Taiwan Day 1

We were freaking early the next morning after our KK tour to embark our new journey to Taiwan! So excited although this was not our 1st visit for both of us. Can't wait to explore more new places and foods! I actually did a very thorough planning of our itinerary of where to go. George even claimed that it was better than those by travel agencies as we had those different experiences in which tour groups could not provide. So obviously, I'm the tour guide for our trip. It was tiring but indeed very fruitful.

Taoyuan International Airport

Reaching Taoyuan International Airport around 1130am, we immediately proceeded to the telecommunication counter which was easily located after making a right turn upon exiting the luggage collection hall. Got our prepaid card for easy internet usage throughout our vacation. Without wasting time, we moved on to purchase our KuoKuang bus tickets to Taipei Main Station.

Comfortably waiting if or passengers to fill up the empty seats.

Taipei Main Station

After getting the Youth Card (For more info, visit https://youthtravel.tw/sub_en/card/) from the Information Counter as the cards could allow us to enjoy special discounts in certain places, I searched for Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake as it was recommended by many. Bought the whole cake and enjoy bits of it. It was really soft. Some people actually queued up to get the instantly made cakes, but we were in a rush, so I just got what they had there. Upon that, the next thing was to get EasyCard for easy access around Taiwan which could be used for buses, railways and Metro's rides.

XiMenDing

Board on the metro to XiMenDing (XiMen Station) with our heavy luggages so that we could check in to our hotel (ColorMix Hotel). With the help of a local taxi driver, we found the hotel in a small alley within the bz and crowded shopping district. As the check-in time of most of the hotels there were abt 3pm, we were still quite early and left our bags at the counter so that we could head on shopping and eating without wasting time.

Good weather.. Not too cold.. Just nice..

王子起司马铃薯 😋😋 could not forget how good it was when I had it during my previous visit.

Too bad the pic was overexposed which I did not realize. Couldn't show how mouth-watering it was.

火焰骰子牛. They cooked the beef cubes on the spot with fire. 

It was so so so delicious!! Meat was tender and juicy, not losing the beef aroma, perfected with the added flavoring chosen (玫瑰矿盐). No regrets!

Another popular stall - 日式碳烤麻糍. Grilled mua chee which we could later select the seasonings we wanted. We went for one salty which I think was cheese and another one of sweet version which I think was teriyaki sauce. The cheese one tasted rather bland but the teriyaki one was quite ok.

Along our shopping routes, we also searched for the famous 赛门甜不辣.

Only tried this bowl of 甜不辣. Quite nice with all the fish balls, meat balls, horseradish together with the sweet paste. A new dish that I never taste before. Could be very filling if this was eaten all alone.

Miramar Shopping Centre

Took the metro to Jiannan Rd. Station to get to Miramar. Wanted to go for the Ferris wheel ride, but queue was rather long. So we just walked around and waited for the free shuttle bus to Shihlin Night Market.

Shihlin Night Market 士林夜市

Shihlin is a must visit night market in Taipei. You could get almost very local snacks here and also do some shopping for clothes. It's one of the largest in Taipei. However, it is really packed and crowded. Sometimes you just have to squeeze and push through your way to get around. Foods here are available in 2 sections, located along the streets and also underground.

Some seafoods you could get

Massive production of Taiwan famous oyster omelette. It's really delicious!

Cheap and yummeh beef steak you could get here.

Some foods we enjoyed for the night: Quail eggs, Grilled celery wrapped in bacon, Grilled Octopus 👍, Oyster Omelette 蚵仔煎, Deep fried chicken butt 七里香 (the best chicken butt I had so far), Beef steak with spaghetti and sunny side up (meat was so tender), Deep fried Yam with Egg Yolk 👍, Grilled Chicken Thigh Sausage (bursting tasty juice once you bite) and Red Bean Cake 红豆饼.

XiMenDing 

Got back to XiMenDing and continue walking around. Walk and shop to digest more and eat more! Haha! Found the famous 阿忠炭烤 for supper. We definitely walked a long way for this. Partly was because we lost our way. Still wasn't familiar with the road signs.

Select whatever you want and have it grilled. There were quite a number of people waiting before us. But it was worth the wait! ☺️

Mom's Laksa

Mom's Laksa! Well.. This doesn't mean my mum prepared laksa. It's the name of the shop. Located at Matang area, the coffee shop started off from a small business stall at home. Due to its popularity and good business, it grew BIGGER. Claimed to be Sarawak's No.1 Laksa in some people's list especially for Halal eaters, we must give it a try! When we got there, I still find the original stall there, but we still get to their new shop which is located at the shoplot just opposite the road.

Laksa! Not bad.. Thick gravy.

They also served Mee Jawa there, but we only ordered the Satays as we had a bowl of Laksa respectively.

Delicious satays which took them some time to grill them.

