Located inside H-Mart Supermarkets, it boasts some of the most delicious dishes!! My personal favorites are the Spicy Pork (Dae-Ji Bulgugi) and the Rice Cake Soups (Duk Gook).  But feel free to try anything else because I’m pretty sure it won’t disappoint.  The ladies that work there can be a bit rough around the edges, and very demanding and can be scary at times, but don’t worry.  Just order your food and feast.  You can choose to sit in and eat (no tips required and they provide you with self-serve tea/water) or you can order for take out.

Taste: 4.7/5
Atmosphere: 4/5 (I like it there, it’s usually quiet)
Cost: $8-$12 (really good pricing for the amount of food they give!)

For dinner, I ordered the Half Chicken w/ Rice and Beans, and it came with a fried egg, a huge plantain and  sausage.  To be quiet honest, I’ve had some better Rotisserie chicken before– but the plantain was surprisingly delicious. I usually don’t like plantains but this one wasn’t super sweet and tasted really fresh.  ***BEST PART OF THE MEAL*** – it was the Empenadas!  Note! DO NOT ORDER THE CHICKEN- you MUST order the beef one.  The chicken one was super dry- but the beef one was amazingly delicious! I think it was the best empenada I’ve ever had, and if I could, I’d go back just to pick one up in the future. 

So, there you have it.  My meal at Tu Casa.  Personally I don’t think I’d make another trip there in the near future.  The food was decent, but nothing spectacular.  I still think Pio Pio tastes better, but this place has a better atmosphere.  The price is also pretty decent here.  If you guys aren’t using Yelp Deals, Groupons, Scoutmob, or any other 3rd party coupon sites– YOU NEED TO START NOW!! They work wonders and you really get a great deal out of a delicious meal.  I think I had a coupon for $20 worth of $40 food from Yelp– and it came in so handy.  SO START NOW!

Taste: 3/5 – Decent.  nothing SPECTACULAR…
Atmosphere: 4.5/5
Cost: $15-$20

The place is pretty well decorated.  Not super tacky and strange looking.  It’s got a little lamb as it’s mascot and boasts the best herbal soup you’ve ever tasted.  It’s actually totally Chinese– meaning most of the menu is in Chinese so if you can’t read it… you have to write your orders in English in the back of the paper.  I got laughed at the first time I went there because I couldn’t speak/read Chinese.  I was very offended.  But I still went back.  This is a sick cycle.

So here are a few tips if you decide to check the place out.
#1- bring a friend that can read chinese, OR a friend who goes to HotPot often (like me),
#2- prepare yourself, make sure you’re hungry
#3- bring money, because things can get pricey
#4- go in a group, it’s easier to split the bill and eat a larger variety of dishes
#5- always allow the soup to boil first, when it finishes the first time, make sure you fill your bowl with the soup because after you start putting in meats and other things into the soup to boil, the soup becomes oily and thick.

My recommendations is that you MUST order the HERBAL SOUP.  You can always do a half/half pot, one herbal soup side and one spicy mala side.  But I would just stick with Herbal to start.  They start you with a combo that gives you a dish of veggies/random things and a side of beef.. but  I would also try the lamb, fishballs (with beef filling), the regular fish balls, the rice cakes and anything else that would interest you.   You can create your own sauces in the back of the restaurant (but I think it’ll be unnecessary since the soup will out do everything.

Taste: 5/5
Atmosphere: 1 – I hate the service. Enough said.
Cost: $30-60/person (really depends on how hungry you are, and how much you order, but at the base rate of getting full, it starts at $30)

Back in the Fall, when the weather was nicer, my friend and I spent the day running errands, and when we got hungry, we realized we were at the lower East side.  Yelping up a place, we found “Cocoron- Soba”.  Cocoron means “heart-warming” in Japanese.  It’s located at 61 Delancey St
(between Eldridge St & Allen St).

