Covered in Stardust: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Taipei: Dinner @ Wine de Kanpai Yakiniku Bistro

We shopped at Breeze Center till the mall was closed, then realised that there was nowhere to have our dinner as the restaurants were also all closed for the night. Except for this lovely restaurant that was still open.

You won't fail to notice these gigantic cooker hoods that look like pepper grinders above the tables. We discovered that they were

Heating up the coal for our BBQ.

I had a calpis soda and the boy had a beer. In fact, each of us had two glasses of our favourite drink.

This is the dish for you to place your cooked slices of meat on, and which also carries the soya and lemon-based dipping sauces, and a dollop of mustard and salt & pepper.

This was our selection of meat for dinner. The quality was good, and the relief that came from realising that we wouldn't have to end up getting takeaways from a convenience store again, made it even tastier.

Accompanied by Mixed Butter Cheese Vegetables wrapped in foil, for a balanced meal.

I couldn't resist it when I saw that they had kimchi soup on the menu. Unfortunately, the soup was disappointing. It wasn't the least bit spicy, and there was so little kimchi in it, it tasted like anything but.

We loved the place though, with it's dim lighting that made our dinner experience all the more romantic. Nevertheless, service could have been better.

Address：台北復興南路一段39號GF (Breeze Center, Fuxing, Ground Floor)
Business hours: 11：00 ~24:00 (Last order 23:00)

TAIWAN HOLIDAY LINKS

Getting from the Airport to the Town Centre
Airport Bus

Accommodation
A review of the reasonably priced City Inn Hotel

Food
Great Yakiniku Dinner Wine and Dine
Best Fruit Smoothie at Agnes B Cafe
Dining Cute @ Hello Kitty Cafe
Best Breakfast @ New York Bagels
Best Spaghetti and Fruits Tea @ Afternoon Tea Cafe
Ice Cream Toast @ Dazzling Cafe, opened by a socialite
Best Mala Hotpot Supper @ Ximending

Night Markets
Shida Night Market
Shilin Night Market
Raohe Night Market
Jianguo Flower and Jade Market

Shopping Malls & Bookstores
Eslite, Shinkong Mitsukoshi

Main Attractions - Places that you can't miss
Danshuei Old Street: Eat while you walk
Jiufen: Traditional Alley
Shifen: Lighting A Wish Lantern
Beitou Hot Springs: Soak your troubles away
Yehliu Geopark: Amazing Rock Formations by the Sea

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Taipei: Agnes B Cafe

Feeling tired after all the shopping, we decided to have a quick bite at the Agnes B Cafe situated on the ground level of Hankyu departmental store in the Xinyi District, before walking over to Eslite.

You can see the cafe from the outside of the building.

We shared a beef with mustard sandwich which was surprisingly tasty. I would have had another except that we had a buffet dinner planned for later.

I had a Kiwi Fruit Juice, and the boy had a Vitamine Fruit Juice, which was predominantly watermelon. Aside from the Sweet Fruits Tea from Afternoon Tea Cafe, this is the other drink I wish I could bring a carton of, back home with me. Sweet, pulpy and cold. It was heavenly.

Taipei: Afternoon Tea Cafe
Taipei: Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe
Taipei: Dazzling Cafe

TAIWAN HOLIDAY LINKS

Getting from the Airport to the Town Centre
Airport Bus

Accommodation
A review of the reasonably priced City Inn Hotel

Food
Great Yakiniku Dinner Wine and Dine
Best Fruit Smoothie at Agnes B Cafe
Dining Cute @ Hello Kitty Cafe
Best Breakfast @ New York Bagels
Best Spaghetti and Fruits Tea @ Afternoon Tea Cafe
Ice Cream Toast @ Dazzling Cafe, opened by a socialite
Best Mala Hotpot Supper @ Ximending

Night Markets
Shida Night Market
Shilin Night Market
Raohe Night Market
Jianguo Flower and Jade Market

Shopping Malls & Bookstores
Eslite, Shinkong Mitsukoshi

Main Attractions - Places that you can't miss
Danshuei Old Street: Eat while you walk
Jiufen: Traditional Alley
Shifen: Lighting A Wish Lantern
Beitou Hot Springs: Soak your troubles away
Yehliu Geopark: Amazing Rock Formations by the Sea

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Taipei: Dazzling Cafe

We were shopping in the Xinyi District and looking for somewhere nice to rest our feet, when we came cross this sweet looking cafe at A11 Shinkong Mitsukoshi. The main highlight seemed to be their toast with ice cream, and seeing that almost every table had ordered one, we just had to give it a try.

