Youtiao & Fried Butterfly

What is your favourite local snack whenever you walk past the hawker centers or coffee shops? For me, sometime I love to get hold of either one of these "Youtiao - 油条" or "Butterfly Bun - 麻煎／花煎" together with a cup of Black Coffee(Kopi O) to start off my day before attending those piles or work.......

Youtiao - 油条 is a deep-fried dough stick which has a crispy crust on the outer surface, tender and fluffy when bite. Usually this is eaten during breakfast together with congee or soy milk but some of the people like me would love to dip it with Coffee before eating. There are also many other ways of eating this snack, for example:- Youtiao Rojak(a kind of salad dish that is commonly found in Malaysia and Singapore) or Deep-Fried Sotong Youtiao and etc.

Butterfly Bun - 麻煎／花煎 has a similar texture like Youtiao but it is smaller in size and it is coated with some sesame seeds to give it that extra fragrance and taste. This butterfly bun has a slighter sweeter taste compare to Youtiao and I love to eat this while it is still hot which will give it a better taste.




P/s: Anyone can recommend/share your view on a good stall selling these in Singapore?

Modern Toilet @ Taipei Simending

Look at these.... isn't them cute!!! These are some of the display toilet bowl design plates and cups that are used in this special restaurant that I am going to share my dining experience with you. Imagine if your ice-cream or food is to be served with one of this plate, would you still dare to eat them????

"Modern Toilet Restaurant - 便所主题餐厅" is a Themed Restaurant that featuring washroom facilities such as all kind of toilet bowl design. For your information, even the seats in the restaurant are made from toilet bowls and not chairs. The outlet at "Ximending - 西门町" located at a junction near Xi-Ning South Road which is opposite a 7-11 store.

This is the Modern Toilet Chicken Curry Set which that served with rice, soup and a pickle dish that cost around NT$180.00. Look at the presentation; do you dare to try the Chicken Curry that is being placed in the "sitting toilet" design plate? Some of us might find it very interesting while the elderly will be thinking that we are crazy to eat from those serving utensils.

We also ordered some hot drinks, fruit juice, cheesy snack and chocolate ice. Look at all these, every item is served in a special "Toilet Bowl" design. Even the chocolate ice is served on a "squat toilet" design container. So if you are planning on a Taiwan Trip, perhaps you can consider dine-in at this Modern Toilet restaurant, which is located at either Ximending or Shilin which is in Taipei.

2010 Taiwan Trip - Day 7

Today will be our last sightseeing trip before us going back to Singapore tomorrow late afternoon. Like I have mentioned before, fun and happy moment always past by so fast without us realising that it has already being seven days since we first arrived in Taiwan. Our itinerary for today will be visiting Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall - 国立中正紀念堂, National Palace Museum, National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine - 国民革命忠烈祠, Taipei 101 and Xi Men Ding - 西门町.

After morning breakfast, we arrived at our 1st stop at the "Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall - 国立中正紀念堂" which is a famous monument erected in memory of "Chiang Kai-shek - 蒋中正 / 蒋介石" the former President of the Republic of China. The monument is surrounded by a park, stands at the east end of Liberty Square whereby the structure is framed on the north and south by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.

Inside the Memorial Hall building, there are some exhibition halls whereby you can take a short tour on the cars, furniture, books and etc that has being used by the late "Chiang Kai-shek - 蒋中正 / 蒋介石".

Next we take a short ride to the "National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine - 国民革命忠烈祠" which is a shrine in Taipei City, dedicated to more than 300,000 civilians and soldiers killed in struggles with the Qing dynasty, the Japanese and the Communists. Most of the tourist are attracted to the hourly changing of the guards which are extremely exciting affairs that last for about more than fifteen minutes.

Lunch was served at "Top-Chef - 阿忠师台湾小吃" after our visit to the "National Palace Museum - 故宮博物院" which do not allow us to take any photograph during the entire museum tour. Although I can't show you much on the Palace Museum but if you are interested you can click on the link above to know more about it on their official website. The food for our lunch today is nothing really fancy of what we expected. As you can see from the photo above it seems like all the dish has the same sauce base because all their colour is the same :p Out of so many days, I guess this is the most average meal we have despite that it is from a well-known restaurant.

After lunch we arrived at the former official residence of Chiang Kai-shek and Madam Chiang which is known as “Chiang Kai-shek Shilin Residence Park - 士林官邸” that is located at the triangle of Fulin Road and Zhongshan North Road. This place is a garden is full of plums, chrysanthemums and roses that are favoured by the Chiang couple. There are also a lot of beautiful flowers blooms according to season that make for a stunning view throughout much of the year.

In the park, there is a little private chapel for Madam Chiang which is still looking good. According to the tour guide the resident of Madam Soong Mei Lin might be opened to public access in a few years time.

After about an hour or so at the Park, we headed down to "Wu Fen Pu Wholesale Centre - 五份铺" which is a fashion district area where you can shop for low-priced clothes from the wholesalers directly. Mum managed to get 2 dresses and a coat which is really at a good bargain price. Em.. for us, we didn't get any desire clothing but instead we pamper ourself with some wonderful dessert at one of the stall known as "Ku Cha Zhi Jia - 苦茶之家".

