Sweet Treats

It was a tiring Sunday as I remember. After several days less sleeping, I have to wake up early morning for a freak show of mine, which actually turn out 'not that bad' especially with the plentiful lunch afterward. After all said and done, I went to Dream Mall for Kaohsiung Film Festival 2010 movie. I have bought the ticket almost a month ago, so I really should go despite all the hindrance.

KFF 2010 mascot at Zuoying MRT station

My choice of movies for this year KFF (Kaohsiung Film Festival) is Departure of Love (與愛別離) and Cell 211 (Celda 211). I have watched Departure of Love a day before, it's a Taiwan-origin movie directed by Gavin Lin with the setting of Kaohsiung City. So at Dream Mall that day I watched Cell 211, a 2009 released Spanish prison movie that won a lot of Goya Awards (Spain kind of Oscar). I enjoyed the movie. I like the idea of the story and how they can create such a tense dilemma situation, I also like the chemistry happened between the two main actors yet I'm not very satisfied with the end solution, I was hoping for a twisted plot.

After the movie, I was craving for something sweet on taste and look. The pictures of waffle printed on the flyer of 3皇3家 (3Royalty 3House) seem so good, so I thought why not give them a try. It's a quite homey cafe serving waffle, sandwich, risotto, drink, tea and coffee. They've got various waffle choices from the savory ones like Cheese & Hamburg, Lemon & Butter Chicken, Tuna Salad to the sweet ones like Strawberry & Cream, Mixed Berry Jam, Matcha & Red Bean. For the drink I noticed many unique mixes, such as: Cheese Coffee, Coffee with matcha jelly, Apple juice & Honey Vinegar, Mango Green Tea, Cranberries & Tomato Juice, and many kinds of scented tea.

Flying Ace and I ordered Fruits & Cream waffle, they serve it with mango ice cream and maple syrup. The waffle is good though not extraordinary, but I like it served with all the refreshing toppings.

Fruits & Cream waffle

I think 3皇3家 is quite a big group in Taiwan, owning bubble tea shop and then developing to cafe and restaurant concept, expand all around Taiwan. The price is very cafe-like, pricey as you expected, my waffle cost me 150NT and a drink might cost you around 100-130NT.

Overall, I love my sweet treats of the day, the movie and the waffle.

Place: 高雄市前鎮區中華五路789號-夢時代1F (Dream Mall 1st Floor, No. 789 ZhongHua 5th Rd., Cianjhen District, Kaohsiung City)
Direction: Take the MRT to Kaisyuan (凱旋) MRT Station, then take the free shuttle bus to Dream Mall.
Phone: (07) 9701567 
Website: http://www.3r3h.com.tw/ 

Beloved Yang Bao Bao (楊寶寶)

Yang Bao Bao

This is my favorite restaurant around Nanzih. The food here always jollies me. And every time I go there, I can feel the same virgin excitement cause it always full of people queuing, especially on the prime lunch or dinner time (OK, I'm a bit exaggerating about the virgin excitement). So, here I am still taking picture after my near to tenth visit, exclusively for this blog! (Regardless my bad experience here once with an insane drama queen lady that accused me for taking picture of her kissing her 'bule', while all I did was taking picture of the queue crowd which she & her boyfriend not even in the frame!)

Picture from the day I was accused by the drama queen lady

So, let me introduce you first to the menu:
There is 14 items listed in the menu.
No.1-3 is the steamed dumpling, available in pork, beef, and vegetable choices.
No. 4 is the fried dumpling.
No. 5-6 is the rolled pancake, available in pork and beef choices.
No. 7 is the scallion pancake.
No. 8 is plain tear-up pancake, quite similar with Roti Canai or Indian Paratha.
No. 9-12 is soup, available in chicken soup, beef soup, Szechuan hot & sour soup, corn thick soup.
The last two is the side dishes where you can take directly from the shelf table or refrigerator.

