Hee-sun and Co.

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Hee-sun, Steph, and Courtney came over and made an incredible dinner.













The next day, I made eggs. Smile!

Vienna Classics

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If you asked me to choose one type of cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, my only response would be to laugh.

I am a highly fickle eater and can easily get bored of eating the same things over and over. Two months in Beijing last summer had me craving steak, guacamole, and Brie cheese with strawberries (not all at once, mind you). And lately, after over six months of being in Europe now, I've been dreaming about Vietnamese summer rolls, curry from my local Malaysian restaurant, and NYC pizza (this, I blame on that New York Times and NYMag features).

And I know that once I head back to the States, I will start missing what I've come to take for granted here in Western Europe. Like how I won't be able to just walk into any bakery off the street and get a fresh baguette with the perfect amount of crunch in the crust and that warm, chewy white center. Or how I'm going to have to accept Yale or Starbucks coffee in place of the intense espressos for my caffeine boost.

My last weekend trip reminded me how much I'm going to miss ubiquitously wonderful baked goods and coffee. Considering Vienna's reputation for its cakes and caffeinated drinks, I knew I had to frequently jause (pronounced "yoyzay").


The Naschmarkt is one of the best ways to start your mornings. Elizabeth and I got here around 8:30am, before the crowds could get in. The whole market stretches along the boulevard, with some restaurants and around 50 stands selling goodies like fresh produce, dried fruit and nuts, cheese, sausages, fish, pre-made dishes (falafel, kebab), olives, etc. I was a little surprised how many of the stalls sold ethnic items, like lokum (Turkish delights) and "Turkish viagra" (dried candied dates stuffed with walnuts...it's really delicious actually). It's a good place to stock up on items for a picnic.



But the first thing on my mind was breakfast, so after walking up and down the stalls four times (I like to weigh my options), I finally settled on this stand with a huge spread of pastries. Even more difficult than choosing the stall.....choosing the pastry. I really wish my stomach had as big an appetite as my eyes, because I could just gobble everything up. In the end, I ended up going with a plum/custard pastry (with a name I won't even try to repeat here):

I think my food photography skills have improved, no?

Sweet and tart. It was slightly dry at the bottom but I guess you sacrifice some things when buying pastries from an open-air market, and not an indoor bakery. Nonetheless, probably much better than what I could get from my local diner, which wouldn't use real plums like they do in this.


After some sight-seeing, Elizabeth and I worked up an appetite for official jause. Located conveniently across from Staatsoper (the renowned opera Viennese opera house) is Cafe Sacher, which is known for creating the original recipe for the Sachertorte, a chocolate (usually sponge) cake with a layer of apricot jam and chocolate frosting. I'm not a fan of chocolate cake, so Elizabeth ordered it and I stole a few bites to see whether the sachertorte deserves its fame.


Personally, I didn't like the cake much. I mean, it tasted like any other dry chocolate cake I've had before. But like I said, I am not a fan of chocolate cake (unless we're talking about molten lava cake....). The highlight of the jause for me was the Maria Theresa:


This coffee specialty combines black coffee with orange liqueur, whipped cream and sugar. Now THIS was much more of what I had expected. If you've ever had an Irish coffee before, this is like a Christmas version of that, with the hint of orange in each sip. I could snuggle up with this on any rainy or snowy day.


Fast forward to the next day: Cafe Diglas. A random place off near St. Stephen's cathedral. Highlights of the meal:

Damn good coffee. Elizabeth likes to add equal parts sugar and milk to her coffee but I've always appreciated black coffee as it is.

A fruit custard with a layer of chocolate (you can kind of see it in the bottom left corner). Eating it was as messy as it looks.

A kind of coffee cake with almond cream. The top layer of frosting was too sweet for my taste but I preferred this to the gelatinous fruit pastry.

In retrospect, I think I liked the Naschmarkt plum pastry the best, but I've always been more of a breakfast pastry person rather than a cake person (too much cream gets me nauseous). But I can definitely understand why Austrian people spend more money on eating tea/cake than eating out.


Oh how I'll miss thee ol'European cafe....


+++++++++

Naschmarkt
Along the street, Rechte Wienzeile
Near the Karlplatz metro stop

Cafe Sacher
Philharmonikerstraße 4, A-1010
Innere Stadt
Vienna

Cafe Diglas
Wollzeile 10, A-1010
Innere Stadt
Vienna

Till the Cows Go Home

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Happy Bastille Day!

