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Random Food Snaps part 1: 85C Breads, Gotts's Impossible Burger, Mike's Chicken Ramen
It's been a few weeks of random food photos. Let's start with the food I didn't (strictly speaking) cook.
First off, we have a couple unusual "bread" items sold at a Taiwan bakery chain that has a few shops out here, 85C:
The bread is black because of squid ink in it. Supposedly this has a melted squiss-- er, swiss cheese filling.
Supposedly squid-ink bread with a filling of corn chicken curry and topped with parsley.
A Hawaiian pizza topping except with chicken instead of ham or bacon. I decided to pick this one up on a whim. It wasn't bad, but the bread lacks crispness and crunchiness as a crust; it's just soft.
I got a cold again the last couple weeks! Just in time to completely overwrite any plans to get together for my birthday. I consoled myself to some extent by getting take-out Chinese food from the nearby restaurant, Bamboo Garden. From 11 o' clock at top: the smoked tea duck that I had been meaning to try; a bit of bok choy, their braised pork meatballs, some bits of broccoli that came with the orange peel chicken, some stirfried long beans, their orange peel chicken, and my own brown rice, since the restaurant doesn't offer brown rice. A mug of hot'n'sour soup to help chase off the cold.
The tea smoked duck was okay, but probably not something I'd order again. I always enjoy their pork meatballs. The orange peel chicken was pretty much just a typical Chinese fried chicken dish with an orange sauce, so not good for freezing/reheating, the batter gets all mushy. The hot 'n sour soup was quite acceptable though.
Another version of the Impossible Burger, this one is a full-sized one from Gott's Roadside. You might recall I previously reviewed Vina Enoteca's Impossible Burger sliders; this is the full-sized version.
This was pretty good! I couldn't tell it apart from beef, though I felt the burger was itself a bit soggy, the char marks were very well done. In fact, it turns out that despite my assumption the char marks were pressed onto the burger, they simply use the Impossible Burger as if it were regular ground meat and cook it the same way.
... Yes, it was a relatively pricey meal. -_- Bay Area prices, friends. This is one reason why I generally prefer to eat at home.
I saw this at Whole Food Market and thought I'd give it a try. Verdict: pretty bleah. This despite my adding mixed veggies and some scrambled egg to give the stuff more body. The sauce was okay, the noodles were bad. The only upside of this product is that there's no MSG in the sauce.
I still need to pick up the stuff Tugrik has been mentioning, a Nissin pork broth instant ramen that had supposedly very good noodles, considering it's instant ramen.
Next up, the homemade food!
First off, we have a couple unusual "bread" items sold at a Taiwan bakery chain that has a few shops out here, 85C:
The bread is black because of squid ink in it. Supposedly this has a melted squiss-- er, swiss cheese filling.
Supposedly squid-ink bread with a filling of corn chicken curry and topped with parsley.
A Hawaiian pizza topping except with chicken instead of ham or bacon. I decided to pick this one up on a whim. It wasn't bad, but the bread lacks crispness and crunchiness as a crust; it's just soft.
I got a cold again the last couple weeks! Just in time to completely overwrite any plans to get together for my birthday. I consoled myself to some extent by getting take-out Chinese food from the nearby restaurant, Bamboo Garden. From 11 o' clock at top: the smoked tea duck that I had been meaning to try; a bit of bok choy, their braised pork meatballs, some bits of broccoli that came with the orange peel chicken, some stirfried long beans, their orange peel chicken, and my own brown rice, since the restaurant doesn't offer brown rice. A mug of hot'n'sour soup to help chase off the cold.
The tea smoked duck was okay, but probably not something I'd order again. I always enjoy their pork meatballs. The orange peel chicken was pretty much just a typical Chinese fried chicken dish with an orange sauce, so not good for freezing/reheating, the batter gets all mushy. The hot 'n sour soup was quite acceptable though.
Another version of the Impossible Burger, this one is a full-sized one from Gott's Roadside. You might recall I previously reviewed Vina Enoteca's Impossible Burger sliders; this is the full-sized version.
This was pretty good! I couldn't tell it apart from beef, though I felt the burger was itself a bit soggy, the char marks were very well done. In fact, it turns out that despite my assumption the char marks were pressed onto the burger, they simply use the Impossible Burger as if it were regular ground meat and cook it the same way.
... Yes, it was a relatively pricey meal. -_- Bay Area prices, friends. This is one reason why I generally prefer to eat at home.
I saw this at Whole Food Market and thought I'd give it a try. Verdict: pretty bleah. This despite my adding mixed veggies and some scrambled egg to give the stuff more body. The sauce was okay, the noodles were bad. The only upside of this product is that there's no MSG in the sauce.
I still need to pick up the stuff Tugrik has been mentioning, a Nissin pork broth instant ramen that had supposedly very good noodles, considering it's instant ramen.
Next up, the homemade food!