Din Tai Fung

I am currently craving Shao Long Bao aka soup dumplings! There are couple places in San Francisco that serve pretty good ones, but right now, I am craving specifically the ones from Din Tai Fung in Arcadia, CA! What sets Din Tai Fung's shao long bao apart from others, and what makes their dumplings so memorable is the shao long bao's skin or wrap. It is thinner and seem less floury or doughy than others, yet it holds in the fillings and soup very well!

I'd been there twice so far, and both times, there was a wait. The service is okay, not super. Once walked into the restaurant, they have a room with see through window which you can watch the chefs rolling the dough, wrapping dumplings and steaming them.

Shao Long Bao

They have few kind of shao long bao here. I only tried the pork and vegetable ones and the crab meat ones. The pork and vegetable ones are my favorite. They are flavorful and juicy! They taste great with or without the dumpling sauce. The crab ones tasted almost exactly the same as the pork and vegetable ones because I could not taste crab at all.

The way to eat one: Take some ginger from the sauce bowl and with that drizzle some sauce on top.

Pork & Vegetable Dumplings - Pork & Vegetable fillings but with no soup

These dumplings contained more fillings than the shao long bao. The fillings were still very juicy.

Beef Stew Noodle - Five spices beef with noodle

The noodle was chewy but the broth was not too flavorful. The bowl only comes with a few pieces of beef and they are pretty rough.

Steamed Black Sesame Buns

The black sesame filling was very thick and pasty. It was also super sweet. I think I would like it better if it's a bit runny and not as sweet. The bun was a little rough and dry.

I highly recommend the shao long bao! I would definitely skip everything else and eat the shao long bao! They are soooo good, one tray is not enough!

2010 Big Eat SF List: #92 Mission Hot Dog Cart & #97 Truly Mediterranean

#92 Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog from a Cart in the Mission (preferably when you're drunk)

So I had these hot dogs before when I was tipsy as well as recently when I was sober. To me, they tasted good either way, but I don't think I would go crazy about them. It is just a regular hot dog wrapped in bacon grilled on top of grease. Then it is covered in generous amount of grilld onions, ketchup, mustard and mayo ( I got mine without mayo). I think anything with grease, grilled onion and mayo would taste delicious! These carts roll around the street of Mission and stop at the corners every so often from 10pm to about 3am. The tip to find them is to look for crowds of people at corners or the edge of the sidewalks.

#97 Lamb Schawerma at Truly Mediterranean

Ah, lamb! I don't like lamb because of the game-y taste but since it's on the list, I must do it! Went to Truly Mediterranean and ordered a Lamb Schawerma and a Falafel Regular. The Lamb Schawerma consists of thin marinated slices of lamb and beef, broiled tomatoes, parsley, seasoned onions, with Tahini sauce on lavash. Lavash is a thin flat bread made with flour, water and salt. It looks like tortilla wrap but different texture and taste. The falafel one is also pretty good and it was also a Best of SF winner awhile back. The lamb was just a teeny bit game-y but manageable. The falafel is greenish and very flavorful. Both wraps were delicious, but they consisted of so much onions that all they left a strong onion after taste the night and the day after even after brushing, flossing and mouthwashing. Remember to bring gum! Also, try not to go late at night because the neighborhood is a bit scary. A homeless kept walking in and swear at the workers. Talking about the workers, they are all Mexican when I was there, and they super friendly. This place is very different from all the fancy Mediterranean places I'd been to, nevertheless, the food tastes good!

Yanagi Sushi & Grill

6599 Dublin Blvd, Dublin, CA
(925) 556-9575
http://www.yanagisushigrill.com/

Went to Yanagi Sushi & Grill one evening for dinner. The place looks really bright and decorative with friendly servers. The restuarant is divided into three sections--the sushi bar, the regular dinning area, and the grill and seating area which reminds me of places like Benihana.

Upon waiting to be seated, the hostess asked where my boyfriend and I want to be seated--at the bar, the grill or the dinning room. I got confused and said anywhere is fine. But I guess we had to make a decision because she just stood until we gave her an answer. We said sushi bar.

Yanagi's menu consisted of sushi, udon, rice, combo, grilled items and Japanese appetizers. We ordered some from each catagory.

My boyfriend wanted oysters, so we order oysters.