Dinner @ 98 Kopitiam

Once again, I'm back to my favorite place for beef noodles. Actually was fond of the beef tendon! Hehe~

This is the beef noodles stall - Kuma Garden. 

They have Fried Kway Teow with Beef (RM4.50) too! Not bad. The beef meat was tender. Just the right texture. Stir-fried in chili gave the dish extra flavor.

I ordered the Beef Kway Teow Soup Special (RM7). I requested for just beef tendons. No meat, no tripe, but just tendons!! Yoohoo~~

Look at the huge chunks! Slurpppsss~~

Ordered the BBQ Sambal Squid (RM20) from the BBQ stall which we only happened to see it open for the first time on this Sunday night. Quite good, kinda oily thou.

Melaka Food Hunt #5: Sun May Hiong 新味香 Pork Satay

Right after Chicken Rice for breakfast, we headed straight to Sun May Hiong for pork satay! It was not difficult to locate the place with the "Waze" app.

The place is normally very packed and crowded. Luckily the crowd had not started yet that morning. To cater for big crowds, they started "peng"-ing the satay early.

Pork on fire!

Here came our satay! Mix of pork innards as well. These Hainanese Pork Satay has pork lard cubes in between. Different from the sweet pork satay we have in Kuching, these satay was salty in taste and what made it even better was the satay sauce. Blended pineapple was added! Yumm! The sauce definitely stands out from all the satay sauce I had before as I seldom have my satay dipped in satay sauce cos I just like the sweet taste of the satay we normally have. 

Kinda clean way of preparing their foods.

Astana Grilled Burger & Satay

Astana Grilled Burger is one of the famous burger stalls in Kuching. It is operated by Malays, so it's Halal. Operating the business at their house along Jalan Astana, they allocated a little outdoor dining area for customers to enjoy their homemade grilled burgers. Selling a couple of different types of burgers, we opt for the Overload Chicken Grilled Burger (RM 7.50). As I had some difficulties in biting, so I only had the chicken meat and had it like having western cuisine. >.<

Chicken meat with an extra slice of pineapple added with extra charge. Quite nice. :)

Our main purpose here was actually to have the satays from the neighbors as our friends said it was good. Like Astana Grilled Burger, they also set up dining spot at their garden, so we just walked over to grab some satays!

Got ourselves Lamb, Beef and Chicken!

Huge lamb chunks on the skewer (RM1.00 each). Delicious, but have a definite amount of fats.

Chicken Satay (RM0.50 each). Nice too!

Beef Satay (RM0.50 each). Love this the most. The meat was tender, not too chewy for me to munch.

Second visit to Korean Food @ Jalan Song

Well.. After our first visit, it seems that this place become our regular place for reasonably priced good Korean food. :D George and I were actually planning to go with our friends as we could have more choices to try out. Ended up having dinner with his parents. They let us, the youngsters to decide on what to have from the menu, and these were what we had:

Pork BBQ (RM30). Having this pork platter again. We had to grill the pork slices ourselves this time as they were lacking of skilled staffs that know how to grill. Nvm. We have Chef George. Hehe~ As yummy as before! :)

Beef Bulgogi Jeongol (RM40). We thought that this was supposed to be the usual Beef Bulgogi which is grilled to perfection in marinade sauce. However, this turned out to be soupy type. Using another hot stove, everything was cooked and mixed together in the soup. Not our likings. Cannot blame them as we did not ask and when I googled the term, well, it does mean Korean BBQ Beef Soup. >.<

Kimchi Soup (RM8). Erm.. I think this was just ok.

Bibimbab (RM12). Very delicious. With the mix vegetables, fried egg and sufficient amount of the Guchujang (sweet red pepper paste), the mix rice was just awesome. George's mum eventually classify this as Korean Rojak. LOL!

Chicken ham kim bab (RM15). Time to try out Korean's style of Sushi. Unlike Japanese Sushi, this sushi roll was huge and stuffed with lots of veges. Chicken ham was added as an extra. Well~ I just like it. Very filling thou.

We were so so full~ Burpp!!

Guo Guo Xiang BBQ Steamboat

Another deal, but it's not from Groupon anymore. Bought this deal from Supermain. The buffet at Guo Guo Xiang BBQ Steamboat was supposed to be priced at RM28/person. With the deal of RM88 for 4 persons, we get to enjoy their fresh and quality buffet at RM22/person. 

Introducing the new style of BBQ & Steamboat. BBQ plate on top of the soup. Can have 2 choices of soups each time. They have Tom Yam, Chicken, Zhao Cai and Laksa Soups for selection. We opt for Chicken and Laksa Soups.

Ice Creams to end the meal later :D

Free flow of drinks available.

They also served some home-cook dishes.

Fresh vegetables

Seafoods, Fish Cakes etc.

A variety of beef, lamb and chicken marinated with sauces like curry, their special Guo Guo Xiang Sauce, Western and also Original Flavor. Personally loved their homemade marinade recipe.

See the grilling in process. Slurpsss~~