Yes, today is the 220th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison in France. And in honor of the French, this post will be dedicated to some classic French/Swiss dishes.

Because of Switzerland's geography and political make-up, the country's culture is an amalgamation of elements from its three neighbors: France, Germany and Italy. Since I am in Geneva, and only about 30 minutes away from the French border, there is obviously a lot more French influence in the cuisine around me, which is not something to complain about (now if I were living in Zurich on the other hand......let's just say I'm not a huge fan of German food).

Anyway, Switzerland is also known for its Alps and plentiful herds of cows that produce the famous Swiss cheeses. So on my first visit to the Alps, the town of Crans-Montana to be exact, I knew that I had to try the national Swiss dish: fondue!
This is a traditional chalet, a kind of Swiss building in the Alpine region made of wood. It was originally referred to as the hut of a herder but has since become the commercial equivalent of a French "bistro" or Greek "taverna", which serves the national dishes. The one in the photo, however, I can tell you is legit. The chalet is run by an Italian who's been there for a few years now and it's owned by the nearby Grand Hotel du Golf & Palace, a five-star hotel that knows good food.

Disclaimer: The father of the friend I was with owns said restaurant and hotel so of course the experience was all the better. But I would definitely go back to this place in a heart beat even if I had to foot the bill. There were literally no other visitors in town but this restaurant still had the most business from locals and their families. We went there twice....in one day. It was that good.

Two things immediately hit you when you walk through the door: (1) the insanely Swiss interior decor of plaid, checkered lace, and more plaid; and, (2) the smell of Gruyere cheese and sizzling sirloin beef--which makes you forget about the decor immediately.

Lunch: medium-rare filet mignon with a side of roasted vegetables. It was cooked just the way I wanted it. I don't even remember putting any sauce or pepper on it. The beef just melted in your mouth.


Rösti: another traditional Swiss dish. It's made of grated potatoes, which is then mixed with some butter, salt and pepper, and fried to form a huge patty or pancake. It sort of reminded me of latkas, except this was the size of a huge saucerpan and very thin, like hash browns on crack. And I mean that the good way--I probably could just have this for a meal. The accompanying fries were also absolutely delicious: super warm with just enough seasoning and lots of crunch. There must be something about the potatoes this place uses because while I'm not much of a meat-and-potatoes girl, I nearly polished my whole plate of the rösti and fries after the steak.

BUT I had to save room for the dinner of....

Fondue!

No, not this:

THIS:

Most people think of fondue as the traditional combination of Emmentale and Gruyere cheeses, which you eat by dipping in pieces of bread and potatoes or meat. However, this chalet specializes in different kinds of fondue so instead of getting a cheesey one, we decided to try this:


Very thin slices of beef get cooked in the fondue pot, which is full of boiling hot red wine instead of cheese. After the beef gets cooked in the wine, you eat it with various dips that you can see in the picture. My favorite was on the right bottom, which tasted like super garlicky aioli (mmhhh I can never get too much of garlic).

I am a huge fan of cheese but really: high quality beef and wine? How can you go wrong? I would take this over traditional fondue anyday.

+++++++

Le Chalet
Crans-Montana
Switzerland
http://www.lechaletcransmontana.ch/

Bananas in multiple flavors!

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I visited the Yasukuni Shrine today (save your judgments!) for the annual Mitama Matsuri, or the Festival of "Souls" (I think). It was soooo incredible! 10,000 plus lanterns, food/drinks/miscellaneous stands throughout the shrines, on both sides of pathway.

Anyhooo, among alll the food stands, this one really jumped out to me:



They look amazing, right? Banana dipped in deliciousness and then covered in sprinkles of all colors!

Unfortunately, I had eaten mediocre Thai food right before this and was too full to try. However, I wanted to show these bananas because they just look so appetizing. Next time I run across them, you will get a full report here.



Food Stand at Mitama Matsuri
Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo, Japan

Sashimi and Sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market

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Okay, guys, are we just not eating well this summer? No one is posting wonderful food experiences!

Well, I just had the best sushi and sashimi you can get, so I will not be shy about it.

