Sea And Delicious Food 地中海景觀餐廳

A few minutes drive from our house in Hsinchu City. Nanliao is a Hsinchu fishing harbor although lacking good beaches, there's a handful of restaurants for you to pick and dine. All of restaurants here appeared similar to me, in term of price and ambience, just pick anyone pleasing you and the food with similar values and various cooking methods. Most of the restaurants beside the dock on the second floor at fish market were very agressive in attracting customers to dine-in at their place, I dont like that kind of approach. So we choose Sea And Delicious Food a restaurant which facing the waterfront and we were seated beside the window much more relaxing.

 

The place had quite a good crowd when we arrived. they had a comprehensive menu. As soon as we walked in past the many tanks filled with  fresh seafood. We are trying to choose fresh local catch  to find out  various fish and seafood.

After placing our order and first dishes, which arrived is the king prawns NT$250 each prawn. I love the way it cooked which was steamed. Underneath the prawns was a surprise of glass noodles absorbs all the yummy flavours drizzled down by the top layer of fresh water prawn.

Soon after, the grilled jack fish arrived in all its glory it was beautifully cooked, with a nicely seasoned crunch.

There’s just something about eating with your fingers that seems so enjoyable. These deep fried seafood roll it is served with ketchup sauce. The crust was very crisp and surprisingly light. This could easily be a great starter.

The stir fry oyster noodles which does not look very appetizing to me. However it was delicious with mild saltish flavour, my kids liked it! And almost nothing left on the plate.

A plate of asplenium lightly stir fried to taste the natural flavour of the fresh green plant and one of my favorite Hakka dish.

Surprisingly they also offer a stir fry pig intestines with ginger and vinegar and always my favorite dish and one of the best I ever tasted than the previous Hakka restaurants I visited in the past. It was delicious and I keep taking more and more of to supplement my rice. Overall: Comparing the price to the seafood restaurants in Yilan a little bit expensive. But I think it was pretty reasonable for such plentiful seafood meal. It seems like all the dishes that we have ordered above is excellent in taste and you will need to finish it. We definitely one of our list for seafood cravings in Hsinchu.

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Sea And Delicious Food 地中海景觀餐廳
No. 241 Nanliao Street Hsinchu City
新竹市北區南寮街241號
Tel No: 03-5368688
Website:
http://www.035368688.com.tw/

Fu Mei Seafood Restaurant 富美活海鮮

This area is a popular stop for enjoying fresh seafood in Su-ao, where we enjoyed extremely fresh lobster. We first experience dining here when we celebrated the Chinese New Year. There is no menu on the table but they were having set meals. The staff will tell you that everything you need to know is right there in front of you. A water tanks containing fresh live sea creatures for your choices with specifying price by weight. Which type of seafood  do you want and how do you want it cooked, steam or stir fry, sashimi  and etc?

First dishes, which arrived simultaneously is a classic dish that combines flavors well and unique stir fry wild grown vegetables lightly flavored with ginger, black beans and small dry fish are very juicy yet fresh and crunchy.

Although the highlight dish is lobster, we ordered a Boston lobster for the price around Nt$1,500 appeared, steamed and served it on a bed of bean thread noodles in light and flavoursome soup. The lobster is very fresh and it melt in the mouth.

Next up is the sweet and sour scallops was very colorful and the photographs were visually delicious.

We selected a good-sized crab and this weighed in at just over NT$1,400. We ordered it steamed served with a vinegar dipping sauce.

This was the fish chose by my husband. A steamed seabass, frankly, I preferred the fried one which does not look very appealing when it came to the table. Lightly flavored with ginger, sesame oil and soy sauce, garnished with spring onion. The white flesh was very fresh and soft yet still firm.

Stir-fried clams with thick oyster sauce wasn't too impressive, but clam meat was fresh and fleshy.

This was also another interesting dish. The tender razor clams were absolutely delicious in a bed garlic lightly flavor broth, garnished with spring onion.

Last but not least is steamed prawns served with a soy wasabi dipping sauce. These steamed prawns were fresh and sweet. It doesn't get any fresher than that. If you're looking for exquisite fresh seafood in Su Ao Yilan, I really recommend this restaurant.

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FuMei Seafood Restaurant

No.111, Haibian Rd., Su-ao Township, Yilan County
270宜蘭縣蘇澳鎮海邊路111號
Website:
http://fumei.399.com.tw/

Old Street Noodle Store + Chiayi Turkey Rice

The inside of Old Street Noodle Store is pretty small and the outside looks like a nostalgic old shop. While it doesn’t looks clean, it’s clean enough and the food was of course delicious, like always. This popular restaurant is tucked along the Emei Old town. Coming here, you have to be early, as the crowd starts to pack during lunch or dinner. We ordered two of my favourite Taiwanese Hakka dishes, which are also the restaurant’s signature dishes are stir fried pig’s intestines with julienne ginger and roast pork belly. The other popular items featured in the restaurant include fried thick rice noodles and free-range steamed chicken with kumquat sauce, and fried egg and more.

