Hello Kitty, Jay, DTF?! - Restaurants of Taiwan (May 5-8 '12; Taipei, Taiwan)

Another week, another post. I must say… pretty impressed with the regular posting :) Yay!

Still posting about Taiwan… there’s actually so much stuff to do here (please replace the word ‘do’ with ‘eat’).

First restaurant I’d like to introduce, the iconic character of all things Asian: Hello Kitty. Yes, she has her own restaurant here and its pink, all pink and only pink – in different shades. I must say, I had a really bad Hello Kitty phase back when I was around 5/6 years old. I had everything pink and Hello Kitty. If 5-year-old me went to this restaurant, 5-year-old me would cry tears of joy and die happy. When 21-year-old me walked into this restaurant? Slight embarrassment and lots of awkwardness. As much as I’m aware of the color pink, I don’t think it truly hits you until you walk in - the only thing you see is pink. It’s a sense-shocking experience.

Store Front... the foreshadow of pink and pretty that follows

Kitty Cake!

I must say though, the kitty-face cakes look really pretty, and they come in a bunch of different colors, white kitty, tanned kitty, and of course, pink kitty. We all decided to order set meals so we could try a bit of everything. Pricing-wise it’s a bit on the pricey-er side, though for Hello Kitty, I’d say its pretty worth it. I think it came up to around 15-20CAD a person. In Canadian standards this is a deal and a half, in Taiwanese/Asian standards, it’s a mid-range meal, still for a Hello Kitty patented item, I expect it to be pricey-er.

The Hello Kitty curry bread bowl was pretty iconic. Hello Kitty’s head is the bowl. The curry was pretty light flavored and a bit saltier than I’d like. On the other hand, the seafood bake was actually quite good. It kinda reminds me of a baked seafood rice at a 茶餐廳 (HK-style restaurant).

Hello Kitty Curry Bread Bowl

Seafood Baked Rice

Pretty Kitty Drinks!

The drinks that we ordered were actually pretty good, not so much the Kitty head pudding. That was flavorless.

An abundance of flavorless Hello Kitty Head puddings

Kitty Salad - i spy with my little eyes... BUGLES IN TAIWAN!?

At the Hello Kitty Sweets café even the bathrooms have to be decorated. Of course, who could expect any less?

Fancy place where i do my thang!

All in all, I’d say you should come and experience this nuclear bombing of all that is pink and pretty. Come prepared to eat some mediocre food and spend a little more than you would normally, but really, now you can brag and say that you’ve been to the most famous kitty’s restaurant :)

Asian Fingers seem appropriate at Ms. Hello Kitty Sweets Café

Next up? Mr. J’s Secret Restaurant. For those of you who don’t know who Jay Chou is, well he’s the little Asian sidekick in The Green Hornet. In Asia, he’s much more well known… I promise! We decided to go for a little visit to his restaurant which is themed after one of his more successful movies – Secret. If you haven’t watched the movie, well I haven’t either. But I have heard good things about it, so maybe we should all go and give it a try. And if you don’t watch the movie, go to the restaurant anyways. The Secret restaurant is located in the campus of the Taipei Medical University. It is a French-Italian Restaurant. I must say I was a bit skeptical about a celebrity restaurant, and the fact that they serve western food just made me that much more skeptical.

The 'Secret' Menu

Mr. J's French-Italian Restaurant

I must say, the food was a pleasant surprise. The food was all pretty tasty with the exception of the dessert, which was very mediocre. We all ordered set-courses and if I remembered correctly, it was about 700TWD a meal. Not bad for a 4-course dinner. I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant, they even had the piano from the movie for you to sit and pose with. Obviously they played loads of Jay Chou’s songs. Though it’s strongly suggested that we made a reservation, it wasn’t very packed. Maybe it’s because it was a weekday? Who knows. Either way, I actually really enjoyed the restaurant, and I’d suggest that if you were a fan of either Jay Chou or his movie ‘Secret’ then you should go and check it out!

