Restaurant #28: Quan An Viet Nam

It was a first time for five years that I ate Vietnamese food. I barely eat it, because they use a lot of MSG for the soup and I easily got headache back in the States. But since I saw many Vietnamese restaurants in Taipei, I wanted to try!

This small family restaurant is located near HOLA and B&Q (like Home Depot). You need to take a bus to get there. The décor is simple but organized. I think the hygiene is okay. There is a menu on the table, so you choose some items and give those to the chef/owner at the counter. My friend and I ordered猪排烤肉飯 (Com Suong Nuong: Grilled Pork Chop Rice) (NT$60) and 猪肉河粉 (Hu Tieu: Pork Noodle) (NT$65).

Grilled Pork Chop Rice

This was my friend’s choice. This was very good. The pork was marinated with a bit sweet sauce, but I could eat it. Slices of cucumber made the dish colorful. It came out with a cup of soup and sour and sweet sauce. Quantity was appropriate for one person.

Pork Noodle

I chose this, even though I know that I would get headache again. I really like all kinds of noodle. Their noodle was simple; rice noodle, pork, sprout, and garlic. The soup had a great taste, but a bit sweet and unfortunately MSG taste. After I finished a half of the bawl, I became thirsty… This item came with a cup of soup, but I rather have noodle only with NT$60. Am I too stingy?(^^;;;)

Since I barely eat Vietnamese food, I cannot tell their food was good or not. At least I enjoyed their decent hospitality and their food. I would like to go back there, and want to try their fresh spring rolls next time.

Total: NT$ 125 (for 2 people)

Quan An Viet Nam
No.693, Jingping Road
Zhonghe City, TAIWAN
02-22431372

Sapporo Autumn Fest 2009: Part 2

After eating at 5-chome site, my family and I moved to 6-chome site. Soon we regretted that we should’ve waited until we checked all the food before we ate. At this moment, I was already full, but this 6-chome site has more delicious dishes. We couldn’t resist. We bought some dishes again! 6-chome site provided many international tapas and a wine/beer bar. I saw some Indian and Spanish restaurants, and some European beer and wine. My uncle tried German beer and he loved it.

“Miso Motsu" (味噌モツ煮込み) with Sapporo Beer

If you like Japanese or Korean BBQ, you know we eat guts. This was stewed guts with miso. Guts became very tender and no needed to chew. Taste perfect with the beer. Sapporo Ichiban!

“Vegetable Samosa” (500 yen)

It was a first time to eat samosa, a popular Indian snack. Unfortunately, it was already cooked and was cold. Yet, it was still tasty and I was surprised that this little thing made me full very quickly. Mashed potatoes were mixed with curry powder and some spices.

“Crème Brûlée”

It was tasty, but was too sweet for me. I only ate half.

Soba Making

We saw some Japanese noodle restaurants as well as other international food booths. There was a booth that you could actually experience how to make Soba, Japanese noodle. It was cool! Japanese noodle has long traditional history. When you experience it, you will understand the reason why Japanese appreciates the tradition.

to be continued...

Restaurant #12: Hathi, Sapporo

Hathi is an Asian food restaurant at Daimaru department store. Yes, again at Daimaru. You know the reason why I often go to Daimaru department store is because their restaurants are all non-smoking. Believe or not, a developed country, Japan, still allow people to smoke at public restaurants. Come on! Now they have been trying to make more non-smoking areas, but still not enough. Izakaya or small restaurants cannot be banned smoking yet. I believe the right for smokers, yet please, public restaurants should be non-smoking…

Hathi has Vietnamese food as well as Thai food. I barely eat Vietnamese food since I saw how much MSG they had used, but I was attracted by their lunch menu. Therefore, I decided to try out. I ordered Grilled Chicken Lunch Plate (1380 yen).

I liked their menu. The price is affordable, and they have variety of small dishes and set menus. The décor, however, is old-fashioned. The space was large enough and possible to decorate much better. Yet, they used terrible table cross and chair. The food price is not cheap, but the restaurant looks like it. I liked, though, the opened kitchen.

Grilled Chicken Lunch Plate

This lunch plate made me full easily; pork ciao mein, curry with rice, rosemary grilled chicken drumsticks and green salad, came with a cup of soup and a hot tea. You can choose drinks. In general, their taste was pretty strong to me, and I tasted MSG from their soup. The ciao mein was good, no MSG. They cooked with a slice of lemon—very tasty! Curry was sweet yet spicy—interesting taste. Does Vietnamese eat curry? It was like a keema curry… Rosemary chicken was a big hit! Juicy and crispy with fresh ground pepper. I really loved it!

If you like Vietnamese or Thai food, you perhaps enjoy this restaurant. I might go back there for lunch when I want to eat a lot.

Total: 1380 yen

Hathi, Asian Restaurant
8F, Daimaru department store
Kita 5-jo Nishi 4-chome, Chuou-ku
Sapporo
011-828-1259
http://www.daimaru.co.jp/sapporo/restaurant/index.html