Gastro Monkey // 美食家

I love birthdays. Not my own so much, but I enjoy celebrating with other people. And of course, one of my favorite people is the boyfriend. It's always tough picking a place to take him for his birthday since his palate is even more refined than mine, but what can you do? We had been to La Folie before as suggested by a friend with very good taste. We weren't disappointed then, and we were not disappointed this time either. We had just enjoyed our underwhelming anniversary dinner in Napa at Auberge du Soleil in Napa, and he seemed full of trepedation. Eventually, he settled on La Folie. We love trying new places, but at the same time, if it ain't broke, why fix it? I filed away the place I had thought about taking him to for another time and made the reservation for La Folie. Service was perfect, just like the last time. I love consistency. And speaking of consistency, we somehow ended up at the same exact table as the last time! We both drooled over the menu; everythi

For my birthday this year, I knew exactly how I wanted to celebrate. I'm not into having big parties; I'm into eating good food. Knowing that I wanted to go to Seattle for my birthday (as I have done every other year or so), there was just one place that I really felt like I needed to go to--Sushi Kashiba. If you have talked to me at all about food in the past few years, you would know that I attempted to eat at Shiro's so that I could see him in action. This didn't work out the way I originally planned, as he didn't seem to be there that night. Luckily, Nakazawa-san was there, and after a 45 minute wait, I had one of the best food experiences of my life. I have a separate blog entry dedicated to that night here  or here   (same post, but from both of my blogs) .  Fast forward a few years (almost 3 years, to be exact) to Shiro opening up a new restaurant - Sushi Kashiba. My boyfriend, brother, and I waited eagerly for the opening knowing that it was going to ha

[Reposted from my photography blog for convenience. Originally posted Thursday, March 14, 2013. Hope you enjoy! Please note that Nakazawa-san and Shiro-san both do not work at this location anymore. Nakazawa has opened up his own very snazzy restaurant in NYC ( http://www.sushinakazawa.com ) and Shiro has his newer restaurant Sushi Kashiba.] For those of you who know me, I am all about food. Good food. Food that takes me home. Sometimes it's expensive and sometimes it's not. Recently I went back to Seattle to visit my family. While there, I decided to go to Shiro's. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Belltown because I dislike driving around for blocks searching for parking, but this time, I made an exception.  You can check out more information about his background here:  http://www.shiros.com/html/about.htm . Shiro's is a pretty small intimate place. There are no reservations for the sushi bar (we didn't even think about reservations, we just decided to pop

Technically, I am only going to talk about two of the desserts you can get in Jiufen. There are other things to enjoy there, but these two were the highlight for me. Jiufen has blown up in popularity and can get pretty crowded, even on rainy days. Have that in mind when making your trip out here. Getting out to Jiufen from Taipei is pretty easy. Actually, getting just about anywhere in Taiwan is super easy. You can take the bus, train, or a cab just about anywhere (if you don't feel like renting a car or scooter).  Jiufen is a pretty small place with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. If you walk along the main thoroughfare, you'll pass by lots of shops that sell all of the local goods along with cute little knick knacks. There are also lots of restaurants and tea houses to choose from. Hard to go wrong with any of them. Just go for the one with the most people and you'll be rewarded. I've been to two of the tea houses there so far and enjoyed both. The view is f