If you guys read from my previous post, I was never really a huge fan of Japanese food, and Soba definitely wasn’t something I craved, but I decided to give this place a chance.  It was packed.  Honestly, the place is probably 50×50 square feet, with a bar that sat about 8 people and maybe four other 2 seaters squished at the side.  The restroom was probably 1.5x.1.5 square foot, and it was VERY CRAMP.  But, none the less, they were able to dazzle me with amazing, amazing soba.  I ordered the Tsukemen Soba (dipping soba– they have a simliar dish for ramen)  The soup is kept separate from the soba so when you’re ready to dunk your cold soba noodles into the soup, you can do so at your own pace.  This keeps the noodles firm and bouncy.  It was delicious, rich and so, so tasty!   I ordered the “Stamina Dip Soba” which is pretty  much the pork-based broth soba combination.  It was so delicious even drinking the soup was an option!

Taste: 4.5/5
Atmosphere: .5/5 TOO CROWDED. Don’t even bother going with 3+ people. You’ll never get a seat.  I went during lunchtime and it was already insane, if you went there for dinner, I’m sure the waits would be like…. hours.
Cost: $10-$16

On my way to a Phil Wickham & Shane & Shane concert, we stopped at Mitsuwa to get some Ramen & other snacks.  Mitsuwa is probably one of the best places to get the most authentic Japanese food (besides St. Marks).  Anyway, it’s not really a place you’d venture to if you live in the city (because why would you? You’d just end up going to St Marks!  Ha!) BUT, if you live in Queens, Jersey, Staten Island, Brooklyn…. I suggest checking Mitsuwa out.  My friends seem to love it so much that they go there every other week… haha. Inside Mitsuwa, consists mostly as a supermarket, with a few bakeries and restaurants on the side.  Every year they have Japanese festivals as well and they bring the “taste of Japan” to the Jersey shores.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite spots inside the “largest Japanese supermarket in the US” (according to their website, haha)

First we have my ULTIMATE snack, a custard bun.  It’s a delicate blend of salty dough stuffed with an amazing warm creme filling.  This is my favorite part of Mitsuwa– and the only reason you can get me to go.  Everytime my friends pass by, I always order a custard bun!!

Now onto the real food…this is the Ramen shop we got our food at:

This is Alan’s dish.  He got some type of rice with an omelet and fried pork (?) and a side of soba noodles (cold buckwheat noodles- one of my not-favorite foods) He looks quite happy to be eating.

This is my dish. It is a toriniku-ramen, and a half shredded beef dish (shared with Jed).  The noodles in the ramen are delicious, bounces in your mouth and sturdy- I personally hate soggy noodles, so this one is solid.  My only complain on this dish is that it was super-super- salty.  Some may say,” well that’s RAMEN”- — ehh but I disagree.  It was so salty that I had to pour a cup of water into the soup it make it a bit more edible… but overall, it’s good stuff.   I used to hate Japanese food.  Used to never liked Ramen and I (even now) cannot stomach any sashimi.  I even hated it when I studied abroad in Japan, and all I hate was pork over rice.  But more and more I have been seeing that Japanese food is really amazing.. it’s growing more and more on me.

To kill some, we decided to check out the Japanese Bookstore across the street, and of course the boys were happily distracted by these puzzle-shape-animal-japanese toys.  Basically it’s like lego’s but a little more intricate.  They all bought their own animal and built them. Mine is the panda

On a wonderful day, my friend Chrystal and I spent the day photographing restaurants. After a tiring walk up some avenues and some streets.. we decided to take a break and grab some “linner” (the meal between lunch and dinner- 3pm style). We yelped out “Greydog Cafe” since I was in the mood for some coffee. (I need to somehow stop this caffeine addiction. Anyways, luckily for us, this was also a good place to chow down to some food. She was hungry, I was just in it for the snack.

I ordered a pumpkin pie slice and a latte (which Chrystal then dropped right in the middle of the cafe and spilled it everywhere! LOL) but that was no problem, the staff were really friendly, cleaned/mopped it up quickly and even gave us a new latte. (Bonus points!) For food, Chrystal ordered the Clam Chowder soup with half a sandwich.