"Taipei 101 - 台北 101" is one of their local attraction that we have being looking forward to. The building is supposed to be ranked as the world's tallest building from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Taipei 101 comprises 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground whereby there is a multi-level shopping mall adjoining the tower houses hundreds of fashionable stores, restaurants and clubs.

Tonight's dinner was at "Koriya - 可利亚" where we get to try their 2-in-1 Hotplate plus Yuanyang(鸳鸯) Steamboat. There are a lot of varieties of meats, vegetables and etc which you will find something that suits you. And this is also the 1st time where we get the chance to try out Taiwan famous "Ma La Steamboat - 麻辣火锅". Although the soup might appear to be clear after adding the Ma La sauce, but it taste so hot and spicy which far beyond our imagination.

Other than ingredients, there is a self mixed sauce area where you can mix and match the ingredient to come out your very own dipping sauce. To our delight mum mixed a very nice dipping sauce that consists of pickles, crash peanut, oil, chili and etc which is very refreshing.

To end our day after a hearty dinner, the tour guide drop us off at Xi Men Ding - 西门町 is the epicentre of Taiwan’s youth culture. There are a lot of cute fashion stalls, varieties of food can be found here as well. And to our surprised we spot "Daiso" outlet there there too :) Other than that, we also found a very unique restaurant known as "Modern Toilet - 便所主题餐厅" where all the food are served in toilet bowl design cups/plates. I will get share with you more about this special restaurant in my next post :p Stay tune.......

2010 Taiwan Trip - Day 6

Isn't this look familiar to you??? Yes! Yes...... This is the famous Hot Star "Large Fried Chicken - 豪大大雞排" from Taipei "Shilin Night Market - 士林夜市". We have saw this a few time from the TV program in Singapore whereby they introduce the Taiwan Trip and their local food. So this is a must try when you visit the night market in Shilin.

The itinerary for the last few days trip was rather rest and relaxes with less traveling time but more sightseeing and shopping. This morning we are going to one of their Tomato and vegetables farm, which is known as “Chin Yong DIY recreational farm - 金勇DIY休闲农场”. This Leisure Farm is located in one of the town in Hsinchu - 新竹, where they have more than thirty species of tomatoes from around the world that is of different shapes, colour and nutritive value. This farm is admission free with guided tour and as well enable you and your family for fruit picking activates.

Today's lunch will be something interesting as we are going to try out some of the Taiwan Local delights such as "Pork Belly Stuff Bun - 割包" which is quiet similar to our "Kou Rou Bao - 扣肉包" but for their version there is crushed peanuts and pickled vegetables in it. There are also pan-fried carrot cake, rice dumpling, deep-fried yam paste, seafood beancurd and etc. This is another great way for us try out their local delights.

After lunch, we head off to Dan Shui - 淡水 where there are a few attractions such as Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf - 渔人码头 , the Lover’s bridge - 情人桥 and Dan Shui Lao Jie - 淡水老街. The weather was pretty windy and cold when we reached the Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf. Everyone of us was shriving because of the big wind and drizzling weather, but since we already arrived at the attraction we take the courage to go down and have a quick walk and glance on the area.

"Dan Shui Lao Jie - 淡水老街" stretches from the nearest Danshui MRT station all the way to the ferry docks where you can find a lot of their local foods including “Iron egg - 铁蛋”, beancurd, black bean soy milk, mochi and also the "Strange Museum - 搜奇博物馆". As it is a rainy afternoon, we suddenly crave for deep-fried durian pastry when we walk past the stall :)

The famous stall there is known “Grandma’s Tie Dan - 阿婆铁蛋” which you try their black and chewy little quail egg. At first glance I still thought that these are little "Century Egg - 皮蛋", but they are not. These eggs are stewed in spices and cooked repeatedly and air dried to achieve that chewy and black effect.

From Dan Shui - 淡水 we travel for another 45 minutes or so before reaching Shilin Night Market - 士林夜市 where it is divided into food centre and night market area. There are so many food stalls available inside the Shilin market ranging from snacks, drinks, noodles, hotplate and etc. We love to drink their special “White Jade Bitter Gourd Juice - 白玉苦瓜汁” which is surprisingly sweet rather than bitter when “bitter gourd” is mentioned.

Out of all those stalls, we tried some of their famous local food such as "Oyster Mian Xian - 蚵仔面线", "Oyster Omelette - 蚵仔煎" and "Wanton Noodle - 云吞面". All these 3 items looks and taste so different from what we have over here in Singapore, especially their Wanton Noodle. Their noodle is very "Q" and the soup is full of flavour. And one special thing about their wanton noodle is they use "Sha Cha Sauce - 沙茶酱" instead of the chili paste, tomato sauce and etc that we have in Singapore.

While waiting for the Oyster Omelette to be served, I went around the area to look for this must try Fried Chicken Cutlet which is very well-known in the Shilin Market. This is the "Large Fried Chicken - 豪大大雞排" from Hot Star stall where you will always see a long queue even during rainy days. The chicken is very crispy on the outside and yet tender and juicy when bite too.

After dinner, we went over to the Shilin Night Market across the street where they have all kinds of small stalls and shops selling the latest fashion on clothes, accessories, shoes, bags and etc. Guess what, I saw one of my friend's favourite Korea brand "ETUDE House" over there too :p