Read the blog post above. As a former server, tipping poorly/not at all is a deal breaker for me.

In the US, tipping is part of the cost of eating out, among other activities. It really shouldn’t be optional, and it should be calculated into the budget when you’re traveling or going out. It’s like having to pay sales tax. If the service is awful, say something and then tip accordingly, but service is still a luxury, and you need to pay for it. That’s why in some countries, there’s a 10% service charge added. It really would be easier if it was just automatically added to the bill, but here you have a choice, where the culture doesn’t dictate that service should be beyond satisfactory and tipping is not required. (Re: Tipping in Taiwan)

P.S. If you’re not so good at the math-stuffs, in Nashville, just double the tax. That’s at least 15%.

After being on a fish diet for awhile, I’m going through some major tuna withdrawals. One of my favorite sushi places in Honolulu is Kona Kai. It’s this small hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but it has the freshest high-quality fish and interesting rolls.

I suggest going there and doing an omakase, which means you’ll leave it up to the chef. He’ll just provide plate after plate of melt-in-your-mouth goodness and exciting new flavors until you hold your hand up in surrender.

You have to get the baby calamari roll stuffed with crab, the grilled lobster tail, and just a big plate of sashimi and a few rolls. This is making me drool.

Anyways, let’s get to the good stuff.

(Psst.. this plate is only $400NT ($12.50USD).)

This the sea-urchin-over-rice of which we so fondly refer. Look at all that roe!

However, if you don’t do the raw stuff, there are other things you can get.

This is some really tender pork.

You wouldn’t think the chin of a fish would be appetizing, but try this salmon’s and you might be happily surprised.

After all the ordering, this was our table:

(For the Chinese readers, the address is 台北縣石碇鄉彭山村崩山12號 (石碇交流道往華梵大學方向) (02)2663-4276

I can’t translate that into English, and since it’s so local and Taiwanese, it’d be a bit hard for non-Chinese speakers to go, so bring a Taiwanese friend!)

Afterwards, we had tofu ice cream! It’s literally just soybean based ice cream, but it tasted like the tofu dessert (豆花 dohua) but frozen. It’s totally healthy, not too sweet, and really light, and I would eat it every day if I could.

Then four hours later, but still full from lunch, we had dinner at A Cut Steakhouse in the Ambassador Hotel. (Definitely pricey and costs more than Ruth Chris in Taipei) The steak was pretty good, but I’m raving about the dessert. (Again, no camera no pictures, sorry!) There’s this chocolate ball thing where they pour heated chocolate over a chocolate ball filled with cappuccino ice cream. The top of the chocolate ball will melt so you can get to the good stuff inside. The soufflé was also superb. (I totally miss having a kitchen with an oven so I can cook and bake dessert goodies!)

To top it all off, since we were celebrating a birthday, we got a Caramel Banana Chocolate Cake from Black as Chocolate, and this is the only picture that I can actually post (which is taken from their website but it’s linked). I love Black as Chocolate cakes (careful with the pronunciation there) because I’ve been fairly disappointed with the dessert/cake selection in Taiwan, not counting the ones from American-styled restaurants. Their cakes are made from dark chocolate so they’re just the right amount of sweet (and healthy!) but don’t taste like they’re sugarless like most of the other cakes here.

(This post is brought to you by payday advance loans.)

Hungry Girl in Taipei and I did go check out a place called Hook in Zhongxiao Dunhua, but their hot dogs were the really thin, mediocre-tasting, non-American kind, and the wait for the food was really long even when we were the only two customers there.

However, I have discovered that Evans Burger does serve some good ole American hot dogs. They come with really tasty fries, relish, lettuce (???), and salsa. The bun’s kinda weird, but the hot dog is good. Evans also has some pretty good burgers. The one pictured is their Chili Beef Burger.

Ok, now I’m hungry.