With Hee-sun and a couple of new friends I made recently, I went to the Tsukiji Fish Market in search for food. If you don't know anything about the Tsukiji Fish Market, it is a market where the fish caught throughout the night are auctioned off early in the morning. It is THE place to have the most delicious, freshest fish in Tokyo (and probably, the world).

Anyway, we set out looking for a good restaurant with only one criteria in mind: it must have a wait of a minimum of thirty minutes. After passing up a couple of restaurants whose waits were too short, we accidentally stumbled upon one particular restaurant whose line started in the restaurant and eventually made two lines outside. That was the jewel.



Are you ready for straight up food porn? Here you go:









So yeah, is your mouth watering? It should be, because this meal consisted of the most wonderful sashimi and sushi I have ever had (or, compared to what I remember). Nothing in the States even come close.

(I'm sorry, I don't remember which piece is what, or how exactly each individual type tasted--ask Heesun, she should know. However, trust me, they were all incredibly tasty, and if you happen upon this restaurant in Tsukiji, do go in.)

Gelato Heaven

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I'll be frank. I think my fellow bloggers are at a slight advantage to me because while they have access to cheap street food (and cheap anything for that matter), I am currently living in what Xpatulator considers this year to be the most expensive city for expats in Europe. The exchange rates are my bitter enemies right now. I can't imagine what it must have been like before the financial crisis hit.

Luckily, however, there are some things you can get for relatively good quality for extremely reasonable prices: fresh fruit, wine and pastries come to mind immediately (and yes, that was basically my diet back in Copenhagen last semester) and when you're in Italy, the best thing you can get for €2 (about $2.60-2.80 depending on the exchange rate) is 2 scoops of gelato.

According to Wikipedia, gelato is the Italian variant of ice cream. I would more describe it as a religion in Italy. Gelato is not just an afternoon snack, it is a national art, and you can easily tell by the displays in gelato stores around the world. Unlike in the U.S., you would never see ice cream served in a street stand or truck. That would be blasphemy. In fact, the most intense gelaterias store their ice cream in air-concealed and temperature-controlled vats to preserve the flavor and freshness. However, most places create elaborate displays with fruits, cookies, and other delectables to illustrate each flavor.


I've always preferred gelato to ice cream ever since I first had it in France. Unlike "traditional" ice cream, gelato uses less cream so it's lighter and (for some scientific reason that escapes me) you can create more flavors with gelato than ice cream. My two main reasons for traveling through Italy over spring break was: (1) to see art and (2) to eat Italian food. My mission was to have gelato every day. For some cities, I did research beforehand to read up on which gelaterias were most acclaimed, especially in Rome. But I really doubt you could ever have BAD gelato. As long as it's made in-house, you can't go wrong.

Below is a brief summary of my gelato trip through Italy. It's mostly chronological, although I save the best for last.

Actually, one of my favorite ones is missing from this diary because my camera decided to delete it so I have no record of the amazing San Crispino in Rome. It's written about widely though, like here and here, so I wouldn't be adding much new (although DO order the honey flavor- it's their house specialty).

★☆☆ One star: good and safe option if passing
★★☆ Two stars: delicious and worth walking out of your way to get
★★★ Three stars: mind-blowing and worth flying there to get

Milan: Toledo

This was my first day in Italy so I didn't have a specific gelateria picked out. I just stopped at a random place in the neighborhood, Berra, which had lots of cute cafes on the streets. I figured any place with lots of restaurants and that was slightly remote from the touristy historic center couldn't be too bad.

Cafe and some kind of coconut/cream flavor. The coffee wasn't as pronounced as I had expected it to be but it complemented surprisingly well with the creamy coconut.
★☆☆

Venice: La Boutique del Gelato

Tiramisu and strawberries & cream: another odd combination but I was surprised how much I liked the strawberries & cream. I've never seen that flavor offered before so I knew I had to try. The red strawberry part actually tasted of strawberries! Like summer in a cup.
★★☆

Venice: Causin

The "sport" sundae: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and mixed fruit with whipped cream and chocolate. This was the only sundae I got in Italy and in retrospect, I regret it. Call me a purist, but the toppings drowned out the flavor of the ice cream so I didn't enjoy it as much.
★☆☆

Florence: Vivoldi's

Nougat and hazelnut. The nougat was quite good (not too sweet, which was good) but it was nothing compared to its complement. Imagine the freshest hazulnuts you've ever had, in pure creamy liquid form. I say liquid because it melted slightly as I was eating it super slowly to draw out the flavor for as long as possible.
★★☆ (but ★★★ for the hazelnut) so I guess two and half stars?

