hello everyone! i NEED to blog about taiwan because its foodie paradise. hahaha. anyway, please set your browser settings to detect chinese simplified, cos i left some of the names in chinese. haha.

22 Dec, Evening
first off, 沙大哥 and his whole family fetched us from the airport! after putting down our luggage at Hotel Miramar Garden Taipei (美丽信花园酒店 near 忠孝复兴 station), and packing the gifts for him, we walked to a nearby seafood restaurant for our first dinner in taipei! the food was GREAT, soo good, really expensive as well. i don't really eat much seafood cos i dont really like crabs/lobsters, but this time we had mostly fish, which i totally love. hahaha. so u can guess how much i ate. wait, don't guess please. heh.

the place where we had our seafood dinner! within walking distance of our hotel!


first up.. fish (li yu? i dont rmb what fish gasp!), really fresh and tender despite it being fried. and 麻辣 sotong! not TOO spicy, even tho it was still numbing. NICE.




then we had cuttlefish that you dipped in a special sauce; fried eel (i still prefer grilled unagi to the fried version), i choked on the bones!;





oolong tea! very thirst-quenching. one of them was sweetened (tho not too sweet). you wont get this in singapore. haha. then, this springroll thing with pork and leek. HIGHLY recommended please. hahaha.



the hotpot with cabbage and pork. the broth is cooked with Mei Cai i think. there was charcoal in the middle of the pot, so the soup had an authentic smoky flavour. no joke man. the kick's in the smokiness. haha. next, braised pork knuckles! i think you can find this in Singapore too so not too special, but still, it was nice, not too oily. :)




the carbs; fried rice and noodles. fried rice was good, worth a try, but just like any other GOOD fried rice in SG! noodles were only so-so, we didn't really touch it..



my favourite i think: 大眼鱼, pronounced "Dua Bak Hur" in hokkien! biggest eyes i've ever seen on an edible, steamed fish! and 沙大哥 transferred the fishhead to a plate just for me to devour. (check out the fish's EYE!) made me feel like a carnivorous monster. muahaha. THANK YOU!




沙大哥 and his whole family outside the restaurant. from left, 沙大哥, Ean, 沙太太, Kelly, Windy! on the right, all of us outside the restaurant! :)


after the dinner, we walked back to the hotel and after settling down for abit, kor + rachel + me went to explore our surrounding shops for abit.. saw 7-11, familymart, and this roadside 蚝仔面线 stall! but the only thing worth taking photo at was this..



was really weird to spot this there, cos its supposed to be a high-class area, with office buildings too. then, a sex shop. hahaha.

23 Dec, first official day at taipei!
breakfast was provided for in the hotel; took many pictures but im really too lazy to upload sorry! hahaha cos anyway, its not a taiwan specialty kinda thing, but i have to admit the hotel gives a decent breakfast. waffles and the wheatbreadroll deserves special mention! haha.

after breakfast, aunt alice (from south africa) came with her whole family! met shirley and her sister, as well as their dad!




top row: haoyang (kor), mr wu (their dad), shirley. bottom row: rachel, denise, auntie alice, mummy, sylvia. really happy to meet auntie alice again :) and of course, its always great fun to make new friends! haha! didnt get to talk much to shirley but still i think it'll be great fun to hang out with her. hopefully i can go over to south africa soon, or that she'll come over to sg during her hols! :)

after that we took a rather long walk to SOGO, where 忠孝复兴捷运站 was. haha. the pic on the right's taken in the train..


more photos outside SOGO; we acted abit like retarded tourists who've never seen a SOGO in our lives. sigh.


we took the train to 西门站 and started our shopping at ximending! shopped a lot! i bought 3pairs of shoes. and many other things. hahaha. here are some of the "roadside stalls" that came out around 5pm!