Spinach Seafood Spaghetti w/Salmon Roe and Japanese Fish Flakes 

Salad 

Last but not least, the most famous restaurant of the post: 鼎泰豐 Din Tai Fung (DTF: ehehehe… sorry). This restaurant originates from Taiwan and specializes in xiaolongbao (small steamed buns with soup inside). Of course we had to go! First thing to note, SUPER PACKED! But like all things Asian, we fit as many people into a small space in the least amount of time possible. So the actual wait time wasn’t all that long. We order the famous xiaolongbao along with a dan dan meen (peanut/sesame paste noodle) and some green beans. Food tasted as to be expected – very good. Though I have a thing about super famous restaurants, because you expect so much from them, they don’t ever get the chance to surpass your expectations. So, I may not be raving about this as much as I should, but it’s always because I’ve already expected so much from it that it just hits my expectations. Unlike Mr. J’s restaurant, I knew they place was good, and so I expected good things from it. Either way, stop by here – they have multiple stores over the city (and internationally) – and take a pic with the xiaolongbao statue outside!

Left: Xiaolongbao; Top Right: Dan Dan Meen; Right: Green Beans

Take a Pic with Mr. Xiaolongbao!!!

This concludes the restaurant wrap up of Taiwan. I’d say visit all three restaurants. For bragging rights, go see Hello Kitty. For a nice French-Italian meal with a twist of Asian Fusion and celebrity, go to Mr J’s Restaurant. For the more traditional experience, go grab some xiaolongbaos at Din Tai Fung.

Which restaurant would you most likely go visit? Traditional? Fusion? Pink&Pretty? What expectations do you have of certain restaurants when you go for a meal?

A Snack Addict's Guide to Taiwan (May 5-8 '12; Taipei, Taiwan)

The second stop of my trip: Taiwan. I've never been here before but I’ve always enjoyed their food. To me, Taiwan almost seems like a mandarin version of Japan since they also have many cute things. This might also be because of Japan’s occupation in Taiwan in history. But let’s not get into history…

Right off the plane, we were heading for food. First, I’ll talk about the best donuts I’ve had in my life. I’m not much of a bread/dough person, so donuts don’t exactly tempt me. These ones, on top of being a bread-type food, were also ridiculously cute. Pretty-looking things never tended to taste good, that has been my opinion until now. Really should not judge a book by its cover, even if this one was really cute and pretty. And so, at the store called Mister Donut, I tried that best tasting donuts of all time. In cute shapes and colorful varieties, Mister Donut is a donut lover’s paradise. Cute lion donuts are covered in strawberry or chocolate icing. 1CAD is equivalent to 30TWD (Taiwan Dollars), and at 45TWD per donut they’re not the cheapest Taiwanese snacks to buy. You must be thinking, “How is 1CAD per donut NOT cheap?!” Well I need to let you know that food here is abnormally inexpensive. Hence, a dollar a donut actually isn’t the cheapest snack food you could buy. Despite it’s price, I actually ate a donut everyday. The dough of the donut was super chewy and the strawberry lion (which I thought was the best) had a strawberry flavored dough. So yummy! If you ever get the chance to go to Taiwan, definitely go and try a strawberry lion donut from Mister Donut!

Pretty and Tasty Mister Donut

crusin' down the streets of TamSui

We all head over to TamSui District for some serious street-stall snacking. Tamsui is a district by the sea in the Northern part of Taiwan in Taipei. First thing I notice, the street is lined-up with street-stalls calling my name! YUM! Second, the area is actually very pretty, since the open-air market is right along the TamSui River. In such a relaxed environment, I was able to pig-out to my little hearts content. I should start by warning you that if you decide to come and do some serious eating, bring some friends. That way you can try many more food items at once! A skewer of a whole squid, for 2CAD dollars? DONE DEAL. It was also very very delicious. Smelly tofu? Wonderful! Though I might have to mention that Taiwanese smelly tofu is different from that in Hong Kong. It has a less pungent small and they also add some pickled veggies in the middle.

Top: Grilled Squid; Middle: Smelly Tofu; Bottom: Spiral Chips and the Sunset on TamSui River

An interesting snack, the Taiwan Iron Eggs are a must try for many people. They’re named Iron Eggs due to their hard texture. They are either made from quail or chicken eggs. These eggs are repeatedly stewed in soy sauce along with other spices (of which I have no clue are what) until they absorb all the flavors. Though definitely horrible for your cholesterol levels, they are a nice snack with an interesting flavor. They kind of look like Maltesers to me.

And of course, the Taiwanese Sausage. They are absolutely delicious, a must-have when in Taiwan because there just aren’t any other sausages quite like it (hahaha…).