Florence: Carabe

Almond and stratiacella (chocolate chips). The almond was also very good and packed a bunch of flavor (maybe nut-flavored gelato is just generally amazing in Italy) but I was disappointed with the stratiacella. I thought it would be a safe pick but it turned out to be a bit watery and the chocolate chips were more like flakes.
★☆☆/★★☆ (one and a half)

Rome: Giolotti

Zuppa inglese and gariarda. This place is pretty famous so I wasn't surprised to see how it offered 30 flavors. That was more of a set-back rather than an advantage because I got very confused about what flavors to order so while the gariarda was good (hazelnut and chocolate- pretty hard to mess up), the zuppa inglese turned out to be a horrible decision. I picked it because zuppa inglese is supposed to be a traditional Italian custard-based dessert, like the British trifle, so I thought if it was a dessert on its own, it should be good (case in point: I will usually eat tiramisu- or cheesecake-flavoured anything). But it tasted artifically-sweetened (especially the red topping), like cotton candy that's been sitting in the sun too long.
★☆☆ for the gariarda/No stars for the zuppa inglese: half a star total

Rome: Old Bridge (right outside of Vatican City)

Cafe and amaretto. Absolute best deal: you get two MEGA scoops for the same price as the others (all 2 euros except for Vivoldi's in Venice and the next on in Bologna). I was paranoid after the zuppa inglese disaster the day before so I went with flavors I knew I would like (I will definitely eat coffee-flavored anything). This coffee flavor was nice and dark. You could almost imagine smelling coffee grounds while eating it. As you can tell, the cafe also had some kind of gooey caramel topping to it, which made it that much better.
★★☆

And last, but definitely not the least....

Bologna: La Sorbetteria Castiglione


Here you can see the intense, air/flavour/temperature-controlled storage vats I mentioned earlier. I've only seen this used in two places--San Crispino in Rome and here in Bologna. Maybe it's no surprise why those two were my favorite. Also, the lady behind the counter was the absolute nicest server I had of the nine gelaterias I visited. Like I said, I'm really bad at making choices and usually ask for at least 4-5 samples before making a decision. This gets servers ticked off if there's a line behind me but here, she walked me through the process of choosing, making recommendations and answering all my questions with a (unpatronizing) smile.

The flavors I ended up settling with were Michelangelo (cream of almonds with toasted almond and sugar) and Emma (cream of ricotta and dried figs with honey)

First of all, these flavors are well-thought over and pair ingredients that are in season and go extremely well together. Secondly, (I think because of the vat storage), the ice cream retained its creaminess and shape for much longer than the others.

As for taste.....I think the pictures say it all.

Pure. Heaven. In. My. Mouth.

★★★

It is worth flying to Bologna to have this.

I WANT IT NOW.

The store sign in Bologna. Just in case you are there. Because you really do need to go.

Now do you understand why ice cream is forever ruined for me?

Taiwanese tapas

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So first off I'd like to extend my apologies for my non-appearance on this blog -- I have a bunch of excuses, but you've all heard them already (lack of Internet, no camera, etc.) but now that I have everything set up, I'd like to premiere my first post, which contains food that is decidedly less fancy than anything presented in the posts below, but which is just as satisfying (I hope.)

I think both of my fellow bloggers here are aware of my non-enthusiasm for Chinese food in Beijing last summer. However, now that I have arrived in Taipei and have been exploring for a while, I can happily say that this is turning out to be a culinarily (is that a word?) satisfying summer. So I thought that I would start off this post by presenting three of my absolute favorite Taiwanese snacks/dishes, which I feel like are a fitting start to this summer.

Where else to go, of course, but a night market? The most famous Taiwanese night market is undoubtedly Shilin Night Market 士林夜市, but I'm not such a fan. First off, Shilin Night Market is rather touristy, and so prices are accordingly higher and portions accordingly smaller than at other night markets. Lucky for me, I am actually living in Yonghe 永和, south of Taipei City proper in Taipei County 台北縣, and have access to the Lehua Night Market 樂華夜市 about a 20-minute walk away. It's smaller but correspondingly cheaper, since the vast majority of people shopping here are not tourists.

