Days of chewing carefully: lost and found

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We're meeting up with the Parental Units tonight, and we chose to check out a place not far from their home. I may or may not have dined at A Gan Bistro (阿甘小館) before, but if I did it would have been close to 20 years ago. This was yet another recommendation from Little Rabbit, and I was looking forward to finding a place suitable for mom.

The place was busy on a Sunday night, and while the boss lady was too busy to stay and chit chat, she nevertheless was patient enough and entertained our request for the kitchen to dispense with MSG during cooking.

Coldcut chicken in Taiwanese style (鹽焗雞) - UMMMM, NO, this is NOT salt-baked chicken. It was, however, a very, very good steamed chicken (白斬雞). It was so, soooo tender, with that beautiful layer of jelly between the skin and the meat. The fact that it was a whole leg including the upper thigh was a plus, and seasoning it with some sesame oil made it even better. This is something I'd like to buy and take back to Hong Kong.

Stir fried anchovy with scrambled eggs (吻仔魚炒蛋) - I love whitebait, so when I saw these scrambled eggs on the menu, I immediately ordered it. As it turns out, it was relatively under-seasoned, and the one dish that mom wanted to eat the most. I felt bad for taking the last bits when I thought no one else had wanted it...

Fried rice with pork and eggs (肉絲蛋炒飯) - this was our preferred choice because the pork was likely to be fresh and MSG-free, while other toppings could be suspect. Pretty decent, and fairly MSG-free.

Penghoo squash (澎湖絲瓜) - very nice and sweet. I love loofah.

Inestine with ginger sauce (薑汁大腸) - yes, I would like some inestine, please... This was not what I had expected... thanks to the addition of sweet pickled mustard steam (甜酸菜). I also didn't expect enoki mushrooms, either...

This was a casual but delicious meal, and the kitchen really did lighten up on MSG and other chemical-laden seasoning. I think this is a place mom could come back to, and Foursheets was definitely smitten by the chicken.

I got a call in the middle dinner. The taxi company called and asked whether anyone had left their purse, and as it turns out, it was ME who dropped the wallet in the confusion while getting off the taxi. I was told that the taxi driver dropped off my wallet at the police station, which was just around the corner from the restaurant. Minutes later I received a call from my bank, who had been informed by the police station about my lost wallet and cards.

So after finishing dinner, I went to the police station to pick up my wallet. The process was very painless, and Mr. Occifer did a full inventory of the contents of my wallet including the cash. They even checked the balance on my EasyCard (悠遊卡) to make sure it hadn't been depleted!