Mooncakes Galore

Each year, I so look forward to the Mid Autumn Festival as I know it will be raining moon cakes once again.... everywhere and in my house especially.... one of the PERKS of having two roomies working as journalists for leading newspapers in the country... each holiday comes a deluge of gifts, and at this time of the year, it is boxes and boxes full of moon cakes...

Moon cakes have always been fave of mine... Hopia in the Philippines... and in the US - Chinatowns everywhere serves them all year long.... so they become a regular thing for me... but having moved here, I have come to love them once again... and make sure that I wait for this time of the year to really get my fill... and feasts for the tummies they are!!!! Worth mentioning that the packaging they come in are also f\feasts for the eyes... colorful... intricate and beautiful... you almost want to savour them as much as you do the contents.....

WIKI Definition: Mooncakes (simplified Chinese: 月饼; pinyin: yuè bĭng) are Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Typical moon cakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

Possibly my HANDS DOWN FAVE this year is the one from STARBUCKS - not only is the packaging beautiful, the flavors the moon cakes comes in are truly delicious and different... imaging coffee flavored moon cakes -- YUMMY!!!

Pineapple Moon Cakes

Pineapples are big in Taiwan -- somewhere north of Taipei is a place where Pineapple growing is their biggest business, both domestic and for international exporting... so needless to say - pineapple has found it's way in just about anything and everything....

Pineapple Flavored Moon Cakes, once a novelty in Taiwan is fast becoming a tradition..
Long been considered a Lucky fruit... giving pineapple flavored moon cakes during the Mid Autumn Festival is considered giving/sharing lucks with your family, friends, employees as well....

Recently we have received a box full of it... it is the best tasting one i have ever tried.... over the years we keep getting these but I find them too sweet and one can hardly make out the pineapple, much more the taste of it... so normally I do not even bother with them... (we just end up, in turn, giving them away too...) But this particular brand is nothing like I have ever tried before... you can actually feel in your mouth the pineapple pulp and each bite definitely has the taste/flavor of the pineapple... So this year, I actually found a new appreciation for Pineapple Flavored Moon Cakes... LUCKY ME!!!
This one actually came with a postcard of the place north of Taiwan where the pineapples are grown...

Korean Pear: How SWEET it is!!!!

Got to try these delicious fruit just yesterday... am blown away by it... NO WONDER they cost soooo much.... now I would not have bought them myself as I think they are just on the expensive side -- but LUCKILY, one of the roomies got a box as a present for Chinese Moon Festival, instead of the traditional MOON CAKES -- and we all got to TASTE them....
Korean Pears has got to be the sweetest type of Pear I have ever had so far in this lifetime... i just could not believe how sweet it is -- crunchy, juicy and sweet.

Extreme care is supposedly taken while growing these pears, the outcome is the cleanest, most blemish-free fruit available. And unlike the ones I used to have in San Francisco, and even here in Taiwan, Korea's Asian Pears are round and much larger in size. The skin of the pear has a light brownish-yellow tint while the inner flesh is white, as white as they come. This variety is bred to have an extremely thin skin. This is one of the reasons, i read, why they must be wrapped when growing. So, when you bite into it, you right away taste the sweet juicy juicy flesh and not bitter skin like other pears do. They are so refreshingly good and sweet in taste.

According to WIKIPEDIA: "In Korea, , Korean Pears are grown and consumed in great quantity. Many are exported to the U.S. and sold as gifts, touting the superior quality of pears grown on the peninsula versus those grown in Southern California. Imported pears tend to be quite large and very fragrant, and are carefully wrapped, allowing them to last several weeks or more in a cold, dry place, such as a storage.[citation needed] In the South Korean city of Naju, there is a museum called The Naju Pear Museum and Pear Orchard for Tourists (나주배박물관 및 배밭 관광체험).[1]

Because of their relatively high price and the large size of the fruit of cultivars, the pears tend to be served to guests or given as gifts, or eaten together in a family context.

In cooking, ground pears are used in vinegar or soy sauce-based sauces as a sweetener, instead of sugar. They are also used when marinating meat, especially beef."

My Kind of Grass!!!

Grass Jelly Drinks have always been a fave of mine - it is more than a refreshing drink... it is a dessert.. in the Philippines the version is called GULAMAN... and this was something I crave and looked for growing up in San Francisco... normally we have to hit a Filipino Bakery or Restaurant in the South San Francisco areas to satisfy the craving... that is, till I discovered that in Chinatown - one can get the Grass Jelly drinks... they are not as sweet as the Filipino Gulaman... which makes them a bit better... and healthy too.... here in Taiwan, there is an abundance of stalls that sells them - and for this am quite HAPPY!

Grass Jelly is made by boiling the aged and slightly fermented stalks and leaves of Mesona chinensis (member of the mint family) with potassium carbonate for several hours with a little starch and then cooling the liquid to a jelly-like consistency. This jelly can be cut into cubes or other forms, and then mixed with syrup to produce a drink or dessert thought to have cooling (yin) properties, which makes it typically consumed during hot weather. The jelly itself has a slight bitter taste, a light iodine lavender flavor, and is a translucent black. It can also be mixed with soy milk to produce a milky white liquid with black strands in it.

In China & Taiwan, grass jelly was traditionally served with sugar syrup. Now it is often served mixed with other ingredients, such as mango, sago, watermelon, cantaloupe, and other fresh or canned fruit, and evaporated milk.
My roomies, Lyn, David & Shaun enjoys their glass jelly drinks after the movies....

Otoro Dining Room, Taipei

Friday, the 5th of August -- met up with David at the newest SOGO Department Store on Chung Hsiao East Road... we were checking out the City Super Supermarket for his work and decided to have dinner at Department Store... lots of restos to choose from..... different types of food...at different price ranges.... we opted for the middle of the road resto, OTORO Dining Room... we were in the mood for some SASHIMI and SUKIYAKI.... it was definitely a good choice.... the Sashimi was as fresh as fresh goes.... and my LAMB Sukiiyaki was soooo delicious...
The portions were just right... not too much, not too little.... with for less than $15.00US per person -- with the Shrimp Salad to go with the meal - it was definitely inexpensive....

After dinner we walked around the food areas of the Department Store and admired the various packaging of the many products available for purchase....

Overall, it was a GREAT NITE for eating out....

Wonder if it's really CREAMY!!! LoLs!!!

-i came across this at Rustan's Supermarket during one of my visits in Manila.... the name really made me laugh.... i took the photo but have completely forgotten already till I came across it in one of my photo folders... and it made me laugh again....

HAPPY FRIDAY Everyone!!!!

BiBimBap!!!! Say What????

Now and I again, I do get tired of Chinese, Japanese or Italian food in Taiwan; and crave for something really different -- Thank God for BiBimBap!!!!

This Korean dish always appeal to me... I mean, the name alone, BiBimBap, is just too good to pass up.... and it is tasty, with just the right amount of spice kick added to it.... and everything is covered with the dish - a nice serving of rice topped with meat, veggies, seaweed wrapper and egg... and you get to mix it all up -- hence the name, as BiBimBap literal translation is "mixed/stirred".

I first learned of this dish back in San Francisco, whenever we frequent Korean restaurants for a quick lunch.... it is fast... tasty... and quite filling... then I had it in KOREA and it was even better.... with so much side dishes to go with it... HEAVEN!!! Here in Taipei, one of the best places is the FOOD COURT in the MIRAMAR Mall.... fast and good heap of serving... just the right amount to fill one up.....

Next time you are in the mood for something different and fun - why not check this dish out - it is as sumptuous as the name is a mouthful!!! So practice saying that now...BiBimBap!!!