This Week in Food, 0944

Photos by MJ Klein

It’s hard to believe that we are week 44 into our year of 2009, but it’s true!  This week was interesting because I was visiting in Taichung and Kaohsiung.  So, let’s get into the food!

This week I had several grilled steak lunches at home.  I never get tired of them, especially those thick, flavorful ribeye steaks from Costco!

I went riding with Michael Turton this week.  Michael took me to lunch at an upscale restaurant and these are the dishes.  This salad was very good and the presentation was excellent.

This was the beef dish that I selected.  The beef was tender and flavorful.  I was surprised at how good this dish really was, and the potatoes were just right.

This is the green curry dish that Michael selected.  This was was also good but I have to admit that I liked the beef better.

Steamed dumplings.  Not too bad.

Vietnam style spring rolls.  A good version of this dish.

Another type of steamed dumpling.

Last but not least was a clam soup.  Normally I don’t care for this kind of soup because it’s usually overloaded with ginger, but this version was quite palatable.

Now, down in Kaohsiung, things were off to an interesting start when I spotted this on the car ahead of us:

I guess there won’t be any tunching going on!

We drove for about 45 minutes in heavy traffic to Zouying, just to get to this unassuming place.

While standing outside, waiting for our table, I snapped 2 photos of their rather simple kitchen.

Hui-chen and her mother select dishes from the menu.

We did shuffle around the seating a bit after that first photo was taken, but not before 2 appetizer dishes arrived.

This was the appetizer compliment that we chose.

I like it better when HC sits across from me so I can photograph her!

This is a kind of millet soup, and I must say that it tastes exactly like grits that I’ve eaten in the US many times.  I never expected that!

This is my beef soup.  The flavor was good but the “cuts” of beef were rather dubious.  In the US, restaurants are liable to use “stew” cuts whereas in Taiwan they use whatever cuts are left over.

Here we see some beef rolls in the foreground, some scallion pancakes on the rear left, and some beef cakes on the right.  Everything was good (more on the beef cakes in a minute).

Vegetable and green bean dumplings.  I did not like these at all.

Normally, these kinds of dumplings are made from pork but we ordered them in beef.  They tasted nearly identical to the pork variety though.  I would rate these highly.

This is a little self-portrait that I took of my shirt and pants after I bit into one of those beef cakes.  In Chinese they say that it’s “soup” inside of them but in English we would just call it “juice.”  Whatever it’s called, I took a bite and the stupid thing squirted liquid all over me!  The beef cake was good but that was just a friendly reminder that one has to be very careful when eating certain kinds of food!

Thanks for reading!  We’re looking forward to your comments and ratings below!