My iced latte was decent, nothing to really brag about, but I really did enjoy the atmosphere of the place. There were a lot of people sitting around, having conversations, working on their laptops, and/or eating and drinking their coffees or teas. I really liked the place that I ended up coming back a week later with Jeddy to get a late dinner. I ordered the burger and he ordered the pulled-pork wrap. I didn’t get a picture of it since it was a random night which I didn’t have my camera around. But what I can tell you guys that even though their prices are a little steep for a cafe, the burger was pretty delicious. It was made from scratch- that which I am sure. The ground beef was juicy and moist and fell apart in my mouth when I bit into the burger. Pretty deeelish. We even got around to making conversation with the table next to us. Great crowd around.

Taste: 3/5
Atmosphere: 3.8/5 (the space is dark, lit with pretty christmas lights and candles, but no wifi so that’s a huge buzzkill)
Cost: $12-$20

I’m BACK!!! I know it’s been a bit of a hiatus that I’ve been on.  In between the last time I’ve updated, I’ve been to Rwanda, Africa and back, got myself engaged to a wonderful hubby-tobe and yeah, just grew a lot as a person.  But I promise you that I am back FOR GOOD and going to be updating much more frequently!  I’m currently sitting in Gregory’s Coffee (44th street between 5th and 6th ave) and enjoying an iced latte.  I love this space so much, I especially love this tag line they have, “see coffee differently” and they have two coffee cups creating the image of sunglasses. It’s really creative!

Lately I’ve been on a hunt for the best LATTEs in New York.  I did find a really awesome one, located by grand central in a place called RIZE Coffee, but that will be an update for another day.  That is the latte that owns all other lattes.  This one, here at Gregory’s Coffee is still really good.  I think I’ve come to realize that I’m more of 2% milk person when it comes to Lattes.

Oh, here is a great little tip/INSIDE SCOOP for latte drinkers.  I DID NOT KNOW THIS, and I applaud you if you already knew this (again, this shows my FOOBIE-NESS)  This tip was given to me by my friend Chrystal who worked as a Barista at Housing Works Cafe.  Basically, a latte is a shot of expresso put inside a cup of steamed milk.  No matter what size latte you buy, your amount of expresso is the same.  One shot.  (Unless you ask for a double shot)  If you want to save some cash and not PAY $5+ for a latte, you can always just purchase a shot of expresso ($1-2) and add milk yourself… and there you will have a latte!

And now what’s a post without my wonderful “scale”-

Taste:4.2/5
Atmosphere: 5/5 (love the space, decor and even the crowd inside.  Considerate and kind.  FREE WIFI!!!!)
Cost: $2-$5

This has been another wonderful update by your friend here at Foobie.com!  Hope to update more soon!

MILK TEA INFO: Quick interesting thing about the milk teas in Hong Kong.  I learned this from my cousin, but the reason why every shop you have to “try” their milk tea, is because at every shop, they each have their own unique way of creating milk tea.  It’s not like in America, where they just use the Yellow Label Lipton bags, no- in Hong Kong, they MIX different teas together and filter it over and over again until it is super smooth- or fits their wanted consistency.  So every place is different- AND delicious!

The names of the shops will be in Chinese, (thanks for my cousin’s listings) but you can def either Google Translate or try www.openrice.com which is the Hong Kong version of Yelp! (for U.S.)

Our journey started at 9:00 am in front of Jordan Station…

1. 澳洲牛奶公司 (Jordan 佐敦)
Breakfast — Egg Sandwich with Milk Tea
早餐 — 蛋治, 奶茶 + 通心粉.

It’s so interesting that Cantonese people love eating Macaroni noodles and spam!  Of course it was delicious!

2.UA朗豪坊戲院 (Mongkok 旺角)
Snack — Sweet Popcorn + Coke
甜爆谷+可樂

Because we had some time to kill and had to wait for our other cousin to join us, we all went to see a movie for 2 hours.  We saw “I am Number 4″  Yeah guys, it’s like a glorified O.C mixed with Superman tendencies.  I mean, honestly my cousin just wanted me to try the popcorn in HK theaters- which is VERY diff from the american taste- not butter but! SWEET popcorn! It’s like kettlecorn!  I personally didn’t like it- but you might!