other than shopping, we also played this hoops-shooting game at the arcade! haha. and we also ate the revered 阿宗面线! and, mummy bought 棒棒堂 for valerie at a shop near the arcade! haha. at about 5 or 6plus, Sha da ge fetched us and we went to Yong Kang Jie (永康街, i think) for 麻辣火锅！not many pictures; too busy eating. haha. there's this 打老婆菜 or sth, i don't remember the story much, except that it has something to do with the vegetables shrinking to a mere fraction of its original size after boiling. haha. although technically yes, other vegetables do that too, but this veg has uh, exceptional abilities at shrinking. haha.

the other special thing i tried was pig's blood, or 猪血糕. not much taste the pig blood itself, supposed to eat it with the sauces you mixed on ur own (they have a complete sauce counter for you to get creative, not like singapore's steamboat places you go to). i guess you eat it for the texture. haha. well okay, maybe there was abit of the taste of the tanginess of blood. haha. ok, enough said.

then there was the 手工蛋; looks like quail eggs but they're not. machine-made from real chicken eggs, 手工蛋 comes in bite-sized portions just like quail eggs, but have neither the fragrance nor high cholesterol level as the eggs they try to imitate. hehe. quite cute lah havent seen this before in singapore.











沙大哥 teaching me how to eat duck tongue, or 鸭舌.



don't eat the parts where its near their windpipe/oesophagus, he says. hahaha. can eat the ligament, and the tongue itself. nothing very special, just the novelty of eating a weird bodypart and also, the fragrance of the 卤汁.





a 点心stall worth trying along the 永康街 belt; also, a decent dessert joint! was too full to even consider visiting that place. after that, we were dropped off at ximending again and continued some shopping! haaha and reached the hotel exhausted. haha.

24 Dec, Christmas Eve!
after a really slow wash-up and slack tv-watching-after-breakfast-break, we went to 五分埔, this like, wholesaler's market. didn't really enjoy myself cos it was raining and all. but, i still managed to buy quite some stuff! oops. what a spendthrift. sigh. Lord, please bless me with a rich husband please, or else, a well-paying job. so i can go back to taiwan and do my part for their economy. haha. (inside joke: think 沙大哥)





my bro with those scandalous leopard-print ear muffs, and this coffee place we sat down at after a tiring half-day of shopping. haha. nothing very special the drinks there, but what was interesting was the menu (菜单) in chinese. my mum challenged me to read off the board all the names of the various coffee drinks (latte, macchiato, cappucino, americano, etc) and the tea drinks. hahaha.



there was a roadside stall nearby selling betel nuts! those that turn your mouth a bloody red after chewing. serious. i never tried it, looked abit.. i dunno. unsightly? haha. its supposedly a snack for the lower-classes; if i'm not wrong, truckdrivers etc eat them to keep awake at night.



then we walked on and arrived at this YUMMY 凉面 stall! woots. its called 姐妹凉面, and run by the 2 sisters below! :) they were very friendly when asked to take photos and all. highly recommended, partly cos of their service too! haha. :)




below is a picture of the 凉面! its really more like a comfort food (think craving for carbs during PMS, or think mashed potatoes, but not the Maggi kind thx) than a special dish with exquisite/exotic flavours.




the noodles are the right texture for a carb dish - not too dry, not too springy, not too soggy, waaaaa the 口感 kept me eating and eating! the sauce is peanut-ish, sweet, a little spicy, a little bitter, and the cucumber was really like gloriously refreshing! like, a "dulling" of the palate by the sauce counteracted by the sprightly flavours of the cucumber. OH MAN I REALLY WANNA EAT THISSSS AGAIN NOW NOW NOW! =( i like this more than 鸡扒 okay? haha. anyways, finish up the meal with a hot bowl of soup! :) not fantastic, kinda like a lot of MSG, but hey man, this is comfort food, whats important is not so much the flavour but the feeling it brings ;)

well, then we set off again in search of more good food and good shopping! we found a bakery with yummy traditional 太阳饼, a pastry with malt and honey inside, but we felt that the malt filling was abit too stingy, so we didn't buy from there. i kinda regret actually, cos on 2nd thought it actually was one of the best i tried. yep, then we continued on and i saw this 菜饭 stall, 台弯 style!



