Dang Dee Fast Food: Another Taiwanese Delight

It's been more or less three months since I last updated my blog. It saddens me that I haven't been able to manage my time well enough to update this blog and keep up with my studies. But I want to change all that starting now. I know I said this back in January but I really want to make this work so for my first blog entry under my new lifestyle, I shall write about this new food discovery I stumbled upon in my friend's Instagram account (thank you, Nadz To) -- an incredibly wonderful and unbelievable new food delivery/restaurant-ish along Salcedo Street in Makati. Yes, the food is really good and the price, unbelievable. Office employees, students, and anyone else on a budget, I present to you Dang Dee Fast Food.

Dang Dee Fast Food is a small, hole-in-the-wall type of restaurant. Nothing fancy. There are about 8-10 tables inside, a counter, a wash area, and a rest room. Pick from any of their value meals, order, and wait for it to be served or packed. What makes this little fast food so special is that their value meals are made of win. You can grab a really filling and delicious lunch or dinner for as low as P78, and that comes with a free drink already. So what does a Dang Dee value meal look like?

Yen Yen: A Taste of Taiwanese Street Food

Since we've been planning to visit the hometown of the ageless F4, we decided to pay Yen Yen another visit to get a taste of authentic Taiwanese street food. We are really looking forward to trying out different Taiwanese street food once we get to Taiwan so we decided to familiarize ourselves with some Taiwanese street food made available here.

For those of you who are not familiar with Yen Yen, it is a small hole-in-a-wall type of snack house. It used to be located beside a car wash along Ortigas Road, but they've since transferred to a much bigger location along P. Guevarra in San Juan. They boast of authentic Taiwanese street food, a first in the metro (as far as I know).

The first time we ate in Yen Yen, Gus ordered one of their most famous dishes, Pork Chop Rice. But since we are planning to visit the home of beef noodle soup, we decided to try something different this time.

I ordered a bowl of their Taipei Beef Braised Noodle Soup. Since the first stop on our itinerary would be Taipei City, I decided to try their beef noodle soup so I can compare it with the real deal when we get to Taipei. As for Gus, he'd been craving for pork kidney so he decided to get Stir-fried Pork Kidney with Rice.

When we got our orders, we were so surprised. My beef noodle soup was in a very large bowl. There was a lot of beef, huge carrots and radishes, and a lump of noodles. I had already eaten half of the noodles but it still looked full after.

Taiwanese Invasion: ChickenZilla

I guess by now, you know how much Gus and I love food. A few days ago, we decided to drop by Banchetto Forum after work to eat. We had something in mind already since we've been going to Banchetto for quite some time now. We had regular food stalls we'd go to for certain dishes, but we would still go around at least once, to see if there was anything new. (We usually discover new food spots whenever we're out, or whenever we visit old places.) Like always, something caught our attention. CHICKEN CHOPS.

The first time I tried chicken chops was almost a year ago. I discovered this chicken chop shop inside Theater Mall in Greenhills. I know fried chicken is very common in the Philippines but because of my obsession with Chinovelas and everything Chinese, I was instantly attracted to chicken chops.

What are chicken chops anyway? A chicken chop is a big fillet of chicken, breaded and fried, then peppered with chili and your choice of spice. It's like a big chicken fillet, but instead of gravy, different spices are sprinkled all over the breading to give it flavor. This is apparently a big hit in Taiwan. A common snack that the Taiwanese have everyday, so I was instantly hooked.

 The photo above is NOT mine.

The image is courtesy of this website.

Taiwanese Fare: Lugang Cafe

A long overdue post on Lugang Cafe, one of the best xiao long bao places in Manila. Okay, biases aside, a really good Taiwanese dining place along Connecticut Avenue.

I heard of Lugang Cafe a year ago. Friends started talking about this new Taiwanese restaurant that served really good xiao long bao. The deal sites were just starting to gain popularity at the same time and I saw a deal on their famous xiao long bao so I decided it was about time for us to try the Lugang Cafe.

The restaurant was beautiful. It had a traditional-modern feel. The outside was made of stone bricks, and the interior was just grand.