Shoot First Eat Later

Silks Palace at The National Palace Museum

The business conference I attended hosted a welcome dinner at Silks Palace at National Palace Museum.

The restaurant was housed in a beautiful 3 storey building.

The 1st floor was a regular walk in restaurant.

The second floor had bigger tables and private function rooms.

We were on the 3rd floor for our private event.

The menu was very different from the banquet menus in Manila’s Chinese restaurants. Some dishes were really unique and we had to keep checking the menu to know what we were eating. I must say the food was really, really delicious.

marinated chicken with shao-shin wine

grilled sliced Kobe pork with garlic

water chestnut with sweet osmanthus sauce

abalone mushroom with oyster sauce

crispy sliced lappa (burdock)

deep-fried crab meat with pine nuts

This was one of my favorite dishes. I’ve never had seafood roll with sliced almonds before. I loved the extra crunch and flavor the almonds gave to the crispy rolls.

deep-fried seafood roll

They served the suckling pig on top of a bed of noodles. So unique!

barbecued suckling pig

I simply loved all the browned yet soft garlic on the lobster and tofu.

steamed lobster and bean curd with garlic

Taiwanese Buddha tureen soup

braised sliced abalone & sea cucumber with lettuce in oyster sauce

steamed grouper with preserved mustard greens

One of the most famous masterpieces in the National Palace museum is a jadeite cabbage with insects which they recreated in this dish. For insects dried shrimp was used.

Jadeite cabbage with insects

My willpower dissolved with this glutinous rice served at the end of the meal.

steamed glutinous rice wrapped with lotus leaf

The strawberries were so sweet and plump that it didn’t need a dip in condensed milk at all.

fresh strawberries & condensed milk

Isn’t the presentation of Chinese dessert pastries so artful? Too bad it didn’t taste as good as it looks.

classic desserts in Chinese curio box

Another jadeite cabbage in dessert form.

Silks Palace Floor Guide

B2 Taiwanese Food Court
Concept: Casual and traidtional Taiwanese fast food
Cuisine: mainly local dishes, which represent culture and culinary roots of Taiwan

Hours:
Monday~Friday 11:30~18:00
Saturday 11:00~20:00
Sunday 11:00~18:00
Prices: NT$18 and up
Capacity: 150 persons

1F Open-space Restaurant
Concept: Business lunch/dinner and fine dining space for visitors to the museum
Cuisine: mainly Cantonese, with special selections from all Eight Great Culinary Regions of China

Hours:
Weekdays Lunch 11:30am-2:30pm
Weekends & Holidays Lunch 11:00am-3:00pm
Dinner 5:30pm-9:00pm
Prices:
A la carte menu items
Lunch NT$380 and up
Dinner NT680 and up
Capacity: 200 persons

2F Private Staterooms
Concept: a continuation of the motif on the first floor, with private rooms for VIPs, state dignitaries, government officials, etc
Cuisine: mainly Cantonese, with special selections from all Eight Great Culinary Regions of China and themed sets, such as Cultural Relics Feast, Emperor’s Imperial Feast, Dong Po Feast, Formosan Delicacies Feast, and more

Hours:
Lunch 11:30am-2:00pm
Dinner 5:30am-9:30pm
Prices:
Set Menu
Lunch NT$880 and up per person
Dinner NT$1,080 and up per person

Table Feast
Lunch NT$10,800 and up per table of ten
Dinner NT$12,800 and up per table of ten
Capacity
10 rooms (8~20 persons per room)

3F Banqueting Ballroom
Concept: multi-functional banqueting site for tour groups, convention attendants, wedding and longevity banquets, etc
Cuisine: the essence of Chinese cuisine – banquet dishes

Hours:
subject to guest demand
Prices
starting at NT$16,800 per table
Capacity: 35 tables (10 persons per table)

故宮晶華
Silks Palace at The National Palace Museum
221 Chishan Road Section 2, Shilin, Taipei, Taiwan
Phone: 886 2 2882 9393
website

Lunch at Shin Yeh 101

We had some free time so my parents and I went to Taipei 101 to look for good Chinese food.

