Indian With the Feather

Uncle Yu's Indian Themed Restaurant is probably one of my favorite Taiwanese restaurants here in the US of A. Basically it's a Taiwanese Hooters with Rainforest Cafe decor... Asian girls in short skirts and a feather head piece... beers on tap... fried bar food... sporting events on the telly... you name it! It is a FUN place!

Before I move on to the foods we ordered from our last visit... I'd like to point out this one specific Yelp reviewer. His name is Patrick P. and I find his review very inconsistent and stupid...



I have a few problems with this review.

1. why are you reviewing the parking lot?

2. excuse my French but, why in the fucking hell would you order a strawberry milk in a bar/restaurant? what are you, on your period or something?

3. Douche is spelled "d-o-u-c-h-e" not "doosh", i mean really?! really?

4. what's wrong with people taking pictures in the restaurant, if the restaurant staff doesn't have a problem with it, why should you?

5. Oh, so you have a problem with one of the customers? tell them in their face! last time I did that, the dude ended up filling up my beer glass.  True Story

6. There IS a security that hangs out in the parking lot... to keep you away from this town... my advice for you is GTFO of SGV you do not belong.

7. Patrick, don't you find it weird that you are the only one that gave the restaurant 2 stars? 

Its people like that messing up the star average of restaurants... I mean really? you call this a review? I am not sure why I am so upset with this reviewer, but if you've actually been to Uncle Yu's Indian Themed Restaurant you will know that this review is full of shit!

I will reply this list to his Yelp account... and post the response back to my dearest readers :) that's how I roll!

Just like Patrick P. would say... moving on...

First when you get seated, you have to order one of these... Taiwan Beer Gold Medal... I got introduce to the "Gold Medal" when I was in Taiwan with Beth... we are totally hooked!



Taiwan style popcorn chicken - I don't know if you can tell... it was hard for me to get a steady photo of this dish... only because once the dish was delivered... chopsticks were flying every where!!! no one gave me time to snap a good photo of this dish, they just couldn't wait... it was good... really good.



Just rice... white rice... white fluffy rice...



Cuttlefish with basil is a dish that Beth orders EVERY SINGLE TIME! It is her favorite!!!



Move aside Kung Pao... you got nothing on Taiwan's very own Three Cup Chicken! It is cooked with three main ingredients (sesame oil, Chinese rice wine, and soy sauce). I can eat this all week with rice... I want this NOW!



If you are interested in visiting this place... visit Uncle Yu's Indian Themed Restaurant Yelp Page for directions! Don't believe in Patrick P. he drinks strawberry milk at a bar.

Flavors of Belize

First of all, I'd like to recommend this place to EVERYONE! If you have never had Belizean food you are required to check this place out! Click here to visit their YELP page.

Flavors of Belize
1271 S La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 931-4840

Belize is a Central American country that is sandwiched in between Mexico and Guatemala. I lived in Belize from 1997 to 2000 and they have some of the most unique flavors! Think Caribbean!

I've been craving Belizean food for a few weeks now... I blame the Food Network for airing this episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives featuring Garifuna Flava in Chicago... all I wanted was rice and beans... panades... tamales... no Mexican food can substitute this craving... I had to do a Yelp search on Belizean restaurants in LA... :)

FLAVORS OF BELIZE is a new restaurant opened right off the I-10 freeway and La Brea... with it's 5 star reviews I couldn't resist!  I had to get my fix...

My TOP 3 Belizean Dishes.

Rice and Beans - this is the basic carbohydrate component in Belizean cuisine. It is basically rice cooked with red beans and coconut milk... works perfect with Belizean stew chicken, fried plantain and potato salad!





Panades - Deep fried empanadas filled with either chicken or fish. I actually attempted to make some panades of my own during Super Bowl XLV... but it was not nearly as legit as the one's here... it was sooo good!



Tamales - move aside Mexican style tamales... make room for the all mighty Belizean tamales... it's THAT good! Trust me, tamales wrapped in banana leaf is way better than wrapped in corn husk!



We also ordered...

Salbutes - Belizean twist from the Yucatan version... it was really good, but I have to be honest... not really what I remembered from the salbutes I used to get from San Ignacio, Belize... Beth seemed to enjoy the dish a lot!



It was a successful Belizean food-venture! Everything was delicious and true to its original recipe! The only tiny complain about this restaurant is the fact that they don't have Marie Sharp Hot Sauce :( Instead they have a house hot sauce... not the same... Number 1 hot sauce rule to Belizean Cuisine is... must comsume with Marie Sharp Hot Sauce... just ask ANY Belizean!