Half shelled oyster with ponzu, sirracha, and topped with green onions and tobiko

We though the oysters are the small kind, but they were huge. I dislike oyster, but ate two to help my boyfriend out. The oyster smells fresh, and the ponzu sauce was good, but at the end of the night, when we were home, we were food poisoned. So highly NOT recommended.

Futomaki -- Spinach, tamago, pickled radishes, carrots, imitation crab meat

As always I ordered my futomaki! I like Yanagi's futomaki because the layer of rice is pretty thin, so I can taste everything. I never seen imitation crab meat in a futomaki before. I guess this one is not completely vegetarian.

We also ordered Lava Tataki, which is marinated beef seared on the outside on a grill and then seared again on the top side with a torch.

Lava Tataki - Seared marinated beef in ponzu sauce

I think the tataki was my favorite dish of the night. It was very tender and sweet since it was partially raw. The garlic on the outside of the beef added some spice and kick to the sweetness.

Yakisoba  - stirfry noodle with chicken, shrimps and vegetable with yakisoba sauce

Nothing too special, taste like regular yakisoba. The chicken pieces were a bit rough though. I finished the noodle but not all the chicken.

Combo with Spicy Sesame Chicken, Teriyaki Beef and Yaki Niku.

The combo was huge! It comes with miso soup, salad and rice. The spicy chicken was very tasty but it reminded me of the ones from places like Panda Express. The Yaki Niku was a bit  salty. The teriyaki beef was impressively good. I think it's because they use skirt steak, so it was very tender.

Yanagi really cares about presentation too. Many of the food were nicely placed on the dish and decorated with orchids. We ordered 5 items, and 4 out of 5 contains an orchid. The sushi chef has a box filled with orchids.

The service was okay. I could see the servers attended to the tables very often, but since we sat at the sushi bars, they only come to us once in awhile. And with the food poisoning episode, I would still go back, but just never ever order the oysters again or maybe the lava tateki.

Saturday Lunch with Little Brother

Woke up super early on Saturday to run errands. It was still early when I got home, so I decided to go back out to get grocery to make lunch for both myself and my little brother. I was still very inspired by the clam chowder I had at Hog Island Co., so I decided to make clam chowder. Also, since I still have a lot of my white truffle pate left, I decided to make something that I can add that to and will go great with clam chowder. I thought of pizza!

I went to get some fresh clams, red potatoes, hot sausage links, white corn, and heavy cream for the clam chowder; and then some cremini mushrooms, roma tomatoes, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese and pizza dough for the pizza. Oh! Guess what I found? Quail eggs! My mom always buy them when I was young, and I haven't had them for a long time. So I put them into my basket. I will add them to my calm chowder.

One of the ingredients that go really well with clam chowder is bacon. The smokey flavor of bacon goes great with the freshness of clams and creaminess of the chowder. Since I don't like bacon, I bought hot sausage links instead since they also have a smokey flavor to them, and the oil in them goes great in the chowder. Ask for the pizza, since I didn't want to wait for the dough to rise and such, I bought a prepacked one. If you can find a pizza joint that let you buy pizza dough, you should definitely take the advantage of that since they make the dough fresh.

Saturday lunch consisted of Hog Island Co inspired clams chowder, truffle and cremini pizza and white sangria.

Simmer the clams in enough water to cover it, and save the broth. The broth or the clam juice is going to be used again for the clam chowder. Add a little bit of lemon to kill the fishy taste. After that, add all the ingredients in and lastly, add some milk and cream. Oh, and I added quail egg!

For the pizza, I used Pillsbury's pizza dough. I laid out the dough and then spread a thin layer of white truffle pate on it. A little bit of truffle goes a long way. I love basil in pizza, but I don't want it to kill the taste of truffle, so I left it out. Then top the dough with a layer of tomato sauce, sliced roma tomato, sliced cremini mushroom and lastly, fresh mozarella! Oh, and drizzle a bit of olive oil! Viola!

Bake it in the 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, and you get aromatic delicious semi-home made pizza!

When everything's done, I poured myself a glass of white sangria I made a night before. Perfecto!

Chocolate Cake with Poach Pears

It's pears seaons! Red, yellow and green! So gorgeous looking! How do you like your pears? I like to leave mine out to ripe until soft and eat them with the skin. I usually leave the pears raw or bake with them, but I never poach pears before. So...I am going to try.

