McDonald quality fries @ Tokyo Bento

The bento boxes were Ok, but this time I tried the fries, which is slightly unusual to find in a Bento place, there was fried chicken a few shops away with fries, but I picked these fries because they are sprinkled with Perilla (Ji-So in Chinese) and these are the fries you get at McD’s.

Initially I thought they were sprinkled with seaweed, but they turned out to be Perilla (Ji-So). I have never tried it before, but in Asian cuisine they use a lot of it.

When I looked it up, it seems that Basil is also called Ji-So in Chinese, but Ji-So doesn’t taste like Basil.
Basil is mostly used in Italian dishes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perilla

The picture of Perilla is like a nettle leaf, and the reason for confusion is that Basil is Lor Lack in Chinese, and the Perilla is also called Japanese Basil, hence when I looked for Perilla, results of Basil also turned up.

Anyway, the fries were nicely fried, golden yellow and not over done, they were seasoned reasonably with salt, however I could not taste the Perilla despite there was quite a fair amount on the fries.

 

 

 

 

Herbal tea replaced by Taiwanese tea @ CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice

Previously this corner shop used to serve herbal teas and herbal eggs. No one can escape that herbal concoction smell when you walk past.

Now the unnoticeable grim corner has been replaced by Coco Fresh drinks, unmissable being bright orange.

Before it opened, it stood out already but I couldn’t quite guess whether it was drinks or a froyo joint.

Finally Coco opened, so I came during its first few days of business and there was a promotion going on.

For every cup of Taiwanese tea with pearls you get a free green tea with cream on top, essentially buy one get one free.

The Taiwanese tea was only $13 so I paid $13 for two big cups of drinks at 500cc.

There were staffs from Taiwan to train the locals and a big sign promoting their current offers.

The pearl tea was ok, not too sweet, but then all Taiwanese drinks can be personalised these days with the level of sweetness and the amount of ice you want.
The green tea with the milk cap tasted ok too, except the cream was not as thick as Gong Cha, it was more like foamy milk.

The design printed on the cup is interesting, instead of volume markings, it has a Taipei building with various heights representing different volumes, although it is meaningless ie ABCD’s.
I was also surprised that they have a branch in New York too! People holding drinks with the Taipei tower printed on the cup in the big apple!

A staff from Taiwan training the locals

Buy one get one free during their opening

Interesting ABC volume markings

Daily special of that day, sharkfins soup @ Masamura

Been here numerous times, in general the food is always good.

They will feature specials every day which is not on the menu.

The special for the day was sharks fin soup at $28, before they had grilled "octopus suction cups" which was surprisingly very good, so I didnt hesistate to try the sharks fin soup.

It was slightly disspointing though because the soup for the sharks fin was very sweet rather than savoury.

As well as that ordered Japanese rice cake, which tasted like sweet potato cakes those made by villagers in HK.