Michael Ruhlman declared this week National Make-Pizza-at-Home week. I already had pizza on the brain, ever since making those pies when James and Elizabeth were down from Buffalo. Ruhlman's post was enough to get me to the store to buy more flour, as I was running low, and some cheese. I used to make pizza almost weekly when we were living in Ithaca and a bit less often in Syracuse. I stopped making my own when we moved to Hollywood. The proliferation of decent pizza joints (not an issue in Syracuse) here makes it easier to give it a pass and order out. But, for those outside the five boroughs, a homemade pie is more satisfying than most takeout.
Since I had to stop on the way home from work to get the flour and cheese, as well as herbs for the sauce, I opted for a quick proof dough. I used the basic recipe from Ruhlman's post, but with a whole packet of yeast and some good warm water. I also put a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheated it to 200. I had some problems getting the dough wet enough. I needed just a touch more water than called for to get the consistency I wanted. Problem was, I added twice as much as needed. I tossed in a little extra flour and kneaded it in. Catastrophe averted. After kneading, I coated the inside of a mixing bowl with olive oil, tossed the dough in, then covered it with a damp towel and put it in the oven for 30 minutes.
While the dough was in the oven, I put a sauce together. I chopped up some of the basil and parsley I bought and added them to a can of tomato sauce and half a can of water. I added a couple of minced garlic cloves and a little bit of olive oil along with some dried oregano and thyme (no fresh at the store today; at least you can get away with those—dried parsley, not so much).
After 30, I pulled the dough out and cranked the oven up to 450. It was a little too warm on the edges, but that's to be expected when you heat it in a metal bowl. It wasn't unworkable, though. I nicked the parchment paper idea out the comments on Ruhlman's post. I stretched the dough out, then dropped it on parchment paper, sauced it and loaded it on the stone with a peel. Yes, I have a peel and therefore don't need the paper, but I'm out of cornmeal and on parchment, you don't have to be so exact. If you miss an edge, you can grab the paper and move it over. It's ridiculous amounts easier.
I, of course, did not think to pick up any toppings for this pie, so I had to improvise out of what I had in the refrigerator. The black olives were kind of old and scary looking, so I tossed them and pulled out the green ones. I grabbed two slices of ham out of the meat drawer and sliced them up along with a handful of the olives. I added some baby spinach from the crisper.
After 10 minutes, I pulled the pie out, added some cheese, then the spinach, ham and olives and then more cheese to hold it together and put it back in for 10 more minutes. The split cooking is important if you're using oil in the dough. If you put everything on at once, the cheese burns well before the crust is cooked. Yes, the guys cooking on belt ovens put everything on the pizza before baking, but that's because it's faster. Anyone using a belt oven is concerned about speed, not quality.
I sliced it up and cracked open a bottle of the 2005 Firestone Central Coast Vineyard Select Riesling. I read somewhere on the internets that it was a good buy. I forget where, or I'd link. It's a pretty decent Riesling on its own for $10 and it went perfectly with the pizza. The fruitiness was offset nicely by the salty ham and olives. This is one of my favorite recent dinners.
My camera battery died on the way from Taipei 101 to the bookstore. I picked up a couple of Taiwanese cookbooks in English (well, Chinese and English), and we went back to the apartment for a little bit of rest. I put a bit of a charge on the camera battery while we were there.
The rest of the evening was spent in the Raohe St. night market. The entrance is across the street and a little down from the apartment. We spent a little bit of time there the first night in Taipei, but we were really only there long enough to get a couple of things to eat. This would be my first real night market experience.
I passed by this shrimp because I was looking for something else. Note the fresh snails (in two different sizes, or are the small ones whelks?). I'm not sure you can get non-canned snails in France. Perhaps I should have tried some.
Something I did not expect to find in a Taipei night market was fried cheese. I was not surprised, however, that Liz bought the "Cheeses of the World" selection. It was actually pretty good.
While some of us were shopping and others looking for food, Julia stopped for a massage. This electrical mess was above the massage setup. I wonder if that's up to code.
A stand of offal. I did not partake because I was already told Ray would take me to get the best chicken feet at the night market in Tainan. But that would be several days later.
A couple of weekends ago, we drove up to Orlando to visit family. My grandfather's 78th birthday was Monday, but the family celebrated on Saturday night. We ate pizza, talked a bunch of crap, the girls got their Wii on and I introduced the family to Dark and Stormies.