Fishing Fail

Next, heading over to the Guang Zhou St. Tourist Night Market, for more food. Obviously we never get enough. There we got to play a fishing game where you get a net made with paper to try and get a fish. I failed horribly at this game but my friends were much better at it. Since we couldn’t take the fish home with us, we set them free like the good people that we are. A lot more eating here. 

I actually forgot to take a picture of one of my favourite Taiwanese foods: Pork Sauce Rice. A simple dish made of stewed ground pork over rice. It’s also 20TWD a bowl – this is less than a dollar. How can anyone say no to this. This also proves to show that the donut is quite expensive, as I could’ve had 2 bowls of my favourite food for the price of the one donut. Though I can’t say that I regret eating both. Splurging in this fashion? – definitely affordable.

Night Market Shenanigans 

Shaved Ice is a signature dessert to be had in Taiwan. The name explains all, though the ice is flavored, in my case we had a mango shaved ice and a green tea with red bean topping shaved ice. They were both great! The sizes are huge so if you ever decide to go, bring a friend!

great place to cool down in the summer!

Last thing I want to introduce to you: the best cheesecake you’ll ever eat in your life. Though its not actually a Taiwanese delicacy, this is the first time I’ve had it. Uncle Tetsu’s Cheesecake – honestly the best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten. I’m not quite sure if this is a Japanese chain or a Taiwanese company that decided to adopt a Japanese name, but really, at the moment I don’t care. The cakes are so fresh that they make them in batches around every 20mins and you have to line up for it. At first, I was a bit skeptical since I don’t really like Japanese style cheesecakes since they’re usually too ‘cakey’ – as in they’re very bread-y and sponge-y – and I’ve never been much of a fan of that kinda cake.  Though, what should’ve tipped me off is that this cake is the only thing sold at the store, absolutely nothing else is available – and it only comes in one size (18cm). If a store can survive of selling one thing, then really, it has to be good. So after waiting about 15mins we got the cake. The cake was nice and warm in the box. Cutting into the cake was heaven, it was like cutting through fluff, it was so light! The taste? Indescribable – a piece of cake heaven! And at 199TWD a cake? HELL YES! I have hit jackpot, I can now die happy. The cake is not at all sponge-y like normal Japanese cheesecakes, instead it has a light flavor and melts in your mouth, literally MELTS. I don’t know where else you can find this, but you MUST try it if you’re a cheesecake lover and find yourself in Taiwan. The store can be found at the first level of the Taipei Main railway station. At 6 dollars a cake, there’s not reason to say no.

Uncle Tetsu, where have you been all my life?

This blog entry concludes some of the small eats (snacks) of Taiwan that I've really enjoyed. My one suggestion to you when visiting Taiwan? Wear stretchy pants. REALLY stretchy. And be prepared to overindulge.

Are you a big snacker or do you prefer large solid meals? Where have you really enjoyed an abundance of good food, literally just shops and shops of delicious munchies? What would you like to try from the foods that I've introduced on this blog entry?

May 2-4 '12; Hong Kong

And now, finally continuing with my posts about my trip in Asia...

Surprisingly not hit by the JetLag bug, I ventured off into the wonderful Asian city! Staying at my aunt's place is probably the best part of this trip. No hotel fees! Although you may not know this, the ability to allow people to stay over at your home is quite hard in Hong Kong since houses are much much smaller than that of Canada. Luckily, my aunt loves me (and now my friend who travelled with me) and gave us her spare bedroom to share. So, with us perfectly rested (that means an average of 5 hours of sleep in Hong Kong) we started our adventure!

First, how could anyone say they've been to Hong Kong without eating at a food stall?! Though some are fancier than others, they’re all good. Mostly. And to be honest, I have a feeling that the dirtier they are, the better they taste. Disgusting right? I know, but I can’t help it! We got grilled squid and curry fish balls – the epitome of Hong Kong street food culture. For 10 HKD (hong kong dollars) each, I’m ridiculously satisfied. For those of you who don’t know, 1 CDN dollar is roughly equal to 7.8 HKD. So the two bowls of snacks cost me a little over 2 dollars. WHAT A DEAL!!!