From my experience, pears pair very well with honey and ginger, so I am going to poach with those. Poaching is basically simmering the fruits in liquid of choice until soft but not too soft to break.

Poaching liquid:
2 cup of water (or enough to cover fruits completely)
3 tablespoons of honey (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoon of white wine

1 slice of ginger
dash of cinnamon powder

1. Put all the poaching liquid ingredients together, and let it boil.
2. Meanwhile, slice pears in half, and with a round scooper, scoop out the seeds and core.
3. Place pear halves with the flat side up into the poaching liquid, and lower the heat to simmer. By placing the flat side up, the pears are most likely to all immerse into the liquid, this is essential to even cooking.
4. When the pears appear to become clearer, turn off heat.
5. Gently scoop out pears and liquid and let it cool to room temperature. Cover it with saran wrap and place in the fridge.

For the chocolate cake, prepare your favorite chocolate cake recipe.
When pears are cool, assemble it with the chocolate cake, and serve.

I think this whole dish is going to taste great with something creamy like ice cream! So I added a tiny scoop of maple syrup ice cream. Vanilla ice cream also taste very well with it. Bon Appetit!

I Won, Yay!

My work hosted a Lunar New Year cooking contest today. The contest has three catagory: appetizer, main dish and dessert. I entered myself into the dessert one. I was excited not because I want to win, but mainly to see people's reaction to my mango lime cream tart below (recipe here).

I felt bad even though I won because a lot of people entered into the main dishes one and so the chance of winning for them decreased. But yes, I did not know there were only a few people who entered dessert until the day of the competition. I am happy I won but I felt that it wasn't fair.

Anyhow, I think the reaction to the mango lime cream tart was pretty good, but I am sure there is always room for improvement. =)

Oh yeah, I won a 52 pieces kitchen tools set which includes knifes, spatula and such. Cool beans!

I love strawberries and mangoes! The smell, the color and the taste!

My lucky number...7!

Higuma Japanese Restaurant

540 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA

My coworkers and I came here for lunch in the middle of the week. It is one of the few ramen places in Redwood City. Higuma is very small and quite hard to spot when driving down the road, but it is usually filled. Higuma's menu offers ramen, udon, soba, bento boxes and of course sushi.

At lunch time, they have special combos that are decent in pricings.

Spicy Miso - Ramen, chashu, beansprouts, mushroom and dried seaweed

Higuma serves thick ramen in delicious broth. The broth is flavorful but nothing too interesting. The ramen also look pretty simple compared to others.

Chicken Teriyaki and Sashimi Combo - California rolls, assorted fish sashimi, chicken teriyaki, salad, miso soup and rice for only $8.50!

I hesitated about ordering sashimi in bento boxes in every Japanese restaurants, but I ended up orderng it anyways. Most restaurants serve salmon and tuna in their bento boxes, but Higuma is different. My sashimi included white tuna, halibut and I think red tuna. The portion of chicken is just perfect, but a bit too salty for me since the chicken was drench in a lot of teriyaki sauce. The California roll is pretty good, not sloppy and not filled with a lot of mayo.

I would come back to Higuma every time I need a ramen fix. It is nothing too exciting but it's good as it is.

Mango Lime Cream Tart

Recently I saw some mangoes on sale, and immediately I thought about what I can make with them. The first thing that came into mind was limes. I like to pair mangoes with limes because the sweetness of the mangoes balance out the sourness of limes. So, I am going to making mango lime cream tarts.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Granulated white sugar
1/2 cups unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/8 to 1/4 cup of Ice water

Filling:
1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup of fresh or bottled lime juice
1/2 cup of fresh or canned mango puree
1/2 tablespoon lime zest

Decoration:
sliced strawberries

Instruction:

Crust
1. Preheat oven to 375 degree.
2. In a food processor, combine flour, salt and sugar.
3. Add in the butter and process until the mixture resembke coarse meal.
4. Little by little, add in water. The mixture should still look choppy. Pinch the mixture with fingers. If the dough holds together, it is done.
5. Dust work surface with flour. Roll dough into a ball.
6. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
7. After refrigeration, dust work surface with flour again and roll the dough out. It should be a few inches longer than the diameter of the tart dish.
8. Place dough in tart dish and prick the bottom and side of the dough with a forks.
9. Bake the dough for 10-15 minutes until semi-gold brown, and let it cool.