And let the pictures below speak by themselves (Flying Ace was very happy posing many times):

Pork steamed dumpling (menu item no.1)

The steamed dumpling here reminds me of Shanghai Xiaolongbao (小籠包) because of the soup inside. They also give the instruction on how to eat it exactly like the Xiaolongbao. Not to forget the condiment for dipping also available here such as: ginger, vinegar, chili oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, and so on.

Fried dumpling (menu item no.4)

Beef rolled pancake (menu item no.6)

Plain tear-up pancake (menu item no.8)

Hot & sour soup (menu item no.11)

The house specialty is the steamed dumpling (esp. the pork one) but Flying Ace and I just love the fried dumpling very much. I also love the chicken soup here, but it's sold out that day.

The price as you can see in the menu is not very expensive. My recommendation is for you to go here with a group of friends so all of you can share several items and maybe have a portion of soup for yourself, that may cost you around 70-80NT per person (based on my experience). So, maybe see you here sometimes?

Place: 高雄市楠梓區朝明路106號 (No. 106 ChaoMing Rd., Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City) 
Direction: The nearest MRT station is Metropolitan Park, from exit 1 or 4 take the bus Red 58, 7 or 29, get off at Jiannren Library stop (健仁醫院), then walk around. 
Opening Hours: 11:00-14:00 & 16:00-01:00 
Phone: (07) 351-3322 
Another store: 高雄市楠梓區德賢路151-1號 (No. 1, Lane 151, DeXian Rd., Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City)

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A Sip of Taiwan: Night Market & Cultural Performance

So, this story is part of a long day so-called study tour designed by our Prof. We started the day by visiting China Steel Corporation and Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) then ended up with dinner at Feng Shan Night Market (鳳山夜市) and went to Wei Wu Ying Metropolitan Park (衛武營都會公園) to watch a cultural show.

Our Prof. introduced us to eat in this restaurant named  鳳山鹹米苔目(Fengshan Salty Mitaimu). He said that it is a very famous one around the area. You will recognize the store easily for there is a big picture of the owner lady with President Ma inside the store.

Mitaimu (米苔目) is a kind of white rice noodles, some people refer it as similar to Vietnamese Pho, but in my opinion it's more similar to Locupan (老鼠粉). The choice of the Mitaimu is dry or soup, Flying Ace and I chose the dry one but later we're a bit regret when we saw the soup one coming, it seemed to be more tempting... haha. Overall the taste is just average for me, the only special thing is that they put a lot of crispy fried garlic on it which tastes good, but other than that it is just similar with other Taiwanese food in my tongue (OK, you can just blame my tongue!).

Dry Mitaimu (米苔目)

Our teacher also bought us the fried stuffed bun sold at the stall next to this restaurant, they said that on weekends you have to queue to buy it. The stuffed inside the bun is quite juicy with strong appetizing smell, even more delicious when you eat it with the chili paste.

Fried stuffed bun

The price is reasonably cheap, for the Mitaimu small portion is 35 NT and big portion is 40 NT, while the fried bun is 9 NT each. So, if you're craving for some local dish, try it!
The address is 高雄縣鳳山市維新路１０號 (No. 10 WeiXin Rd., FongShan City, Kaohsiung County). I guess you can walk along the ZhongShan road (中山路) from the Fongshan MRT Station until you find the crossroad to this WeiXin road. They open from 06:00 to 21:00.

After the meal, we were continuing the journey of the day to Wei Wu Ying Metropolitan Park not far from FengShan Night Market area (you can get off at Weiwuying MRT Station and go in from the Sanduo entrance). There is a cultural show performed by Yunnan Arts University (雲南藝術學院) that night. This kind of show is totally not my kind of unwind. I like the idea of the outdoor stage with a nice lighting under the half-moon, but I wish for something jazzy performing. That would be just perfect for me.

In fact, the performance is mixture of Chinese arts like high note opera singing, traditional instruments play, traditional dance or even tribal-kind dance, etc...

It's a good show tough (the costume is so well-prepared) and even our Prof. said that the show is way better than the one offered for the tourist if you visit Yunnan. Talking about visiting Yunnan (I put the wiki link here), it has three places as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, two for natural sites and one for cultural site. Hmm, interesting right?! So, Yunnan anyone?