Hong Kong Street Food (Top: Curry Fish Balls; Bottom: Grilled Squid)

Lounge Area at the Cinema

We also decided to watch The Avengers since we knew that if we didn’t watch it now, we never would have the chance to since the movie would’ve been out of theatres by the time we came back to Canada. In Hong Kong, all movies are sold as IMAX sales in the way that you always get to pick your seat for your show. I personally prefer this method since you don’t have to get to the theatres an hour early just to get a good seat. Also, Hong Kong sells sweet popcorn as opposed to salty butter popcorn. Crazy right!? Though I still much prefer butter popcorn, I got some sweet popcorn, just because, it’s me and I’m a sucker for anything popcorn. The cinemas itself are much nicer than ones in Canada, especially since we were at the IFC mall in Central, a slightly more ritzy mall in the city. The seats were like leather lounge chairs. Quite nice. As for the actual movie? Awesome! The Avengers was much better than any of the individual movies, except Iron Man. That night was also the night that we learned that the MTR (subway system in Hong Kong) did not run past a certain hour. Since we watched the last show of the day (a midnight showing), we missed our subway and had to take a taxi home. Good thing my aunt lived close by! Though, really taking a cab in Hong Kong is probably at times cheaper than paying for TTC. How sad.

Luxurious leather seating in the cinema

Me and B.Duck

Next, we ventured off to Sogo in Causeway Bay. SOGO is an Asian department store, much like Macy’s in the States. This is where I fell in love with a brand called B. Duck. It’s an absolutely cute duck and their products range from aprons to bathroom utilities. Of course, this meant that I had to have a shopping spree here! But that will be mentioned later, as I didn’t actually do my shopping at SOGO.

Strawberry Cream Puff @CocoFrans

Venturing in the MTR system, unlike the TTC system, is a breeze and sometimes quite pleasurable (as long as you don’t go during rush hour). They tend to have many snack places and bakeries for you to buy some more food! We bought a Strawberry cream puff at CocoFrans. It was really pretty, but too bad it didn’t taste as good. Mind you, it wasn’t bad, just not as good as I expected it to be. Oh Well.

Yoshinoya Beef Bowl with a HotSpring Egg

We also had afternoon tea at my favourite fast food restaurant: Yoshinoya. This is a Japanese fast food chain. They mainly serve beef bowls but they have expanded to also offer chicken teriyaki bowls as well as Hot Pot meal sets. We went there for their teatime special (between 2pm-5pm if I remember correctly), which was $26HKD for the meal set. It has definitely stayed as my favourite fast food restaurant in Hong Kong; the taste was exactly as I remembered it.

For dinner, we went to a sushi restaurant in Mong Kok. It was really good. We had a seared sea urchin sushi, blue fin tuna with sea urchin sushi, and a whole palette of sea urchin. Can you tell that we really love Uni? The price was quite reasonable. Along with other dishes that we had, the total came up to approximately $20CAD a person. Pretty good for some fresh sushi!

A Collection of Uni items (Top Left: Seared Uni Sushi; Top Right: Blue Fin Tuna w/Uni, Bottom: Uni Sashimi Palette)

Lychee Panna Cotta

Another place that I really enjoyed was a dessert house in Sai Wan. Their Lychee Panna Cotta was to die for! A Perfect late night dessert before bed. For the three days we had in Hong Kong before heading off elsewhere, we tried to cram in as many restaurants as possible… I think I’ve succeeded.

What are you favourite restaurants during your travels? What specialty foods have you come across when traveling? Any comments on good or bad transit systems in other countries?

multicolored french tips

So, I know I haven't uploaded any new posts. So, here's one! I decided to do a bit of nail art today. I am officially in love with Red Carpet Manicure. If you haven't heard it it yet, it's an at home gel manicure kit. I've had it for about two months now and I can't express how happy I am with it, it's just that great. It applies just like normal nail polish except you use a LED UV lamp to cure the polish. Result? a completely dry-time free application! I strongly suggest that those of you who are discouraged by chips and stuff on nail polish give this a chance! You may be pleasantly surprised :)  

In White Lighting

In the picture, I am wearing RCM (red carpet manicure) 164 - it's not taupe as a base. The tips are all multicolored so I'll start from:

Thumb - étude house (korean brand) WH703

Index finger - OPI Gargantuan Green Grape

Middle finger - Essie 279 St Lucia Lilac

Ring finger - Chanel Le Vernis Chanel 551 Coco Blue

Pinky - Chanel Le Vernis 521 Rose Caché

French tip colors

In Warm Lighting

I free handed the tips so some of them aren't perfect but I think I prefer this way sometimes, as it's a bit more hassle-free. Though if you are looking for french tip guides and don't want to have to go out and buy them specifically, use paper hole reinforcements. Just cut them in half and stick them on. They create a good smile line and it's much cheaper. And if you have any papers that needs reinforcing, then it's just a bonus! 