Our hotel, Grand Hyatt Taipei, was connected by footbridge to Taipei 101 and several big malls in the Xinyi district.

Taipei 101 facade

We took the elevator all the way to the 85th floor to Shin Yeh. I’ve eaten in their Shin Kong Mitsukoshi branch before.

This branch was much more beautiful.

When we were on the ground floor they told us that the set menu cost a few hundred more if we sat by the window. We told them we wanted an ordinary table. Here’s a sample of the ‘cheaper’ set menus.

They sat us on a table beside the window despite my request and said it won’t cost more. Just look at the view. I couldn’t see anything through the thick fog. No wonder it didn’t cost more. Too bad. I’m sure the view of the city from the 85th floor would have been fabulous.

We didn’t order from the set menu and ordered a la carte instead.

Pardon my dad. He’s old school and doesn’t get the fuss over shark’s fin. In Manila we call this soup ‘Buddha jumps over the wall’. It’s his favorite soup.

steamed shark’s fin soup with sea cucumber, pork spare rib & chicken NT$560

The abalone wasn’t as soft as the canned variety. It had a slightly chewy/crispy texture to it.

fresh abalone NT$360

Instead of ordering oyster omelet which is very popular in Taipei I tried the fried oyster and immediately fell in love with it. The batter was thin, light and crisp. It was accompanied with pepper salt and it was simply amazing. I think I ate half of this dish.

deep fried baby oyster with basil NT$320

I don’t like taro at all but this roll was very good.

deep fried taro & shrimp roll NT$180

I didn’t realize we ordered a lot of fried dishes but this fish was really, really tasty with all the fried garlic and cracked pepper.

pan fried pomfret with garlic NT$500

I also ordered a couple of dim sum that baked instead of fried. Both were yummy and the exterior crust was very flaky. The shredded turnip filling was very generous.

crispy cakes stuffed with turnip & minced pork NT$150

salty turnip & sweet date puree twin section cakes NT$195

I shouldn’t have ordered the first turnip cake since this was practically the same thing. Well half of it was. The other side had a curiously good sweet-savory date filling.

We had a superb meal and didn’t regret not ordering a set meal. The bill was expensive due to the soup and fresh abalone. I highly recommend Shin Yeh at Taipei 101 as a good place to get typical Chinese food in a very elegant setting and you get to dine in the clouds.

Shin Yeh 101
Taipei Xinyi Road Section 5, No. 7, 85, 1 (Taipei 101)
telephone: 02-8101-0185
website

101食藝軒
地址：台北市信義路5段7號85樓之1(台北101大樓)
電話：02-8101-0185

Buffet Breakfast at Cafe, Grand Hyatt Taipei

My stay at the Grand Hyatt included breakfast buffet at the Café. As with any buffet I was wary of the food offerings.

Nice water feature at the entrance.

Different food stations were scattered around the huge restaurant that’s why there wasn’t any lines despite the almost full restaurant.

dried fruits and nuts

bircher muesli

bread table

honeycomb

This was the most agonizing and tempting station for me. Everyday the bread and pastry selections change. From French, Chinese and American style bread was well represented.

bread galore

peanut butter & Nutella

dried fruits and vegetables

pancake & waffle station

The Chinese food section was my favorite. I was so happy that my favorite dishes were there for the 3 times I ate there.

Chinese section

Chinese steamed selections

The braised bean curd skin with mushroom was my super duper favorite dish which I ate everyday.

braised fried bean curd skin with black mushroom & soya egg

This tofu dish was quite good too.

braised bean curd with black fungus & bamboo in light soya

congee toppings

soya milk & Chinese dough fritters

veggies & mushroom

potatoes

grilled sausage

ham

I only ate muesli once since it wasn’t that good.

bircher muesli

That’s a granola bar on top of my plate.

This is what my plate looked like for 3 days. I miss the bean curd skin to this day. The food and selection at Grand Hyatt Taipei was really good and worth it. It’s incentive enough to stay in this hotel. Nice room, good breakfast and excellent location.

