food that makes me wax poetic
or go on nonsensical rambles idk
041125
here are the taiwanese beef noodles that i split with my bestie bff forever pookie j***** <333 before seeing the minecraft movie! but if i’m being honest, the egg was the first thing that caught my eye when i was looking over the menu— but i was sorely disappointed when i cut it open and saw that the yolk was fully cooked through. ok, i wasn’t that disappointed, but i really wanted a jammy yolk.
anyways, it had this smell that i just can’t name, similar to the banh mi that i had a few days ago. while my friends were busy lamenting over trump and elon musk (it’s a disillusioned american’s prerogative!), i was deep in thought trying to think about what this smelled like and it clicked! it smells like sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf!!! i’m not sure what makes either of them smell like this (’this’ being super good), but boy was it a treat. the noodles were really hard to grasp with our round chopsticks though, but i’m just going to chalk it up to a skill issue on my end. the beef was really good too!!
overall a lovely meal. i would definitely order it again!
040525
first up is this takoyaki. i know it looks unappetizing because i took a picture of the one i ate after hastily grabbing it from the serving plate, but trust me it was good! i’m not sure if i’ve had takoyaki before; i think i have but i can’t remember. i’m not really sure how i should judge this because i haven’t had many takoyakis, but i enjoyed this one. the inside was soft and creamy while the outside was crunchy, and it wasn’t super oily either. light! my only gripe (and when i say my gripe i mean it’s more like my mom’s because i don’t care much for seafood) is that there was only a teeny tiny piece of octopus inside of it. the real star of the show was certainly the stuff that encased it.
when this bowl of tomato and beef ramen came to the table, my entire family commented on how fragrant it was. or maybe it was pungent to them but i don’t care!!
my usual order whenever we go to a ramen place is tantanmen, but this was a new entry on their menu that caught my eye as soon as i saw a picture of it pasted onto the window. that picture did not do this bowl justice, because prior to seeing (and smelling!) this delicious serving, i was a little apprehensive. the only reason i decided to go with a more adventurous order and not something trusty like their various versions of tonkotsu ramen was because i think i saw a video of japaneats reviewing this dish a while ago. but how glad i am that i threw caution to the wind and ordered it anyways!
the noodles were ok, definitely better than the last time i made myself ramen because i accidentally overcooked the noodles and they ended up a soggy mush— of course they’re better it’s a restaurant!!11
the broth was what i was most curious about before ordering this; i didn’t know that it would have been that fragrant but i really liked it. it was light, not as oily/creamy/fatty (?) as i like my broth to be, but certainly a pleasant surprise nonetheless.
the beef was nice and thinly sliced! i don’t know why but i was expecting thicker cuts— i’m not sure if the picture on either the menu or outside had thicker cuts but i prefer my meat thinly cut anyways so this was good.
the tomato… was a tomato idk they didn’t do anything special to it. definitely at the top of my list in weirdest ramen toppings.
overall, this was my first time having tomato and beef ramen and i would certainly order it again!!
040325
buying the food from this stand was kinda scary because we didn’t know the price until the end and i didn’t have enough cash on hand so my mom spent a while getting her card out and the guy behind us sighed in impatience (;_;) orz my bad bro
anyways this pistachio croissant was shatteringly crumbly (a phrase i heard in a cooking shortform video on a platform i cant remember) and decadent as fuck!! so much so that i’m pretty sure it gave me a fleeting stomach ache. i’m taking off a few arbitrary points for the momentary pain but i’d say it was worth it! the inside had this buttery pistachio filling and the top was, as you can see, decorated with green goodness. in addition, the croissant itself was so good— flaky, buttery (so i guess this was one buttery sandwiched in another), and definitely a nice surprise because i’m used to the costco croissants (not that there’s anything wrong with them).
we went to this vietnamese restaurant soon after i ate the croissant, so i was too full to order a bowl of pho (╯_╰) if i felt hungrier i definitely would have!
instead, i ordered a fried tofu banh mi (so vegetarian! as the waiter pointed out when she read back my order lol) that made me realize i don’t think i’ve ever had a baguette as good as this one. i was a little apprehensive when i ordered it, only doing so because i was too full for anything else on the menu. i’m not sure if it was because i’ve been likening baguettes to the rolls of long french bread my parents will buy on spaghetti night to make garlic bread (thick crusts!), but i was afraid that the bread would make it hard to eat. from a psychoanalytical perspective, one could assume that there’s repressed memories of me eating a banh mi with stale bread…
psychology aside, the bread was seriously the first thing that caught my attention when i took a bite. it was good! or perhaps this is what a banh mi should be and i’ve been eating the short end of the stick.
the insides, which were of various shredded veggies dressed in a light vinegar-something sauce and the fried tofu were also good. the fried tofu especially had a taste and fragrance that evoked vague memories (did i even have these or does my imagination run this wild??) of homecooking. i’m not sure what flavored the fried tofu, and i’m saying this at risk of sounding weird, but it felt like a mishmash of sauces that are staples in an asian pantry. you know what i mean? there was probably some patis in there or something idk.
i’m probably just saying this because i already ate beforehand, but it was surprisingly filling! usually with tofu i’m able to eat a shit ton of it before tapping out, but i think having it in-between a loaf of bread was what made it that filling.