3. 維記咖啡粉麵 Wai Kee Noodle Cafe (Sham Shui Po 深水埗)
Lunch — EggHam Noddle with Liver soup + Milk Tea + French Toast
午餐 — 豬潤餐蛋麵 + 奶茶 + 咖央西多士

After that, we were hungry for real food again.  My cousin took us to this famous shop for noodles… and dang was it GOOD.  It basically was like ramen noodles with amazing (liver) soup!  Very tasty!  We also got their dessert which is french toast… but so well made and drenched in egg.

4. 利強記北角雞蛋仔 LKK (North Point 北角)
Snack — EggCake?
小食 — 雞蛋仔

EGG CAKES ARE SO GOOD- and almost ridiculosly HARD to find in New York- only places that have it, Taipan (CT&Flushing) and ONE little lady who stands somewhere near Elizabeth St in Chinatown that sells 20pieces for $1.50!  But in Hong Kong- they are everywhere… and my cousin took us to the most famous one!  It was delicious- it’s sweet and chewy- it’s like eating little balls of pancake.

5. 煥林粉麵食店 (Causeway Bay 銅鑼灣)
Snack — Fishball
小食 — 秘製沙茶魚蛋

FISHBALLS are a specialty in Hong Kong- you can find fishball soup/noodles everywhere on the street.  My cousin took us to one of the famous ones- and we tried them.  I love curry fishballs…..!

6. 丹麥餅店 Danish Bakery (Causeway Bay 銅鑼灣)
Snack — Fried Chicken Leg
小食 — 炸雞脾

FRIED CHICKEN. YES! This place is notorious for their fried chicken.  We went and got some.  The skin is so juicy and perfectly crispy!! It is such a perfect snack!  I love chicken…. bwaah.  And yes, we ran into a 7-11 to pick up some drinks and ate them on the street.

7. 九記牛腩 Kau Kee Restaurant (Central 中環)
Dinner — Beef in Soup
晚餐 — 上湯牛爽腩, 上湯淨牛腩

All right, we traveled to our next destination in search for the best beef brisket in all of Hong Kong… and man was it good.   I have never in my entire LIFE eaten such tender, perfectly marinated beef in my life. dang.  I only was able to consume a bite by this point.. but still.. so … so… GOOD.

8. 鏞記酒家 Yung Kee Restaurant (Central 中環)
(The most famous restaurant in HK)
Dinner — Fried Goose, Fried Rice
晚餐 — 燒鵝, 炒飯

I didn’t even bother posting pictures of this place.  It’s your typical chinese restaurant, supposedly the most FAMOUS resturant in Hong Kong.. but yo, the service was terrible and we waited like 30 minutes for our fried rice and about 30 minutes for our table.  Not my favorite.  You can skip.

9. 坤記煲仔小菜 Kwan Kee Claypot Rice (Sai Ying Pun 西營盤)
Dinner — Claypot rice
晚餐 — 煲仔飯 : 蠟味煲仔飯, 排骨煲仔飯, 窩蛋牛肉煲仔飯.

CLAYPOT RICE! SO YUM.  The reason why we steam the rice in these pots is to allow the flavor to REALLY SINK IN.  The rice was delicious and the soy sauce and meat… oh man.  Look how happy these guys are!

That concludes my tour.  SPECIAL THANK YOU to my cousin Alfred Chung, for setting this entire thing up, and researchin everything for me!! And also thanks for the eaters to join: James Chung, Will and George Yung (who are my cousin’s god-brothers but like good sports came along for the long ride!)

I also got the finally try the normal “scallion pancake” here in Taiwan.  I bought it off some lady selling it in Xinmendeng.  It was tasty.. sigh.  So tasty…

For more Taiwan Food updates, check out Taiwan Day 1 // Taiwan Day 2: Pt 1 // Taiwan Day 2: Pt 2: Shilin Night Market
Hope you guys enjoy and visit Taiwan to EAT EAT and EAT!!