Hours:
Breakfast 6:30 am – 10:30 am
Lunch 11:30 am – 2:00 pm
Dinner 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Grand Hyatt Taipei

2, SongShou Road,Taipei, Taiwan 11051

telephone: +886 2 2720 1234

110台北市信義區松壽路2號 Taiwán

02-2720-1129

Grand Hyatt Taipei

We were billeted at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Taipei for our convention.

It’s not a new or modern hotel but I think they recently had a renovation.

My room was big and clean.

I’ve never seen a full electrical hot water pot in a hotel room before. I plugged it in and had instant access to boiling water anytime I wanted to drink tea.

I always prefer a bathroom with a separate shower stall. I hate taking a shower in the bathtub.

My favorite part was this narrow ledge in the shower where I can put all my toiletries. Unlike in other hotels with provided a small soap dish or the side of the bathtub to put your own shampoo and conditioner.

They refill all the amenities 2x a day. I got to take home a lot of loofa. 😀

Small touches like this narrow ledge behind the sink was a perfect place to put all my stuff and it was kept neat and dry.

The view from my room was the Taipei 101 building.

Just off the lobby was this huge ball made of wood.

Grand Hyatt Taipei
2, SongShou Road,Taipei, Taiwan 11051
telephone: +886 2 2720 1234

110台北市信義區松壽路2號 Taiwán
02-2720-1129

Vegetarian Dinner at Taipei 101’s Food Court

For dinner we decided to have a simple meal at Taipei 101’s food court before checking in our hotel.

Again Charlie and I had a vegetarian set meal which consisted of four items. First was this thing with filling inside. I had no idea what the slimy exterior was made of. My cousin Charlie told me it was quite popular but I didn’t like it.

I really liked this chewy fish cake in sweet and sour sauce.

Naturally the fried tofu with a light soy based sauce was yummy.

The soup was just ok.

For dessert we all shared this sweet and icy cold lemon jelly cubes with some kind of floury strings. I liked the jelly better.

I also had a lemon tea from Coco, a milk tea place I saw a lot of.

Charlie and his mom

Benjie and my dad

素雅屋 Vegetarian Restaurant in Taimall, Taoyuan

My cousin Charlie picked us up from the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and brought us to a nearby mall called Taimall so we can have lunch and meet up with his brother Benjie.

It was exactly the same thing we did when I went to Taipei two years ago with some friends. That time we had shabu-shabu although I wanted to try this vegetarian restaurant. This time I decided to give it a go. Let me tell you how shocking this will be to my friends and family. I’m the last person who will eat in a vegetarian restaurant. Before I started my diet last year I barely ate veggies and only a few select kinds. It’s good that Charlie was also watching his health so he joined me in the restaurant while the others in our group looked for regular food in the fast food.

All the vegetarian food was laid out buffet style but choose wisely since your plate will be weighed and that’s the price you will pay.

There were so many tempting and unfamiliar veggies to choose from.

I love tofu and sweet potato.

This is stewed bean curd roll. Yuuuum!

I swear Taipei has the sweetest sweet potatoes.

This is my boring brown plate filled with 3 kinds of tofu, different mushrooms and sweet potato. I wish I got more kinds of sweet potatoes but this plate really filled me up. I really, really enjoyed my vegetarian lunch sans green veggies.

My lunch cost me NT$79 or about P114 or US$2.65. Unlimited rice was available but I didn’t get any.

This is my cousin Charlie, my partner in crime for the whole day’s vegetarian meals.

His plate was more colorful. He let me try the tomatoes and I was blown away on how sweet it was.

My dad had oyster cake set which included fish ball soup and fried tofu.

My mom and aunt had these big bowls of shabu shabu with noodles, meat and veggies. Naturally they couldn’t finish it.

Thanks to my friend Jin for writing these info in Chinese for me.

