What's up with Taiwan - Part I

After a long hiatus from this blog, an update is warranted, but what's up with Taiwan ? After much seeing TV food programmes on Taiwan, we decided to make a trip to eat the various food in Taiwan.


Taipei 101 at night, somehow I feel Petronas Twin Tower looks more amazing with the lights.

But few hours before that, we transited at HKIA, took lunch and waited for the flight to Taiwan.


Shark fin porridge and 肠粉 in soy sauce, airport food isn't the greatest food out there.


Plenty of alcoholic beverages at HKIA apart from the long list of branded outlets.

Finally landed at Taiwan 桃园 International Airport, after an hour and half of flying time, headed to take a cab to the hotel.


Formosa, a name synonym to Taiwan since awhile ago. After about 45 minutes of cab ride, we finally reached our hotel, the Tango Nanshi hotel. Located at


Tango Nanshi in google map.

Tango Nanshi is located at 南京西路(Nan Jing West Road) about 30 metres from the entrance to the 中山(Zhong Shan) MRT station which will ease our traveling about. The weather is just nice, about 15 degrees celsius.


The Tango received quite some fair review on it.


Tango's theme is dark and gives out some artistic charm.


Zen like garden outside the window.


Junior King room, with a big bed and a flat screen TV and home theatre system.


Futuristic long bath with integrated flat screen TV and jacuzzi functions.

Feeling relieved that our hotel room is quite cosy and nice, we ventured out to the famous 士林(Shilin) night market for street food.


综合汤圆豆花(Tangyuan with Tauhua), (RM4), not too sweet but quite smooth.


Lady owner manning her stall selling 豆花(Tauhua), operating briskly.


Bunch of goodies with the dessert.

We walked on to try out other stuffs,


Lady owner selling 木瓜牛奶( Papaya milk ) Rm4 per drink.


Papaya and milk blended together, the taste is just what you expect from blending papaya and milk.


Food stacked up for sale.

We walked into another stall to try out Taiwan famous local dish 卤肉饭(Loh bak rice)


The "Loh bak rice" stall with lady owner running it. Most customers eat the "Loh bak" rice with other dishes, we just took the rice itself just to try it out.


Simple 卤肉饭(Loh Bak rice) , just RM2.

We continued to walk around the shilin night market, resembling our own pasar malam.


士林夜市(Shilin night market) quite crowded.


Wanted to try the 生煎包(fried bao) but was way too many people in the queue, it's holidays full of people.

We retired back to the hotel using the MRT. You can get a MRT card 悠遊卡 for just about RM50, a trip to a nearby station is about RM2-3 depending on location.

More to come...

What's up with Taiwan - Part II

After much anticipation of the food quality of the complimentary breakfast, we were pleased with the breakfast.


Warm soya bean milk served at the eating area.

The breakfast served is mainly a combination of western and eastern breakfast, we had rice porridge with pickled or salted items, I liked the porridge. Tango also serves western pastries like croissant, bread, egg omelette


Croissant


Rice porridge with vegetables and pickled items, tasty.


Tango Nanshi eating area.


Pickled item on the left with a choice rice or porridge and also breads and pastries on the far right.

Although Taiwan has lots of street food, I'm a strong advocate of complimentary breakfasts, as we need to fill up out stomach and be ready for the energy demand of a day travel.

Taipei city has lots of big building but I kinda felt the design and the architecture of the building resembles the 1980s, at the heart of Taipei, many old high rise still exists giving it a hue of it's golden era in the 80s and 90s.


One of the newer architecture building.


Most of Taipei city buildings are somewhat dated like this. Still lots of construction is going on.

One of the places of visit in our travel itinerary is to visit the miniature museum of Taiwan. Located about 20 minutes walk from the nearest MRT station, it was quite a walk. Most of the people that we approached are quite helpful, however, most are not sure of the landmark around Taipei city.


Located at the basement of a high rise building.

One thing to note, flash and tripod are not allowed inside the museum, that really restricts the freedom of photography, with the dark lighting ambiance, it is a struggle to capture nice photos.


Majority of the miniatures are of 1.5 feet wide and 1 feet in height(18"x12") . The details of the miniatures are breathtaking, however, all of these miniatures are not built by Taiwanese.


This lamp is of the size of my thumbnail, literally my thumbnail, I "bull" you not.


The builder of the miniatures is Brooke Tucker.


Nice living room with such intricate details.


Staircase with a nice chandelier


A very nice kitchen with so much details.


Typical 1800s American design.


A nice living room with enough details to mesmerize, notice the newspaper under the chair and the wine rack on the right.


Wine rack closeup, the cupboard and rack is probably slightly bigger than the size of 50 cent coin.


At the edge on my lens can handle, the details is so intricate to the newspaper level.


Another very realistic miniature model.


Wide view of the miniatures in display.


A palace with all miniatures.


Venice is just very much smaller.


Cowboy town with a running train.


Arch of Constantine ? Very much smaller, but full with the details.


A glimpse of the miniature model in display.


Another miniature model.


Close up on the model.

After much oogling at the miniatures, need to go take some food...

What's up with Taiwan Part III

After looking at the miniatures, we took on the bus to 星光三越(Shinkong Mitsukoshi) shopping mall. Shinkong Mitsukoshi is the large shopping mail chain by Japanese shopping mall group. One of the attraction is Paul bakery in A9 section of Shinkong Mitsukoshi located near Taipei 101 building.


Paul bakery menu


Paul bakery with french design


Mushroom soup of the day with cheese crouton.


Quite a lot of Taiwanese people enjoying Paul Bakery.


Design and decoration of Paul Bakery


Expresso cafe, french style, high powered drink.


Jasmine tea


Crepe poulet curry, french fried pancake with chicken curry.


Quite pricey, but nice food served.


Crepe poulet curry is the second menu item.


Nice chandelier.


Tartelette framboises( raspberry tart ), RM17 for one, quite pricey.


Macaron( meringue based french confection ), Rm27 for one, very pricey.

Overall, Paul bakery serves some very good french confection and pastries. Originated from Croix, France, one should try once.

Outside shinkong mitsukoshi, there are quite a number of hawker stalls and quite a number of people around.


Shinkong mitsukoshi shoppers.


Giant christmas tree at the entrance with live band making the environment more lively.

We just walked around the giant shopping mall, housing most of all the very exclusive brands, however, most of the brands are also available in KLCC too.


Taipei 101 in a distance, the mistly/hazy nature of the environment feels kinda poluted.


Cleaning up the building ??


Panoramic view of 星光三越信義新天地(Shinkong Mitsukoshi new life square)


The other view, lots of cabbies around.

Eventhough there are sales going on, but the prices are not that low to be termed value buy. we have to give a try on another very famous eatery, more to continue... we went back shortly after dark to rest after a long day of travelling.