Tiffin : Philadelphia

Throughout my first year at school, I was told by Indian classmates that Tiffin was the authentic Indian restaurant to try. It's a touch embarrassing to say that it's taken me a good 1 1/2 years to try this place out. And now my Indian classmates are recommending a different place now (I'll post about that next).

Oh well. At least I got a chance to try this out.

I was rather surprised by Tiffin's website, tiffin.com. My first thought was "Am I at the right website? What are these login boxes doing on a restaurant website?"

It indeed was. Apparently they get sufficient repeat and corporate customers that this online ordering system works for them.

They also have a few very affordable weekday-only meal deals that change everyday, but which prices stay constant: $7.50 for vegetarian, $8.50 for non-vegetarian. This is fantastic for my student budget, but the big downer and a flabbergasting one at that was finding out that the expected delivery time was in 1 1/2 hours.

Oof, you can imagine my gf and I listen to our stomachs growl, pondering whether it was worth the wait.

I suppose it probably makes a lot of sense for the corporate crowd who can routinely make these orders ahead of time. And thinking about it, their slightly polished delivery presentation matches the corporate crowd too, with fancy sticker labels describing the dishes:




On the other hand, to my bemusement, their soda bottles looked like they had been buried in the dirt. And certainly, the "Thums Up" soda label made me smile.



As for the food, we ended up getting a lamb saag and an ajwaini tikka (Chicken). And while it was good, it was nothing particularly mind-blowing. In fact, I kept on thinking that there was an almost slightly metallic taste and soulless quality to the dishes that left me slightly underwhelmed and particularly reminded me of the truly contenting dining experiences at some Indian places in the Boston and Hartford areas.





I'll perhaps give Tiffin another shot. But there's another Indian place that's closer, as highly praised as Tiffin was, and is now competing for my attention. (I'll post next about this other place.) We'll see if it's another 1 1/2 years before trying Tiffin again.


Tiffin
Northern Liberties
710 W Girard Ave. Philadelphia PA
215 922 1297

Mt. Airy area
7105 Emlen St.Philadelphia PA
215 242 3656

www.tiffin.com
Yelp | Craig Laban Review

Korean Taco Truck

Kogi BBQ's Korean-short-ribs taco

There's a NYTimes article of a Korean Taco Truck.

Yeah, I'll let that sink in. The truck is called Kogi BBQ and it updates its location on Twitter so that people can find where it is.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how this would taste.

Kogi BBQ: Website | Twitter

Street Food of Beijing

I'm not sure what show this is from, but it introduces people to street food, both current and past in Beijing:

[via Videosift]

($Chinese)

Best croissant in U.S. in Princeton NJ?

I'm sure that this SeriousEats article's claim that the best croissants in the U.S. are in Princeton, New Jersey is sure to ruffle a few feathers.

If I had a car/time/cash, it sure would be tempting to stop by to see whether the little shop lives up to the claim.

($Bakery)

Flan - Not an unmitigated disaster

I feel like an utter idiot for blogging about making flan from a mix. I mean if a blogger I regularly read, wrote about making jello from a mix, well I'd probably buy myself a dog, just so that I could watch him lick his own balls instead.

For those of you who fall into that category, here's a video of a dog playing with his balls (don't worry, it's not nearly as bad as you envision :P).

Anyways, my one and only point. I've never caramelized sugar before. I didn't know how long it's supposed to take, what happens when it caramelizes, etc. And seeing my sugar clump up and harden into a rock hard texture at the bottom of my bowls that seemed like it was going to be hell cleaning up. Well it just gave me the terrible feeling that I had gone and completely and utterly screwed up flan from a box.

I've got a term for cooking events such as this: an unmitigated disaster in the making. It's where you manage to screw up a dish on every level possible: taste, texture, smell, etc and you can smell the train wreck fumes from a mile away.

Anyways, to make a long pointless story short, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the flan actually turned out fine. It's of course flan from a box so it's nothing special flavor-wise (that and it looks like a decomposing piece of cheese), but it's kind of nice having dishes turn out that you've lost hope on.



So question of the day: what's your unmitigated disaster or averted disaster story?


PS. I'm certainly not advocating anyone go out and buy this, but I thought a random and utterly useless fyi was in order to match my random and utterly pointless blog post. Amazon sells these Goya Flan mixes in Packs of 36. Just fyi in case you need flan for your post-apocalypse emergency kit.

($Cooking)

Best doughnuts in NY

I was craving a donut this morning and ended up stumbling upon a list of New York's Best Doughnuts by seriouseats. Just fyi, if you find yourself in NY and have a hanking for donuts or other similar deep fried treats.

Serious Eat's New York Doughnut roundup
(Image from Serious Eats article)

($Bakery, $Donuts, $NYC)

Is it still fresh or not?

I just stumbled upon this site, StillTasty.com which seems to be going for the one-stop-shop place on how long ingredients will stay fresh. I think this is a great idea, but it's still a little limited at this point to refrigerator and freezer tips.
It's lacking tips unique to prolonging the freshness of each ingredient, ala Real Simple and their useful article on keeping vegetables or tips on Chowhound videos.

I suppose this is the best place to put a tip of my own. I recently found out that one of the best ways to keep scallions fresh is to put them in a vase/bottle of water and continue growing them. You need to refill the water pretty every day or every other day to prevent bacteria from growing, but so far, my scallions last a heck of a lot longer than they used to in the fridge.

(I'm still unsure why some tips seem to dry out, while others seem to grow fine)

What are your tips for keeping things fresh?

($Cooking)

Cafe Lutecia : Philadelphia

My gf and I need very little nudging to try out French places, so after stumbling upon FindingPhilly's old write up of Cafe Lutecia, we ambled on down for a weekend brunch.


This inside is small and cozy. Perhaps there was an overdose of all the "this is an authentic French place because of all of our chotckees" , but...


...the bright colors and big windows make it an overall very cheery atmosphere.



Tomato bisque - Really very lovely stuff. Complex taste with a hint of spicyness at the very end. The texture was great; not too thin, not overly-thick, but with a texture that felt like ingredients had been put into a food processor, like you could tasty the tiny bits of stuff. For lack of a better way of describe it, it reminded me of manchego cheese except in soup form... if that makes any sense.

Oh yeah and the bread was pretty delish as well.


Croque Monsieur (described as the typical French Sandwich) - Came with the cheese still bubbling. This wasn't bad, but on some level, my enjoyment of ham has been ruined by the ham and cheese crepe I had in Paris. Every single cold cut of ham I've had in the States after that has just tasted so very wrong.


And in this sandwich, the ham just wasn't working for me. It just had a much too blatant taste that remained in my mouth even after walking out of the restaurant.


Tomato Mushroom Quiche I just don't really remember the quiche.


And here's a random picture of a Philadelphia street. I just remember walking out of the restaurant a bit disappointed to be going from that outstanding bisque to the ham in the croque monsieur that I was not a fan of.



Anyways, if only for their bisque and apparently their other soups, go try this place out. It's definitely worth a trip.


Cafe Lutecia
2301 Lombard St Philadelphia, PA 19146 (Map)
(215) 790-9557
Chow Yelp
($Brunch, $French, $Philadelphia)

Breakfast? Lunch? Dessert? I'm confused now...

Chefs are apparently taking traditional food-meal matchings and turning them into a topsy-turvy, upside-down, mumbo-jumbo bumble. As a friend says, this is crazy talk:

• Breakfast for dessert
• Pizza for breakfast

($Cooking, $News)

Q.T. Sandwiches : Philadelphia

I think this is the fastest I've responded to a tip before. Yesterday, I read the City Paper's scoop on Q.T. Sandwiches and today I found myself with two Banh Mi's and am posting no less. Someone should give me a gold star or a trip to Hawaii or a cool million dollars or something. Seriously.


They were doing some renovations to the front of Q.T. Sandwiches when my gf and I stopped by. I think they were putting up an awning, but it was little too early to tell for sure.

Anyhow, we ordered a couple of banh mi's: (And for those who don't know what a banh mi is, here's the wikipedia entry)

Grilled Pork Banh Mi - Actually come to think about it, the article mentioned this as the banh mi to try if you're new to it. And I'd agree with that. It's not that it was bad at all; they actually grilled the pork in front of us. It's just that the marinated pork was the main flavor (with hints of fish sauce), giving it a more simple taste:


House Special Banh Mi - I rather liked this. The "cold-cut" meats gave the sandwich more complex and varied flavors. To give you an idea, one of the cold-cuts tasted like Chinese fish balls.


Both of the sandwiches came with carrots, cilantro, jalapenos, fish sauce, and cucumber. And like most banh mi I've tasted, the buns were a lot lighter than most buns than I have.

All in all, I'm really excited this place opened and I can't wait to go back to try out their other offerings.

I will note one thing. Q.T. Sandwiches reminded me of a small Chinese restaurant called Queen's Cafe in Somerville, MA, which closed probably not 6 months after it opened. Queen's Cafe was run by one older Chinese lady, who cooked your order right at a stove behind the counter. She clearly was just cooking the dishes she'd cook at home and I loved the place, but I suspect it was the business costs and lack of demand that caused the demise of Queen's Cafe.

The banh mi at Q.T. Sandwiches were made by a woman and what looked to be her daughter. And I just got the same homey vibe from this place as from Queen's Cafe. However, I'm hoping the same business woes don't happen to Q.T. Sandwiches, so if you're in the Chinatown area, go try this place out.

Or try them even if you're not in the area. I forgot to mention that they cater and deliver.

Q.T. Vietnamese Sandwich
48 N. 10th St. (Map)
267-639-4520
Catering, Delivering

Hours: Daily, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Menu

Banh Mi in Philadelphia Chinatown

Omm nomm nomm!

D. Snyder at Citypaper scoops a Banh Mi place in Chinatown.

If nothing comes up, I will probably be checking this place out tomorrow. My level of obsessiveness enthusiasm for banh mi, while not quite as high as that for cookies, is still up there. And having a place close by sounds almost too good to be true. Woohoo!


Q.T. Vietnamese Sandwich
48 N. 10th St. (Map)
267-639-4520

Hours: Daily, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Yogorino Philadelphia

**7/27/2009 Edit** Tried it out, really liked it.
**7/8/2009 Edit** Walked by last night and saw a sign saying that it will open on Friday, July 10. Things look set up inside though.
**7/7/2009 Edit** Yogorino finally opened. Will try it out soon.

Not so long ago Phileo opened in Philadelphia, now apparently, Foobooz breaks the story of another Pinkberry-inspired frozen yogurt place opening up in Rittenhouse Square, called Yogorino.

It should be interesting to see whether this will provide a true competitor to Capogiro or not.

($Dessert, $Philadelphia)

NYTimes Italian Unknown Wines: $10-$20

NYTimes Italian Unknown Wines: $10-$20

($Alcohol, $News)

El Fuego : Philadelphia

I was trying to decide whether to come up with a terrible pun for what I'm about to say, but I'm a bit tired. Please feel free to come up with one yourself.

Despite its name being El Fuego (meaning fire), the meat was cold. Not like luke warm, but completely refrigerator cold. The hell?

And it's not like the ingredients here are that phenomenal to begin with. In my eyes, it wasn't anything better than something you could get from Qdoba or another chain.

And do note, these were my thoughts pre-Mexico.




Yeah, don't go here. Go to Primo's for a hoagie, or even a sub and beer at the Monde Market convenience store around the corner, anything but this.


El Fuego
2104 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19103 (Map)
(215) 751-1435
www.elfuegoburritos.com | Yelp |

Los Taquitos de Puebla : Philadelphia

I went here with my gf on Halloween night. Yes, we're that big of social party-animals. :P

But that being said, it was kind of cool being here on Halloween. First of all, we were the only non-hispanics there eating, giving it a "foreign country" 15 minutes away type feel. Secondly, some of the local trick-or-treating kids stopped by to take a rest and eat some snacks, showing off their cute costumes in the process. In a weird way, we were able to observe only the calm restful moments during a usually celebratory and bombastic night.

Since this was so long ago, I don't quite remember the details from this meal. In addition, my perspective on Mexican food has been altered by my recent trip to Mexico, so I feel all mixed up writing some of my thoughts. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit again and see what I thought post-Mexico.

Beets & Cucumber slices w/ salsas - Umm, I'm still confused on this. We ended up eating these as appetizers, but can someone tell me whether these are appetizers or filler for other dishes?


Tacos al Pastor - Beef?


??? - Forgot what this was, but I just remember it strangely tasted like a soy sauce stir-fry (I think mainly because of the peppers and onions)



Orden de Nopales Asados con Queso Fresco y Aguacate (Grilled cactus with fresh cheese and avocado)



As I said before, I think I'll have to return here to try these dishes again post my Mexico trip.


Los Taquitos de Puebla
1149 S 9th Street Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Map)
(215) 334-0664
www.lostaquitosdepuebla.com | Yelp | Chow

Fogo de Chao : Philadelphia

I went here for a recruiting dinner, so I'm not sure if this was a representative Churrascaria meal here or not. But I must say that I was very plesantly surprised by the overall dining experience.

The various meats were all decently seasoned and tender; I found that I especially liked the lamb chops. The ingredients at the salad buffet were fresh and varied. And the waiters were relentlous, showing up almost immediately one after another when our cards were turned to "green" and were also very good about refilling our wine glasses and water glasses.

I also got the papaya creme (with alcohol) as dessert, which was a lovely way to finish off the food-coma inducing meal.

As I said before, I'm not sure if this is a valid experience as it was a recruiting dinner with a group of 20 students, but I think the fact that my Brazillian and South American classmates enjoy coming here says something about the place.


Fogo de Chao
1337 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA‎ (Map)
(215) 636-9700‎
www.fogodechao.com | Yelp

Loie Bistro : Philadelphia

Do forgive the orange light on these photos, which give the food a mutant radioactive look. My sole light source of that day was the orange street lamp from outside, which betrays at least the quality of the burger we got here:

Steak Frites - Sauce way too salty. The steak itself was okay, but somehow the cut(?) of the meat was a bit gamier than what I'm used to. The frites were solid, but nothing uniquely memorable about them.

Cuban burger - This was a damn solid burger and for the same price of a burger at Good Dog, we enjoyed this one a lot more.



Something about the front part of Loie Bistro strikes me as a little odd, as if the owners couldn't decide whether to emphasize the dining or the bar, so they compromised and put a few small tables up front and awkwardly placed the bar slightly inset. But that being said, the interior is nice enough and the burgers tasty enough, if you wanted to have a casual meal with co-workers.


Loie Bistro
128 South 19th Street, Philadelphia, PA‎ (Map)
(215) 568-0808‎
Loie215.com | Yelp
($Burgers / Hot Dogs, $French, $Philadelphia)

Nanzhou Hand-drawn Noodle House : Philadelphia

I feel bad that I don't do a thorough review of Nanzhou Hand-drawn Noodle House (see here for my last "review.") It truly is one of my favorite restaurants in Philadelphia and the first restaurant I stopped at, when I came back from summer break.

Yet here I am describing a dining experience from over 5 months ago and with blurry pics to match. Lovely.

Anyways, if you've never been here or never been to a Chinese noodle shop where they hand-draw their own noodles, you really owe it to yourself to try it out.

Yes, the clientele is mostly Chinese. As the always insightful Philadining mentions in his old review, there is probably a lot lost in the English translation of the menu. But it is such a simple and delightful eating experience.

First the food. I usually go for the noodle soups with meat.



The meat is generally juicy and slow-cooked, giving the broth a decently umami taste. But for me, it's the noodles that get me every single time: some fat, some thin, all with their delicious and definitively home-made texture.

It's funny - as a kid, when I was getting full, my parents always trained me to eat the remaining parts of the dish in order of what was most expensive: first seafood, second meats, third vegetables and lastly staples like rice, noodles. But as I get full at Nanzhou HDNH, my trained instincts always conflict with my desires to finish off the noodles, not the meat. (Yes, I'm aware that either way, it's a completely madhouse irrational thought-process, particularly since the dishes are so cheap: ~$7.)

Anyhow, moving onward, I of course need to note the experience of watching the sifu's in the back, work their magic, doubling and redoubling the strands of noodles. Alton Brown covered this in a segment, but I think it's a heck of lot more fun, watching it in the smaller and anti-glamorous environment of Nanzhou HDNH.

And of course, if you get bored with noodle watching, there's always people-watching and the tv, playing karaoke, Chinese news or random drama series.

I'm sorry Nanzhou Hand-Drawn Noodle House. One of these days, I'll do you a proper review with photos to match. You deserve it.


Nanzhou Hand-Drawn Noodle House
927 Race St, Philadelphia, PA‎ (Map)
(215) 923-1550‎
Yelp
($Chinese, $Philadelphia, $Recommended)

Erawan : Philadelphia

I was massively disappointed to read that the chef responsible for real Thai meals at Erawan had left a few years ago.

But alas, I always need a Thai fix now and then, so my gf and I went in to try out Erawan's cheap lunch specials...

... and was left even more disappointed.

From start to finish, the dishes were not only Americanized, but also generic and bland. From the salads with their sweetened orange dressings to the pineapple drink with an umbrella to the Tom Yum soup, all was simply forgettable. I'm sorry, I don't even want to go back and figure out what we ordered.







Particularly befuddling is that one block away is Smile Cafe, which has a more charming and cozy interior, fresher and tastier food and a damn cute name to top it off. Isn't competition supposed to bring out the best in restaurants?

Bleh, sorry Erawan, but Smile Cafe is my go-to Thai place.


Erawan
123 S 23rd St, Philadelphia, PA‎ (Map)
(215) 567-2542
Yelp

Egg Custard King : New York

Honestly, I think the appeal of this place is its location, its name and its Asian cuteness aesthetics. I've been here twice and its egg custard tarts are not necessarily unique or great, but there's a certain undeniable charm in stopping by a place called Egg Custard King.

They serve a variety of different egg tarts: the standard, strawberry, melon (unappealingly neon green), coconut and Portuguese. But umm, why all the variety, if your standard isn't even that outstanding?



Then again, someone could turn around and ask me, why all the complaining, when you keep on returning?

One last note: Some say that the egg custard tarts tend to be a lot fresher at the Egg Custard King II location on Grand St, because more customers visit and there is increased turnover. I've yet to try that, so I can't corroborate, but there's nothing in the world like having a freshly made, piping hot egg custard tart.


Egg Custard King
76 Mott St, New York, NY 10013, USA - Chinatown (Map)
(212) 226-8208

Egg Custard King II
271 Grand St New York, NY 10002 (Map)
(212) 226-8882

Chow | Yelp
($Chinese, $Dessert, $NYC)

Amazing 66 : New York

Folk are pretty enthusiastic about Amazing 66 on Chowhound (Amazing 66, thank you, Amazing 66, new in Chinatown, Amazing 66, Cantonese Roast meats, Amazing 66 lunch), which led me to try it with my gf when we were visiting NY.


We came here for lunch on a random rainy weekday and they have a pretty large selection of lunch specials for $4.95 or something insanely cheap. We ended up ordering:

Braised Pork Belly with preserved vegetable with rice rolls in caserole

Gongbao ji ding (Kung Pao Chicken) - I don't quite understand why we ordered this, but whatever.

Anyhow, perhaps it was just the fact that this was lunch and not dinner that everyone talks about, but I didn't quite understand the raves about this place. The dishes were okay tasting, but everything was kind of heavy and drenched in oil. I don't really recall having much desire to return for a second time, let alone rave about this place.

Shrug, perhaps, I'll get a chance to try this out for dinner, but I wasn't really feeling this place so much.

Amazing 66
66 Mott St, New York, NY‎ (Map)
(212) 334-0099‎
Chow | Yelp
($Chinese, $NYC)

Chifa opens next Tuesday, Feb 10

According to Foobooz, Jose Garces' new Peruvian-Chinese restaurant, Chifa is set to open next Tuesday, Feb 10. I'm really curious to try it out, but with the way things have been at school, I'm guessing it may take some time to give it a whirl.

Anyhow, Foobooz gives some more details, such as listing a few things from the menu and a link to the official, but still under construction webpage.

($Chinese, $Philadelphia, $South / Latin American)

Capogiro's Gelato Sandwiches : Philadelphia

When I go to Capogiro's, I'm usually focused on the gelato selection and nothing else, but this is just a heads up that Capogiro's has gelato sandwiches (like ice cream sandwiches except gelato).

They had different flavor combinations of both cookie and gelato, none of which I can recall at the moment. But I did find that the cookie was surprisingly dry and crunchy for being in a freezer...


Capogiro
Multiple Locations Philadelphia, PA (Map)
www.capogirogelato.com
($Dessert, $Philadelphia)

Giovanni's Pastries: Agawam, MA

Okay, so I'm currently digging out of 3-4 month pre-Mexico backlog of places... so it's going to be another quickfire random sequence of places. First up, Giovanni's Pastries in Agawam of western MA.


Thinking about it objectively, it might be strange to hear that my (all Chinese) family has developed a habit for picking up Italian cookies during the holidays. We have been doing so for a number of years now and this actually precedes my somewhat recent enthusiasm for cookies.

I suspect in large part it's the quality of the cookies from Giovanni's that drives this. They're just consistently fresh, moist and tasty, all that you want in Italian cookies.


I've no pictures of the actual cookies themselves; the types of cookies are no different than what most expect of Italian cookies (in the U.S.). But I just wanted to point out that there does exist a respectable bakery in the Western Mass area.


Giovanni's Pastries
719 Main St Agawam, MA 01001 (Map)
(413) 789-8900
($cookies, $Dessert, $Italian, $Springfield)

La Viola : Philadelphia

La Viola is actually becoming fairly popular among my classmates and is one of the few Italian restaurants that my gf will actually volunteer to go to. (Take that last part with a grain of salt. While I do trust her taste, her experience with Italian food is somewhat limited, as is mine).

Anyways, it was past due for me to this place out.

They start off with some marvelous Italian bread. The crust has a satisfying, but not overly hard crunch, with an soft moist inside that's like a pillow for your tongue. This is accompanied by olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar and a few other spices.

Girigliata Di Calamari - grilled calamari marinated in lemon juice garlic and peppered extra virgin olive oil. For me, this ended up being the defining portion of the meal. The emphasis was on the calamari, with an almost grilled naked taste. The calamari was tender, with blackened parts, providing a delicious smokiness. Olive oil, bits of olives, peppers, tomatoes and salt accompanied and only slightly added coloring to the calamari flavor.

Ravioli alla Viola (Lobster ravioli) - Sauce was very smooth, maybe a little too much so (after all, so is chef-boy-r-dee's sauce). The redeeming part of the dish for me was the complexity of the lobster bits in the ravioli, with the sauce and raviolli shell playing second/third fiddle to the lobster taste. I kind of wish for something more bold, but this is certainly would be a safe choice for someone with a more conservative palate.


Stuffed Veal with Spinach - I can't find this on their menu and all I can remember is that this tasted like a pork meatball. The meat was slightly a little too dry, but tasty nonetheless.


To me, the food comes across as Italian comfort food, done well. It'd be great for inviting those whose palettes you aren't very familiar with.

Food aside, I loved the atmosphere. The waiters walk everywhere with a focused, must-get-everything done now mentality, giving the place a lively energy and promoting active conversation at your table.

Finally, the price is relatively low for the dishes and it's BYOB. How can you go wrong with that?

All in all, there's a reason why my classmates like this place - La Viola manages to match them on all of their needs.


La Viola
253 S 16th St Philadelphia, PA 19102 (Map)
(215) 735-8630

BYOB, cash only
Yelp

Ching Po Leung Soup

Le sigh. So the other day, I made one of my favorite Chinese soups, Ching Po Leung (清补凉) and took a bunch of pictures showing what goes into the soup. And then promptly forgot to take a picture of the final product before my gf and I gulped it all down... three days later. Derr, my memory is astonishingly incredible these days.

Well next time I make it I'll update this posting so you can see what it turns out like, but in the meantime, here's the incredibly simple recipe:

Ching Po Leung Soup

• 1 Ching po leung soup mix (commonly found in a Chinese grocery store)
• 1 whole bird of your choice (duck is what I go for, but a chicken or just chicken drumsticks or pork with bone works as well)
• Pot of water

Thoroughly rinse out each of the dried ingredients in the soup mix and put them in the pot of water. Cut any skin off of the meat and stick them in the pot. Boil on medium-low and stir occasionally until the meat bones have gotten a chance to give make the water a stock/broth. Brilliant!

Here are pictures below for further explanation:

This is what one brand of the ching po leung soup mix looks like. (Note: I think my parents had specifically brought this back from Hong Kong, so don't be too surprised if you can't find this exact package in your local store.)


And individual packs of: dried longan and umm, despite the English ingredient list, I don't actually know the names of the rest of these ingredients.



White jelly fungus - hmm, it definitely has a better taste/texture than its English name. The texture reminds me of wood ear mushrooms, which I suppose doesn't help if you've never had that either.


Loads of purported health benefits from these ingredients. Don't ask me if it's true, I only eat the soup, because I find it delicious, particularly on a cold winter's day.


I'll do my best to cook this again and show picture of how the final product turns out.

($Chinese, $Cooking)