素雅屋
Address 地址：桃園縣蘆竹鄉南崁路一段112號5樓
telephone: (03) 321-0440

週一至週四 AM11:00 – PM10:00
週五AM11:00 – PM10:30
週六AM10:30 – PM10:30
週日AM10:30 – PM10:00

Philippine Airlines Meals Mnl-Tpe-Mnl

Last March I went to Taipei to attend a business convention. I took Philippine Airlines economy class and these were the meals on my flight.

Can you believe this was for breakfast? Since there was no menu I don’t know what the meal was called. The chicken breast (yehey) was cooked in a mild curry, coconut sauce that was absolutely divine. The chicken was surprisingly tender and moist and I super loved the sauce. It was sooooo hard not to eat the rice with the sauce. There was also scrambled eggs, mushroom & a tomato wedge included. I packed the ensaymada in my bag as pasalubong for my niece in Taipei.

I spotted this water dispenser at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

On my return trip to Manila this is what greeted me as I entered the plane. Was my flight invaded?

For dinner I had chicken with brown sauce and beans. For dessert a yummy pudding made with sago and coconut milk and red beans. I always maintain that the food out of Manila tastes always better than the return flight.

The chicken was quite good too but somehow it seemed a smaller portion than the chicken at breakfast. I was still hungry after eating the chicken and veggies sans beans.

Finally the food in PAL’s economy class has improved so much unlike the disastrous breakfast on my flight to Taipei in 2010.

New Dishes at Lugang Cafe

I ate at Lugang Cafe too often last year specially in September, my birthday month. I went cold turkey and stopped going there for a while.

When my mom’s cousin Judie and hubby Rome came home for a visit from Las Vegas and specifically requested to eat at Lugang Cafe I knew it was time to go back.

I was so happy they had new dishes which we immediately ordered.

Isn’t this a very unique and interesting way of serving abalone mushrooms? It was a cold and appetizing dish which made it a good appetizer.

abalone mushroom and jelly fish P220

I liked the smokey tasting chicken specially all the lovely fried shallots on top that were so aromatic. It was a bit oily though. My mom likes the chicken topped with scallion & ginger oil more.

Hong Kong style aroma salted chicken P490

The squid was perfectly crisp yet tender. The sauce was sweeter than I expected and it reminded me of lemon chicken. As much as I loved the squid I think I will order their salt and pepper version instead. I’m not too fond of sweet food. That’s strictly reserved for dessert.

honey garlic squid P320

Rome liked his thick and rich strawberry smoothie.

strawberry smoothie P228

Rome and Judie

I made a list of my favorite dishes from Lugang Cafe so you can print it out or copy it into your cellphone for quick access. And I did order these four dishes for this dinner and needless to say our balikbayan guests enjoyed them very much. For pictures of all the dishes below click here.

What I always order in Lugang Cafe (MUST)

Pork Xiao Long Bao (best in Manila IMHO)
Taiwanese Stewed Minced Pork
Beef With Chinese Crullers
Soft Tofu & Mushroom In Abalone Sauce (my super duper favorite)

Optional:

Steamed Lapu Lapu with Crispy Tauso
String Beans With Salted Egg or Minced Pork
Mixed Mushroom With X.O Sauce
Spicy Garlic Fish In Clay Pot
Enoki Mushroom, Radish & Fish Cake Soup (try this!!)
Pan Fried Dumplings
Mango and/or Peanut Butter Shaved Ice

Since the dishes are small you can order all of these!! There are many more but these are my absolute favorites. What are your favorites at Lugang Cafe?

Lugang Cafe

Northeast Greenhills

115 Connecticut St., Northeast Greenhills, San Juan

telephone: 775-7599 / 09176992254

Mall Of Asia

G/F 136-137 Main Mall South Wing, 1174-1176 SM Mall Of Asia, Pasay City telephone: 555-0219 / 0916-2140822

website

Facebook

Dessert at Maitre Chocolatier Boutique Cafe

After our dinner at Mangetsu we went to the nearby Maitre Chocolatier Boutique Cafe for dessert.

It was my first time to try out this place. That’s unusual for a chocoholic like me.

