Category: Food

Sorry, I just can’t help it! I love this Japanese snack very, very, very, very, very much!!!! 😀

I first tried this at a Japanese restaurant in Greenbelt, Makati.  My friend taught me how to eat it and when I finally tried it, it was heaven!  It’s soooooooo yummy!  Since then, I knew I would be craving for this forever.

Edamame is baby soybeans in the pod which is commonly found in Japan, Korea & China.  It is best known as a healthy snack that is high in protein, vitamin A, vitamin B and calcium.  Perfect right? Not quite. It is expensive!

A pack of uncooked edamame (See below) costs Php 62 at a Japanese grocery.  How I wish it was cheaper so I could eat this every single day.  I can finish all of this in 1 sitting.

To prepare this awesome snack, this is what you need to do. Let the pods boil in water. You can add salt to the boiling water or it can be added to the pods after it has been cooked.

Wait!  Don’t eat the pods in whole hehehe 😛  You will need to peel them off so you can eat the beans inside.  (See the picture below w/ a pod opened) – Those 3 little light green beans are the ones we are eating.

I promise!  This is the best snack ever!  Healthy even!  Loooooooveeeeee it!

Just the other day, I blogged about Daifu Noodle House.  I mentioned there that I’ll definitely go back & try their desserts.

So funny that I can’t seem to control myself.  So the next day, I went back to the restaurant and ordered their dessert.

As promised, I’ll be sharing if I liked it or not.

• 4 Treasures Ice Dessert (Php 60)

If you want to try everything, then this is what you should order. These are the four treasures: Taro, Red Mongo, Green Mongo and Peanuts. I tried peanuts first then taro then mongo. I didn’t really feel that it is a dessert because they put so many of the main ingredients that it overpowered the ice. I ended up feeling that I was eating something heavy to the stomach and not a dessert.

• Mango Ice Dessert (Php 50)

This mango dessert, I think tasted better than the rest of their dessert menu. It could have been better if they just put pure mangoes instead of mixing it with jelly.

Unfortunately, there were so many ants in this order. I think it came with the jelly or the mangoes. There were already four ants found before we complained. The server quickly said sorry and asked her fellow servers to give us a new one. We declined and they just suggested to cancel the order

• Fresh Lumpia (Php 50)

I know! i know!  This is not a dessert!  If you noticed the title of this post, there is “something extra,” the lumpia is the something extra.  I can’t help it!  It really looked delicious!  It didn’t disappoint.  Generous serving and super yummy!!!  You should order this when you go to Daifu Noodle House!

This is my verdict.  I totally udnerstand why they were so generous with the serving. As we always say, everything excessive is not good. In this case, it didn’t feel like a dessert anymore because I couldn’t taste the ice. Maybe it would taste better if they could balance the ice & fruits/beans/peanuts/taro.

On the plus side, their service is superb!  I was impressed  🙂

You have to sample this!

When you visit taiwan, definitely, this dish must be on your must try. Taiwan is famous for their pork stew rice. My aunt kept mentioning this everyday while she was there, hoping we could order that on all the restaurants we’ve eaten.

On my Aunt’s last day in Taiwan, my mom brought us to XiMenDing market. One of the restaurants there is famous for Pork Stew Rice.

For just 75 NT, we were able to eat Pork Stew Rice (燉肉飯) (with free soup) and it was heavenly.

Isn’t it obvious?

More pictures here.

Daifu Noodle House
886-B Banawe Street, Quezon City
(02) 412-2846

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Had lunch here while waiting for apple (my car) to be fixed.

I’ve been wanting to try this restaurant for the longest time.  I’m glad I did finally!  The food is so affordable and decently good!

Their dessert menu is just outstanding, if only we’re not out of time, we could have tried the desserts.  I promise myself, I’ll try next time.  I’ll blog again once I do 🙂

Here are what we ordered:

• Beef Noodles (Php 105)

I like their version of beef noodle soup though I still preferred the one served at Shanghai Hand-Pulled Noodles.  I guess it’s because there’s more flexibility like the choice of noodles there. Still, Daifu’s version is something we can’t neglect.

• Fried Siomai – 8 pieces (Php 60)

At Daifu Noodle House, was also the first place I’ve tried fried siomai. Yummy!!! You can easily mistake this as fried dumpling, but this is different. It’s really siomai deepfried. I especially liked that they added more skin w/c makes it crispier. The sauce is perfect for the dish as well!

• KiamPong (Php 35)

I missed eating kiampong for the longest time!  The last time I was able to eat one was when my mom cooked this for me a few years ago when she visited me here in the Philippines.  I can’t say that Daifu’s version is better than what my mom cooked because obviously mom knows best!  Her kimapong is to die for.

Daifu provides good serving so if you’re not much of a rice eater, you can share between 2 people 🙂

• Deep-Fried Tofu (Php 40)

They made a different twist to the usual fried tofu that we ate. Instead of having soy sauce, they opted for salt and pepper. I think it also had suger in it.

• Special Iced Tea (Php 45)

We ordered special iced tea. I do not recommend this!!! Well, it could be (we have different taste), but as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t like it at all. They used black tea instead of the usual tea. I guess black tea didn’t really blend with the other ingredients.

If you live near Banawe, this is a must try.  I’m just sad that I didn’t see too many people dining there. Hopefully people will start to discover it. I still want to try their desserts soon! 🙂

Dozo Izakaya Dining Bar
No. 102, GuangFu S. Rd., Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
886 (02) 2778-1135

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A very expensive Japanese restaurant but delicious.

Mom treated us there. I especially liked the look of the place. It’s so cool, bar-looking, classy-looking place 🙂  I think the targeted audience here are businessmen and young people.  Service is great as well.  The place was jam-packed & the food was yummy!  My aunt was going back to the states the next day so it was kinda like our last dinner together at Taiwan. hayyy thinking about it, I miss my mom and aunt already.

Anyway, here are what we ordered:

• Grilled Squid with Seven Flavored Powder (220NT)

Dozo Bar has a promo wherein we’ll be able to get their main dish of the day at 50% off.  That day, it’s their grilled squid!  I actually saw 90% of the customers ordering this hahaha.  Well, 50% for a yummy dish!  It’s super spicy though but nevertheless, my favorite dish from all the ones we ordered.

• Assorted Grilled Skewer (340NT)

A skewer sampler.  Wasn’t able to take note of the variants but it’s just grilled beef, pork, chicken.  The white one is just plain weird, we don’t know what it is, it just tasted out of this world 😛

• Salt-Grilled Imported Japanese Mackerel (260NT)

I’m not really fond of fish which still has fish bones so I didn’t enjoy this much.

• Deep-Fried Homemade Tofu with Peanut (120NT)

Different twist to the usual tofu dishes Japanese restaurants serve.  You must try this when you go to Dozo bar.  I’m just a tofu lover and it’s a nice thing to know that peanuts do go well together with tofu! yum!

• Assorted Vegetable Tempura (160NT)

• Lemon Smoothie (130NT)

one proof that a restaurant is expensive is the price of their drinks!  This drink is delicious but the it’s just too pricey.

• Peach Milk Smoothie (180NT)

• Coke (80NT)

what an expensive cola drink!!

• Skewered Grilled Mushroom with Soy Sauce & Cheese (80NT)

Though expensive, I think if they open here in Manila, they’ll be successful. Best to open in Greenbelt area 🙂

Rest of the pictures here.