Never heard of Marie Sharp Hot Sauce and would like to try a bottle? click here to purchase one!

Note to self: bring my own bottle of Marie Sharp Hot Sauce next time :)

Judgement Day Weekend BBQ

Here are a few photos from the BBQs throughout the weekend :)

It's Uncle John's 21st Birthday... He got the BEST CAKE EVER!!!


This grill setup looks fake haha !


Pre marinated chicken from the Mexican market down the street.


Zoom in


My Mexican rice from scratch !!!


Guest chef Van made her special Potato Chicken Tacos... Soooooo Good!


Ta Da!!! Taco Night !!!

My Lunch is Better Than Yours - ZANKOU

If you are from Los Angeles or live in Los Angeles, you have no reason not to try Zankou Chicken... My coworker Robert has never had Zankou nor it's awesome garlic sauce, so we ordered Zankou Chicken for our lunch that day.

He LOVED it !!! he even googled the closest Zankou to his house so he can take his wife there next time !!!

So, if you've never had Zankou Chicken I suggest you check them out ASAP !!! Get the GARLIC SAUCE

www.zankouchicken.com

KFC

To get our stomach ready for our Kentucky Derby trip, we've decided to take a stab at KFC... I mean, why not right?

I bet there aren't many food bloggers out there that has the courage to actually dine-in at a KFC. Especially one that operates without A/C instead they got the hot fryer air circulating the little dining area.

There's no need for me to write a review about KFC, we all know about Colonial Sander's secret recipe :) SODIUM !!!

Here it is!

Mystery Bento!

YES EVERYONE, I had Yoshinoya for lunch today!

What's in the beef?
Mystery meat?

All Joe Can Eat Korean BBQ

Two words:  FOOD PORN

An hour before I got off work, I received a text message from Beth... "Jake wants to threat us Korean BBQ tonight and it's all you can eat".  Well, that made my day!  Free Korean BBQ and its all you can eat?! I purposely left my Subway sandwich at work, just so I can eat more at dinner :)

Moodaepo 2 All You Can Eat BBQ - Meat/Drink/Music/Flirt (Flirt? hahah)

We showed up to the restaurant, and the place was BANANAS !!! Its a dance party / bbq!  It was packed with people waiting in line, the place was setup like a dance club, crazy lights and loud music! All you could hear was that stupid Far East Movement G6 song... But the wait was so long... its nothing like the G6.

The wait was worth it tho... We had beef tongue slices, briskets, spicy chicken, squid, pork belly and some other meat... We ate so much I don't even remember the exact list of meat we ordered.

The meal lasted about 2 hours... till the place closed down and they literately had to take our beer glasses away! At the end of the night, we suffered food coma and excess gas!

Viewer discretion is advised... MORE food porn images below

Dumpling 10053 - El Monte

10053 Valley Blvd.  Ste 2
El Monte, CA 91731
(626) 350-0188

The name sounds funny, but the food here is quite serious!  I like this place, I like it a lot!  As much as I have a soft side for Ding Tai Fung,  I have to say, Ding Tai Fung is only worth going when you are in Taiwan.  The branch here in Arcadia is a rip off, and the servers are lame.  Dumpling 10053 is cheap and they have this awesome signature pumpkin shrimp dumplings!

Because my father-in-law is in town, my parents wanted to take him out to a proper Taiwanese dinner.  So my parents decided to take him to a dumpling house.  You must be wondering how they got the name... Its their address, yup they named the place after the address of the restaurant!  I read the reviews from this one annoying Yelper... She seemed to be confused with the name of the restaurant... umm did you read the address above the door?  #shutupandeatyourdumplings

My mom has a habit of ordering a bunch of food... so much food that we ran out of table space for the dishes!



You are probably wondering... what are the red and green dumplings?  Well, the green dumplings are Chinese cabbage and pork dumplings and the red dumplings are goji and chicken dumplings.



These little guys are delicious! although... not as good as what we had in Taiwan, but for now, this will do!



This isn't the best dumpling restaurant ever, but if you are craving for a nice dumpling meal and you don't want to put a hole in your wallet, this is definitely the place to go!

We're Back! Now What?

We are Back!!! back, back to Cali...

This is the moment we've been waiting for after 3 weeks in Taiwan.

PIZZA! We miss pizza so much!  Minutes after Beth and I stepped into our home in Pasadena, I drove to Atwater Village and ordered Crispy Crust pizza and wings! The food was so good and we ate so fast... by the time I remember to take a photo of the pizza for the blog... we had eaten most of it! Oops!



