Lunch at Jo Jo Taipei

今日はかなり久しぶりに Allston にある台湾料理のお店、Jo Jo Taipei (久久台北) へお昼ご飯を食べにやってきました!

Today we came to Jo Jo Taipei, a Taiwanese restaurant in Allston for lunch.  We haven’t been here for a quite some time.

私は風邪気味で寒かったので、まずは台湾スタイルの酸辣湯を注文。一人分なのですが丼鉢のようなう器にたっぷり入って出てきました。軽く2人分はあります。このスープはおいしい! ほとんど一人で平らげましたが豚の血の塊が入っていてそれは夫に食べてもらいました。 I was a little bit sick and felt cold, so ordered the Taiwanese style hot and sour soup.  This was for one person, but was in a big bowl and was more than enough for 2 people.   I loved this soup – better than usual “Chinese style” hot and sour soup.   I almost finished it all by myself, but it had lots of pig blood (which I don’t like) and I asked my husband to eat it.

牛肉大葱捲餅。 The pancake with scallion and roast beef.

三杯鶏 (鶏肉の醤油炒め煮) と三杯小捲 (イカの醤油炒め煮) を半分ずつ。 The mixture of three-cup chicken and three-cup cuttlefish (half portion each).

これは干貝芥菜というお正月特別のお料理。干し貝柱のうまみがよく出ていて、あっさりしていますがおいしい! This is the mustard green with dried scallops, a special dish for New Year.  It was very light but with the very nice flavor from the dried scallops.

次にテーブルに運ばれてきたのはこの巨大なお鍋。このお料理で名前は佛跳牆というのですが夫によると名前の由来は "肉食をされない仏様でもつい手が伸びてしまう程おいしいお料理だから" ということらしいです。 Then this huge pot was delivered to our table.  This dish was called “Buddha’s delight” on their menu (a dish for special occasions).  I thought it was the vegetarian dish as in most of American-Chinese restaurants a vegetarian dish is called “Buddha’s delight”.  But according to my husband, the dish is named this way because it (including meat/seafood) is so delicious that even Buddha (who is vegetarian) wants to jump out of the wall and eat it!

中身は具沢山のお鍋って感じで、豚肉、烏骨鶏、海老団子、豚肉を卵の薄焼きで巻いたもの、鶉の卵、タロイモ、湯葉、糸こんにゃく等がこれでもかというほど入っています There were so many different ingredients – black chicken, pork, shrimp balls, quail eggs, taro, tofu skin, and many more.

スープはたぶん豚ベースでそこに生薬っぽいもの (クコの実) などが入っていますがあっさりして食べやすいです。食べているうちに体がぽかぽか温まってきます。 I think it was pork-based soup with Chinese herbs.    It warmed me up!

最後に夫が食べたいというのでカキ氷を注文。おいしそうだったので少し食べたのですが、せっかく温まった体がまた冷えてしまってちょっと後悔。でもどれもおいしかったので満足です。週末は台湾式の朝ごはんも食べられる様なので、これからはちょくちょく来ようと思います。 At the end my husband insisted to order shaved ice.  It looked very yummy so I ate some but then I felt very cold again – I shouldn’t have tried it…  But overall we were satisfied as all the dishes were tasty and I think they were authentic.  On weekends they serve Taiwanese breakfast, so we’ll visit here more often from now on.