One Fine Summer Holiday

August 17, 2012.
Good to be back again to Taiwan after a year (or to be exact a year and a week).
A late summer holiday with spark of love and lots of laughter.
Road trip, brunch, supper and beloved one. What more can I ask?

Flying Ace was thrilled to pose again. Enjoy some snapshots!

On the way to K-town by High Speed Railway

My favorite milk tea... slurp

Stinky tofu and duck blood

Expensive supper :p

Nixon's Head, Kenting

Budai salt mountain & salty popsicles

Jiji Train Station

Chicken karaage hamburger

Mango ice

KFC custard tart

Btw, this is my first post in 2012! Finally, YEAY!!!

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Stress Reducer

This is my favorite stress reducer:
Cold Stone Tie Guan Yin Tea Ice Cream (鐵觀音茶冰淇淋).
It's solely sold in Taiwan!!! A MUST TRY for tea lovers.

Toppings: raisins and pumpkin seeds

Kaohsiung Stores: Kaohsiung Arena Hanshin, Zuoying Shin Kong Mitsukoshi , Dream Mall, Sanduo FE21 Mega Department Store, DaShun.
Website: http://www.coldstone.com.tw

“Stressed spelled backwards is desserts!” ~Author Unknown

From Vietnam with Love

Flying Ace and I had just flown back from Vietnam, and we're lovin' it!!! Great scenery, tasty food and nice shopping come with a fair price, additionally awesome people during the trip made it memorable. And even ask for more.

Hanoi has that sense of authenticity with the mixture of ancient heritage and gorgeous view of lakes inside the city.
Halong Bay is magnificent beyond words, beautiful like paintings.
Saigon is shifting modern, simply casual.

Here are some snapshots from the trip. Enjoy!

Tran Quoc Pagoda on West Lake Hanoi, oldest pagoda in Vietnam

Random street at Old Quarter, Hanoi (with random cute Viet guy *wink)

That's how they sell French bread

Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi

Spring rolls

Traditional lunch

Phở bò (beef rice noodle soup)

Fear factor: fertilized duck egg

For more information about the egg, check this link.

Halong Bay, here we go!

The signature yachts

View from the top of Ti Top Island

Seafood

Papaya salad

Saigon city view from motorbike

Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica

The artworks

Vietnam coffee

Love how they eat the French bread

Special lunch treat

We love DESSERT!

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/ 

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?