Big Breasts Food – Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

by Liv | May 30, 2011

Big Breasts Food – Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

So recently I haven’t updated my blog and for a really good reason. I broke a finger and more specifically my ring finger. Recently at work we’ve been really busy at work and a few people have called in sick so we’ve been super busy and I was at work one day in a rush and I banged my ring finger on a fridge door. My finger was bleeding a bit but really swelled up so I was worried I damaged the tendons in my finger.

Chris especially but also myself are the kind of people where if it hurts on the day we kind of leave injuries but if it’s still hurting two weeks later we seek medical advice. So the one weekend Chris hired a car and drove me to hospital where they x-rayed it and found I broke my finger. I got seen to fairly quickly but as usual the NHS didn’t want to do anything apart from give me a tiny piece of tape to tape my fingers together for a day or two.

Two weeks later we went back to hospital where we had a really long wait (this is very normal for the NHS) and I was told my the doctor I would have to live with a “wonky” finger (the tip of my ring finger isn’t straight). The doctor then said “you will never be a hand model” and builders have loads of wonky fingers. Hello! I’m a woman! Not a builder! Thanks!

They also didn’t give me any painkillers. In Taiwan you get sympathetic treatment all the time and the doctor will give you painkillers if you need them. Essentially our health care system is more humane. Doctors in Taiwan also aren’t sarcastic. They treat you effectively and compassionately.

Anyway, on with a recipe…

Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

A long time ago Taiwanese people were crazy about this soup. In Taiwan we believe green papaya will help young women grow larger breasts so as you can imagine loads of young girls ate green papaya thinking it will grow them big breasts so they will have a more beautiful curved body. Boys as you can imagine encouraged girls to eat green papaya so they would have bigger breasts to admire lol.

I tried eating this myself to see if I can enhance my boobs but I think I’ve grown too old for this to work, shame! But no matter if this grow big breasts or not soup is very important for one’s daily diet as it helps our bodies to hydrate and clean it.

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Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

Course Main Dish

Prep Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

1 small green papaya available in Chinese supermarkets
400 g pork ribs diced
2 small ginger
1 small carrot for garnish
water

Instructions

Boil a pot of water and blanch the pork ribs. This will clean the ribs and remove any dirt from the bones. You’ll see the excess dirt, for example blood, float on top of the water. Once you see this wash the ribs under cold water.
Put the ribs back into the pot along with the ginger and around 2 litres of cold water and boil it. Once it reaches the boil reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 hours.
Peel and remove the seeds from the green papaya. Dice the papaya and for the carrots you can use a ring cutter to cut it into a flower shape (if you wish to do so).
Put the papaya into the pot and cook with the ribs until the papaya has softened. Season the soup with salt and white pepper powder. Once the papaya is soft this dish is ready to serve.

Swensens Taipei Restaurant Review

by Liv | May 19, 2011

There are many things I really like about the UK but some things that really annoy me. The first things that really annoys me is the NHS, it’s useless! The second is eating out. Most shops are open until around 6pm, some 8pm, and the same goes for restaurants. Restaurants close at 11pm and reopen for lunchtime the next time.

One of the best things about Taipei is that there is always something to do / somewhere to eat 24 hours a day and the quality of the food is always really good. When I was younger I used to enjoy clubbing and when we would leave clubs at 4am we would go to a restaurant and grab some food.

One of my favourite 24 hour restaurants is Swensens. Swensens is located at 106 Taiwan Taipei City Daan District Section 4, RénÀi Road 109號 and they serve delicious American food 24 hours a day.

The first time Chris and I visited Taipei together I took him to Swensens for breakfast. Swensens is a chain of American restaurants serving the usual array of American food; burgers, steaks, ribs etc. He ordered an English breakfast, which he really enjoyed but he was bemused when my father ordered a burger. He said “burger? for breakfast?” expecting a tiny little burger but the burger was the size of a plate. It was huge. He had a couple bites and vowed next time we came to Taipei together he would order a burger for breakfast.

Two years later we returned to Taipei and went to Swensens at 5am where he ordered a burger and I ordered a steak. I also ordered soup and a smoothie. Chris ordered a cookies and cream ice cream drink.

Everything was really good. The burger was delicious, the cheese was tasty, the bacon crispy and the burger was cooked perfectly. Same with my steak, it was cooked exactly how I like it and was covered with garlic butter and came with the usual assortment of chips/salad.

Chris absolutely loved his drink and I really enjoyed my smoothie. Everything cost about £30.

This is the thing that annoys me. Yes you can buy food at the UK from 6am/7am but it’s always the same assortment of bacon and egg sandwiches or greasy spoon food. Don’t get me wrong, I love greasy spoon food sometimes but Taipei has so many places like Swensens, where you can walk in 24 hours a day and eat really delicious food.