I read recently (on Wikipedia) that Barritt's Ginger Beer is the ginger of beer of choice in Bermuda, and that it is better for the drink than Jamaican ginger beer, as it's too spicy. Being in Miami, the easiest ginger beers to find are Jamiacan or Jamiacan style D&G (Jamaica), Jamaican Country Style (Miami/Jamaica) and Goya (US). (My usual ginger beer of choice is D&G).I found a couple six-packs of Barritt's in a liquor store down the street from Mom's house. I grabbed them and a bottle of Gosling and spent the evening mixing drinks.
Sunday night, we met up with my friend Scott, whom I had not seen since just before moving to Florida. He and his wife Becky were down for a few days visiting her family. We met at their hotel on the south side of Orlando and went in search of Hanamizukai, which I had read was the best Japanese in that area. We had a little trouble finding it as I hadn't really written the directions down. After driving all the way up to the outlet mall (some 2 miles or so past the restaurant), we found it on the way back south.
First course was a squid sunomuno. This was the best squid I've had to date. Firm without being rubbery, with a hint of vinegar. 
Main course was one of the sushi combination options. Tuna roll with chef's choice of nigiri. Ama Ebi was one of the nigiri pieces. Eventually, the deep fried head was served, as well. The nigiri was all very good, and pretty much all of my favorites were accounted for (hamachi, sake, maguro, ikura, saba). 
The interesting thing is that the first place I was served Ama Ebi was across the street at another Japanese place that James and I visited a year or so ago when he was visiting Mom. We drove up from the airport and stopped somewhere that looked interesting.
Dinner was excellent, all around. Excellent food, excellent dining companions. We got a bit rowdy eventually, as we recounted stories of the old days for Becky (Liz has heard most of them already or was there, although there were a few new bits). Most of them were old band stories (Scott and I played together in The Fink Squad (WARNING: Ugly website) and other associated acts. It was really great to see them and hopefully it won't be quite so long before we catch them again.
On Sunday, we relaxed a bit. We spent the morning sitting in the room looking at the internets and looking through our pictures. 
Around noon, we set off for the golf ball mall, aka the CPC Center. This is quite possibly the ugliest, and most likely the most poorly designed mall in the world. We had to walk down four sets of escalators to get to the food court, and to get to each escalator we had to push our way through tables of merchandise on a small walkway. I ordered a beef noodle soup from one of the food court vendors and we had an enjoyable, if a bit surreal, lunch while listening to Christmas carols both played over the PA and sung live (we think). Very strange. I think there were two different versions of Jingle Bells sung with heavy Chinese accents. All I could think of was the last scene in A Christmas Story.
After lunch, we saw Ray off. He had to return to Tainan for work on Monday morning. 
We took the rest of the day rather slowly. We eventually made our way out to the NTU area for Mexican food. 
The Mexican restaurant in question is called Tequila Sunrise and, while not spectacular, is fairly decent US Mexican restaurant fare. I've certainly had worse Mexican food in the northeastern United States and Europe (Ljubljana, Slovenia, to be be precise - I have yet to experience the dreaded "Czech-Mex"). We really just went there because we try Mexican food wherever we are. If you're spending a long time in Taipei, it's worth the visit, but if not, I would recommend sticking with the local stuff. 
I also had my second in a series of Kirin brews not available at home. The Bar was a good sight better than the winter brew, and actually better than the Kirin available at home, as well.
After the bubble tea, we hopped on the Metro and rode back to the main station. We caught a cab back to the apartment and made a brief stop at a 7-11 up the road. For the record, there were at least three 7-11s within a five minute walk, plus a FamilyMart. 
Ray and I loaded up on snacks at the 7-11, and since you have to pay for bags, we loaded it all into one bag. These pictures represent $20 worth of snack food. Items include a potato and cheese burger, a more regular burger, two onigiri, several packets of chips, beer and assorted candy.
We finished the night by watching cable on a ceiling-mounted screen in the apartment. Actually, I fell asleep transferring photos to my laptop while everyone else watched cable.
After meeting up with Julia and Ray at the station, we walked back to NOVA and the camera area. Julia bargained with a couple of the vendors and got Liz a good deal on a Fuji instant camera. Polaroid is dead, but Fuji is still making the instant film. Then, we stopped at a hair salon so Liz could get a haircut. The salon was pretty posh looking, but is in an area full of students and is dirt cheap. The haircut was about $8. We're told that the expensive haircuts ($100+) are in a different part of town.