I always had this sauteed or stir fry pig intestines with ginger and vinegar it tastes slightly different from what we often get in the Hakka restaurant. This dish also smelled pleasantly of shredded ginger and vinegar and has a chewy, gelatinous texture. This dish it was tasteful and remarkable good enough to say. It certainly is one of the better stir fried pig’s intestines with julienne ginger I ever had it was perfectly done.

This is a classic dish that combines flavors well. I personally like it with hot plain rice. The eggs are well blended well with chopped spring onion and dried radish. So far this is one of the best fried egg omelette we ever had in any Hakka Taiwanese restaurant.

The roasted pork meat was tender and somewhat fatty but not overwhelmingly compare to the one we had in Miaoli.

We order a 2 plates of stir fry flat noodle with bean sprouts, chopped chives and pork lean meat. The rice noodles in this dish are not that soft let say it cooked perfectly and extremely chewy. And a perfect level of carmelized soy sauce, salt and pepper that enhances the starchy taste of the noodle but at the same time was a bit sweetish too.

We had the smaller portioned half steamed chicken with thick brown sauce and kumquat sauce. It was simply but not fresh and it was dry.

Stir fried wild vegetable with chili and topped with fresh egg yolk. This dish is quite unusual for me. I've never try like this before. The combination of the crunchy wild veggie and egg to mash them together it had a smooth texture. The  garlic, chopped pieces of chili provided contrast and taste of pungent aroma.

Lastly, we had savory glutinous rice balls soup. Inside the soup, you’ll find a generous serve of pork, chopped mushroom, scallions, chopped leeks and rice balls. I only can eat this rice ball on sweet dessert, I never liked this stuff on this salty flavor savory soup.

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Overall, I must say that Old Street Noodle Shop is pretty good food too. Despite for being famous in this area its one of the most crowded places on that road.

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Old Street Noodle Store-老街板條
新竹縣北埔鄉廟前街31號
No.31 Miao Cheng Street, Beipu Township, Hsinchu County

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 Hsinchu Chiayi Turkey Rice 新竹蕭家莊嘉義火雞肉飯

Every weekend we went to our favorite Chiayi Turkey Rice store in Nanda Road Hsinchu City. Serving a turkey over rice and originated from Chaiyi. A very simple comfort food and a very typical Taiwanese style rice, loaded with freshly hand-sliced turkey meat with savory sauce. It looked very simple and yet very appetizing its a kind of comfort food. The sauce was great with a hint of mild salty flavour.

We also like their side dishes, This dish is consisted of steamed flavor turkey  meat served with slices ginger and thick soy sauce. The turkey meat was so tender!

Standard of stir-fry water spinach, is one of the great vegetable staples of Taiwan. Its very simple and easy to cook at home. This dish is consisting of pungent garlicky, stir-fried with water spinach and can be added with red chili.

We always have their pork bone day lily soup was savory and not too fatty.  Overall: The food is good and cheap the portions are ample, the place is clean and small. But this once again a highly recommend for someone or anyone looking for authentic Chaiyi cuisine in Hsinchu town.

Grandmother Old Store 阿嬤ㄟ老店

The Grandmother Old Store Hakka restaurant is old style and serves a tempting array of classic Hakka dishes at reasonable prices. The restaurant itself is small but clean too, the furniture and wooden bench, tables are old, which is more than I can say for most Hakka Taiwanese restaurants. Every dish we had here has been absolutely spot on in terms of authenticity and honestly makes you feel at home.

On the table, we started out with delicious free range steamed chicken is a well-known Hakka cuisine. After being poached, steamed in salt and water, the chicken meat itself has an incredibly tender texture and succulently flavourful. I was mostly impressed with how yellow the skin was on the chicken was so scrumptious with every dip into a thick-brown sauce and tangerine dipping sauce is very satisfying meal.

Stir-fried pig’s intestines with julienne ginger. Among that, savory and one of the most popular dishes in Hakka Taiwanese cuisine.The sauce was delicious, I probably ate whole of this dish all by myself. It is because is one of my favorites for Hakka dishes and pleasantly sour from the use of pickled vegetables, shredded ginger and white vinegar.

The super delicious stir fry noodles loaded with vegetables was soo good too with a bit sauce or natural water from the veggies. This flat noodles was similar to Vietnamese noodles. The only thing missing was the meat or shrimp and bean sprouts. Otherwise this dish is quite flavorful.

We also ordered a stir fry wild-grown veggie and unique to Taiwan, a vegetables it was grown in the high mountain that had a look of plastic like leaf may strike you as a little strange. I never try this veg before I'm quite a bit curious. This stir fry vegetable is one of the best dish on our table. The dish was quite fresh-healthy it is rich, earthy especially sweet and crisp it cooks with red chili, a kind of beans, and tiny dried fish was super flavorful and very tasty. Highly recommended..