Pumpkin soup

Cookies and cream milkshake and smoothie at Swensons

5am burger at Swensons. This was really delicious

5am steak covered in garlic butter at Swensens. Awesome!

Close up of that delicious steak

Swensens Taipei menu

Kao Chi Taipei Restaurant Review

by Liv | May 6, 2011

Kao Chi Taipei Restaurant Review. The first time I brought Chris to Taiwan we didn’t go to any Taiwanese restaurants. Sure, we went to quite a few night markets which of course sell Taiwanese food but night market food is different to restaurant food.

Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

For example, in a night market, you might buy a bowl of rice covered with slow cooked mince or you might buy a bowl of beef noodle soup. The night markets have a huge variety of food but it’s not restaurant food.

This time when we went back I wanted to take him to some more restaurants. We first of all went to a Shanghainese restaurant where we ate delicious dumplings amongst other things (this restaurant is mentioned elsewhere on this blog). I also wanted to take him to a famous restaurant called Din Tai Fung but it’s always really busy and it’s not necessarily any better than some other Taiwanese restaurants.

So, a couple days before we came home I took him to Kao Chi. Kao Chi’s website can be found here: http://kao-chi.com/ but as a warning it’s entirely in Chinese. Kao Chi is one of my very favourite restaurants and if you eat there you’ll know why.

We went with my parents and my grandmother and ordered quite a lot of dishes. We started off with sweet and sour pork ribs, which Chris quickly devoured, and then in usual Eastern fashion they brought most of our dishes to the table at once. We had a delicious cooked rice dish which I made on 28th April (this recipe can be found here: https://eggwansfoododyssey.com/2011/04/28/cooked-rice-with-bak-choy-and-gammon/). We also had Wuxi Ribs, which if you follow this site you’ll remember I cooked before.

Cooked Rice Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Wuxi Ribs Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

The Wuxi Ribs were phenomenal. In terms of seasoning they’re quite similar to how I cooked them but the meat was very different. Ribs in the UK tend to be mostly bone with a little bit of meat but the ribs in Taiwan are some bone and mostly meat.

We also had one dish with a kind of jellyfish wrapped in pork belly. Incredibly tasty. Chris actually thought the pork belly was bacon but they cut the pork belly so fine it does look like bacon but tastes a lot better. I’m hoping to have a go at making this dish, minus the jellyfish as they can’t be bought in the UK, providing I can find a butcher that can slice pork belly thin enough.

Sliced Boiled Pork with Garlic Sauce Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

We also ate really delicious shenjingbao, a large fish dish and a pork dish which came with garlic soy sauce. Below are the photos from the food we have but trust me everything is really delicious.

Shenjiangbao Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Fish Dish Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Tzung Tzu Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Deep Fried Pork Chop Kao Chi Restaurant

Rice Eel Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Drunken Chicken Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Steamed Crab Meat and Pork Dumplings Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Cooked Rice with Bak Choy and Gammon

by Liv | Apr 28, 2011

Cooked Rice with Bak Choy and Gammon

When we were in Taipei one of my favourite restaurants is Kao Chi. Kao Chi serves really delicious Shanghai cuisine and one of the dishes we ordered was this really delicious Cooked Rice with Bak Choy, Chinese ham and mushroom.

So for this recipe I decided to make something very similar. The main difference between the dish at Kao Chi and my recipe is I had to use smoked gammon instead of Chinese ham as I can’t find Chinese ham here in the UK. I also used chestnut mushroom instead of the tinned mushroom that they used (I prefer the taste of chestnut mushroom).

Normally Chris really dislikes bak choy, in fact he hates it usually, but he ate all of the bak choy in this dish which was a really big success for me. Finally, I can eat bak choy (one of my favourite vegetables).

Credit: All photos were taken by Chris at: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com

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Cooked Rice with Bak Choy and Gammon

Course Main Dish

Prep Time 30 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

2.5 cups rice
200 g gammon steak
300 g bak choy
100 g chestnut mushrooms
1 clove garlic finely chopped

Instructions

Chop bak choy finely and remove the skin from the gammon steak. Cut the gammon steak into really small dices.
Cut the mushroom into small dices as well.
Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil. Saute the bak choy with garlic until the bak choy is cooked. Leave aside once it is cooked.
Put the rice into a rice cooker with the gammon steak, mushrooms and 1 tablespoon of oil. Also use the juice that came out of the bak choy. Add a little more than 2 cups of water to cook everything.
After the rice has cooked add the bak choy into the rice and mix evenly. Cover the rice cooker with the lid and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
The dish is now ready to serve.

Recipe Notes

Tip for cooking Eastern food: Buy a rice cooker. Most of my friends and colleagues in the UK assume we boil rice in the East but most people use rice cookers. They can be bought as cheaply as £15, last ages and cook rice perfectly every time. Rice cookers can be used from cooking food, steaming food, making soup, steaming meat and many other things, all for £15 upwards!

