Taiwanese braised pork belly

I was feeling a little cheffy the other day, and thought I'd record my first attempt at cooking my mum's braised pork belly dish. This is a very traditional Taiwanese dish - and a simple recipe, but the results were mouthwatering (as a few friends and colleagues can now attest!)

IPho

My best food scout was doing his usual patrols and noticed that a Vietnamese restaurant had opened in Garema Place so we had to check it out.

Pork and prawn rice paper rolls: $5

The dish photographed way better than it tasted. Each roll was fairly large but consisted mostly of chopped lettuce and I could not taste any fragrant Vietnamese herbs. About halfway into the roll, I noticed a discoloured piece of lettuce...oh wait, nope. It was a sliver of sliced pork that was stuck onto the lettuce. The pork was sliced so thinly (and only one slice in the roll) that I couldn't even taste the pork. It would have been preferable to have a much smaller roll with better pork/prawn to lettuce ratio.

Chairman and Yip

Roasted duck pancake with shitake mushroom

There was a complex combination of flavours and textures (juicy roast duck pieces, chives, shallots, shitake mushroom, a crispness of the chestnuts, and sweetness of the hoisin sauce). Unfortunately, I felt like the duck was chopped too finely and wished I could taste more of the duck flavour. It could have been San Choy Bao filling in a pancake with hoisin sauce.

Fun Ma Cafe

I am not normally a religious person, but I might be inclined to believe in a higher power after discovering Taiwanese cuisine in Canberra. Ever since I moved here, I have searched high and low for the nostalgic dishes from the mother country. With no luck, I began wishing someone would open up a Taiwanese restaurant in Canberra. I was beginning to give up hope when I stumbled across one last week on my way back from the dentist!

Fun Ma Cafe, describes itself as 'Canberra's first Taiwanese cuisine' on their Facebook page, and is only around the corner from my work! Hurrah!

On discovering the cafe, I was overwhelmed by the menu. Mind you, it wasn't because the menu was particularly extensive, it was because all the items were so familiar to me that I couldn't choose what to order! The dishes that jumped out at me were the pork chop with rice, the Taiwanese style chicken nuggets with rice, Taiwanese style beef noodle soup, unagi with rice and the three cup chicken with rice.

Courgette

Dinner at dusk...gorgeous, green surroundings...crisp, white tablecloths...elegant table setting.

Appetisers - Caramelised onion tartlets with goat’s cheese

Complimentary canapés - perfect combination of sweet and savoury in the one mouthful.

The Grand Hotel

Description from Wikipedia about The Grand Hotel:

The Grand Hotel retains the elements of classic Chinese architecture in its building. It is not only the most splendid landmark of Taipei, but representative of contemporary palatial architecture.

I went to the Grand Hotel this year in March for the Farewell Banquet of a work conference. It was every bit as palatial as it looks in the pictures*. It's not surprising at all that this magnificent establishment has played host to many foreign dignitaries. What was surprising - the quality of food matched the majestic architecture. I wondered if this was the kind of place that relied on the beauty of the interior design and didn't worry too much about putting effort into the food.

I needn't have worried. The pork pies (top left) melted in my mouth when I bit into the pastry, and the selection of cold entrees explored different textures (crispy duck skin, creamy salad, the unique flavour of the fish roe and the crunchiness of the jellyfish). The other dishes were delicious in their own right, but the standout dish for me was the unagi (Japanese eel) with Chinese-style sticky rice. What a perfect fusion dish!

*Pictures of the Grand Hotel were not taken by me, they were sourced from Google images.

Coming soon - my next post will feature a review of Courgette!

What a legend!

I’ve been to Legends Spanish Restaurant in Manuka a few times since I moved to Canberra in 2008 and it has never let me down. The first time I went was a romantic evening for two.  He ordered the garlic and chilli prawn tapas to share and they were unforgettable. I had never had prawns that amazing in my life before and I don’t think I have since.

The restaurant has evolved over the years. It used to be upstairs, above a nightclub called Minque. Legends has now taken over and renovated the space that Minque used to occupy. I didn’t take any photos of the restaurant, but it now has a modern and vibrant interior.

Legends has always been a “special occasion” kind of restaurant for me. When my parents came down to Canberra, I took them to Legends. When Taiwanese visitors came to Canberra and they asked me where they should go for dinner, I suggested they go to Legends. Everyone I know, who has been, is always impressed by the quantity and quality of their banquets. A friend, C, who has heard me speak highly of this restaurant was keen to try it out and organized an outing, the subject of this review. It had been over a year since I had last visited, so I wondered if the quality of the food was as good as it used to be. I hoped so.

Naturally, we ordered a banquet. We chose the $40 banquet, which came with a selection of tapas to share and a paella for the main. Lucky for me, the garlic and chilli prawn tapas were on this banquet menu and I was keen to see if they were still as delicious as I remembered them to be. Unfortunately, the prawns lacked the intense flavour I remembered, but I’m not sure if that was because I had since built up the memory of them as better than they actually were…