Direction

Looking at my history of food posts (which is 4 so far and all is foreign food). I hope that this blog could be a kind of survival-food-guide for foreigners who live (or just come for a visit) in Kaohsiung, not only for the one struggling with food but also for whoever Chinese-character-blind (like me! learning in progress, though). But soon enough I will also post about good Taiwanese food. Just wait and see!

One Lazy Noon: Lunch and Saigon Coffee

Now it's Vietnam's turn! This place suddenly struck into my mind when I was searching for a nice place to enjoy my lunch. This place is near my church by a walking distance. It's a cozy-relaxing semi-open-air restaurant named Vietnam Saigon Coffee, modest and casual.

They serve a large range of food from breakfast, main meal, unto snacks with various kinds of beverage. The main meal ranges between 130-200 NTD, including drinks which are under 75 NTD (If you choose the one over 75 NTD, you need to pay additional charge). For main meals they have hotpots, many kinds of pan-fried, deep-fried, stir-fried fish-chicken-pork-beef-mutton-squid served with rice or noodles. For beverages they have Vietnam coffee, Italian coffee, many kinds of fruit tea, juice, and also smoothie!

I've been here once before with friends (again my beloved Wenzao Indonesians). Never thought that this place could be still enjoyable even when I spent time alone. They have the English menu, so I can understand the menu thoroughly. Flying Ace and I ordered a Vietnam noodle with spring-rolls and Saigon Coffee Smoothie for the drink. I gave the menu-list myself to the cashier and paid in advance. And then I grabbed some magazines (about branded-bags and holiday in Bali) to read while waiting for the food and kept reading them during my lunch time. Hmmm...

Saigon Coffee Smoothie

Vietnam noodle with spring-rolls

I like the Saigon Coffee Smoothie I ordered, it's quite special. But for the Vietnam noodle with spring-rolls, it is just so so. Their menu isn't a very authentic-kind of Vietnamese food I guess. And also it's a bit pricey for Vietnamese food standard, my order cost me 140 NTD (maybe my Vietnamese friends will yell and say: Hey, I can make you a five-persons-portion with that money!). But after all, it's a nice place to spend my one lazy noon...

Oh yeah, next time I want to order the Saigon Coffee with ice cream (I saw an uncle next to me ordered that, seems delicious).

Place: 高雄市三民區明仁路61號 (No. 61 MingRen Rd., SanMin District, Kaohsiung City)
Direction: Around Dollar 大樂 at MinZu 1st Rd. 民族一路, behind the McDonalds at MingCheng 2nd Rd. 明誠二路
Opening Hours: 10:00-24:00
Phone: (07)342-3260
Another places: 高雄市三民區慶雲街115號 (No. 115 QingYun St., SanMin District, Kaohsiung City) - a luxurious version
高雄市旗津區廟前路107號 (No. 107 MiaoQian Rd., Cijin District, Kaohsiung City) - Cijin branch

안녕하세요 Korean Food!

I rarely eat Korean Food, in fact this is my first time here in Taiwan. We went to one Korean restaurant named 韓八醬 last Saturday in the occasion of farewell dinner for our one and only Malaysian senior (he must be so adorable that we have held this multi-sessions of farewell dinner for him... haha). And after previously I heard the story about the euphoria of JYJ (Korean boyband) Taipei's show ticket-queuing, I became more excited to eat the food.

This restaurant mainly serves Bibimbap with other Korean specialties like Bulgogi, hotpot, and pancake (Jeon?) . Later I found out that the Bibimbap which is served in a stone bowl is called Dolsot Bibimbap (read more about Bibimbap here). They also serve Bibimbap that is not with rice (石鍋拌飯）, but with noodles （石鍋拌烏龍）. There are several kinds of Bibimbap choices: Kimchi （泡菜）, Pork （豬肉）, Seafood （海鮮）, Beef （牛肉）, Kimchi & Pork （泡菜豬肉）, Kimchi & Seafood （泡菜海鮮）, Kimchi & Beef （泡菜牛肉）. And more confusing choices for the sauce! They have 8 kinds of sauces: Korean special, satay, Thai-style, curry, black pepper, sesame, and two others. I recommend you to just choose the Korean special (特調韓醬）since this is a Korean restaurant.

Flying Ace ordered Beef Bibimbap (the rice one) with Korean special sauce. Our group of 6 ordered different kind of rice Bibimbap except one person that ordered seafood hotpot with kimchi soup. We also ordered Korean seafood pancake with cheese for sharing together.

Beef Bibimbap with Korean special sauce

Seafood hotpot with Kimchi soup

Seafood pancake with cheese

The stone bowl is indeed very hot, so I told Flying Ace to stay away while I was mixing the rice.

Beef Bibimbap after mixing

For my first experience of eating Bibimbap, it's not bad at all. I like the texture of the crispy vegetable and the crispy rice. I also tried the kimchi soup hotpot, it tastes good. For the pancake I think the cheese doesn't give any significant contribution on the smell or taste, better go for the plain pancake next time. It's once again an overly full dinner for me with the free flow 冬瓜茶 （winter melon tea) and 蛋花湯 (egg soup).

The price of the Bibimbap varies between 90-120 NTD, the Bulgogi is 150 NTD, the hotpot kind is 90 NTD, and the pancake is 100 NTD (+cheese +20NTD).

