Did Someone say Fried Chicken for One Dollar?!!

Ohhh... how brightly you shine.

If there is one thing to know about me, its that one of my all time favorite foods is Fried Chicken!! Just the sound of the words makes a little light *ding* in my head. In fact, one of my personal food quest in life is to eat all the fried chicken my body can handle.  However, the accumulation of cellulite on one's thighs can be a deterrent from this quest. 

Most travelers to Taipei know the one food spot to visit is Shilin Night Market. They have a large number of food stalls here that alone require their own blog entry. But one of the firsts you see when walking into the market is Hot Star Fried Chicken, in all its mesmorizing florescent blue signage. 

The long line and the excitement of someone getting closer.

The queue for this place is pretty long, but it moves quite expeditiously. It kind of reminds me of the queue in Philly as you are lining up for cheesesteaks, or the queue in NYC for the Soup Nazi. One wrong move and you are off the line! Well maybe not that dramatic, but you get the picture. As you get closer to the front, someone is there to hand you a plastic bag to make sure you 1.) place your order, 2.) give the correct change (or close to it) , and 3.) the yummy chicken is placed in your bag. 

The chicken is a little over $1 USD., more like $1.50 USD. But still very affordable and it is piping hot once you get it. They sprinkle some tiny crushed red pepper and you are set to go. Now if they only had a bowl of rice for me to eat it with...

Ta-dah!

Saigon, (aka Ho Chi Minh City) Gastronomy Tour Part II

If you travel to HCM City and can only eat at one place, then it has to be Quan An Ngon restaurant, a HCM institution. I loved it so much I went there three times in one weekend.  'Ngon' means delicious -- which is almost an understatement. What Quan An Ngon managed to do was bring all the local street food under one roof. The place is packed with locals and foreigners. There is a lot to choose from on the menu and it can be overwhelming. If you can, go with a local. But if can't like me, just do a quick once over in the restaurant. I tend to go for the 'I am looking for the bathroom route', just to see what everyone else is eating. Luckily, the restaurant also has open air cooking. So you can actually see how many of the dishes are being prepared. Just as if you were on the street!

Pork and Spring Roll Vermicelli. 

Spring Rolls! 

I had one of my all time favorite Vietnamese dishes, Pork and Spring Roll Vermicelli. Truth be told I just love the spring rolls and the fish sauce combined. So I got a dish that was only that as well. And despite the Spring Rolls, I felt that these were very respectable healthy dishes. But I am sure it was all in my mind. 

My friend had the Mekong Delta Style Roasted Pork and Seafood. The soup had a deep rich fish paste base to it. I think it was called the Mekong Delta style because they lumped ingredients you would find in the Mekong Delta. A weak theory, I know.

Green Papaya Salad with dried beef and peanuts.

I saw everyone eating the Seasoned Toast and Beef Cubes. It was the restaurant's take on the traditional Banh Mi, which they did not have much to my disappointment.  

Quan An Ngon

138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia

Ho Chi Minh City, District 1

Vietnam

It Tastes like Sh*t!

Chicken Katsu in a toilet bowl. They had curry, but I couldn't do it. 

On a night out in Taipei, my then boyfriend told me he was going to take me somewhere really special that evening. Of course being the girl that I am, I got tremendously excited and contemplated the different outfits I could wear later that evening. I asked myself, would this restaurant be on top of a hill with lights strewn all over? or would it be in a little romantic garden with fountains? The romantic possibilities seemed almost endless.

My boyfriend even told me to conserve the batteries on my camera, because this place he was taking me was so special that I would definitely want to take pictures. Of course, I love to look at pictures after I take them so when dinner time arrived my batteries had drained. But he reminded me again that this place was so special I should go to a random camera shop and ask for my battery to be re-charged. Obligingly I went in and asked a stranger to 'charge me up.' Luckily the people of Taipei are very kind.

As we got on the road to where the restaurant was, I pointed out to him 'Look over there at that restaurant with all the toilets and kids coming out. God that looks like a nightmare!' And strangely we went closer to the said restaurant. Boyfriend said, 'we're here.' And there you have it folks, the romantic restaurant that I had envisioned for the night was in fact Modern Toilet. 

A chained themed restaurant, Modern Toilet's primarily clientele consists of teenagers eating fried foods, curries and the like out of....you guessed it toilet bowls. The food here is your typical snacking food and most of the people that visit come for the ambience. Eating curry out of a black toilet bowl just gives the dining experience that extra dimension.  But the ultimate dish was the chocolate ice cream in the toilet bowl. I had one bite and that was all I could do. Just a little too much dimension for me.

Counter seating. Need some tissue?

Chocolate ice cream. Chicken McNuggets.

Modern Toilet 

Shilin District 

Taipei, Taiwan (ROC)