Once Liz had her camera, we made our way up to Tienmou for the hot springs. We went to a restaurant on the side of the mountain 
Julia and Ray thought it might be easiest if we went for the set menus. The food was certainly more interesting that way, but maybe not best.
First up were salads. They were having a vegetarian course as they were on a Buddhist vegetarian diet for 30 days before the wedding. The left salad was ours (with the shrimp) and the right theirs (with the fruit).
The second dish was a beef dish that I've forgotten the name of. It was decent if unspectacular.
Third course: Black chicken soup. The chicken looked weird but tasted like chicken. It was the odd broth and the medicinal herbs that tasted weird. This was our first of, I think, three black chicken soup experiences.
Fourth and fifth courses: winter melon soup and shrimp balls (complete with mayo and sprinkles). The soup was not great. We didn't finish it. Liz really liked the shrimp balls. I, not being a fan of the mayonnaise, appreciated them a bit less.
Last course was a funky chicken dish that was pretty good.
Following our meal was 40 minutes in the hot springs. The room we got was basically a big bathtub with controls to turn on the springs. The experience was oddly relaxing. It was a bit weird at first, but after a few minutes, we began to relax a bit. We cleaned up and caught a taxi back to the MRT. We stopped for bubble tea across the street from the station and drank it out front as there are no drinks allowed on the MRT. This was my first bubble tea experience and a positive one to boot. I didn't get the funky things in my tea this time, but I would on all subsequent tea trips.
We were slow to get around on Saturday. We spent the morning eating the remainder of the bread that Julia left and drinking Dr. Brown Coffee and milk tea that I bought at the Family Mart down the street. 
Eventually we got it together and walked to the MRT station to check out the computer market there. As we're not really looking for computer parts, there wasn't a whole lot there. There are some other electronics, but not nearly as much as the NOVA tower.
We were starving and wandered by a bunch of small restaurants. Eventually, Liz decided we needed to get red bean paste cakes from a cart. Brilliant! While we were waiting, another vendor walked by with what looked like corn dogs. Liz dared me to eat one. I didn't feel like dealing with interrupting the guy's cell phone conversation, but Liz said she'd buy it if I ate it, so she did. And... it was a corn dog. Not a bad one, either. After that, we wandered through the vegetable market across the street before making our way to the train station for lunch, and to meet Julia and Ray.
Lunch was from the food court at the station. I ordered Szechuan beef with noodles. It also came with some seaweed soup, tofu and bitter melon (I think that's what it was). It was very good. It was in a broth rather than in a sauce as you usually see in the States. 
Liz ordered pho from a Vietnamese place.
We sat around most of the morning eating breakfast and drinking tea. We finally left around 1:00. We spent the day wandering around near the train station, looking at electronics, with a break in a coffee house. Later, we rode the MRT to the Breeze shopping center and went to Muji and Tokyo Hands, where Liz bought little containers and weird things.
They tell me that people in Taipei eat hamburgers for breakfast. This one came from the place downstairs (I forget the name). It was a peppered pork cutlet. Next to it are radish cakes.
The food court in the train station is enormous and also boasts a wine store featuring the entire 2008 Wine Spectator Top 100 in their front window. We walked through but didn't eat there. A couple of hours later, we ate lunch at the food court in the department store across the street.
I had a bowl of noodles, which was quite good but not as good as the beef noodle from across the street.
You can tell rush hour, because not only does the traffic get insane, but the police appear to direct the traffic. 
By the time we got to the Breeze, my insides were tearing themselves apart, probably from the airline food consumed the previous day. Eventually nausea subsided to hunger, but they were still fighting it out when we went to the food court. I ended up ordering the same fish katsu sandwich Liz did.
It had too much of the mayonnaise on it, but was otherwise ok. Not a stellar dinner, but it settled my system down and I felt much better the rest of the evening. 
We took the MRT back to our general area and walked back to our place on BaDe Rd. By the time we returned, the night market was in full swing.
I picked up a can of Kirin's winter beer (and an enormous bottle of water) at the 7-11. The can looks nice, but I can't recommend the beer. It tastes a little too much like Genesee for my liking.
We finally crashed pretty late after sitting up researching all of the gadgets we were looking at all day. Liz found some nice-looking cameras, but wanted to actually read reviews before buying anything. I forgot to check the going exchange rates before we left, and had to make sure my calculations were correct. So, today we will likely be off to buy photo gear. I anticipate starting at the Kuanghwa market. If the deals aren't as good as what we found yesterday, then we'll probably be back at the Nova and the camera area by the main station. By that time, Julia will probably be back from Tainan. I don't know what we'll do then. There was talk of going to Tienmou.