Wow chocolate alcoholic drinks!

Jin told me that the owners were also the Philippine distributors of some of my favorite brands of chocolates. I really like Spanish brand Valor’s 70% dark chocolate in either plain, orange, forest berries or mint.

Too bad they don’t sell my favorite Lindt Création Le Noir Orange.

For Ritter Sport my favorite is the marzipan in dark chocolate.

Before I used to buy Villars Chocolate Noir with candied orange peels only in Manila and Singapore’s duty free. I’m so happy it’s now in most supermarkets in Manila.

The menu said this cake was good for 2-3 people and that was perfect since we just wanted to share one dessert. When the cake came out it was really small, maybe 3″ in diameter. I immediately thought, “how will this be enough for all of us?”

hidden desire – Lindt moist dark chocolate cake P320

Surprisingly the cake was super dense yet moist and really chocolatey. You really can’t eat that much. In the end Fran even took home the leftover cake. So they were right. It’s really good for 2-4 people even.

Maitre Chocolatier Boutique Cafe Menu

Maitre Chocolatier Boutique Cafe
2A, No. 28, Jupiter corner Astra Street,
Bel Air, Makati City, Metro Manila
telephone: 8978559, 8962529
cellphone: (+63)9228854107
website
Facebook

Opening Hours:
Mondays to Thursdays
10AM to 11PM
Fridays to Saturdays
10AM to 2AM
Sunday off

Dinner at Mangetsu Japanese Fusion Restaurant

When Fran suggested we have dinner with Jin and Paul at the new branch of Mangetsu in Jupiter st. I happily said yes. I’ve eaten at Mangetsu at it’s old location at Mile Long and loved the food but not the place.

The lighting and interiors were a million times better.

They sell sake from P245 to P320 a shot.

Uni or sea urchin is a relatively new discovery for me so I always order it in Japanese restaurants. Mangetsu has a very nice presentation. I think you’re supposed to wrap the uni and cucumber slices in the nori and eat it that way. I was too impatient. A good squeeze of calamansi on the uni and I’m happy.

nama uni sashimi P330

Uni deserves it’s title as foie gras of the sea. It has the same rich, buttery texture that makes me happy. It’s cold, fresh and briny just the way good uni should be.

The chicken was well marinated and fried to a nice crisp. The 3 salts- sansho, green tea & black pepper salts were what gave it that extra special kick.

karaage fried chicken thighs with 3 kinds of salt P380

Spicy tuna sashimi is another new favorite of mine and I’m glad my dinner companions agreed to order this. This version was among the best I’ve eaten in Manila. The spice level was just right and it wasn’t swimming in mayonnaise. I also liked the crunchy tempura batter bits on top for extra crunch.

spicy tuna sashimi P330

The menu described the sauce covering the sea urchin omelet as ‘thick chicken broth sauce’. Since I don’t like eggs I just tried a little piece. Unluckily the omelet I got didn’t contain any sea urchin. I’ll stick to the uni sashimi.

sea urchin omelet P330

The Japanese love cheese and I just love the way they incorporate it into their food. Mangetsu even has a cheese section on their menu. I don’t think any Western chef will ever think of getting a cup of fried rice, drown it in shrimp flavored white sauce and top the whole mess with cheese and broil it until it can be called a gratin.

shrimp rice gratin P450

I don’t eat rice but I couldn’t help but try a spoonful. Wow! It really tasted as good and sinful as it looks. My friends did a good job of eating cleaning the serving dish.

Fran and her hubby Paul were avoiding meat so our only source of protein was tofu. Fried slices of tofu were topped with a thick paste made from red miso. Salty and interesting. I think I prefer agadeshi tofu but they were out of stock.

tofu dengaku P230

Til our next meal, my blogger friends!!!

Paul, Fran, me and Jin

Mangetsu’s long menu

Fran’s post on Mangetsu

Mangetsu Japanese Fusion Restaurant
38 Jupiter Street, Bel-Air, Makati
telephone: 478-3292