We begin!

I chose three very typically Taiwanese things to present in this post, mostly because I am full after having finished the third one so I couldn't buy any more. But we will start with...

(1) Oyster omelet

This is 蚵仔煎, or ke1zai3 jian1, in Mandarin, but if you say it this way no one will understand you in Taiwan. Instead, you have to pronounce it in Taiwanese (which I don't speak). Wikipedia says it's ô-á-chian, which to my ear sounds something like óu à jiān if one were to spell it in Mandarin. But I digress.


I went to a fairly famous ô-á-chian place in the night market. (The sign says that it has been in business for 30 years.)


I don't know if either of my fellow bloggers have had this (probably, but I'll continue); it's sort of an omelet with eggs mixed with some kind of starch to make it thicker, with small oysters and lots of spinach underneath, and then with a lot of sauce generously spilled on top. The Taipei Times ran a story in which the oyster omelet was deemed to represent the Taiwanese nation the best. In any case, it's delicious. The little oysters are wonderful and somewhat gummy, while the simultaneously egg-like outer filling makes a nice contrast. The spinach felt very fresh and you could tell as you bit through it with your teeth.

Price: Unfortunately, Taiwan is not as cheap as China. This dish was NT$55, which at USD 1 = NT$32, comes out to US $1.72. I am positive, however, that this is cheaper than you get it in the States.

(2) Stinky tofu

Actually, I personally think the name is kind of a misnomer, because I don't really find stinky tofu 臭豆腐 that stinky. But apparently it reminds people of rotting garbage or something, so I'll take people's word for it. Stinky tofu is another major Taiwanese night market dish. It comes in various variations -- the one that I prefer is this kind, which is deep fried, has some sort of chili sauce over it (although I made the mistake this time of asking the vendor to go light on the chili sauce, which ended up in her putting just a dab of sauce) and pickled vegetables 泡菜 on top.



I know this picture is not quite the most appealing, but I will assure you that I really enjoy this dish. The sharpness of the pickled vegetables, the chili sauce -- which I added later and is thus not in this picture -- and the crispness of the fried tofu are excellent. It's one of those things that has a lot of strong flavors that actually combine really well. This is a really popular snack for good reason.

Price: NT$40 (US$1.25)

(3) Shaved ice

This is quite possibly my favorite dessert ever -- and I'm a dessert/sweets person, but given the choice between a Taiwanese-style shaved ice and nearly all Western desserts, I would take the shaved ice (New York style cheesecake with raspberry sauce drizzled over it would be a really strong contender) basically every time. This is also another Taiwanese-pronounced thing. It's always written 剉冰 in Taiwan, which would be pronounced cuo4bing1 in Mandarin but to my ear sounds more like cua4bing1. (The normal Mandarin being 刨冰　bao4bing1.)

AND I found this place in the night market which is absolutely amazing. They have all these toppings in bowls (see pictures below) and you take a smaller, plastic bowl and just put whatever topics you want in it. Then you hand your bowl to the vendor, who then takes the toppings that you have chosen and then puts shaved ice all over it. Shaved ice being huge blocks of ice that are fed through a machine to make shavings-like and shavings-thin pieces of ice.


So when you take off the cover of the bowl, it looks like this, which is not that appealing:


However, as you mix it up, the goodness of shaved ice emerges:


The quintessentially summer dessert.

(So perhaps my photography is not that great. But trust me, this is delicious.)

It's filling, but if you think about it, a lot of what you're eating is just ice/water, which is great because you don't get that sort of heavy filling which you often get after eating gelato or ice cream, for example.

Price: NT$40 (US$1.25)

I actually have to go and prepare my bags for a weekend trip to Taichung 台中 to visit my extended family, but I'll give the place anyway, even though you could basically find these same foods in any night market in Taiwan.

Lehua Night Market
Google Maps link
Yonghe City, Taipei County, Taiwan

PS. I entitled this post "Taiwanese tapas" because all of these would be considered 小吃, or "little eats," and I think the idea of sampling lots of little things is kind of similar to the idea of tapas in Spanish cuisine. Plus, there's alliteration.