MuLan Taiwanese Cuisine (Cambridge, MA)

228 Broadway
Cambridge, Massachusetts
617.441.8813
website

For Canadian Thanksgiving, I headed to Boston for a shopping trip with my sister and company. I thought I would take advantage of my trip and visit my dear friend E and her baby. When I last saw them in June, prior to my sister's wedding in Cape Cod, we actually tried to go to MuLan but it was too busy, and so we ended up having lunch at Legal Seafood. When E asked what I wanted for lunch, I suggested trying MuLan again.



I was really excited to try Taiwanese food with E, since her mom is Taiwanese. E told me, no surprise there, that the best Taiwanese food to have is in Taiwan. The restaurant was busy with a lunch crowd, but we were quickly served a soup, some peanuts and pickled vegetables, included in all lunch meals.



We bypassed the lunch specials because I wanted something authentically Taiwanese. E suggested the beef with leek wrapped in pancake ($10.95). It is made up of scallion pancakes that can ordered on their own, and then filled with beef with a savoury beef and leek mixture. I had a bite of the accompanying peppers, which provided a lot of heat. While E thought this didn't taste like the same dish she's had in Taiwan, it was still very taste. I love the flavourful filling combined with the crispy pancake - a very filling dish too.


Beef with Leek Wrapped in Pancake.

For our second dish, we ordered eggplant with basil sauce ($6.95). I just love eggplant (and have an upcoming Chinese recipe to share) and this dish was fragrant from the abundance of fresh basil.


Eggplant with Basil Sauce.

Between the very filling beef pancakes and the large eggplant dish, we had leftovers. Maybe one day I will get to visit Taiwan, but this will have to do for now!