FoodMayhem

Thanks for patiently waiting this weekend, as I busted my butt in my first triathlon. It was certainly killer!

Unfortunately, Lon was still sick, but came out to support me and take pictures, but by evening, he was feeling worse, so we decided on a dinner at David’s Taiwanese Gourmet David’s Taiwanese Gourmet, where we knew we could get lots of different soups and soup noodles. (Boy, was this 20x better then the stuff we get by our apartment.) My family used to go to David’s when I was a teen (about 15 years ago) but the ownership and the food has changed since then, some for the better, some for the worse, some just different.

There’s a traditional Taiwanese soup that I had in mind, called Hwa Dz Gung. It’s supposed to be a soup with blobs of squid in fish paste. Oddly, this one didn’t have fish paste, but the soup had all the right stuff otherwise, fried onions, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. The flavor was fantastic and the squid was cooked perfectly so I wasn’t too disappointed, but my mom was really bummed that they didn’t have a traditional oyster noodle soup (2nd pic on this post). It’s the opitamy of Taiwanese food and we can’t imagine how they could NOT have it.

The Beef Noodle Soup, which always makes me feel like home, was rich, yet not oily, exactly what I look for in this dish. The chunks of beef were extra tender and they gave a generous amount of the pickled mustard greens.

Another Taiwanese favorite is Chi-Ami, a light clear soup, noodles, and tender pork with crispy edges. It was really tasty but it wierded me out that they used linguine as the noodle, instead of a Chinese noodle.

We also got a rice cake soup, with pork and shrimp. It was such a rich stock, yet again, so light. The rice cakes were mushy though, sticking to everyone’s teeth.

Now that we got our fill of soups (which was really comforting and just what we needed), we ordered a few other Taiwanese goodies. The oyster pancake is always a must for me. It’s eggy, starchy, yet cripsy at the edges, with juicy oysters dispersed throughout. Oh, and that sweet sauce on top…yum!

The rice topped with pork bits and pickled mustard greens wasn’t as good as others we’ve had. The pork didn’t have enough flavor but again, I do love those pickled mustard greens, and there’s was particularly bright in flavor.

Lastly, a dish translated as 3 Cups Chicken, was the only one we didn’t finish. I usually love the combination of rich Asian Basil and dark meat chicken, but the meat must have been way over-cooked. It was so dry.

Even with a few disappointments, all this food filled four people for $45 (including tax and tip). You can’t beat that!