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.

火鍋 - Hot Pot 101

If you've been reading my blog, you should have a general idea of what a hot pot is. But if this is your first time, and you have no idea what a hot pot is... today is your lucky day!

火鍋 - fire pot or hot pot. Hot Pot is a traditional Chinese dish that's been around for over 1000 years! Basically, a hot pot is a simmering pot in the middle of the table and the ingredients are being placed in the broth throughout the whole meal... usually the cooked food is eaten with the dipping sauce.



I love hot pot! Hot pot is a great conversation meal when you want to have friends and family over. Now let me show you how I prep my hot pot!

Step 1 - Equipments

Get a portable gas stove burner! I spent around $15 on my burner... You can order it via the internet as well, here is a link.



Get a pot!  you can either get a metal pot or a clay pot.  I have a "half-and-half" pot, it is made specially for spicy and non-spicy broth.



Get a mesh strainer!  It's not required... but it makes scooping food much easier!



Step 2 - Grocery Shopping

I do most of my hot pot grocery shopping at Asian supermarkets like 99 Ranch Market or Shun Fat Supermarket.  If you don't live around an Asian market, don't worry I will show you different alternatives to preparing a hot pot meal :)

Here is a shopping list if you want to do it right. (ingredients vary, can include but not limited to):

• Chicken broth - I like the canned broth from the Asian markets, I'm sure the fancy Whole Foods broth works as well.  It's just broth, right? hah
• Mushrooms - preferably Enoki mushrooms or Shiitake mushrooms.
• Vegetables - tomato, broccoli, cabbage, napa cabbage, green onion, and/or tong hao (garland chrysanthemum)
• Meats - meat slices is the key! thinner the better.  You can find thin meat slices easily at any Asian markets,  but if Asian markets aren't available... I'm sure you can ask any butcher to slice the meat for you :)  Seafood is encouraged, get some shrimp, crab meat, clams, oysters, etc.  Personally I love the surf and turf style when it comes to hot pot, it adds more additional flavors in the broth.  
• Fish balls - where can one get fish balls? Asian Market!  If you don't have access to an Asian market... yer-shit-outta-luck. (there's no substitute for good fish balls... sorry)
• Hot pot dumplings - you can purchase specially made hot pot dumplings at your local Asian market as well... freezer isle :)
• Condiments - soy sauce, Satay sauce (must have), Sriracha (rooster sauce), and sesame sauce.
• Taiwan Beer

That should get you started on your very first hot pot!

Step 3 - Prepping

Start the broth.  Mix a can of chicken broth water in the pot, fill the mixture up to about 70% full.  Throw in a few large chopped pieces of green onions and large tomato slices (slice em like oranges).  Let it simmer on the stove while you prep.  If you want a spicy broth, you can get some "numb-spicy" sauce at the Asian markets.



Prepping is the most important stage of creating a memorable hot pot experience.   Since everyone is cooking their own food, all your raw ingredients should be served fresh.  Vegetables should be chopped to nice bite size and the meats should be sliced (sliced meat cooks faster than meat chunks).  Seafood should be washed and cleaned throughly, remember to store the seafood plates in the fridge until it's time to serve.

If you are serving fish balls,  Just leave the balls out on the counter (on a plate) and let it defrost a little while you prep.

During the whole prepping process, your broth should still be simmering on the stove.

Step 4 - Setting Up the Table

Make sure everyone has their own

• dipping dish (small plate or bowl)
• plate
• rice bowl (I like to have my hot pot with a nice bowl of rice)
• chopsitcks (forks are not allowed)
• soup spoon (its optional, but if you want to taste the broth at the end of the meal... you definitely need a soup spoon)
• napkins or paper towels (hot pot can get pretty messy)

You get your own combination of dipping sauce, mine consists of one part Satay sauce and one part soy sauce.  If you want to make it spicy, add some Sriracha or hot sauce.  Japanese hot pot usually has some kind sesame sauce or peanut sauce... I mean, this is your time to be creative... so don't limit yourself!

Put the portable burner in the center of the table and all the ingredients anywhere around the main pot.  Once the table is set and all the cooking ingredients are in position, you can then remove the broth from the stove and place it on the portable burner.  Turn on the burner to high heat... wait for the broth to boil (If your broth has trouble getting to a boiling point, check your gas cans... it might be out).



There are more photos of ingredients in this slideshow! Click the play button!


Once the broth is boiling and you got your own dipping sauce... you can start placing the ingredients in the broth! Now, let the hot pot madness begin!

A Tale of Two Family Meals

Lin Family - Aunt Heidi and Uncle Lin gave us shelter throughout the whole trip!  And food of course!  Most of the time, Uncle Lin whips up his signature hot pot.  I know we've had many different hot pots during our visit in Taiwan, but this one you can taste "love".  We love our hot pot dinner with some "fried foods" and Taiwan beer while uncle sips on his "Johnny Walker"... Good times!

Taiwanese loves fried food... My wife is from Kentucky and she said, "Taiwanese must've been frying food long before Colonel Sanders!"  Well, why? I think it's the Taiwanese popcorn chicken... maybe its the fried sweet potatoes!  

To make a really good spicy hot pot soup base... you need pork intestines and duck blood!

More photos in this slideshow!

