Nothing like a good Hoegaarden on tap to start the night. 

Great company.

Iceman & me

Starters:

Left: Cod fish balls (hardly any cod fish!!) & calamari rings.  Lovely presentation but I could do with more substance…

Right: Sauteed mushrooms – this was yummy.

I forgot the name of this Indian dish but it was pretty good – apart from the “lao hong” papadum.

Left: Aglio Olio – taste is pretty unusual ‘cos the spiciness came from the chilli sauce rather than chopped chilli padi, which is what I’m used to.

Right: Udon Cabonara – i thought this was so-so only.  Tasted a bit flat.

We adjourned to Max Brenner for dessert.  This was good… but it was soooo rich I felt like dying…

My milk choclate suckao – mix the chocolate chip & milk in the little container/bowl that is heated with a candle, stir, and use the metal spoon cum straw to slurp it up.  Cocoa high…

Booze Queen’s hot chocolate.

Churros (with cinnamon sugar ) fondue!!

I think we ate enough calories to last the month!

To get to Jiufen, we took the MRT to Taipei Main Station, then changed to an express train to Ruifang.

Here’s a pic of the train station at Ruifang.

You can get lots of snacks at Jiufen.

As well as shops selling curios!

This looked so yummy while it was steamed…

It turned out to be not so yummy vegetarian I don’t know what you call it.  Thankfully, we only ordered 1 bowl!

Climbing stairs is a must.

A really old movie billboard & a 100-year old wheel.

A teahouse

Lemon w/ kumquat & lime and tea jelly

There’s this really good “zi char” place called Chang Wang near Wufenpu.  Food was CHEAP & good!

Kangkong cost only SGD3.60 (and it was good!)

The beancurd wasn’t too bad either.

Sweet & sour pork was normal tasting but cheap.  Costs around SGD5.

This “3-Cup chicken” was the best of the best!  *Slurp*

My shopping in Taipei! 

Smelly Toufu can be easily found in Taipei. 

I wonder which is smellier to the locals – smelly toufu or fried durian?  Haha.

The fried sotong (very common too) was sooooooooooooooooo yummy.  Salted & seasoned with chilli powder, it was sooo addictive.

We tried to eat at stalls that have been around for a long time…

I can’t remember the name of this anymore but it’s nice.  The pinkish soup tastes like fermented beancurd (“lam yu” in Cantonese) and the taupok skin absorbs all the flavour of the meat & seasoning.  I liked this.

The pau was also tasty.  The pork filling was really good though the skin of the pau could’ve been softer.

Found this store selling snacks and toys from my childhood days.

Cam-whoring at Danshui

Lady belting out Hokkien songs

Ximending!

Ah Zhong’s mee sua – the best mee sua I’ve had in my life

People in Taipei love to bring their dogs out.  I saw more dogs than kids!

I really love mala steamboat!

It was gooooooooooood!

Kiki’s Restaurant – serves Sichuan dishes.  Opened by Matilda Tao & some other celebrities.

Kangkong with fermented beancurd.  Reaaaaallly good.

Mala beef – this is a must try!  The medium spicy mala soup leaves a tingly feeling on the tongue.  The beef was tender & absorbed the flavour of the mala.  Soooooooooooooooooo good!

Sour & Spicy soup – didn’t really like it.  Felt that the flavours were a little muted.  The tiny strips of duck’s blood in it were… tasteless to me.  Haha.

“3 layer” pork w/ garlic + vinegar dip.  Pretty good.  The garlic adds a zest to the meat.

Obese ikan bilis (aka anchovies).  This would go great with beer!

My TPE clique and me at our company D&D.  Yay.  Finally a photo with my long long hair & curls.  Didn’t want to cut my hair b4 I took a photo.  Wahahahahaha.

Saw this sign at the airport.  What a nice way of you’re drinking water recycled from pee & poop.

Braised beef noodles.

Lots of braised beef!

1-way MRT ticket

Shilin night market

Really good ice flakes!

Adding sauces to yummy fried stuff

The yummy fried stuff!

Flattened boneless fried chicken

Check out the huge drink!

Braised beancurd (tau kwa), kidney, fish cake, quail’s egg & I can’t remember what else.

Met a client for lunch today and visited a newly opened ramen place, Nantsuttei at Parco Marina Bay.  We arrived at 12:40pm and boy was the queue long.  We persevered and managed to get 2 seats at the counter at about 1pm.