Place: 高雄市楠梓區楠梓新路334號 (No. 334 NanZi Xin Rd., Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City)
Direction: The nearest MRT station is Metropolitan Park, from exit 1 or 4 take the bus Red 58, 7, 29 or 97 toward the Nanzih train station, get off one stop after the train station.
Opening Hours: 11:00-14:00 & 17:00-21:00 (Closed every Monday)
Phone: (07)352-7447
Another store： 高雄縣大社鄉中山路228號 (No. 228 ZhongShan Rd., Dashe Township, Kaohsiung County)

Sugakiya: Japanese Ramen Noodle Chain

I first introduced to this chain restaurant a year ago when I had my first shopping-date at Xin Jue Jiang (新掘江）with my Wenzao-Indonesian friend (miss you, sis!). So, this one Sunday noon after my church session I was wandering around with Flying Ace trying to find some food to feed my appetite and my hunger. I always have this struggling-with-the-food syndrome everytime I return to Taiwan, so I usually try to find alternative of non-local food. No offense to the Taiwanese food. I think this is just a consequence of being too spoiled with the tasteful-hot-and-spicy food back home. Then I found this Sugakiya restaurant on my way back and thought of trying it again.

Flying Ace ordered Half-Moon Ramen (半月拉麵). It's a regular ramen with slices of pork and half boiled egg on it (plus some vegetables). I think the soup is kind of miso soup boiled with pork, so it tastes good. The rest is just a moderate yet satisfying meal on the price of 70 NTD. They have many varieties of more complete ramen (with other kind of soup like shoyu soup, spicy soup) and also some package with drink or appetizer. Check it out on their website.

Half-moon ramen

Sugakiya is actually a famous ramen chain from Nagoya, Japan. They have a lot of stores across Taiwan, the highest number is in Kaohsiung with around 15 stores. Some of them are inside the shopping mall like SOGO or Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越). You can check the list of stores on their website or here.

There are two unique facts about this chain restaurant:
1. This restaurant is actually very famous for the Ramen Noodle Spoon/Fork (Spork) which was invented by themselves in 1978. The Ramen Spork’s aim was to help diners to eat the noodle and soup at the same time as well as to decrease the use of disposable wooden chopsticks. This artistic shape was highly admired by Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and was introduced as their museum gift shop's souvenir (it's on top 3 bestsellers within the gift shop). Anyone's interested can also buy it online here.
2. In Sugakiya they will give you a little remote control (I don't know the name of this thing) after you've ordered the food. You can find a place to sit and when your order is ready, this little gadget will ring like an alarm asking you to go pick up your food. Hm... innovation of self-service or is this common in Japan?

Place: 高雄市三民區明仁路21號 (No. 21 MingRen Rd., SanMin District, Kaohsiung City)
Direction: Around Dollar 大樂 at MinZu 1st Rd. 民族一路, behind the McDonalds at MingCheng 2nd Rd. 明誠二路
Phone: (07)960-3328
Website: http://www.sugakiya.com.tw/

Food Me, Feed Me!

After round and round posts explaining some backgrounds of this blog, I really should get into the main point of the blog! Flying Ace can't wait any longer for his first dining adventure debut... Here we go!

So, this is the first so-called restaurant I visited in KH-town after my long summer vacation back home. I went there together with a group of Malaysian friends. The restaurant name is Feed Me, with a big American flag and Obama in Super-O-man suit welcomed us at the door.

The interior itself is kinda warm and sort of country-style with American license plates and vintage posters of American brands all over the wall. They are selling American food (obviously!) with emphasis on burgers. Flying Ace ordered a double crispy codfish burger.

Double crispy codfish burger

The others ordered the beef burger, bacon cheese and beef burger, crispy chicken leg burger, grilled chicken steak, plus onion ring as appetizer. All the main dishes come in package with french fries and free-flow soft drink. Their beef burger seems to be the specialty of the house, the beef patty looks very juicy. And they also have the signature super-size hamburger, it's like twice bigger than the original one.

Beef burger

Overall the food is just OK for Flying Ace and me, despite the quite large portion (or maybe the free-flow drink that got me so full?). The french fries is good though. But as I've expected it is still too much adaptation here, the interpretation of America on the interior is better than on the food. The bun has that sweet taste, I guess it's coming from the butter/margarine they are using. The burger's condiment and the onion ring's dip is just using the very standard mustard (mix with a bit of mayonnaise), also tastes a little sweet. And they even have Thai-style spicy crispy chicken leg burger on the menu-list. Random!

The price for burger set meal is starting from 118NTD (super-size burger set is starting from 248NTD & steak set is starting from 208NTD). Anyway, I'm glad they have the English menu now.

Place: 高雄市楠梓區楠梓新路369號 No.369 NanZi Xin Rd., Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City
Direction: The nearest MRT station is Metropolitan Park, from exit 1 or 4 take the bus Red 58, 7, 29 or 97 toward the Nanzih train station, get off one or two stops after the train station, then walk around.
Opening hours: Monday-Friday (11:30-14:30 & 17:30-21:00); weekends (11:30-22:00)
Phone: (07)353-7988

My Kind of Escape

For me who has lived in the hectic-heady-hedonistic-J-town for almost all my life, I have some criteria when it comes to a place for my escape: