Gastro Monkey // 美食家

Last month, I found myself with a free day with absolutely nothing that I needed to do. I haven't had one of those days in a long time so of course, I made my way to the beach to relax. Of course, before the relaxing can officially start, I needed to eat some greasy goodness that could only be made on a griddle, with some coffee that is only referred to as "regular" or "decaf." Pork Store Cafe 1451 Haight St. San Francisco, CA 94117 From 8:00am-9:00am every morning, the Pork Store Cafe has an early bird special. All of the reviews said to try the Pork Store Special which consists of two massive slabs of pork chops, two eggs any style, a generous serving of hash browns, and two slices of toast. If you go during the early bird special, this meal comes with a drink (mimosa, bloody Mary, juice, or coffee) for $10.99. If you miss the worm, you lose out on the drink and it's $15.95. Pretty solid discount if you make it early enough though. Just depends...

A post about a Filipino restaurant has been long overdue on my part. I probably could think of a few excuses for what took so long, but I'll skip that part. Filipino food has a special place in my heart because my dad grew up in Cebu, and my best friend growing up was (and of course still is) Filipino. My dad loves sharing the Filipino part of his life, and I spent way too much time at my friend's house eating all of their food (I feel like I should be more embarrassed that I was known to everyone for eating a lot. It was embarrassing for my mom because it made it look like she didn't feed me). Not only did I grow up on some of the best Szechuanese and Taiwanese food around (my grandma used to teach classes in Seattle because everyone loved her food that much, and it really was that good. I'm not just saying it because she's my grandma); I also had the great pleasure of having some of the best Filipino food around courtesy of my best friend's Nanay, her mom, a...

I visited a friend in Nagoya before who told me  about Nagoya's tabasaki chicken wings. There are quite a few restaurants to choose from there, but she said they should all be pretty good. So, she let me choose. I picked based on the character on all of their signage. I dubbed him "Chicken Boy" after Bruce Willis's character on friends. In the Nagoya location, I ordered the same items and drank the local beer. While we were in Taipei, I wanted the boyfriend to try in case we don't make it to Nagoya on one of our Japan trips. Thus, this is a review of the Taipei location. It's really close to the Taipei City Hall MRT stop. Once you exit, it's just around the corner. You'll see a Chicken Boy standing right by the door. It was pretty busy when we got there, but it's pretty spacious inside so we were able to get a table downstairs. Since it's so spacious, they have the button system. If you need to order anything, just push the button and some...

In Elk Grove, CA there's a sandwich place that used to sell muffulettas.  I thought it was pretty good. Prior to that, I had never heard of a muffuletta so the first one I had was good. I couldn't wait to try the real thing in New Orleans though! If you have never heard of a muffuleta, it's a sandwich unique to New Orleans and has ham, salami, provolone cheese, and their house made olive salad smushed deliciously between a Sicilian sesame loaf. Don't settle for anything less! The bread makes all the difference! Note: I am spelling it the way they do at Central Grocery, although I have seen it spelled muffaletta. I am trusting the creators of this sandwich to spell it correctly. Another Note: You can order the sandwiches ready to eat from their website (linked below).  Central Grocery 923 Decatur St New Orleans, LA 70116 Saint Louis Cemetery #1 300 N Claiborne Ave New Orleans, LA 70112 I didn't know until I arrived in New Orleans that...