Yeh Family - Aunt Anita and Uncle Yeh love me! what can I say... I am a lovable person!  Well, they knew that Beth and I are in town... so they invited us over for a home cooked lunch!  Uncle Yeh is a great cook, he can cook seafood like no other.  We ate so much we could barely walk... 

The family of crabs :)

I can go for one of these now... mmmm sooo good!  Uncle Yeh's seafood porridge has shrimp, crab meat, oysters, fish, and clams

More photos from Yeh Family in the slideshow below

I miss my Taiwan family already... :(

The Original 鼎泰豐 Ding Tai Fung

Are you ready to drool all over yourself?

There is NO way anyone can come visit Taiwan without getting their fix of Ding Tai Fung. We did. My aunt was able to get us pass the long waiting line into a VIP like treatment! The minute we sat down, got our Taiwan beers, we know what is going to be served!

Peek into the kitchen and you know 
these guys are your new best friend!


Small Steam Buns (xiaolongbao) is the signature dish!


Jealous?


Shrimp Shao Mei


If you've been to the Ding Tai Fung in Arcadia, you know that they don't have any attractive servers... and they can be quite rude at times... here in the original restaurant... there are plenty! And they served well! The "original" deserves a 5 star award for the great service all around the restaurant. If you need to use the restroom keep an eye out for a nice cleaning lady that constantly cleans the area. American branches must learn to improve on the service for sure.



more Taiwan beer please!


I took so many photos of the food! More from Din Tai Fung!

陽明山 Yangmingshan

This might look like a typical serving of noodles... But this spicy peanut sauce noodles was the best tasting noodles after a wet trip up the Yangmingshan National Park! we will get to the food in a bit...



"Holy Crap it's cold here!!!" That was the first thing we said when we got off the bus... We were totally under dressed for this trip up the Yangmingshan National Park. It was wet, cold, rainy, foggy and windy... this was NOT what it looked like in the Taiwan Travel Handbook... FML...



There were five other tourists from Malaysia and one hiker on the National Park tour bus, I guess we were the only people that didn't check the weather report before leaving the house, ha. Our first stop was Erzihping Trail... Everyone got off the bus, totally clueless... Where should we start?



The only person that actually seems to know where to go and where to start the hike was the one hiker that was on the bus with us... This man was awesome! He acted as our tour guide and allowed us to hike around the park with him! To entertain us, he sang and taught us how to dance like the aborigines!



After the dancing lessons, he instructed us to follow the trail back to the bus stop... and he said, "I'm going to stay behind and enjoy my daily lunch in the mountains... I'm 81 years old, and this is what i do everyday... I love hiking this mountain." Now that was quite an awesome experience... We felt so grateful and honored to meet this interesting man.

All of us, including the five Malaysian tourists decided to skip the rest of the Yangmingshan tour due to the weather conditions... bummer! Beth and I were so wet, cold and HUNGRY! So we hurried off the mountains and found a wonton restaurant, Thank Jeebus!!! That meal was a life saver!!! (sorry about the heavy exclamation marks... but man was that meal awesome!) We ordered the spicy peanut sauce noodles, wonton soup, fish ball soup, some side dishes and Taiwan Beer! Such a great way to end our journey to the Yangmingshan National Park, even though we didn't get to see the rest of the park... but with the singing hiker and great food... it was well worth it!!!

快炒 street quick stir-fry

快炒 street quick stir-fry is a type of street restaurant you can find anywhere here in Taiwan. The layout of the restaurant is very simple, white walls, small tables and stools. Once you order your food they start cooking for you... stir-fry style! This type of restaurant is really cheap and fast! So if you don't feel like cooking at home or you are on our way home from work... you can easily swing by one of these quick stir-fry restaurants for a quick bite!



So, what do they have on the menu? ... everything. Seafood, red meat, white meat, vegetables, rice, noodles and more seafood! If you want, have a bottle or two of Taiwan Beer while yer at it!



I love fried pigs' intestine!

士林夜市 Shilin Night Market

Finally... introducing the biggest and the most popular night market in Taiwan!!! 士林夜市 Shilin Night Market! This is the market where you can eat all you want, shop all you want and play all you want without burning a hole in your pocket! Today I'm not gonna talk about shopping... I'm gonna talk about food. Duh!

When you first walk in to the entrance of the market you will smell "stinky tofu". Stinky tofu is a traditional Taiwanese street food that smells like dirty socks but according to Beth... it still taste like dirty socks (takes another sip of her beer to wash down the taste). But me... I love it! I can't really explain why I love stinky tofu like the rest of the locals... but when I smell it I want to eat it!



So what is "big sausage wraps little sausage"? Think of a hot dog... but instead of a bun... you get sticky rice sausage and instead of a hot dog you get Taiwanese sausage. Then the cook splits the rice sausage like a hot dog bun... placed the meat sausage in it and served it with onion, awesome sauce and love! mmmm I can eat another one now...



Oyster omelet is also a must eat in Shilin Night Market. That with "awesome sauce" brings back memories of my childhood :) BTW you must be wondering what "awesome sauce" is... well, don't ask... cuz i have NO idea! but if the sauce is delicious... its awesome sauce!



I mean, there are just way too many things to talk about when it comes to Shilin Night Market!!! My advice is... get yo butt over to Taiwan and experience it yo-self! Like Beth would say... too bad there's no scratch n sniff.

Check out the slideshow below and you'll see more photos from the market :) enjoy and feel free to drool on your keyboard heheh. This is a good one!