We also had on the specials menu is the roast pork belly was super freshly cooked roast pork reminds me the Filipino lechon kawali. But the Hakka Taiwanese roast pork belly are much better than Pinoy style lechon kawali. The top skin was super crunchy it blend with black pepper and saltiness flavourful taste infused with a touch of brown vinegar garlic sauce and beyond anything I have tried. It's fatty-earthy tasted good as you imagine and absolutely not a healthy food because all that pork fat goodness just melts in your mouth and you just want to reach for more bowl of rice. Much better than ones we have in Neiwan.

We also try their pan fried egg omelet with scallions and radish that was so good it didn't need soy sauce.

We tried the day lily soup with slightly fatty pork for the finale, are tender to bite and the daylilies with your soup for that added fiber. The soup still boiling when it came it was good and healthy with aromatic-natural smell from scallion and dried  flower.

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Overall the food was generally pretty good it was a decent meal but for someone who used to eating strong and salty food. Good place to come, but be prepared to wait. Prices are reasonable, though the service is okay in my experience.

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Grandmother Old Store 阿嬤ㄟ老店
苗栗縣三義鄉勝興村水美路247號
Sanyi Township, Miaoli County
Contact No: 037-877108

Inner Bay Tea House

We eventually stopped at a Hakka restaurant and had lunch after snack. When we enter on the first floor it's full of customers. Good thing we sat in the second floor and it's empty. But then once we were seated another individual groups of customers next to us. It’s chaotic and crowded, but so much fun, and really worth the experience. The decor of the place from the outside seemed nothing special, but inside of the shop had a nice authentic Hakka atmosphere, small and rustic with simple wooden and bamboo furniture. We ordered the set meal in 8 dish for 4 person included the fatty and oily pork long beans soup that no one wants to try.

We started with their stir fry leafy vegetables such as baby cabbage are crunchier than regular cabbages.

We also had a small plate of slices of pork belly with layers of melt in the mouth fat served with garlic vinegar.

Despite the low cost, this is the perfect portion size of noodles are stir fry chopped meat and vegetables. The noodles is a bit overcooked but nonetheless it was flavorful.

The next dish to be brought to the table, was a stir fry vegetable dish that were mushrooms, carrots, scallions, stir fried with aromatic oil and garlic. This stir fry mushrooms  was pretty dense and maintaining their bright, fresh texture.

Vinegared pork intestines with ginger strips, pickle mustard and soy beans. The intestines was a bit too chewy but soft and quite sour. Recently I've become a huge fan of this Hakka dish since I had this vinegared pork intestine at Emei old street. I loved the tartness-sour flavor of this dish, it reminds me the Filipino cuisine. Again, the amazingly unexpected flavor got me hooked. It's definitely been added to my favourites. It was seriously good stuff! If you are from old world Europe or old Western civilization it's definitely you'll gonna love this vinegared pork intestine as much as I do, ok maybe not!

Now it came wit my favorite, steamed chicken with tangerine or orange dipping sauce. Cooked just right, the meat was smooth and firm.

Homestyle omelet had strips of dried radish and chopped scallion it cook beautifully golden added a nice crunch to the dish.

Hot lei cha are the surprising include of our meal.

An extra order of iced lei cha for my daughter, a filling tea made from a paste of different seeds with green tea mixture not mint leaves, it is refreshing. This drink are specialize for the Hakka people in Taiwan.

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Great place for Hakka food cravings, service just promptly and meals came quickly and the price was not expensive.

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Inner Bay Tea House-內灣茶堂

新竹縣橫山鄉內灣村中正路61號

No.271 Chung Cheng Road, Neiwan Village, Hengshan Township, Hsinchu County

Contact No: 03-584-9362

Website:

www.lei-tea.58168.net

After lunch we drove around the mountain spa villa, taking a slightly different route through mountain village. Then we took the road back down the Neiwan. And we stopped at coffee shop and restaurant are specialize in making a good coffee called tree house coffee, I forget the exact name. Our table was near a live band stage excellently placed at the back of the restaurant with river view, suspension bridge and surrounded mountain in the background. For me, this place is just a one time thing, and something that is a must do in Neiwan, just drink their coffee.

I ordered the hot espresso con panna was I think they use some type of coffee beans, melt it down with a gourmet whipped creme and chocolate. Tic tac what a nice coffee!

For my boys had both cappuccino, again it was good a cup of coffee. The well extracted coffee beans blended well with milk that was lovely and creamy and at the right temperature.

My daughter always go for her favorite drink. The green tea is less sweet, while the milkshake is very milky.  I strongly recommend this place for the sake of their good coffee!