Fooki – Pearlridge, HI

Kat is in town and I was excited to meet up with her! Fooki has been open for a few years now and I’ve wanted to try it but I hardly come out west. I used this opportunity to try out some Taiwanese food and meet up with Kat! I will say, this restaurant is not hurting for business. Perhaps it was the day we chose but there was already a huge party waiting to get in when we got there before opening! It was a huge office event but there was also a bunch of tables that came in after us too. Luckily the waiter was smart and got our orders in before the big table started ordering.

Winter Melon Lemonade | $6.00

Ugh! Now I know why it was sour! I ordered a winter melon tea and they gave me the lemonade one. I really did not like this. I even had Kat try it not knowing! Lemonade and Winter Melon tea should not be mixed together. Period. Blah! I drank it because I am Chinese and will not waste.

MaLa Wonton | $14.00
House-made shrimp and pork wonton with water chestnut, shredded taro chips, cabbage, Sichuan peppercorns and Mala chili oil, spicy garlic sauce. (Numbing Spicy, Recommend to start with regular spicy)

Okay, reading this description and I am questioning where the shredded taro chips were? Huh? Like was it in the wontons? I wouldn’t call them chips if they are smoshed into the filling? Hah? Also, they did not ask us for spice level when ordering so I’m assuming we got regular spicy?

I was a bit thrown off by the raw looking cabbage, luckily Kat told me that it is actually parboiled and she is right! I don’t like the taste of raw cabbage too much. The wontons themselves are pretty okay, nothing special. Worth $14? I don’t know…

Beef Scallion Noodles | $18.00
Noodle mixed with fragrant scallion oil soy sauce, topped with braised shanks, fried taro chips, cucumber, red onion, cilantro, parsley, and green onion (No Soup)

A nice dish! Good cold noodle dish for a hot day. It had good flavors, the meat was seasoned nicely. Not a wow dish, but a nice dish!

LU ROU FAN (Taiwanese Pork Rice Bowl) | $15.00
Minced pork belly, garnished with pickled mustard, green onion, fried shallots, white rice, braised tofu and egg

Another dish Kat and I was excited to try. Her first comment? The rice was mushy. That’s one of the things I will never get! Asian restaurants who can’t cook rice right? She was right, it was a bit mushy. That’s hard to do especially for long grain rice?? The taste of the pork was good, the braised tofu was good and the pickles I liked. Not a huge fan of the egg, was a bit non-descript. What’s up with them saying there is fried stuff in every dish but I only saw it on the noodles? There was no fried shallots on this dish!

The food came out super fast. Like suspiciously fast. We ordered and I swear it took 5 minutes for ALL the dishes to come out. Perhaps they had them all made and just ready to serve out? I’m not sure. I think the prices are a bit high for the portions they serve. And just an FYI, they charge a credit card surcharge. I didn’t know this until after I saw my receipt. And another TMI FYI, I got a tummy ache that afternoon. 🙁 But perhaps that was just me. In the end, Fooki was a glad I tried but probably don’t plan to return restaurant.

Recipe: Lu Rou Fan (Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice)

I haven’t tried this dish in a restaurant so I don’t have a great standard to compare my dish to. What I can tell you is…mine looks super dark and maybe I made it wrong a little bit…but it still tasted good! How can you go wrong with pork belly?

Pan fry the pork belly until there is no visible pink. The original recipe calls for pork belly with the skin on…mine didn’t have the skin, still works fine. Look at all that pork belly fat…

Dark soy sauce, regular soy sauce, five spice powder, water, sugar and chinese cooking wine…simmer away my love…

The recipe calls for a cup of fried shallots which you can find in the Asian grocery (I know Don Quijote has it). I didn’t have it so I just sliced up a half red onion (that’s all I had) and coated it in cornstarch and pan fried them until it got crispy. I simmered the pork for 30 minutes and then added the fried onions.

So I’m thinking I know where I went “wrong,” I simmered this dish for 1.5 hours uncovered. I’m thinking it should have been covered cause mine got reduced too much. It was a lot of liquid and if I kept the lid on, then it would have been choke liquid! I think if I make this dish again, I would simmer it for one hour covered and then uncovered for the last 30 minutes.

I love adding eggs to braised dishes but I can’t stand overcooked eggs with gray rings. So for this, I hardboiled these eggs for only 4 minutes so the whites could set…peeled them and added these eggs 30 minutes before the dish was complete. Was perfect! The yolk was just set at this point…

No gray ring!

Lu Rou Fan (Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice Bowl)

Ingredients:
2 lb of Pork Belly
1 cup of Fried Shallots OR Half a red onion sliced, coated in cornstarch and pan fried until crispy
¼ cup of Soy Sauce
¼ cup of Dark Soy Sauce
1.5 T of Five Spice Powder (Original recipe calls for 1.5 T, I will use only 1 T next time)
2.5 T of Sugar
½ cup of Chinese Cooking Wine (Shao Xing Cooking Wine)
3 cups of Water (I used 2.5 C but will use 3 C next time)
8 eggs, soft boiled

Directions:
Place eggs into pot of water and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, turn stove off and leave eggs covered on the heat for 4 minutes. Drain immediately and place eggs in an ice bath to stop cooking process. Once cooled, peel the eggs. I don’t like the eggs to overcook (no to gray rings!) so I undercook it here since it will continue to cook in the pork mixture afterwards. This method left me with eggs with just set egg yolks.

Slice pork belly into bite sized pieces. Place pork belly into a skillet pan and saute until no longer pink.

Add in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, five-spice powder, sugar, and mix. 

Pour in 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.

Lower heat to medium low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Add fried shallots (or fried onion slices) and mix. Simmer uncovered for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add peeled eggs to pan to coat in sauce, simmer uncovered for final 30 minutes (1.5 hr total simmering time) – stir occasionally.

The sauce of and pork will reduce down considerably to a dark treacle molasses like sauce (mine did). Serve over some fresh hot white rice with sprigs of cilantro and slices of cucumber. 

Inspired by:
https://tiffycooks.com/authentic-taiwanese-braised-pork-rice-instant-pot-easy/
https://thewoksoflife.com/lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-braised-pork-rice-bowl/