Second Floor in Taipei

When people go to a restaurant frequently, sometimes they go there not only to eat the delicious food but to cherish their memory in the restaurant. In Taipei, there is also a restaurant for me to cherish the sweet memory with my friends. My friends and I come from different cities of Taiwan but we all study at NCCU. To release our homesick, we sometimes hang out to have dinner together. Our favorite restaurant in Taipei is called “Second Floor”.

My friends and I in Second Floor

Second Floor provides a cozy dining space which can let people enjoy the whole afternoon or night. They also decorate the restaurant according to the holidays. Comparing to other restaurants in Taipei, Second Floor won’t limit the dining time during weekdays. In consequence, girls can chat, complain, and gossip until they feel satisfied; that is the main reason why my friends and I always choose Second Floor for our reunion.

Dining space of Second Floor

Besides the ample dining space, Second Floor provides many kinds of food, for instance, pizzas, spaghetti, sandwiches, hamburgers, steaks, risotto, and so on. Hence, even though my friends and I feel like eating different kinds of food, all of us can fulfil our needs in Second Floor. In addition to the main dishes, Second Floor also has many kinds of desserts and brunches. No wonder, Second Floor can be the heaven of me and my female friends.

The first dish in Second Floor I’m going to introduce is German Pork Knuckle. The knuckles in Second Floor have crispy surfaces and chewy texture. The most important side of German Pork Knuckle is the sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is one kind of vegetables which has sour tastes. Eating the roasted knuckle with sauerkraut can let the knuckle be less oily; and it will balance the taste of meat and vegetable as well.   The set of German Pork knuckle also offer soup with puff pastry and breads. The breads in Second Floor will be baked before delivering so that the bread will be hot all the times. Dipping the bread in the soup is also one of my favorite foods in Second Floor.

German Pork Knuckle

German Pork Knuckle

 Soup with puff pastry 

Soup and bread

Le Cordon Bleu Chicken Gratin Rice with Creamy Sauce is the dish which my friend orders all the times when visiting Second Floor. They use the cheese to cover the chicken gratin. After that, they pack the cheese and chicken gratin with floor and fried it until it turns to gold. On the other hand, the rice is cooked with creamy sauce and cauliflowers. A girl will become very full after eating Le Cordon Bleu Chicken Gratin Rice with Creamy Sauce. If you think you will be thirsty after eating this large size meal, don’t worry! Second Floor provides many kinds of beverages for you to choose. By the way, most of these beverages are supplied unlimitedly!

Le Cordon Bleu Chicken Gratin Rice with Creamy Sauce 

After reading the introduction, you may be curious about that if you don’t feel that hungry, what else dishes can you order in Second Floor? Second Floor is also famous with their brunches. In fact, many people even order 2 brunches at the same time if they feel hungry. Among all brunches, Diced Steak with Sauteed Mushroom and Scramble Egg is the one I highly recommend to you. They use the medium well sirloin, juicy mushrooms, and eggs to make this dish. After finishing this dish, you will have enough energy to face the brand-new day.

 Diced Steak with Sauteed Mushroom and Scramble Egg

To sum up, there are too many cuisines provided in Second Floor to introduce all of them in details. Although I have already visited Second Floor for more than ten times, I still can’t eat all of the dishes. However, I’m sure that Second Floor will be a good place for people to spend couple hours eating, drinking, and chatting for couple hours. Furthermore, Second Floor is also a sweet place in Taipei which bring back my pleasant memory with my friends.   

Totto Ramen in NYC

The food culture of New York is famous with diversity. Since New York is the biggest city, as well a significant financial center, in the world, there are lots of immigrants living in New York. When these immigrants moved to USA, they built their own regions, such as little Italy, China town and so on. Hence, when we wander in New York City, we can find lots of restaurants providing exotic cuisines. However, Japanese restaurants are definitely popular choices among New Yorkers. One of the most popular one is Totto Ramen, and there are always lots of people waiting in lines before it.

Signboard of Totto Ramen

My friends and I visited Totto Ramen in the summer of 2013. We arrived at otto Ramen at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Surprisingly, there were already around 20 people waiting on the pavement in front of Totto Ramen. We even needed to write our names in the 2^nd page of the waiting list. However, I was not a big fan of roman in fact, for the soup of roman is too salty for me. At that time, I was really curious why those New Yorkers were fascinated with Totto Ramen? In addition, Totto Ramen was cramped for space, thus, every one needed sit closely with each other. Being frank, Totto Ramen wasn’t a restaurant which attracted me lot at  the first glance.

Always crowded in Totto Ramen

After 2-hour waiting, it was our turn to have a bowl of ramen in Totto Ramen. I could finally revealed the magic power of the ramen in Tooto Ramen. There are three key factors in a bowl of delicious ramen: noodles, soups and grilled pork. The noodles in Tooto Ramen were made by their own cooks. These noodles were thicker than ordinary noodles, as a result, when these noodles soaked in the hot soup for a while, they would still be chewy rather than over tender. Moreover, the thicker noodles had better texture, and we could taste the savor of wheat after chewing these noodles for couple minutes.

Noodles in Totto Ramen

Besides the noodles, the soup also plays an important role in a bowl of delicious ramen. Totto Ramen put a whole chicken and onions in the boiled water to simmer for chicken broth. Comparing with the soup simmered with pig bone, the chicken broth is usually less greasy. People could smell the aroma of the chicken broth even they just stood around the entrance of Totto Ramen. If you are a lover of spicy odor, you can also add their special chili oil in the soup or even try to order a ramen with spicy soup.

Chicken broth 

Last but not least, as a meat-lover, I think grilled pork is the essence of ramen. First, the cook need to choose the top pork belly, which has more fat, so after grilling the pork, they won't become too hard and dry to eat. Furthermore, the cooks in Totto Ramen used a little spray gun to spray the fire on the pork belly as the same time as grilling the pork on the barbecue grill. The reason why they used the spray guns was to control the fire precisely. By doing this, they could make sure all the surfaces of the pork belly were grilled and the surplus gravity was grilled out.

The way of grilling pork belly

Grilled pork

To sum up, although the tastes of Totto Ramen are still kind of different from traditional Japanese ramen, it still worth people giving it a try when missing the orient cuisine in New York. Nonetheless, if you want to have a dinner in Totto Ramen, you have better to arrive there as earlier as possible. If you can, don't forget to buy a cup of coffee on the way to Totto Ramen because you will need to wait for it at least an hour all the times!!!!!

People always lining for Totto Ramen