5.299 Pork Bones with Preserved Vegetable Soup

Cycle 5 – Item 299

31 (Fri) October 2014

Pork Bones with Preserved Vegetable Soup

3.0

at Tao Yuan

-Malate, Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines-

with colleagues

Try Every Item at Tao Yuan (15) (see also TEITY)

Eating my way through the restaurant’s entire menu, currently at 222 items.

12 new items tonight, bringing the total to 76 items tasted thus far, 146 items remaining, averaging 5.1 items per visit, on pace to finish at TEITY 44.

HK Kailan (3.5) + White Cabbage (2.0)
Tangho (3.5): judging by the distinctively herbaceous bitterness, it would seem to be related in some way to Korean ssukgat (쑥갓) (crown daisy), though with thicker stems, less leafy.
Clams (2.0)
Corn (3.0) + Golden Mushroom (2.5)
Shrimp Paste with Taopok (2.0): would seem to be great combination but didn’t really taste like anything.
Handmade Fishballs (2.0) + Taro (2.0) + Shrimp Dumplings (3.0)
Egg Noodles (2.5)

For my inaugural hotpot experience at Tao Yuan, I was quite satisfied.  Pretty much all of the ingredients were fresh and high quality.  The soup didn’t have much flavor initially, but eventually developed into a very rich broth; big chunks of pork were nice; the “preserved vegetable” wasn’t readily apparent, forgot to ask.  The highlight was the tangho, a jolt of sharp flavor, very welcome to the Korean palate.  The portions are kinda large, such that a meal of sufficient variety would be practical for a group of at least 3 or 4.  In any case, it was the best hotpot meal that I’ve had in Manila thus far.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN PHILIPPINES)

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