food is charged according to which "class" of food they order. same concept; meat one price, veg one price, etc. BUT, here in taiwan, people choose their own dishes! and, the boxes are different - made from paper, biodegradable, and therefore more environmentally friendly than singapore's 菜饭 stalls. (hmm, this sounds like an appropriate idea to effect a change.. campaign for styrofoam boxes to be out!) the lady on the right was preparing a mass order, i think.

we then stopped by this stall to buy lots of sweet stuff. haha no pictures, but it was all good and yummy. redbeans! hahaha. and also 方块酥. =)

yeah, then we rested abit at 松山车站, this railway station (not mrt!). then we crossed the 红桥 (red bridge) and arrived at 饒河夜市! (Rao He Night Market). there was a HUGE temple there, but i didn't go in, only mom did.


and also, one MUST have the reputed 胡椒饼! (Pepper Pau, haha) i think maybe whats special is the fact that they use this charcoal oven to bake those paus. haha.


烧仙草! yums. haha. singapore only has the cold version. this hot version is perfect for the "taiwan winter"! hahaha. no jelly, just the chinchow taste, plus peanuts, redbean, pearls.. nice :) we also stopped by this shoe shop where kor bought his brown nike shoes! hahaha. there was this ULTRA lovable doggie :) i still remember him vividly okay! awww man i wanna go back there and give him a big hug! (even tho im not really an animal person..)


then we returned to the hotel slightly earlier! cos we were quite tired already. christmas in taiwan is kinda unhappening. i think next time i wont go there over christmas! i'd rather spend it in singapore. hahaha. yep. counted down with mom over the tv -_- sigh. hahaha. the most sad christmas i've had in my life! haha.

25 Dec, Christmas Day at Taipei 101, 淡水,士林!
first stop of the day, Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world! we took a train to 市政府站, then a shuttle bus to Taipei 101. we didn't go up to the top level cos we felt it wasnt worth the SGD$15, since its winter and cloudy and windy. haha. so we just took a photo at the visitor arrival centre! next, we stopped by NewYorkNewYork Shopping Centre. bought donuts from Mister Donut, and sat down at Starbucks for some coffee. i had toffee nut latte, yums :)



then, at about 3+pm, we started our long and arduous journey (juz kidding) to 淡水! was a really long train ride. yawns. since we haven't had lunch, we decided to walk around the 小吃店s in the area! oh btw, dunkindonuts there don't taste as good as other countries' outlets. a little stale. maybe cos of the cold weather?

those sweets you see in 古装片, haha. and this really sour drink.


sweet potato balls. again, its a novelty, not really worth your stomach space if you don't have much left to spare. and, i love the packaging of the drinks in taiwan; colourful and creative and everything! Singapore is just.. dull. plain. classic. not exciting at all. =/


铁蛋: quail's egg dipped and cooked in 卤汁 for at least 12 times until it forms a hard, black layer around the egg, like a metal shell, thus explaining its name! and also, kor and rachel ordered this 大肠包小肠, thinking it was a 香肠 wrapped in a bigger bratwurst. but we all got cheated! the 大肠 was actually just glutinous rice! HAHA. we all had a good laugh about it.




after that, we took a 公车 (public bus) to 渔人码头, and we went onto the lover's bridge (情人桥)! it was REALLY COLD man. there was this couple taking their wedding photo at the bridge, but the girl was so skimpily dressed for the weather! really pity her man! i found myself wishing i was there with a 情人 too. hahaha kidding!