Next morning... We woke up and decided that... well, since we just had pizza... we should hit up Mexican food right? why not! So I went to El Taquito Mexican Restaurant (Lake Ave. and Villa in Pasadena) and bought two burritos, two tacos and some chips'n guacamole :) now lets EAT!



I may be a Taiwanese, but I sure do love pizza and Mexican food!

Body Parts and Cages

Introducing 龍山寺 Longshan Temple

This temple is one of the most popular temples for the civilians to come and pray.  Most of the people pray for health, money, lottery numbers and more money.  When you walk in to the gate of the temple you will smell the burning incense from the faithful believers.



Body parts and cages?  well, this madness didn't happen inside the temple...

When we were done visiting the temple we noticed that there's a small alley market next to the temple.  We decided to check it out.  We thought there might be some street food... well, there's definitely "food"... uncooked "food"... It's more like a butcher alley!!!  Chickens in cages... body parts from chickens, pigs and cows... Last time I saw a live chicken getting butchered was in college... oh college days...

Not free range chickens


Black chicken, white chicken, yellow chicken... you name it!


Charlotte's Web? aw Babe...


Check out more photos from the slideshow below... this is bananas!

Hot Springs + Hot Pot

I've never been to a hot spring bath...so my awesome Aunt Heidy took Friday off to take us to the hot springs resort in Beitou... Beitou is a famous natural hot spring location in the world, and it used to be a Japanese community so the whole neighborhood looks like a little Japanese village. This resort is gorgeous! Beth and I got an outdoor private room with our own pool of hot spring :)



After the bath... we joined my aunt and had a nice warm afternoon tea lunch with her! Well, we got seafood hot pot (shabu shabu) and sesame chicken soup (the broth is made of sesame oil, ginger and rice wine)... It was the perfect meal after a relaxing bath in the hot springs!

Dinner with Rotory International in Taiwan

I'm not quite sure exactly what the Rotory Club is. My aunt Anita is a member, so is my uncle. They invited us to a special dinner event held at an upscale restaurant in Banqiao. We had no idea what to expect, but we both knew that we will definitely be fed with lots of yummy food! This dinner came with a whopping 10 course meal and complimentary wine, tea and Mccallan scotch (well, the Mccallan scotch was from my uncle ha!).

First Course - Giant serving of sashimi with a miniature ice sculpted snowman. We both did the "woo... ahhh..." when the dish was served.



Then followed with shark fin soup, jumbo shrimps, shrimp sticky rice, steam eggs, pigs' feet, chicken stew soup, fish collar, sweet buns and fruit plate. According to my Aunt Anita... "Everything here is expensive! so eat up!!!"



Throughout the event we had to kanpai (drink toast) everyone in the Rotory Club and they had to do the same to our table! People got really wasted and there were lots of karaoke and dancing!!! My aunt and uncle won raffle prizes... they ended up giving all the prizes to us! So we came home with three stacks of cakes, one box of giant Asian pears, and a makeup gift bag :) I hope we get invited again!

Home Land! DAY ONE Part 1

Beth and I have been planning this trip to Taiwan for ages! I wanted to show her my roots and GREAT food! We love to share so this blog will feature photos, videos and fun stories of our fabulous adventure in Taiwan. NOT "Chinese Taipei"

14 hours on the plane we finally made it to Taiwan!... Soooo LETS EAT!!! On our way to the breakfast cafe with Uncle Quan we witnessed a crazy crash involving two motor scooters. The lady got t-boned, flipped off her scooter and broke her arm... It was quite a scene... but we were hungry so we kept on walking... The breakfast cafe had sandwiches, burgers and coffee... not that interesting actually ha! Off to the next foodventure!

Banqiao Market


Believe it or not, my grandpa (who passed away when I was about 12) used to be the "dude in charge" of a farmers market... this market is located in the Banqiao District. We met up with my grandma and she wants to give us a quick tour of how Taiwanese people do their grocery shopping, This market is not like any typical farmers market, not only can you find all kinds of fruit, vegetable, meat and fish... you can get a haircut or trim your brows before you check off your grocery list.

After we left the Banqiao Market grandma suggested that we should check out this hokkaido style hot pot restaurant inside the Banqiao Train Station. I thought I made some kick ass hot pot... I was wrong... This place is insane delicious, the herbal soup base and the meat quality is out of this world! Bottom line is... I wish y'all can smell the photos!





and that was our first lunch in Taiwan together as a family :)