The menu at Nantsuttei is rather limited.  I had the chashu ramen and added an egg.  The soup base was made from pork bone (tonkotsu) and was rich and full of flavour.  There’s this special shoyu sauce added to the top of the soup that gives it the blackish oily layer and it tastes really good (I view it as the equivalent of adding lard oil to soups). 

The slices of chashu were thinly cut and well braised.  Some parts of it were fatty – which melts in the mouth, though I didn’t really eat the fatty bits ‘cos I don’t like the mushy feeling it has.

The noodles were springy and cooked to perfection.  They had to be ‘cos there’s a timer that keeps count of how long the noodles have been boiling. 

The only thing I was disappointed with was the egg.  It was just a normal hard boiled egg – pretty tasteless. 

We also had a plate of pan fried gyoza which was not too bad, though I find the one at Baikohken tastier.

Another thing I found a little odd was that the restaurant does not serve Japanese tea.  In fact, the only beverages available are water and beer!

I think I still prefer Baikohken. 

For more information on address, opening hours and the menu, please visit: http://www.nantsu.com/sg/.

My cellgroup regularly visits the restaurants and cofeeshops along Siglap Road for lunch after church.  Chewbacca, who’s our usual cause of gluttony, suggested trying this “famous bak chor mee place” he’d seen while driving along Changi Road.  Thought it was slightly further from church that we thought, the place was pretty ok.  Located at 316 Changi Road, this place seems popular with celebrities as we saw the photographs of many Mediacorp artistes adorn the wall.

I personally thought the menu was a little overpriced – I mean, $4.50 for a place for small noodles in a non-airconditioned, fly infested coffeeshop is just a little too much for me.

The food was above average I suppose (but you have to eat with one hand holding the chopsticks and the other hand moving non-stop to chase away the annoying flies).  I had the pork rib noodles.  The mee kia noodles was a little fatter than the usual mee kia but tasted good – springy and not overcooked.  The pork ribs were well-marinated and tasty, and what I appreciated best about it was that the flesh came easily off the bone (considering I had no difficulty eating with one chopstick wielding hand).  The chilli sauce was yummy and provided a good accent to the noodles.

I didn’t try the bak chor mee but the group did and they said it wasn’t too bad either.

We also ordered ngor hiang as our centre dish.  I quite liked this.  Though pathetically small, the ngor hiang wasn’t oily and I enjoyed the strong taste of the sweet water chestnut.

Not sure if I would frequent this place though.  I still think it’s overpriced even if the food wasn’t bad.

If u love eating chilli, then i suggest keeping a bottle of Japanese chilli oil at home. U see, i’m the sort who cannot survive without chilli, especially when eating Chinese food. I must have my fried rice with chilli padi, yee mian with green chilli, etc. If smokers find it hard to quit smoking after picking up the habit in their teens, i 1st ate chilli padi in kindergarten so u can imagine how hooked i am.

Unfortunately, as Iceman and i hardly cook at home, our kitchen is devoid of things like garlic, onions and chilli. It’s thus highly distressing (for me at least) when i buy takeaway from the hawker centre and i’m not given enough chilli to go with my food!

The Japanese chilli oil is a real saviour on such occasions. The chilli oil is actually spicy, and tastes great with fried rice and noodles. So if u’re as big a chilli addict as me, i suggest u keep a bottle of chilli oil at home too. U can’t go wrong with it!

For all who intend to go for it, do note that the “Spicy & Sour Tomato with Beancurd Soup” is not spicy at all!  It’s just mildly sour from the tomatoes added in.

I would recommend going for the Pig’s Bone soup base instead.  Very tasty!

The buffet also comes with complimentary Peking Duck Skin.  The wraps had a weird smell though – reminded me of raw egg white.. but they tasted all right, though it appeared pre-prepared.  Can skip this if you want to save your stomach for the steamboat.

The steamboat overall was satisfactory though not fantastic.  We had tons of sliced beef, corn, assortment of mushrooms, tang-o (not sure what’s this veg called in English), pork, meatballs, fishballs, etc.  The $18.90++ price wasn’t that great ‘cos the prawns and the more expensive types of fish were not part of the buffet items. 

Conclusion: Ok to go if you want an air-conditioned steamboat place.  None of the soups were spicy, which was a let down for me.  FYI, the price includes free flow of Coke / Sprite / Soya Bean milk / Chinese tea.