2011-06-30

Cooking #01: Omi Beef Stake, Sapporo

Everytime I go back to my home, my mother prepared delicious foods for me. She is a great chef, and also she is lucky to have a chance to use fresh, delicious materials which are grown in Hokkaido. Let me share some dishes from my kitchen table!

Omi Beef Stake

Simple medium cooked stake, with salt and pepper. Beef was…tender!!! Once I bit, it melted in my mouth. It was amazing. Usually, this level of quality of beef was not easy to buy, but my mother luckily bought this Omi beef in Daimaru department store. Today was a lucky day… I wish I could eat this quality of steak outside… in reasonable price.

Fried Tofu & Bok Choy

This is also a simple dish. Fresh Boc Choy, sprout and special tofu from Niseko area. When I go back to my home, my family visits Niseko. Niseko is blessed with pure water from Mt. Yotei, and many travelers from all over Hokkaido bring empty bottles to pull spring water. There are several small stores where visitors can buy fresh vegetables. One Tofu store called “Wakimizu no Sato” became famous because their tofu was made with natural spring water of Niseko. Not only pure simple tofu, but also their original items, festinate me! We only bought spicy tofu this time, but I personally liked their Grounded soybean curd donuts. It was a bit sweet, and healthy as you can imagine. I definitely want to go back there again and buy more various tofu.

Bonito Sashimi

You can enjoy these gorgeous bonito sashimi ONLY in Hokkaido! No fishy smell, because it was so fresh. Don’t forget to eat with Wakame as well. Slices of green perilla (Shiso: しそ) was enjoyable, but doesn’t kill the fresh taste of sashimi. It was purely fresh.

Hmm… Always, mother’s food is the best in the world, right?

2011-06-01

Restaurant #54: Kaffe Amadeus, Taipei

(Visited at Jan 31, 2011)

Kaffe Amadeus is located in SOGO FuXing—easy to access. I like FuXing SOGO, because the building is still clean and organized. This Kaffe Amadeus operates the other branch in Taipei 101, but I prefer SOGO branch with nicer view. My friend and I met at 11:30 for lunch. The café was quite empty, but slowly more and more customers came. I recommend you to go there before noon. I ordered business lunch set—daily soup, salad, bread, main course, and coffee.

Oops! Sorry I forgot to take a photo of a salad.

Daily Soup

Daily soup was pumpkin soup. It was not bad, but I should say it was nothing special. There was no pumpkin’s sweet-taste, it was too mild for me. Oh well, it came with lunch set, so I should simply enjoy it.

Garlic Bread

It was purely enjoyable. I always like garlic bread.

Tomato Cream Pasta with Salmon & Asparagus

Main dish was Tomato Cream Pasta. It is not easy to find good cream pasta in Taipei, but I liked this one. The blend of tomato and cream was quite interesting taste. Asparagus was very fresh, and it was matched with this sauce. I like salmon in general, but the smell of fish might be a bit strong.

Vienna Coffee

I could choose one drink in their gorgeous coffee/tea list. I chose Vienna Coffee. It was so creamy, and the cream was melted in my mouth. My friend chose Hot Chocolate. Hot milk was served with chocolate bar, then the chocolate bar was put into milk, so that the chocolate melted… Tempting... I should try this next time.

Overall, I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant, and foods are also fine. The price is a little bit expensive, I think, but sometimes it is okay to spend a bit more to enjoy different feeling.

Kaffe Amadeus
http://www.kaffeeamadeus.com/home.htm