RCM I'm not a Taupe Polish

This is the bottle of RCM gel polish that I am totally a fan of. It's a smaller bottle at 9ml (0.30 fl oz) but since I don't usually go through my polishes that quickly, it's fine for me! They're sold at Rexall for 12.99 each. While this may be a bit more expensive than your generic drugstore polishes, it really is worth the money that you spend on it. Zero dry-time is a priority for me! And plus, they're still loads cheaper than a designer brand nail polish :)

Nail Art Polishes

I used a metallic silver nail art polish just under the french tips then went over that with a glittery silvery nail art polish. I find that if you just use the glitter polish it doesn't show up as well. 

Red Carpet Manicure Kits and Essie polishes are available for purchase at Rexall drugstores. Le Vernis polishes are available at Chanel counters. OPI polishes are available for purchase at Trade Secrets. Nail art polishes are available for purchase at Sally's Beauty stores. Unfortunately, there are no licensed retailers for Étude House polishes, but you can find them at select stores in Pacific Mall or online.

I hope you guys liked this simple multi-colored french tip look. Mine aren't much of a fall tone, so what colors and shades would you use for yours? Do you prefer to freehand your tips or use a stencil? How do you prefer to do some of your nail art? with nail art polishes or with a nail art brush or something even more creative?

May 1st; Day 1

Off to Hong Kong! Got super embarrassed at the check-in because I decided to get a ‘kids meal’ instead of a regular person’s meal and the lady looked at me like “are you sure?!”… it sadly was quite embarrassing, just thinking about it makes me cringe…

Food on the plane was decent. Since I ordered a kid’s meal my meal was served first before everyone :) firstly comes chicken nuggets with curly fries accompanied by peas and carrots. The highlight of my meal was the Hagen daaz that they served as a dessert. I was so worried that it would melt I decided to eat it first only to find out that it was frozen rock solid! Took me a good five minutes to gnaw through the first bite. Still, getting ice cream on a plane is always a plus.

Slept like a baby with a crick in my neck. A nice mandarin lady sat beside me. She didn’t know a word of English so I got to translate the menu items for her and practice my mandarin for the whole flight. She somehow introduced me to her son via the pictures that she took with him when she went to Canada to visit him. I now know way too much about him and she gave me his number so that I could ‘meet up’ with him once I was back in Toronto. Ya right, not sketchy at all when I met him. I can just be like “hi, you don’t know me at all but I met your mom on the plane and she decided that we should be friends, wanna chill some time? Nice lady but a little delusional. I kind of felt like I was in a matchmaking session when she described and showed me pictures of her son.

Breakfast: was kind of shitty. Had pancakes that had a funny aftertaste. The granola bar was sadly oatmeal so it was just super fibery. The yogurt was good, but really, you can’t screw up yogurt. 

All in all, I give airplane food a 6.5/10 because the breakfast was not at all enjoyable. On my trip back I’ll make sure not to get the kid’s meal to save myself from embarrassment and a shitty breakfast!

We arrived at the Hong Kong airport at 5 in the freaking morning, we thought the airport bus would be running but the first bus was a 6:50 so we decided to take the taxi. The bus driver had quite a hard time trying to fit in all our pieces of luggage…

For my first breakfast in Hong Kong, I had a fried pork cutlet burger, and yes, that is a perfectly legitimate food item for breakfast. It was surprisingly good, it had a bit of gravy sauce in it and the bun wasn’t dry at all :) For a person who doesn't really enjoy bread items, this was actually really good!

For lunch, we went to the super hyped up rotating sushi place called “genki sushi”. The food was good, you get to choose which plates you want to eat by taking plates of the conveyor belt in front of you. The sushi was fresh and enjoyable although it was a bit on the pricey-er side of things.

We went to “Satay King” (direct translation) for afternoon snack. SUPER good food there! I had a white curry pork culet meal. It was super yummy :) I highly suggest that you go during afternoon times because the set meals are a bit cheaper than if you went during the lunch hour.

All in all, a good first day. Super busy but lots of fun. I'm not foreseeing a lot of sleeping time during these next 5 weeks.

What is the first thing that you do when you get off the plane? go on an eating frenzy? or maybe try to fix your jet lag?