Tastebud : No 17 Palace (4th time)

14 January 2026

Back to one of our favourite Chinese restaurant. Relatively affordable food as we shared the food and we could share dishes too. Luckily, I wrote down the dishes we ordered previouly because my food companions unknowingly chose the same dish - eggplant with fish flavour, braised pork and entrecote in hot chilli oil. 

Today, we shared fried tofu with fish flavour SEK188, slices of entrecote with sour cabbage SEK278 (nothing sour about it. It came with pakchoy, enoki mushroom and sichuan pepper - not my favourite), and crispy sweet sour pork SEK258. All of us enjoyed the crispy sweet sour dish the most! A bowl of rice is included for each diner. We did not have a refill. Refill costs SEK20, based on prior experience. I had a cup of hot water - no cost.

First dish - stir-fried tofu with fish flavour. It came with black fungus. In Swedish, it is called skogsöron (forest ear). I find that very funny. Well, it does look like ear and it comes from the forest. Due to my limited Chinese language, I did not know that it is called mu(4) er(3) in Mandarin, which means tree ear. 

When I was small, I do not like tofu but I have gotten used to the taste and taught myself to enjoy the dish. So, this was nice for me thanks to the sauce, otherwise tofu is bland, the reason of me not liking tofu. As you can see, someone's hand was quicker than my camera as he was hungry and could not wait.

Second dish - entrecote with sour cabbage. It came with pakchoy and enoki mushroom as well as sichuan pepper. It was not stated sichuan pepper in the menu. Thankfully, there was not too much in the sauce, so I could pick out the visible peppercorns from my food. Yes, I had some peppercorns for me to know there was Sichuan pepper. It came in a big plate and it was sufficient for us. It reminded me of a dish we tried here that came in a big plate too - entrecote with duck blood, tripe and chilli. This dish is no longer in the menu. 

Final dish - crispy sweet sour pork. Really crispy. Yums! There were enough slices of pork for everyone. Of course, the guys had more than me. I am fine with that as I don't enjoy the feeling of being full. According to the guys, the beef and pork were a good combination. One guy said that the sauce in the sweet sour dish 'cancels' the numbness of the sichuan pepper. 

Tastebud : Krorän

2 January 2026

My first food adventure for the year - Uyghur food. I do not know anything about Uyghur so it was interesting to read about the history. The Uyghurs are from Xinjiang and has their origins from Turkey. 

The dishes we had were mostly bland. The lady boss asked me what I thought of the food. When I told her it was bland, she said that the flavours were toned down to meet the locals' tastebuds. I guess that is how most dishes are here in Sweden. Indian food is not spicy too. However, I think some Chinese restaurants maintain their Sichuan flavour in some dishes and a lot of Chinese diners visit these restaurants. 

We shared the recommended dish, hand-pulled noodles known as Shah Laghman SEK179 - a dish of meat, vegetables and noodle. I found the dish bland. The noodle has a dense texture. 

Shared a cold chicken salad that came with Sichuan pepper and chilli sauce SEK189, which I did not know it was cold. I was surprised the dish came out fast and understood after that as it is a cold dish. There was not much chicken strips. More of onion strips instead. I don't enjoy the numbing feeling of Sichuan pepper. It was suggested by the waiter when he told us that the fish dish takes 30 minutes and we decided to choose something else.

Also had two samosa that is filled with minced lamb. Tasteless. I think it could have salt. SEK39 each.

Last dish is stir-fried wood-ear mushroom SEK159. This is tasty.