A LITTLE TASTE OF TAIWAN RIGHT NEXT DOOR

Ok, I know. I haven't blogged in a long time. But I've been really busy at work, and up until yesterday, quite behind on all my TV shows. But now I've caught up on the shows and Tom's playing video games on the TV, so I've finally got some time to blog. And btw, don't expect many posts this month. I'll be dining out a lot (with a trip to LA this weekend and NYC at the end of the month- I've got reservations at Casa Mono and Sfoglia), but it's gonna be one long, busy month.

So about a month a go Tom and I decided to get dinner at the Pacific East Mall- home to Ranch 99 and other Asian eateries. We'd gotten kinda tired of our usual haunts, so decided to give Restaurant 168 a try, especially because it's a Taiwanese restaurant. When we entered, the place was fairly empty, but we got seated next to a table full of ppl speaking Taiwanese- not something I hear very often (except around my family), so this was a good sign.

Tom and I ordered a few dishes to share. I got some spicy cucumber pickles and pickled cabbage- neither of them were all that tasty or flavorful. They tasted more like they'd be sitting around in a fridge for quite some time. But the dish of sauteed pea leaves in back made up for it- they were super fresh and delicious.

Tom also ordered an entree to fried chicken pieces with my favorite- fried basil leaves. We'd eaten most of it before I even remembered to take a pic. I had gotten an order of traditional fried chicken on rice, but it seems they forgot it, which was just as well since we were pretty stuffed.

Meanwhile, I observed the table next to me, and to my surprise, they had ordered all these super traditional Taiwanese dishes- like things I normally only see in Taiwan or in the parts of :A where you only see Asian people. Even though I don't typically partake in those dishes, I was happy to see a place so close to us that serves that, and will keep it in mind if my parents are visiting.

After dinner we were ready to head home, but I'd forgotten that I'd promised my little cousin that I'd take him to 31 cent cone night at Baskin Robbin's. But his mom remembered, so we headed over there to pick him up for ice cream. Thing was when we got to the ice cream shop, the line was probably 100 people deep, and didn't seem to be moving. I made Tom stand in line while I attempted to distract my cousin. Luckily, the local fire department had brought out two engines, so Max got to climb into the truck and got a little fire hat. Still, when we got back to Tom, the line hadn't moved at all. So we gave up and decided we'd just buy the ice cream at full price (which didn't require standing in line).

We got two ice creams- one for Max and one for me. And here his is enjoying his first ice cream on a cone. Overall, it was a good dinner. We'll probably be back to 168 fairly soon, and now we know to avoid the Baskin Robbin's on 31 cent cone night.