to refresh the wraps!

And the wraps itself.

And this is how you assemble your Peking duck- Hoisin sauce on the bottom, duck meat, then greens.

And we wrap it together. Ta-Da!Since I am not a Peking duck connoisseur, this Peking duck to me was DELICIOUS! The duck is tender, hoisin sauce adds a nice sweetness and a little tang to it, cucumber is refreshing, and the scallions add a layer of depth to the “sandwich”. It was so good! One thing I will say is that it can get overwhelmingly greasy after a certain point. This is when moderation is key. Unless you love grease. Then you should probably watch your cholesterols because eating like this can be dangerous to your health!

Sorry, I got carried away. Anyway, there are a few locations for Peking Duck House in New York City, If you are in town and am feeling it, I would definitely recommend it!

Please let me know if you also have suggestions of other Peking duck places! I would love to try more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food Porn- Orange Shabu Shabu, Taipei

After hearing about all the celebrities coming to this hot pot restaurant, my family and I were excited to try it in celebration of mi padre’s birthday!

My father, the toughest food critic (based on what? not sure, he eats everything but still is a picky critique-r), really enjoyed it! Orange is known for their fresh ingredients, so everything we had were extremely fresh,especially the seafood (oh, you will see).

Appetizer- tofu with shrimp. The tofu had a thicker texture, almost like a panna cotta-tofu mixture. It doesn’t taste as weird as it sounds, I swear.

appetizer- crab leg salad. Note that this is not the imitation crab legs you get in your usual California roll. The salad was refreshing but satisfying with the cashews on top.

white sesame sauce and mashed dikon scallion soy sauce. Dips for what’s to come.

Vegetable platter. The little thing of sweet corn was the best.

veggies going in the broth.

thinly sliced beef

thinly sliced pork. This was the best meat in my opinion.

seafood platter. The shrimps in the middle were still moving. I already warned you that the seafood is extra fresh!

assorted sashimi. Tuna was the bestest.

The coolest part, after we are done with the hot pot, the waiter comes back with rice and cook the rice into the broth, about 20 minutes, until it becomes porridge.

they even have little dishes of pickled veggies to go along with the fresh porridge.

my favorite part of the meal. Imagine a simple broth of fresh seafood and good quality pork, beef, and veggies, and then incorporate with rice. It’s as thick and delicious as you imagine.

Fresh fruit for all the guests- dragon fruit and a slice of nectarine.

dessert- caramel flan. The flan was thick!

Almond tofu soup. This was interesting because the tofu was more like mochi, it was sticky! Nevertheless it was pretty delicious!

last dessert- red bean ice. Red bean and condensed milk on top of shaved ice.

Though this place was a bit pricy, it was still worth it considered the amount and quality of ingredients that they provided. What a memorable meal though, I am drooling again just looking at the pictures!

Food Porn- Sufood, Taipei

Met up with some friends at Sufood, a prix fixe vegetarian restaurant for dinner one day. This company is known for its excellent service, colorful and creative food options, and a friendly ambiance.

The prix fixe includes an appetizer, bread, salad, main dish, side dish, dessert, and a drink. Yes, a total of eight courses.

Appetizer- blueberry sauce on wild yam, sweet pepper and lotus root, and a tomato-plum jello.

Rosemary breadsticks with a ranch-like dressing

Fruit salad, assorted fruit with yogurt and fruit jello

soup- purple potato and onion cream soup. This one was delicious.

side dish- fruit scented muesli rice.

main dish- fried rice balls with assorted vegetables and curry sauce on the side. Yes, fried rice balls are delicious.

dessert- sesame and walnut panna cotta. I am not a big panna cotta fan, this was my friend’s order, but the sesame sauce was yums.

my dessert and drink- warm lemon apple pie and chamomile and grapefruit tea. Apple pie was warm with a hint of sourness from the lemon, it was extra satisfying with a good cup of tea.

Pretty good restaurant! We were there for four hours just chatting our lives away, they didn’t even kick us out! The curry rice balls were pretty amazing too, you just can’t go wrong with fried, rice balls, and curry, I guess.

朱記

Went to 朱記 for lunch yesterday. 朱記 (Zhu Ji) is a semi-famous place for its meat pies. Meat pies, Sweetney Todd? Alright, not that kind of meat pies, let’s just move on.

Their meat pies(beef) are not too big, about the size of a coaster (random item, I know).Once you bite into the crispy skin, lots and lots of juice come out, wasn’t too shabby, I must say.

Golden, chewy yet thin skin was probably my favorite part of the dish

My sister also got 小米粥 (xiao mi zhou). It’s like a good Southern grit, but Chinese. It’s made with millets, small-seedd grain that’s been used in Chinese cuisine since the beginning of time. Yes, the beginning of time.

add some sugar for a little more taste. Really health stuff here.

We also got 刀削麵 (dao xiao mian), knife shredded noodles. It means that the chef shreds the noodle dough with a knife so the noodles are thicker and chewier. It’s one of my favorite noodles. Great texture. Their noodles were pretty good, it wasn’t too heavy with a great hint of sesame oil. Veggies were sweet and fresh. Probably my favorite dish here.

Potstickers! Gotta love them. However, theirs were just mediocre. Skin has a good texture, but the pork filling inside were okay.

Lastly, we also got steamed dumplings with veggies fillings. This one was just okay too. It lacked flavor in my opinion.

So overall, how did i feel about this place? It was alright, I’d probably give it a solid B. I think their price would be a little more justifiable if their items are made more delicately.

朱記餡餅粥

台北市大安區仁愛路3段106號，

No. 106, Section 3, Rén’ài Road,

Daan District  Taipei City, Taiwan

02-2702-9411

Parm NYC

I have been wanting to go to Parm NYC for a while after hearing about their fantastic chicken parm sandwiches.

Since we were in a time crunch as we must catch the screening of Sasha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator on the upper west side (We’re a big deal, I know), we got two sandwiches to go. Truth be told, I devoured mine in the car on the way uptown.

So how was it?

It was definitely good. They are very generous with their chicken as they are large and I actually got two pieces in each sandwich. The chicken itself was soo tender and juicy. I wasn’t too crazy about the roll though, I thought it was a bit too doughy and a little dry; perhaps  I will try the hero next time. What I was most impressed with was the sauce. I loved the sauce- it was tangy with a hint of sweetness, reminds me of my dinners at my Italian best friend’s house.

Overall, I was very happy with my trip to Parm. I will definitely try the other sandwiches that they offer next time (eggplant parm, yes please). Or maybe I will even go to their main restaurant Torrisi for a special occasion meal. One way or the other, I definitely look forward to it!

Parm NYC

248 Mulberry Street

New York, NY 10012

212-993-7189

Cafe Boulud

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I failed to remember to write about my Cafe Boulud experience!

So if you are a big foodie, you’d probably know that Chef Daniel Boulud is like, one of the best chefs in the world. For my Christmas present, I asked my boyfriend to take me to one of his restaurants, Cafe Boulud, for dinner.

Chef Boulud is known for his other restaurant, Daniel, but that one is about one million dollars per person for dinner, so I opted for one of his less expensive restaurants.

Now, I do apologize because I used my iPhone to take pictures. I was really just too embarrassed to be tourist-like in such a fancy restaurant. haha.

 These were the complementary truffle risotto balls. Oh my god, it was so delicious!