Until Next Time, Taiwan

Hi everyone!

This post will conclude my trip to Taiwan, I wanted to talk about some of the last few things I ended doing towards my last few days spent in Taiwan and a lot of them are definitely must do's so enjoy!

The first thing I wanted to talk about is Taipei 101, you can already get a pretty good view like the photo above from below however you can actually climb a mountain called Elephant Mountain "象山" to get an even better view of Taipei 101 just like the photo below! You can capture some amazing views of the building while doing a - I would say, fairly fun climb of the mountain! So I decided to climb Elephant Mountain with my family super early in the morning and took lots of great shots while climbing which started my day off feeling super refreshed and ready for lunch... 

After climbing Elephant Mountain, we went to Ximending "西門町" - a very popular shopping district for young people and lots of amazing food there! We headed to ximending to eat one of my all time favourites - Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle "阿宗麵線" which is like the OG Flour-Rice noodle of all time and now that it has many chain stores and branches of the same brand we always go to the one in Ximending as this is also the original store. Honestly, this is definitely hands down the best flour rice noodles I've ever had - not even overrated at all! There will literally always be a line, but you never have to wait too long because the people serving are legit like ninjas (hahaha). You collect your bowl of flour rice noodle and all the extras - garlic, chilli, vinegar, coriander and all the other stuff that you can add to make your noodles extra delicious is self serve!

Also, not even kidding - the way you eat this is standing up... there is pretty much no seating apart from like a couple of chairs that are always taken. But trust me, it tastes a hell lot better eating this while standing (it kind of adds to the experience you know!). 

Another place I wanted to talk about is this small store inside Taipei Station shopping mall also known as Q Square 京站時尚廣場 called 108 Matcha Saro "抹茶茶廊", I was craving desserts while I walked pass this little shop that specialised in Matcha (green tea) products - so I was determined to order a cup full of match deliciousness that consisted of: super rich matcha ice-cream, red bean (mind I usually don't like red bean but this tasted amazing!), peanut powder and mochi (rice cake). It was seriously amazing, not too sweet and rich at the same thing! A must try if you ever come across this!

Next, I'm going to introduce you guys to my favourite shabu shabu (hot pot) "火鍋" restaurant the last two times I went to Taipei! This place is called "無老鍋" and the food - from the broth to the ingredients are delicious! I strongly recommend this place as the food is pretty average priced and the service is amazing. We always get half and half broth whenever we go - so usually half spicy and half herbal. 

We always order a variety of meat - beef is definitely my favourite! Also, they have a wide range of hot pot ingredients, we always order mushrooms, veges and other toppings that work well in the hot pot! 

This time, we decided to order some seafood as well - it was really delicious and fresh but beef and pork are definitely still my go to choice as I'm not really a big fan of eating seafood in my hot pot!

And next, I want to introduce you to my favourite dumpling restaurant, ever! It's actually owned by my uncle's uni classmate from way back so we always get to skip the never-ending line whenever we visit (hehe)... This place has been passed down many generations and is an extremely popular destination for authentic dumplings and honestly the best tasting side dishes I've ever had (just purely amazing). This dumpling restaurant is called Dragon Inn Dumpling House "龍門客棧餃子館" in the Zhongzheng District, we always order a whole heap of dumplings depending on how many of us go usually around 100ish cause they're just that amazing! As for the side dishes we always get a platter of - spicy cucumber, peanuts, soy egg, bamboo(so so good and super tender and crunchy), soy bean curd, and been tripe! If you ever visit, you have got to try them all!

Lastly, I spent my day with my super close friend - Vicky and met up with her sister at a point of the day as well! We went to Xinyi district and decided to just hang around and go for a movie later that day. One thing that I'm super embarrassed to say - is that I tried Pearl Milk Green for the very first time... (pretty much a really popular flavour in Taiwan: Bubble Milk Green Tea with Pearls), and it was amazingly delicious! Absolutely loved it and this is my go to flavour now every time I order bubble tea anywhere. We took some selfie shots with Taipei 101, shopped around and bought some crepes when Vicky's sister joined us! Such an eventful day and such a great way to end my trip in Taiwan!

Until Next Time, Taiwan!

- Miss Ting Chen

Wulin Nature

Hello Hello!

I'm back again with a quick change - to a content light and full of nature post! I really hope you guys take a moment to appreciate the nature and get out there once in a while and completely recognise how lucky we all are to be able to live surrounded by the amount of nature we have! We should always, once in a while schedule a social media detox (haha, I know it's difficult...). But I did it! I went on a trip with my family to Wulin "武林農場" and I literally did not have any internet connection for the entire day until I returned back to the hotel, I got to say it was a good experience as I am always the person with my phone in my hand and snap chatting and posting wherever I go, or whatever I ate... I definitely enjoyed spending time with the nature and climbing mountains etc. Here are some trip photos from Wulin! I hope you enjoy them :)

 

It was definitely a trip to spend some quality time with nature and family away from technology and I really enjoyed the experience! You should all do this once in a while for a change, it'll really make you appreciate everything in the moment!

