porkbelly

Tuesday night was a great night to go to La Condesa to celebrate wifey’s birthday.  There was absolutely no wait, which is probably unusual for this restaurant du jour. With its super-glossy, turqoise-wood-and-steel interior that looks like it was done by “Flipping Out” star Jeff Lewis, La Condesa i

mulberry is one of those swanky downtown eateries that have recently sprung up in Austin along with all of those expensive glass condo towers.  In fact it’s on the ground floor of the new 360 building (also home to Garrido’s, reviewed here). When you walk by mulberry, the first thing you think is “b

The Belly is back after a long work-related hiatus.  I’m jumping right back into it with reviews of 2 of Austin’s most popular restaurants, Garrido’s and Uchi. Garrido’s, in the swanky 360 building (Nueces and 3rd), is one of several high-end Mexican places that have popped up recently downtown (La

This was it, my last day in Taiwan. I had to make it count.  What was the one thing I hadn’t had yet and couldn’t do without? No trip to the Republic of Chinesefood is complete without a little Dim Sum.  So I filled up on some of these delicious Cantonese snacks. This time we went to [...]

I promise these Taiwan posts will be faster in coming (and shorter) from now on. But then again, there are only 2 days left. The big news on day 6 was that I had the best sashimi I’ve ever had in my life.  And the biggest pieces of maguro and albacore that I’ve ever seen. It’s a [...]

Continuing the old-school theme from the previous day’s visit to the shrimp roll shrine, breakfast on day 5 was at an old market in front of the Ma Tsu Miao, or Ma Tsu temple, off of Yen Ping Road, in the da dao chen, or “old town” area of Taipei. (Ma Tsu is [...]

Day 4 began with a pilgrimage to holy ground: a little shrimp roll store on Alley 60 off of of Yenping North Road, Section 2. It’s in the “old town” area of Taipei, near the apartment, now demolished, where my father-in-law grew up. Like many of the great eateries in Taipei, it has no sign, [...]

Day 3 in Taiwan started off the good old fashioned way: with bacon and eggs. But with a Chinese twist: tsao bing pei gun dan, a flaky, flat, fried bread (tsao bing) cut into halves and filled with scrambled egg (dan) and bacon (pei gun). The bacon is a obviously a Western-influenced addition, as pei

I am really behind on these posts–there’s just too much great food.  Day 2 was my first full day in Taiwan, so this post is 3 times as long as Day 1.  I’ll try to condense these posts in the future. After last night’s greasefest, we refreshed ourselves on a clean, simple breakfast of grapes and [...

The first few Taiwan posts (or maybe all of them) are going to be backdated, because I’m behind. I landed in Taiwan at 10:30pm.  After 30 hours of travel and 3 airplane meals, my stomach was lonely and ready for some good Taiwanese lovin.  The first thing my in-laws asked as we left the airport, God