Filling:
1. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degree.
2. In a bowl, whisk together condensed milk and yolks.
3. Whisk in lime juice.
4. Pour filling into crust and bake in the middle rack for 15 minutes.
5. Cool pie completely on rack.
6. Gently, spread mango puree on pie.
7. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours.
8. Decorate with sliced strawberries before serving.

Oh yes, ask for the small amount of condensed milk that stuck on the side of the can, scrap it off and spread it onto a piece of bread. Condensed milk toast! Yummy!

Happy Valentine's Day

I am always glad that strawberries are in seasons around Valentine's Day. Strawberries are perfect for chocolate dipped strawberries or any dessert on Valentine's Day since they are brightly red!

So with all the excess boxes of fresh strawberries I have, I decided to make cupcakes with them. First thing I wanted to include into this cupcake is chocolate! So I am going to make a strawberry cupcake with whipped cream filling and white chocolate frosting.

I garnished it with a strawberry. Then I decided to smother some melted white chocolate onto the strawberry to make it even chocolatier. I should have dip the strawberry first. Next time!

Sorry for the image of the short cupcake. I chose the most imperfect one out of the batch to cut open so I can share the prettier ones with my little cousins. Haha. The strawberry whipped cream just ooozes out...delicious!

Truffle Brunch

There is nothing better than making a quick and delicious brunch to enjoy a lovely and sunny Sunday afternoon. Anxiously, I wanted to try the La Rustichella White Truffle Pate I bought a day ago. I read that white truffle pairs well with eggs, pasta, risotto and Italian cuisine in one of my favorite and useful books I got--The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburgg.

Anyhow, I really want to make truffle egg pasta, but I ran out of eggs, so as always, I just used what I got.

The white truffle pate smells super earthy as expected. Taste-wise, it's more peppery than black truffle. It is very unique. I don't even know how to describe it.

Much trial and errors are going to be done, and this is one of them; and so far so good.

Brunch Menu:

• Drink: Lemon Key Limeade
• Appetizer: White Truffle Pate Swiss Bruschetta
• Entree: Whole Grain Pasta Tossed with White Truffle Cream Sauce

Swiss cheese spread on French bread toasted in oven, and drizzle with white truffle pate.

I chose a subtle cheese so that I can taste the truffle better.

White truffle pate simmered in cream. Whole wheat pasta tossed into the rich cream reduction.

Pasta indeed was a good pairing, I like it more than the bread.

1 part lemon juice, 1/2 part key lime juice and 2 part mineral water

Yummy in my tummy!

Happy Lunar New Year & Happy Valentine's Day

Semi-Homemade Strawberry Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

~make 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For Cupcakes:
1 box of cake mix
1/2 cup of finely diced or chopped strawberries

For Filling:
1/2 cup butter
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup strawberries
1 1/2 cup powder sugar

For Frosting:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup white chocolate
1/8 cup confectioner's sugar

For Decoration:
12 small strawberries
Melted White Chocolate

Instructions:

For Cupcakes:
1. In a mixing bowl, make cake mix according to the cupcake mix box's direction.
2. Mix in chopped strawberries.
3. Line paper cups in cupcake pan. Pour batter in, and baked according to cake mix box instruction.
4. Let the cupcakes cool when done.

For Filling:
1. In a food processor, chopped strawberries finely. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese together with electrical mixer.
3. Add confectioner's sugar and beat the mixer some more.
4. Fold in strawberries mixture.

For Frosting:
5. Meanwhile, in another mixing bowl, beat heavy cream and confectioner's sugar together until soft peaks form.
6. Melt the white chocolates in another bowl in the microwave.
7. Smooth out the chocolate with a fork and let it cool a bit.
8. Fold the white chocolate into the whipped cream.
9. Chill the frosting in the fridge.
10. Clean and dry the small strawberries.
11. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave and smooth it out with a fork.
12. Dip the strawberries in the white chocolate and place them sideway onto a saran wrap or wax paper.

