Taiwan Day 9

By grace.g.yang ยท June 14, 2010
Under: Asian,Cheap Eats,Chinese,Cupcakes,Desserts,Dinner,My Life,Nightlife,Prix-fixe,seafood,Sushi,Taiwan,Travels

On Saturday, my aunt picked us up to meet up with my cousin at a sushi restaurant, Mitsui. Mitsui is a really popular place right now because it was in the papers a little bit ago; the last president, Chen Shui-Bian, was very corrupt and his son used to discuss insider trading operations at Mitsui. Reporters went to the restaurant and photographed Chen Sui-Bian’s son there and also realized that they have really good food at reasonable prices, so people started flocking to the restaurant:

mitsui

We arrived when they first opened and were prepping for lunch:

matsui

The restaurant is probably one of the trendier restaurants I’ve visited in Taipei; they have a younger staff, everyone speaks English, and their tableware is a lot edgier than the traditional stuff I’ve seen at other restaurants:

tableware

Eric has been to the restaurant numerous times and suggested that we order the lunch special. It’s about $40 USD per person, but he assured us that it was a lot of food and it was definitely the best deal. We started off with lots of sashimi:

sashimi

Every piece of fish was delicious, especially the fatty tuna and the mackerel (our favorites!). The fresh scallop also had an amazingly creamy texture that David and I both enjoyed.

Next came our salad:

salad

The Japanese mountain yam was my favorite; it’s slightly sticky but very crunchy and light. They also have a special dressing that’s a little spicy.

Next came a large order of Dungeness crab:

crab

The crab meat was steamed in salt water and also came with a side of cracked almonds that were plump and a little chewy – the first time I’ve ever eaten those types of almonds (they didn’t have much taste, but were very fun to squish)

Next came an order of pan fried fish:

fish

Then our soft-shelled crab:

softshellcrab

I was able to eat two orders of the crab because David gave me his (yay!) The sauce was creamy and almost tasted a little smokey (like my mom’s red pepper dip).

Next, the waitress brought along our soup:

soup

And the seafood and vegetables to put in our soup:

soup 2

The waitress delicately placed everything in the soup and served us:

soup3

And then they brought along more food! Steak that was grilled and placed on a tobacco leaf:

steak

For dessert, we had the option between red bean soup and green tea ice cream. David and I went with the ice cream:

green tea dessert

And Eric went with the red bean soup:

red bean

The three of us with our desserts:

cousins

After our wonderful lunch with Eric, we parted ways and went back to our hotel to wait for my mom to finish teaching. Eric picked me up later that night to go to the night market to pick up some last minute gifts and to walk around. We also went to YoFroyo:

yo froyo

The menu is pretty straightforward but has suggestions for topping combos:

yo fro yo 2

Eric ordered a medium green tea frozen yogurt with mochi, jelly, and red bean:

fro yo

It only cost $2USD! It’s super popular in Taipei (I think it’s the only YoFroyo store in the city but I could be mistaken) and it was really good, especially with the jelly and red bean. AND THERE WAS NO HOLE!

Eric took me to a store that sold tons of different types of candy so I could buy some:

candy 2

And then we went to a bakery to buy more mochi and other sweets. Right now, cupcakes are pretty fashionable:

cupcakes

Their baked goods are so much more beautiful (and tasty) compared to the ones you find in the US! Here are some beautiful birthday cakes:

cake

The bakery we went to also sold a lot of different types of bread – the baker even won a contest: Best bread in Taiwan! Here are some of his salty creations:

baked goods

After walking through the bakery and picking up lots of goodies, we met up with my dad. My dad spent the evening at a television studio because he was on a guest panel – I actually flipped through the channels before meeting up with my cousin and saw him on TV discussing his research! Apparently he’s quite the celebrity in Taiwan and goes on television ALL THE TIME! Since he spent the evening doing a live taping, he hadn’t eaten dinner and we decided to get some soup at this restaurant:

ramen

We ordered the seafood ramen, which came with lots of abalone and lamb:

seafood ramen

After eating dinner, my dad dropped me off at home and we started packing – only one more day in Taiwan!

Reader Comments

That sashimi looks so luscious and fresh! The lunch was definitely a good deal.

#1 
Written By Jessica on June 15th, 2010 @ 6:08 am

i love mountain yam ๐Ÿ˜€ and it’s so good for u toooooo !!!

#2 
Written By miss tiffie on June 17th, 2010 @ 2:39 am

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