eating with emak

Uni All the Time- Louro Supper Club

Few weeks ago, Louro Restaurant held a supper club using Uni (sea urchin) as the theme for the night. For $75 we got a 6 course uni meal. 

We started with the Amuse-sorrel, white asparagus, uni truffle vinaigrette. 

Next course was the Uni & Fluke Crudo-meyer lemon vinegar, greek olive oil. We got two huge pieces of uni and I love the accompanying pickled onions with it. 

The third course was Ostrich Egg-soft scramble, confit garlic uni foam, toasted amerinth. I loved this course. I wish I had it with rice or bread to mop up the goodness. Amerinth is a grain, like rice. Toasted, it added a nice flavor to the dish.

The fourth couse we had Uni Chowder-goose pancetta, smoked onions mussels, and cultured cream. This was my favorite of the night. I loved the flavor of the smoked oysters and in each bowl we had huge chunks of uni. 

Next we had Skate & Uni Stuffing-rhubarb curd, tempura arugula, and uni butter. Uni butter was served on the side and we were suppose to spread it on the fish. It should have came with the bread basket too! The tempura arugula was really nice and crunchy! I loved it. 

Next came the Uni & Pork Belly served with Portuguese kimchi rice, coriander curd. The fatty piece of pork belly just melted in my mouth. 

Finally for dessert, we were served a Toasted Chocolate Marshmallow Ice Cream with vanilla cake and hazelnut brittle. We joked with the waiter as to why there was no uni in the dessert dish as well. Dessert was fantastic. I loved how the cake had a crunchy crust. 

This has been my second time participating at Louro’s supper clubs and it’s been so satisfying. Their supper clubs are usually held every Monday starting around 7PM. Each week has a different theme and sometimes there are guest chefs. Join their newsletter to receive upcoming supper club events and menus! http://louronyc.com/

Photos courtesy of Kenny. Thanks!

Last Day in Taipei

We started our last day in Taipei with a super cheap and filling breakfast. We took the MRT to Muzha station and found a small eatery nearby. We each had our own “fan tuan” sticky rice and warm soy milk. We also shared some pan fried turnip cake. This meal cost us less than $2.00 US. 

After breakfast we met up with Lydia’s aunties to browse through Shen Keng Old Street (深坑老街).

We shopped for peanut brittle. This place makes their brittle on site and one of the best peanut brittles I ever had. 

Next we stopped to taste some fried stinky tofu!
You can also find grilled stinky tofu as well. I liked them both!

For dinner we headed out to Shilin Night Market; the largest night market in Taipei City. Not only is there a lot to eat, there is also a lot to shop and to play. Some favorite games include fishing for shrimps and for gold fishes. 

I was particularly looking forward to some fried chicken. We searched for the famous Hot Star Large Fried Chicken stand. They pound the chicken really thin. It comes out super hot and crispy. It’s bigger than my face!

A lot of the food stands can be found outside along the streets, but there is a centralized food court located underground. We walked though and settled at a random stand for a stuffed sausage and grilled squid. Taiwanese sausage tends to be on the sweeter side. The white thing around the sausage is not bread, but actually sticky rice that was stuffed into a casing and then split open to wrap around the sausage. It was so good.

I’ve always been curious about their famous oyster omelettes (蚵仔煎) after watching so many Taiwanese food shows. Almost every stand had someone making them. We picked a busy/packed stand to try. It must be good right? But I thought it was just okay. It was a little to slimy for my liking.

And that concludes my trip! Thanks for reading. 

To reach Shilin Night Market take the MRT to Jiantian Station (劍潭站). Don’t be confused with the Shilin Station. Once you get off the train, follow the crowds. Shilin Night Market is right outside. 

Taipei Trip Continue…

I just realized I never finish writing about my Taipei trip when I was there in January. Continuing where I left off…

Day 2 in Taipei

We woke up after our first night and went to search for breakfast near our apartment. We decided to eat at a small but busy little shop across the street. Soy milk is a popular breakfast drink. Get it warm and sweetened.

I wanted to eat something warm and picked their black pepper noodle with chicken cutlet. Lots of MSG and black pepper. Nothing special.

Lydia ate a more traditional Taiwanese breakfast “shao bing” which is pan fried dough. You can add egg and meat. Jen got a chicken burger sandwich with egg.

The rest of our day consisted of meeting and eating Lydia’s family. It’s great to have her family take us around town, and I got to experience Taipei like a local.

For example, I would have never found this tiny lunch spot that served healthy home cooked set lunches if we didn’t meet up with the Aunties. What I wanted more than anything was to eat some veggies. Each set came with your choice of fish, purple rice, cooked veggies, and soup. It was a one man operation so food came out slow, but this was exactly what I needed. 

Since it was just a few weeks before Chinese New Year, we all went to visit a special new year themed market. Maybe because it was the weekend, it was super crowded. There were vendors selling all sorts of Chinese New Year goodies like peanuts and candies. Of course there’s also your typical street food like fried stinky tofu!

We walked and shopped and walked some more. At one point we stopped for some red bean cakes. You can also get these filled with cream as well.

For dinner, we decided to try this noodle restaurant near our apartment. I tried the beef noodle soup. It was delicious. I can’t remember the name of the place. 

Thank you Lydia for sharing some of your photos. And thanks to your family for showing us around town!