Assemble:
1. With a small knife, cut a circle at the top of the cupcakes and dig a little bit of the cake out.
2. Scoop a little of filling into the cupcake and top the cake piece back into the cupcake.
3. Take a bit of the frosting and top it onto the cupcake.
4. Slice the chocolate covered strawberry in half and place it on top of the frosting.

2010 Big Eat SF List: #40 Taylor's Automatic Refresher, #58 4505 Meats, #96 Mitchell's, and #99 Hog Island Oyster Co

#40 Cheeseburger with Sweet Potat Fries at Taylor's Automatic Refresher 

When I got there around 1pm, the line was out the door and starte to wrap around the corner. Wowzer! This must be good. But I did not want to line up, so I just went back around 3pm. Lucky me, because after I purchased my order, a line started forming again...at 3pm! Anyhow, Taylor's cheeseburger contains a beef patty topped with sliced of American cheese, lettuce, pickles and secret sauce all in a toasted egg bun. The egg bun is something new to me. It was very fluffy and light. If I dump it in a pot of water, it will get soggy really fast. So the bun was real good because it soaked up all the beef juice, sauce and oil. Besides the buns, the whole burger tasted pretty similiar to In & Out because the secret sauce seems to be Thousand Island dressing-liked. The sweet potato fries were okay. It is thick, so it's cripsy exterior and mushy starchy interior. I didn't really find anything good or interesting about it. The sauce that came with it though is divine! I think it's Ranch dressing-liked but blended with some kind of herbs that tasted like cilantro.

#58 Chicharrones from 4505 Meats

I have no idea what chicharrones are before. And when my friend pointed them out to me, I thought they just look so like white, uncolored, oily and unhealthy pork grind! But don't let the appearance fool you because they are some mighty crunchy, sweet, salty and spicy, delicious and addictive goodness! 4505 Meats makes their chicharrones with natural pork, sea salt, cane sugar and the finest chiles. I have no idea if it's made from pork skin, but according to 4505 meats, the textures are results of their "unique cooking techniques using healthy rice bran oil." After reading that, I felt a little better pigging on the chicharrones.

#96 Ube Ice Cream from Mitchell's

I had taro ice cream before, but I never had Ube, which is purple yam, ice cream before. So I was excited. I expect it to taste like taro.Upon walking toward Mitchell's, there's already a crowd gathering inside and outside the shop. I went in and grab a number. Mitchell's has many unique traditional as well as unique tropical flavors. Mitchell also imports some of their exotic or tropical fruits from the Philippines, and use them in their ice cream as well as sorbets.

The ice cream is creamy but not heavy and airy like say, Ben & Jerry. The color of the Ube ice cream is so pretty! But it tastes nothing special. The ube ice cream doesn't taste like root vegetables. I couldn't tell what it tastes like or resembles either.


#99 Clam Chowder at Hog Island Oyster Co.

I came to Hog Island Oyster Co. around 2 something in the afternoon, and there is a long line. But I must be patience for their clam chowder. After my friend and I were seated, we ordered clam chowder and half a dozen of Kusshi oysters from Deep Bay, British Columbia. When the waitress brought us the clam chowder, I was surprised! The soup was not thick at all! It was like a cream colored broth with a pile of clams on top. I took a sip, and oh my gosh, it was filled with clam flavors as well as bacon! The clams still have their shells intact, so slurping them off the shells with the broth is so fun and good! This clam chowder inspired to make something similar!

Flan

One of my coworkers loves making and bringing flan to our work potluck. I love it! It's smooth, creamy and not super sweet. It also smells so good! He said it's very easy to make, and he wasn't kidding. The recipe he gave me not only have few ingredients but also easy instruction (recipe from cooks.com).

Flan Spanish Custard

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 - 12oz can Evaporated Milk
1 1/2 cup Milk
3/4 cup Sugar (for Caramel)

Instruction:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. In a deep corningware dish, stir sugar in it at low heat until it becomes caramel.
3. In a blender, mix all other ingredients together and pour into corningware dish.
4. Place corningware into a bigger and deeper pan filled with water.
5. Bake for at least 1 hour (depends on how deep or shallow your baking dish is) or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Mixture may seem like Jello but it is cooked.
6. Take it out of the oven and let it cool and chill for 3 to 4 hours.
7. Loosen sides of flan with knife, and put plate over the pan and carefully invert it.
8. Scrape all the caramel over the flan.

