2011-08-26 Lunch @ Facing East Taiwanese Restaurant 東來食府

1075 Bellevue Way NE., Bellevue, WA

425-688-2986

We had this Taiwanese restaurant on our radar for quite a while now, since we're in Seattle, this was our chance.  We arrived with an hour to spare before their afternoon close.

First up, the Taiwanese Pork Burger 刈包, or Gua-Bao.  With all the right ingredients, plus a fluffy bun, this was bordering on fail.  The meat (pork belly) was dry.  The sour veggie 酸菜 was more sweet than sour.  Buddha Girl's not a fan of the candied peanut powder 花生糖粉, she prefers the simple peanut powder 花生粉.  Not sure why they added hot sauce to the sandwich, this ruined the overall taste.

Next to try was the Sweet Potato Flour Dumpling with Pork Stuffing 古早味肉圓, or Ba-Wan.  The ba-wan itself was sad.  The thick doughy skin wasn't "Q" and the meat mixture inside was pretty disappointing.  What surprised us was the sauce, it was awesome!  It's a miso/ketchup sauce that's commonly used in Taiwan, mostly for the oyster omelet.  This sauce was as good as what I've had in Taiwan, yes, it was that good.

Next was the Five-Spiced Fried Chicken with Basil Puree 鹽酥雞, a direct translation would be Salty Crispy Chicken.  Made just like Taiwan, using white meat, they were able to keep the chicken moist and tender.  And yes, there was basil, a good amount of it too.  Both Buddha Girl and I enjoyed this.

Pork Pottage 肉羹, or Rou-Geng, was the final item to be tested.  I was immediately turned off the second this arrived at our table.  This looked worse than Alishan.  Yup, in comparison, Alishan's was a beauty (see post 2011-08-17 Dinner @ Alishan Restaurant 阿里山品味餐廳).  With just small cubes of daikon and shitake mushrooms, this has absolutely no semblance of rou-geng in Taiwan.

Even when biting into the pork nugget (as what Buddha Girl calls it), it was just a slice of meat surrounded by massive load of fish paste.  There was no incorporation of the fish paste with the meat.  The rou-geng was all around disappointing, we ended up eating only three pieces and left the rest.  Yes, it was that bad.

Overall, this visit ended in disappointment.  Well, we're glad that we tried it so we could cross it off our list.  Not a return for us.