- Miss Ting Chen

Foodie Heaven

Hello my friends!

I'm back here again to talk about some more must tries in Taiwan! This time when I visited my aunty brought me to this restaurant that specialises in Italian food and especially Churros! Which is definitely one of my all time favourite, especially every time I visit a theme park I always need to buy churros since they're extremely irresistible. So this place is called Churro'K "啾拿棒專賣店" which is located in the Da'an District. I was extremely excited to try all the foods at this place as it already looks and sounds delicious!

We decided to all get either risottos or pastas, I usually always order a creamy pasta like the broccoli, rib eyed steak carbonara below with a balance to a red sauce pasta so I don't get too sick of the whole creaminess too quickly! The food was made really well especially with such a small kitchen, it was fast, tasty and the presentation was great also.

Ahhh, moving on to my favourite part - of the meal I suppose haha! We ordered heaps of churros to share as we pretty much wanted to try each and every kind of it... Firstly, we got the class churros in creamy salted caramel with a serve of rich soft serve which was amazing especially the special caramel sauce!

We then moved on to getting something similar to a share platter, had 5 churros presented like a flower with the choice of three dipping sauces - which to what I remember I ordered the Lemon Curd, Rose Jam and Rich Chocolate which were all amazing but my favourite was definitely the Rose Jam as it was actually extremely rich and light at the same time.

Next, to all you Eel Rice Bowl aka. Unagi Don "鰻丼" fans out there - this is a must try for you! This restaurant below is possibly the busiest restaurant I even visited during my entire trip in Taiwan... The wait/line was so long and there were heaps of tourists so when I finally got to try it out, I understood why! It was literally on point Eel Rice, the flavour of the eel was so flavoursome and the texture was just right! Not too soft/soggy or not too hard either, the flavouring was perfect - not too sweet! Pretty much everyone who ate here came for the Unagi Don. If you ever want to try this place, it's called "肥前屋" in the Zhongshan District and it doesn't take reservations so it's pretty much first in, first served! Or at least try your best to avoid peak lunch hours like 12pm... where all the business men and women are on their lunch breaks... However, if you do have to line up then it is definitely worth the wait (if you like eel of course). 

We also went to eat some really delicious dumplings also located in the Zhongshan District, these were really worth it as the filling were so nice and generous. Side dishes like pig ears, pickles and the bean curd strips salad are all musts when eating steamed dumplings.

Moved on to another place that my aunty brought me to, I guess the foodie aspect runs in the genes! Such an authentic Chinese styled spicy noodles.

The food that i'm about to introduce to your guys is once again, one of my all time favourites! This dish is translated to Taiwanese Meatballs "肉圓" sounds super ordinary translated but there's a lot more to it than you think! It's pretty much a translucent glutinous dough filled with usually a mixture of pork, bamboo and lots of other different ingredients usually fried or stemed (the two different methods lead to the end product tasting completely different, so you got to try both!). They usually cut the meatball into smaller pieces then using a special sweet and savory sauce and topped with some coriander, garlic sauce and other "secret" sauces according to every since Taiwanese meatball street vendor haha.

Another place that I strongly suggest is this Vietnamese Pho place called Cyclo located in Da'an District! It's a very American styled Vietnamese Pho but still tasted extremely authentic along with the rare beef and other variety of choices they offered. We ordered some authentic Vietnamese drinks, my tops picks are always Vietnamese milk tea which are always to die for. Whenever, I eat Pho I always order the ones with rare beef since it's always the most tender to eat and pretty much doesn't overcook in the soup while you're eating it since the rich broth usually stays hot for a long time. Also ordered some Vietnamese spring rolls along with our meal which were so flavoursome! Remember to always pair your food with the absolutely mouth-watering Sriracha sauce (if you can eat spicy that is)!

One last place that I will quickly talk about is a mini cafe located in Zhongshan District who specialises in Bagels. We always get drinks to go with our pastries since it always gets too dry! We ordered a Caramel Macchiato and a Latte, the Blueberry and Black Sesame Bagel along with cream cheese and a sweet maple walnut dipping sauce to pair!

Hope you guys have enjoyed my post once again, thank you so much for reading if you've made it this far! I'll be sharing more food and travel posts soon so please come visit my blog again. If you have an Instragram account feel free to follow me @misstingchen. Talk to you soon!

