Dinner at Kao-Chi Restaurant

Ok enough of the diet food. I still eat out but much less and I bring my pocket scale with me. My cousin Benjie and his daughter Li-An were home for a vacation and Rochelle and I wanted to treat them to dinner.

My cousin lives in Taipei and he was the one who picked us up from the airport and took us around the city. If you’re going to Taipei he can do the same for you. Click here for Benjie’s contact info.

We ate in a relatively new restaurant in N.S. Amoranto St. (formerly Retiro), a popular food street in Quezon City. The last time I ate in that area was in 2009 at Asian Twist which was on the same street. It was Benjie’s choice since he lived near this area and we wanted it to be more convenient for him. Surprisingly it was a quick and easy drive from Greenhills on a week night. Definitely faster than going to Makati.

Surprisingly nice, red and modern Chinese interiors.

They also had private function rooms.

I found it quirky that a young girl chose this drink. She liked it a lot.

blueberry yogurt P110

Since I couldn’t have pork nor carbs on my diet I didn’t try any of the dim sum. I’ll just report on my friends comments. Rochelle who is a xiao long bao addict said it was just ok and a far cry from her favorite from Lugang Cafe.

xiao long bao P138/6 pcs.

They called it fried xiao long bao but it’s more popularly known as jian bao or fried pork bun. The bottom was actually golden brown. I cut one in half and noticed that the dough was thick and there was very little pork filling unlike the best jian bao I’ve ever eaten at Raohe night market in Taipei.

fried xiao long bao P188/6 pcs.

The dumplings fared better than the xiao long bao. They were gone in an instant.

hand made pork dumplings P138/10 pcs.

fried pork dumplings P138/6 pcs.

My friend DB who’s a vegetarian ordered this. If you’re wondering what rice cake tastes like? Think palitaw without the sugar and a firmer consistency.

stir fried potherb mustard with rice cake P238

The kids loved the noodles. Well so did Rochelle.

fried noodles P238

And this is what I ate. When I eat in a Chinese restaurant I usually end up with white chicken or Hainanese chicken since it’s steamed and it doesn’t have soy sauce. I was surprised that this chicken was refrigerator cold. And it was very, very bland. As in it didn’t have any chicken flavor anymore. It was served with a sweetish soy based sauce. My friends said the chicken was good when dipped with the sauce. But since I can’t have sauce I had to eat tasteless chicken. Really depressing.

white chicken P376/ 1/2 chicken

I also ate this yummy spinach. The tricky thing about eating out while on the Cohen diet is weighing the food. I’m supposed to weigh my food before cooking. The weight of food specially veggies change after cooking. So I just had to approximate the weight of what I ate.

stir fried spinach with garlic P238

I wonder what the 8 delicacies were.

spinach with 8 delicacies P120

I also had some of the delicious mushrooms. Just a little since it had soy sauce. Cheating!

assorted mushroom with broccoli P338

I couldn’t resist trying (cheating) a piece of the tofu. It was sooooo good!!! I want a whole order of this when my diet is over.

fermented tofu with special sauce P238

Rochelle loves hot dessert so she ordered this.

stuffed tang yuan with osmanthus sweet soup P138

It’s sticky just like mochi and made with glutinous rice flour and stuffed with black sesame paste and boiled in a sweet broth.

Benjie’s daughter Li-An

The food was very reasonably priced. We spent P2,800 for 5 adults and 2 kids. The food was pretty good overall. This is another reason to eat at N.S. Amoranto more often.

Kao-Chi’s menu

Kao-Chi Restaurant
109 N.S. Amoranto St. (formerly Retiro) Quezon City