Mitsui Japanese Restaurant Taipei Review

by Liv | Apr 24, 2011

Mitsui Japanese Restaurant Taipei Review. Whenever I visit Taipei one of the restaurants I have to visit is Mitsui. I really love Japanese food, it’s beautiful and can be incredibly tasty, and Mitsui is one of the finest examples, if not the finest, in Taipei.Mitsui is also, by UK standards, incredible for value for money but there’s more on this below.

Whenever I visit Taipei one of the restaurants I have to visit is Mitsui. I really love Japanese food, it’s beautiful and can be incredibly tasty, and Mitsui is one of the finest examples, if not the finest, in Taipei.Mitsui is also, by UK standards, incredible for value for money but there’s more on this below.

THE RESTAURANT

Very smart and very modern. The service is impeccable. All of the staff are extremely knowledgeable and extremely attentive. They regularly top up your drinks and if you wait literally more than two or three minutes between dishes they apologise. If you also order a set menu the restaurant manager will personally take your order.

Whenever I visit Taipei one of the restaurants I have to visit is Mitsui. I really love Japanese food, it’s beautiful and can be incredibly tasty, and Mitsui is one of the finest examples, if not the finest, in Taipei.Mitsui is also, by UK standards, incredible for value for money but there’s more on this below.

THE FOOD

The first time that Chris and I travelled to Taipei together was in January 2009. We both ordered a set meal which consisted of the following:

Large scallop on a seafood sesame base covered in crispy seaweed
Spot Prawn and tuna belly sashimi
Foie Gras dish
King Crab dish (they brought a whole live King Crab to our table for our approval)
A Lobster salad
Kobe Beef Hot Pot (for information Kobe Beef is the Japanese beef that comes from Wagyu Cattle that are fed corn, massaged and given beer to drink). This might sound crazy but Kobe Beef is absolutely divine.
Endless supply of Chinese tea
Green tea ice cream and fresh seasonal fruit

How much? £50 each!!! In the UK this would have been £200-300 or more.

Deep Fried Scallop with seaweed

Spot Prawn and tuna belly sashimi

Lobster Salad and the dressing was amazing!

Kobe Beef Hot Pot

Green Tea Ice cream and seasonal fresh fruit

The second time around we ate differently. We ordered a set meal and three sushi platters.

Sashimi platter. Highlights of this were a huge prawn and super fatty tuna (the fattest most expensive part of tuna)
2 sushi platters. This contained one piece of half cooked fish, roe sushi (roe is super tasty), salmon sushi and my favourite was the sea urchin sushi. Sea urchin looks and sounds disgusting but it’s absolutely divine. Another highlight was the squid sushi. Just two days before going to Mitsui we went to the food hall in the 101 building and had sushi there. The sushi is granted cheaper (cheaper than Yo Sushi and much better) but the squid sushi I had was a bit tough. The squid sushi in Mitsui just melted in your mouth. There were of course other kinds of sushi but naming these is fairly irrelevant.
Abalone Salad (abalone is a large sea snail)
Grilled King crab legs
Tilefish with drops of sea urchin (this is the first time I tried Tilefish and it’s gorgeous)
This wasn’t Kobe beef but it was absolutely delicious and I love the presentation
Miso Soup
Deep Fried softshell crab. Chris is petrified of anything with more than 4 legs (strange I know!) but these small softshell crabs are delicious (Even he thinks so too! ). You eat absolutely everything and both the shell and the meat inside are some of the tastiest crab I’ve had.
Green tea ice cream
Endless supply of Chinese tea (I believe this was Oolong which I really enjoy).

Mitsui Sashimi Plater

Mitsui Sushi plater

Mitsui Abalone Salad

Grilled King Crab Legs

Tile Fish with drops of sea urchin

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab with Pumpkin puree

Mitsui Barbeque Beef

Total cost: About £30 each. Phenomenal! We originally planned to eat just sushi but after looking at the menu and based on past experience we had to order a set meal as well. Let’s also face it, we don’t go to Taipei very often.

A note about pricing. The sushi alone would have been £40-50 in the UK but the quality of the sushi in Mitsui was on a whole different level. I will admit I have had better sushi in Japan itself but then you expect the best sushi to be in Japan.

Each time we’ve been to Mitsui we’ve been utterly filled up and every dish was incredible. One thing I must point out was paying for the meal. If we eat in a regular night market or shop then we pay with cash but for a larger more expensive meal we always pay by card. Mitsui wouldn’t accept either mine or Chris’ credit cards as they hadn’t opened a line for international banking. I had to run down the street to a cash point, half scared that neither of us had any money in our accounts, then had to run back and pay. This wasn’t great.