PPQ Dungeness Island Vietnamese Cuisine

2332 Clement St, San Francisco, CA

(415)386-8266
http://www.ppqdungeness.com/

So couple days ago, my boss told me about my work rating and bonus for 2010, and I was super thankful and happy. I went home, told my mom and decided that the first thing I wanted to do with the money is to treat my family to dinner since they always have to deal with my cranky self after work. I asked my parents where they want to go, and told them about Vietnamese style crab restaurants, dumpling restaurants, and bunch of restaurants in our home areas. Ten minutes after my dad got home, we decided to go PPQ Dungness Island.

Parking was super hard around that area, even on a Wednesday night around 8pm. We were seated immediately since the restaurant was half empty that night. But I can see the restaurant would be very spacious even when it's packed. The service wasn't too great in the beginning because they lacked staffs. Awhile later though, more staffs came out to help, and then the service was pretty good.

My family and I decided to order the "Dinner for 4" and an Imperial Roll because my little brother loves that.

Oh yes, I heard their Roasted Crab and Peppercorn Crab are their most popular dishes.

The "Dinner for 4" includes:

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

The Soft Shell Crab was sprinkled with salt and pepper. It was very crispy but too oily for my taste.

Cabbage Salad with Chicken - Shredded green and purple cabbage, chicken meat, cucumbers, mints, and basil topped with fried garlic slices

The salad was sweet and tangy, quite refreshing! There were right amount of mints and basils, and fried garlic, so they didn't overpower the cabbage taste. The chicken meat reminds me of the one that you can get out of the can though.

Roasted Crab - Dungeness crab roasted with garlic butter

Wow! This is good! The meat inside were infused with garlic flavor also. The crab was fresh and very, very juicy. The dish was also very aromatic.

Steamed Shiitake Sea Bass - Sea bass steamed with garlic and shiitake in soy sauce, topped with green onions

I never knew sea bass could be cooked this way! This was my favorite dish of the night. The natural buttery flavor and texture of the sea bass paired super well with the garlic. The meat was so soft and rich. The shiitake taste was pretty strong and apparent too. I think my mom and I are going to try to remake this dish some times soon.

Smokey Pork - Marinated grilled sliced pork placed on top of a sizzling platter

My little brother loves ordering this whenever we go to a Vietnamese restaurant, especially at PPQ Noodle House, which was a brother restaurant of PPQ Dungeness Island. But to our disappointment, this one at PPQ Dungeness Island was super salty! The meat was also rough. I didn't eat much of this even though it has a nice smokey flavor.

Braised String Beans - Deep fried string beans braised with minced beef, garlic and onions

This was very tasty, but wasn't as good as the ones my mom made! Anyhow, the beans were quickly fried to weaken the hard skin of the bean. Since it was fried, it tasted oily also. I think what this dish needs is some white pepper.

Garlic Noodle - Noodle cooked with garlic and butter

Hmm Hmm Hmm! Garlic and butter tastes good with everything! By the time all the dish came out, I realized they all have one thing in common (exclude the Smokey Pork)...they all have garlic in them! I was overwhelmed and my breath was very stinky already, But I could not stop myself from eating this. The last time I had garlic noodle was at Crustacean, which I recalled the noodle to be very oily. This wasn't the case at PPQ. It was garlicky and buttery but not oily. I think they also added some cilatro in this, but it did not overpower the dish.

Deep Fried Banana with Ice Cream - Banana fried with batter and drizzled with maple syrup. Plated with mango and coconut ice cream

Deep fried banana can never go wrong. The banana was perfect, it was not raw or overly ripe, so the texture was perfect underneath the crunchy exterior. The ice cream texture was super hard, not airy at all. The mango didn't taste like mango. The coconut was okay.  I told my mom what I just said, and she was like "this is not an ice cream shop". I know, I'm picky.

The food was good overall. The portions are huge, so order "Dinner for 4" for 5 people and order "Dinner for 2" for 3 and so on. I also think that the type of food they serve are very heavy when eaten together. The fried dishes, the garlic dishes and buttery dishes all together just made me feel very bloated. I notice many tables just order crabs, garlic noodle and sip on wine and beef with that. I think that is just perfect!