- Miss Ting Chen

Daily Adventures

Hello everyone! Time to introduce and talk about more foods in Taiwan.

Firstly I have one of my favourite juices to introduce to you guys, two different types will be mentioned in this post as it is quite a common drink in Asia! The picture below was taken at a local morning market in Yonghe District which my mum also grew up drinking since they've been passed down by two generations already. So *drumroll* i'm introducing to you guys Sugarcane Juice! Usually, these stores also sell a variety of other juices but sugarcane is usually my go to. So I always order my sugarcane juice iced and with lemon juice too which makes it just that much more delicious. It's super healthy and an easier than to actually chew on a whole sugarcane (trust me, I've tried it!) haha and plus, it's super cheap and cup for only like 90 cents. Super worth it and super refreshing especially on a hot sunny day!

Back again, at my favourite Taiwanese food store - got some deep fried bean curd tofu, veges and of course my favourite minced pork rice!

Another go to is this place who specialises in making Fuzhou Fish Balls "福州魚丸", which is a type of fish balls that originated from Fuzhou a place in China. They're these amazing fish balls with usually pork inside as the filling and you usually eat it with glass or rice noodles as a soup, just like the photo below along with some side dishes which we ordered some marinated pig ears and watermelon tea as our drink! We love going to this little local restaurant because it's just so authentic and we love the whole atmosphere of eating as a small restaurant like this, makes you feels like eating at home!

Every single time I go back since Laduree has opened up in Taiwan, I have to go buy some to satisfy my long awaited cravings since we don't have macarons as amazing as these on the Gold Coast. The closest Laduree store near me would have to be Sydney however it's way too expensive! You would think being a chained store the prices would be similar... but it's actually not... Therefore I always buy heaps when I go back to Taiwan, it's literally half the price!

Next, we've got the famous Taiwanese style beef noodles! Another go to... pretty much everywhere I go is super authentic therefore making it a must every trip. This place is another local restaurant in Yonghe District since this is the place my mum grew up in we usually spend most of our meals here, this place is literally famous usually have to line up to eat here however the good thing is - it's not one of those overrated restaurants where you line up for ages and the food is crap... it's legit delicious! The place is translated to Huang's Beef Noodles, "老黃牛肉麵", yet another local family restaurant passed down many generations and made it's fame and fortune through their delicious foods! Usually there's two types of beef noodle soup, one with a lighter soup broth or another type with a more stronger soup broth known as 紅燒 which is the type we have in the photo below. You get to pick the noodle thickness by your own preference and add some authentic pickles which just compliments the noodles as the best condiment ever. We always pick preserved egg and bean curd as our side dish because it's just truely amazing... "皮蛋豆腐" I feel like the translation does not do the dish justice but that's really the best I can do, a must try if you ever visit Taiwan!

I went back to Xinyi District to do some more shopping, every time I go I can't help but to continuously take shots of Taipei 101! So, here you go another photo of Taipei 101 literally known to look like noodle boxes and known as the second tallest building in the World by replacing the Petronas Towers in Malaysia and being replaced as first by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Another apparent famous place that I got recommended to try by a friend because he was surprised I have never tried their soybean/tofu pudding "豆花" before which is so devastating because I absolutely love tofu pudding so much so I can believe it took me this long to discover this place which sells delicious tofu pudding! This place is probably one of the most popular places that specialise in tofu pudding called "粉圓大王" which translates to... Tapioca King? Not too sure why but they do have Tapioca pearls as one of their toppings and it was amazing, so i'm assuming their famous for their tapioca as well! It was located in Da'an District and was super easy to find as everyone around pretty much knows what store you're after when you ask for directions (which we did haha). We got the normal size I'm pretty sure, it comes with tofu pudding and to what I remember you get to pick three toppings, which we picked tapioca pearls, sweet potato jelly and peanuts which were all so so delicious!

Tofu pudding is most possibly one of my favourite traditional Taiwan desserts, it's perfect for summer as it's so nice icy cold but also great for winter as you can have it hot as well. It's extremely light so you never feel bloated after eating it therefore I just love it so much as you could probably see how excited we are to dig in! The portion size was also enough to share and the price was pretty cheap too!

Lastly, i've got the other type of sugarcane juice to talk about! It was actually my first time being exposed to this type during this trip... I've always hard the traditional normal ones though this time I came across the type "white sugarcane juice" which seemed odd as it came out green. Anyway, it was just as amazing as the other type! We ordered it icy cold with lemon juice as usual so I think the main difference is the colour, and it was sweeter and more smoother to drink! But both types were yum!

I really hope you guys enjoyed reading my post again! There'll be more coming your way. Talk to you all soon :)

- Miss Ting Chen