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Cute Diner
Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you had a great holiday because I sure did hehe. We flew back to Taiwan to spend time with our family over winter break. It was an amazing experience. My mom, dad, and sister, and I are the only ones that live in America. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are all in Taiwan, so I was very excited to see them again. And well what better way to talk and reconnect again than through food? Specifically the delicious, unique cuisine of Taiwan. Now Taiwanese and Chinese food are similar but there are some differences. Taiwanese cuisine is centered around smaller, appetizer like dishes, similar to tapas. Its flavor profile is sweeter and more focused on seafood. Taiwan also has made up many original dishes, like boba, stinky tofu, and beef noodle soup. I'm excited to explore all these dishes and more with you! Stay tuned for Taiwanese delicousness :)
Signed, Cute Diner
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Boca is a neighborhood restaurant that we just had to try. To start off, their garlic flatbread is a wonderful appetizer. It's garlic cheesy deliciousness. Moving onto main dishes, their calzones are awesome and huge, stuffed fulled with cheesy goodness. As for their pasta, it's pretty good too, but nothing special. Their clam linguine has lots of clams, so that's a bonus. The gnocchi has a nice texture with average flavor. I think that their dishes were pretty expensive considering how average the food was.
So now I'm absolutely obsessed with Burmese food. Where has this been all my life? Burma Superstar's garlic noodles are the bomb.com. They have the perfect garlic flavor without it being over powering, and the noodles have a wonderful texture. I wish I could slurp them all day. Another dish we ordered was the mango chicken with coconut. This tropical flavor profile is amazingly genius. I enjoyed combining the chicken with the garlic noodles. A dish with a different, but still delicious flavor profile is the eggplant and shrimp in garlic sauce. Eggplants and shrimps are already delicious by themselves, but with the garlic sauce? 10000x even more mouth watering. Honestly, you can't go wrong with any dish at Burma Superstar, just go there! Ahh-mazing. What else can I say? There is nothing better than fresh baked bread, still warm in your hand as you eat it. We practically ordered everything on their menu that wasn't already sold out. First is the fougasse. This combo of ooey gooey swiss, smoky gouda, red bell peppers, and green onions was stellar. It had just come out of the oven too, so it's deliciousness went up by 100. My favorite part of the fougasse is the bits of burnt cheese that oozed out of the bread while it was in the oven mmm. Other treats we bought were the sticky buns. We heard that Wild Flour's were the best, so we had to try it. Honestly, there's a reason the sticky buns are so famous. First of all, they are ginormous with a delectable sugar and cinnamon glaze. And finding the raisins and walnuts in the bread is like finding gold. I'm drooling just thinking about it. A sweet and savory rendition of the sticky buns is the Egyptian. The Egyptian is a sticky bun, but loaded with ginger, figs, and pears. The little bursts of ginger that cut through the sweetness of the bread is genius. Now onto the scones we got (I told you we ordered a boatload :P ). Both the plum marzipan and gravenstein scones were absolutely scrumptious. They were crumbly pockets of butter with yummy fruit incorporated. Ok, I'm super hungry now. If you need me, I'll be one of the many people waiting in line to get first dibs on the newly baked items at Wild Flour.
Happy Holidays! 'Tis the season to bake lots of yummy treats, and these buttery shortbread cookies are so easy and foolproof. They're great for gifting others! All you'll need for these shortbread cookies are:
First preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Take out your electric mixer and beat the butter. Once the butter is fluffy, add in the powdered sugar. After that, slowly add in the flour. Roll out the batter and cut to desirable shapes. (I used cute little heart and flower cookie cutters for mine). Place them on parchment paper. They don't expand, so you don't need to space out the cookies. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden. See, super easy steps for super crumbly, mouthwatering cookies :)
After a morning of exploring the beaches in Fort Bragg, we were in need of food. We decided to go to Piaci's because pizza is good for any situation. To start, we ordered a caprese salad. This was a yummy combo of tomato, mozzarella, and a touch of basil and balsamic vinegar. Then for the main course, we ordered a pizza with two flavors. Half of it was the sorrento, a wonderful blend of pesto, chicken, and mozzarella. I'm starting to appreciate pesto on pizza more. The other half of the pizza was the four seasons. This combo had Canadian ham, mozzarella, tomatoes, and mushrooms. All in all, Piaci's had just what we needed to refuel after hiking all morning.
Dragon Gate is one of my family's favorite Taiwanese restaurants and we go there as often as we can. One thing we always have to order is the fried chicken cutlet lunch box. Taiwanese lunches are very similar to Japanese bento boxes, they both have a little of everything. The chicken lunch came with rice, broccoli, cabbage, and the star of the show, the actual chicken itself. The chicken is so succulent and has a crispy coating. Another way to get your chicken fixing is the fried chicken noodle soup. I recommend asking for the chicken on the side as opposed to in the soup so the chicken doesn't get soggy. The last chicken dish I enjoy is the 3 cup chicken. This dish is a traditional dish made with one cup each of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sugar. It is deeelicous. The one thing is that the chicken is scrap bits of chicken, so you need to watch out for bones. Branching away from chicken, I recently discovered their fried smelt and it is outstanding. The smelt is replete with tiny fish eggs inside and I enjoy it a lot. As for tofu dishes, their brown sweet tofu is the bomb. The tofu is really silky and the sauce is drool-worthy. This dish always comes up bubbling and alive. I have to restrain myself from diving in, so I don't burn my tongue. The aroma of it is just intoxicating. Allow me to give you a warning: Dragon Gate is a gateway restaurant into becoming a Taiwanese food addict.
A Black Bear Diner recently opened in my neighborhood, and it's all everyone could ever talk about. As a result, I had to go try it for myself. After dining there, I had a mix of emotions. Some aspects of it were good, but others not. I applaud their:
It was super hard to decide where to eat in downtown Pittsburgh because there are so many different restaurants there. We finally decided on Nola to try some Cajun food. I'm super glad we made this decision because it was awesome. The waitress recommended the alligator po' boy, so I was like why not? and ordered it. The alligator was fried very crunchy and tender inside. I had never tried alligator before and it was pretty enjoyable, tasted a lot like chicken. The aioli slathered on the po' boy was awesome. We also ordered an appetizer of fried green tomatoes to share. These were delicious. Anything fried is, honestly. This was also my first time trying fried green tomatoes! This dinner was a meal of firsts, and I know that it won't be the last time I'll be eating these dishes. If you want the real East coast bagel experience, go to Bruegger's. I actually saw people making the bagels! That was pretty cool. I decided to try the smoked salmon bagel. This was a great combo and I enjoyed every single bite. This bagel came with salmon, cream cheese, capers, and tomatoes. I customized it on an Asiago bagel because cheese is the best. I really enjoyed all parts of the bagel, and it was really filling. All of these factors contributed to a fantastic start of the day! |
Hi! I'm Jocelyn...Here, I write a blog mainly dedicated to food. Check out my reviews on Yelp! https://cutediner.yelp.com Archives
January 2021
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