Gastro Monkey // 美食家

One of my greatest pleasures in life while in Taiwan is breakfast. Yes, I know you can get a lot of it in LA or San Jose or scattered around San Francisco/San Mateo, but it really can't compare to the way it's prepared and the way it tastes in Taiwan. So while my first stop generally is in Taipei, I am trying to reacquaint myself with a lot of the good places in the South. While it's my first time to 田記, I looked through a ton of blogs and reviews on Foursquare to pick it to try. In case you didn't know, the foods in the South tend to be on the sweeter side. Growing up, I didn't realize it because I didn't go to Taipei. After living in the North and re-visiting the South, I can see that there is a pretty big sweetness difference in the food. Case in point, the salty soy milk at 田記. It's actually very sweet for a salty soy milk. It's not bad at all, but I was not prepared. I ended up adding more vinegar and chili to mine and still found it enjoyable....

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am always looking for a few favorite items. I like eating a lot of things, but certain things I feel like the search is never ending. These are my comfort foods, and because I can't make them the way I like it myself, I have to maintain the hope that someday, I'll find something relatively close to where I live. Shanghai Restaurant is located in Oakland's Chinatown. It's a comfortable little space, and the owners speak Shanghainese (this always makes me feel better, like having a Taiwanese person make my pearl milk tea). I ordered the salty soy milk with some oily sticks, stinky tofu, soup dumplings, and pan fried buns.  The salty soy milk was alright. Better than the other places I had tried before in the Bay Area, so it means I would actually go back for it again. I don't know how the places in Taiwan make it so good, but compared to those ones, this one lacked flavor. I added some vinegar in there and it was better. ...