I wonder what's for lunch.
After arriving at the apartment where we're staying in Taipei, Julia took us to the closest night market to get something to eat. We walked through an alley across the street to get there. It reminds me of some of the street markets in London. As it was a weeknight, some of the stands were closing when we arrived around 11:30 (23:30 to you 24-hour clock types). The first place we stopped sold spicy fried chicken. I'm not sure what it was called, but it was basically popcorn chicken tossed in a chili spice mixture. 
We stopped at this Okonomiyaki stand for Okonomiyaki. It was pretty good. I'm not sure what all was in it besides tuna and shaved fish. 
We walked around a little more, but we were tired and everything was closing. We were cutting through a noodle shop to go back to the apartment and I mentioned I was still hungry. So, we stopped in the shop and Julia ordered us a bowl of beef noodle and spicy wontons. Both were excellent. 
The noodles were a bit slippery. I had some chopstick issues, but they were thick and chewy. Easily the best Chinese noodles I've had. The broth was flavorful with a hint of chili. The spicy wontons were regular wontons in a spicy sauce. They were very good, but allegedly in a couple days we will be going for the best ones in town.
From Very Good Taste via Buffalo Wings and Toasted Ravioli. 1. Venison
Here’s a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.
Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
UPDATE: James says I have in fact had Epoisses. We had it when we cooked French food for Thanksgiving last year. I couldn't remember exactly which cheese that was.
We spent our first full day in Budapest walking across Pest. James wanted to walk to Heroes' Square, so following some wandering in the neighborhood around Red Bus, we made our way to Andrássy utcá, one of the main thoroughfares in Pest. Andrássy utcá is home to a number of landmarks, including the opera house (above), Oktagon, Terror House and at the end, Heroes' Square.
Karoly ut, Budapest, Hungary, 10 May 2008
Pentax K1000, Pentax-A 35-70/4 (35), 1/500, f/16, Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400
Opera House, Andrassy ut, Budapest, Hungary, 10 May 2008
Pentax K1000, Pentax-A 35-70/4 (35), 1/500, f/16, Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400
Phones, Andrassy ut, Budapest, Hungary, 10 May 2008
Pentax K1000, Pentax-A 35-70/4 (45), 1/500, f/16, Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400
About halfway up to the square, we ducked down a side street looking for lunch. We found it at El Greco Hungary, which was running a Sunday lunch buffet. The food was mostly decent Greek with some Hungarian mixed in. James had his first cold fruit soup. If I'd realized that's what was in that crock, I would have had some as well. Instead I had a random meat soup that was pretty good. 
Statue, Nagynezo ut, Budapest, Hungary, 10 May 2008
Pentax K1000, Pentax-A 35-70/4, 1/500, f/11, Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400
This was also the first day of our serious car watching. The best cars we saw on this day were a splatter painted SmartCar, a yellow Lotus, a monster truck(!) and a random car with a Florida license plate. 
Lotus, Andrassy ut, Budapest, Hungary, 10 May 2008
Pentax K1000, Pentax-A 35-70/4 (35), 1/500, f/4, Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400
I cooked twice today, which is unusual. I eat cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. During the week, I usually eat out or take a sandwich to work for lunch, and then I cook dinner. On the weekends, I generally reheat leftovers for lunch. Today, though, I made a nice soup for lunch (documented in a previous post), then went out to do some food shopping and pick up a pizza on the way home. While at the food store, I found a couple of lovely beef tenderloins in the hippie food section, and decided that would be dinner. I pan fried one of them (two minutes on the first side, one and a little more on the second), steamed up some broccoli and made some couscous on the side.
For the couscous, I heated up a little olive oil (2 tbs?) and tossed in a handful of peanuts (roasted unsalted) and two minced garlic cloves. After these cooked for a couple of minutes, I cooked the couscous with this and some beef stock.
While the steak was resting, I skimmed the foam off the leftover butter in the pan, then dumped about half of it off and added 1/3 cup of red wine (some Cheap Côtes du Rhône I found at the aforementioned food store) and a sliced shallot. I cooked that down about halfway and added 1/3 cup of beef stock and a little demiglace. I cooked that down not quite halfway. I should have cooked it a bit more. I whisked in two tablespoons of butter and some fresh thyme. Yes, that's a lot of butter, but that's really almost three servings of sauce. It's difficult to make pan sauces for one without wasting some ingredients.
It's hard to see from the first picture how rare this steak is. Yum! 
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