we tried to find good food to eat, but nothing much.. so we had almond tea, and left for 士林夜市! dropped at 剑潭捷运站, and started our eating escapade! :D 名副其实的士林鸡扒！and, some kebab thing that wasn't really impressive! haha. the ji pa really beats singapore's one flat. im never gonna eat ji pa in singapore. unless really no choice and the craving becomes too overwhelming. hahaha.



well we shopped some more in the ye shi, and we played more hoops-shooting games! mom made friends with some random taiwanese clubber ppl. u know, those wild types. hahaha. exchanged cigarettes somemore! tsktsk. ate some 冷圆 thing that i suspect gave mom and me diarrhoea the next morning. haha. the whole 气氛很热闹, just like what a 夜市 should be like :) but at about 9+ we got tired alr, and finally went back to the hotel!

26 Dec, last full day at taipei!
at about noon, we headed to 光华商场, this place selling electronics and appliances. finally kor got to shop for his own stuff! haha. quite nice la, the stuff there. like there are nice com accessories at reasonable prices. bought a really cute thumbdrive! hahaha. and other stuff. saw this really cute car! it had the a figurine of one of the death gods in death note!



there was this really friendly couple operating this small 香肠 stall. yummy :) we had one with garlic, and one with blackpepper, both were heavenly! heehee. singapore's pasar malam 香肠 doesn't offer the sauce accompaniment. haha.



then we headed to 西门町 again for more shopping! mom decided that we're gonna have a proper lunch/dinner this time round, like, a sit-down thing, not 路边小吃. so we went for this yummy Jap Curry place! katsudon, pork roll with asparagus and cheese, and chicken curry. :)





the sesame+salt+pepper blend that we had to grind, then add to our curry for added fragrance; the green tea jelly! oh, the pannacotta (mangosauce) was HEAVENLY, i would go back there JUST to eat that pannacotta. hahaha. but of course i'll end up eating the curry too!


the special 冰咖啡!


hahaha after eating, we played MORE hoops-shooting games! and look at the banner: its supposed to say relax, not release! LOL.


well, we continued shopping and shopping and shopping.. we drew NT$5000 from the ATM to continue spending! gosh.. there was this bag sale and we bought 4. SGD$40 gone like that! haha. then i saw this cute egg place that i wanna visit again the next time i go back taipei! haha. oh and we went to this sweet shop with these cuteee sweets below! hahaha.



we then left at about 9+, and started looking for supper near our hotel! we discovered this awesome breakfast/supper place in a small lane! the pic on the right is.. i don't remember what its called. its nice. :)


streetside 小笼包 beats singapore's DingTaiFung xiaolongbao. totally okay? haha. and, 饭团 with porkchop and egg and youtiao and cai por filling!


27 Dec, last half-day at taipei!
awww, time to say goodbye to taipei =/ in the morning went to guanghua again, kor bought some stuff! yay im so happy to see him buy stuff. :) then, went to this supermarket to buy food! yay! hahaha i bought 杯杯面. heh. then we met up with mom and went to SOGO! bought food at the basement of SOGO (new building), and then with just 30minutes left, we spotted an ESPIRIT sale! muahaha so rachel and i speed-shopped (within what, 20minutes?!), signed credit card and blew SGD$140! wow. the fastest i've shopped. hahaha. and rachel and i RAN BACK all the way to the hotel! ahahahah! what an experience! :D we will make great shopping partners LOL <3!!

okay, then 沙大哥 and his wife fetched us to the airport! arghh so sad, having to say bye to them =/ i reaaaalllyyy like the both of them! so sweet ppl! not forgetting funny! if they come to singapore i'll make sure i make time out to bring them around! (esp if their children come!) haha :P so yeah, we spent the remainder of our money at 新东阳 in the airport. haha. and then, we were on the plane back to singapore! awww i really miss taiwan. =/ oh btw, we had haagendazs on the flight back. hahaha.

whew, finally this long post is over! hahaha. i hope IF i go to shanghai next year, i'll have as much exciting things to talk about! lol. GOD BLESS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR PPLE!

Labels: travel