Now this post is going to be crazy long, and crazy fun.  I was given the opporunity to scope out one of the biggest attractions of Taiwanese Tourism – the Night Markets.  Where all the food magic becomes real.  I was lucky enough to have a native Taiwanese-r, Miss Angelina Lee take me- and take me to only the best spots and the most delicious spots.  So be prepared to witness this amazing feast.  (which, thank goodness the food there is so cheap, because we literally took a bit or two of everything and moved onto the next adventure)  It was a amazing experience and one that can never be duplicated!

1. Shilin Fried Chicken: really famous, really good fried chicken
Notes: “it WAS better, until it got super famous, now they don’t make it with the quality that it once had- but still good” – Angelina
still thought it was yummy!! – but, can be very dangerous… lol
2. Wontons: MAD delicious.  They’re made on the spot, throw into a pot of soup, and then covered with this delicious sauce.  The texture is perfect, tasty and definitely memorable.  I personally usually hate wontons, but these were goooood.
3. Coffin Bread – Toast with Mayo and Beef inside.  Yummy crispy, it’s strange because its salty AND sweet at the same time.  Good for one or two bites, but definitely is too rich to polish off oneself.  It’s supposedly a specialty in Taiwan..

4. Smelly Tofu / Oyster Pancake – I LOVE SMELLY TOFU! Most people can’t stand the taste or the smell of it, but it is so delicious! I was happily able to try the real deal in the real place, and was pleasantly amazed at how tasty it was!  It’s sad that the only place I can get it in NY is at 66- but it is still satisfying.

5. “Dan Bing Bao” – It’s like a cookie that was placed into a crepe-like wrap, and then pounded to a crisp.  I got the taro flavor.  It’s suppose to be so good that even the famous Chow Yan Fat came here to eat it.  (there was a picture of him on the sign)

Shilin is a big market, we then went off to the other part of the Market which encompasses both regular shopping AND food shopping.

6.  Strawberry Sticks – Strawberry covered with some kind of sweet hard candy shell.  After you break through, the strawberry is EXTREMELY fresh and tasty!  Suggest sharing this one- it’s super sweet….

7. Grass Jelly Tea – So after all that eating… we should drink something right?  Something refreshing and cool, we tried this strange lime-grassjelly drink.  It was awesome and tasty, and the frog seems to be their mascot… although I have no idea why…

8. Tofu on a Stick:

9. Pork Buns! This was good, it was freshly made, like, they were placing the pork INTO the buns while we watched, and the line was tremendous as well.  Angelina told me that pork buns are common in Taiwan- and night markets, but THIS place in particular was well known for the BEST.. so I was excited to try it- and it WAS indeed VERY delicious.

10.  Pancake Balls- this was weird, it was a hallowed out pancake in the shape of a ball.  It was tasty and light as well.

11. “Birds Eye” – little dough with eggs inside.  The reason why they call it birds eye is because the yolk looks like a birds eye.  Haha, so clever, no?

12. Steamed Tofu – as we all know, smelly tofu is super popular in Taiwan, but I was also told that I had to try the steamed Tofu as well.  It was tasty- but nothing as good as the crispy fried smelly tofu

13. Indian Tea – this isnt a native Taiwanese thing, but they had this guy  making tea in the most interesting way.  It was like playing a game, so I ordered one… and watched him work it…. haha.  The tea was super good though, it tasted a little bit like Thai Iced Tea, but they also serve it in this ghetto garbage black bag, and it was very cute.  So I liked it.

14. Shaved Milk Ice – The last thing on my menu.  Angelina took me to the most famous place for it, and it’s basically shaved Milk-ice.  It’s different from the ice that they have in the US, where they just put shaved ice, with toppings on top and then condensed milk.  Here, I think they shave both the milk and ice TOGETHER, so that the ICE is actually infused with a MILKY taste- and it’s delicious!  I ordered the Taro one, and Angelina got the green tea/ red bean combo.  Both were delicious!!  

And so that (FINALLY) completes the adventure at Shilin Night Market.  I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and check out more of my Taiwan Food updates!

For more Taiwan Food updates, check out Taiwan Day 1 // Taiwan Day 2: Pt 1 // Taiwan Day 3