My Iced Pomelo Peach Tea tasted more of peach than pomelo. The boy's Iced Blackcurrant Peach Tea tasted predominantly of blackcurrant.

There are a few kinds of toasts on the menu. We chose the Banana Chocolate Honey Toast that came with vanilla ice cream.

A couple of cashew nuts and a sprinkling of pistachios on the ice cream.

The cubes of toast were crunchy, and they were pre-cut to the exact number of banana slices on the plate.

The reason being, there's a proper way to eat it. A cube of toast, topped with a spoonful of ice cream and followed by a piece of banana. A novel concept, but it makes for a slightly strange dining experience.

A nice place to rest your tired feet, or just for the novelty.

Dazzling Cafe Sunshine
Address: 台北市松壽路11號2樓 (台北信義新光三越 A11) Shinkong Mitsukoshi A11, 2nd level
Business Hours: Sundays to Thursdays 星期日~星期四 11:00~21:30(Last order 21:00)
Fridays and Saturdays 星期五~星期六 11:00~22:00(Last order 21:30)

Taipei: Afternoon Tea Cafe
Taipei: N.Y Bagels
Taipei: Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe

TAIWAN HOLIDAY LINKS

Getting from the Airport to the Town Centre
Airport Bus

Accommodation
A review of the reasonably priced City Inn Hotel

Food
Great Yakiniku Dinner Wine and Dine
Best Fruit Smoothie at Agnes B Cafe
Dining Cute @ Hello Kitty Cafe
Best Breakfast @ New York Bagels
Best Spaghetti and Fruits Tea @ Afternoon Tea Cafe
Ice Cream Toast @ Dazzling Cafe, opened by a socialite
Best Mala Hotpot Supper @ Ximending

Night Markets
Shida Night Market
Shilin Night Market
Raohe Night Market
Jianguo Flower and Jade Market

Shopping Malls & Bookstores
Eslite, Shinkong Mitsukoshi

Main Attractions - Places that you can't miss
Danshuei Old Street: Eat while you walk
Jiufen: Traditional Alley
Shifen: Lighting A Wish Lantern
Beitou Hot Springs: Soak your troubles away
Yehliu Geopark: Amazing Rock Formations by the Sea

Friday, November 25, 2011

Taipei: Breakfast @ NY Bagels

We had breakfast at N.Y Bagels on three out of seven days of our trip. Given that our hotel did not provide any sort of breakfast, I decided to look for a place to start the day happy.

Notice the cute little cutout of a bat on the glass divider? The cafe was all decked out for Halloween.

There are four brunch sets to choose from, differentiated only by the type of bagel and the ingredients added to the scrambled egg. We tried the Mixed Mushroom Scrambled Egg set which was pretty ordinary.

THIS, was what had me coming back for more. Their Mardi Gras style scrambled egg with cajun sausages and jalapeños. Similar to the Mixed Mushroom Scrambled Egg set except for the omelette which was spicy, meaty and very filling.

And of course I can't resist bagels or any sort of bread. Especially if they are served hot with a huge dollop of butter. Or spicy scrambled egg.

There are 6 kinds of bagels on the menu, including sesame, cinnamon raisin, fragrant onion and the oh-so-pretty blueberry bagel.

You get a choice of soft drink or tea with each set, and a complimentary plate of fruit with every two sets.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Taipei Day 7: Around Ximending & Mala Hotpot (西門町)

We stayed at a hotel just 3 minutes away from the Ximending shopping street, where there's an Eslite 116 building, two multi-storey Watsons stores, a couple of KTVs, Magazine Freak, Sasa, The Faceshop and Etude House. Prices for Korean products are still on the high side, even though Taiwan is much nearer to Korea than Singapore is. You would likely need 2 hours or more to wander around the area and browse the shops.

I'm not sure if the Watsons stores here are open 24 hours, but I needed to get some stuff after 12 midnight and found them still open for business. There's also a rather large Daiso on the 5th level, and you can get Froyoyo at the ground level.

Here's one of the two Magazine Freak stores I went to, the other one being at Taipei Main Station. You can get your monthly fix of Taiwanese and Japanese magazines here. They do sell art, craft, and cooking books too, as well as manga. There's even a bargain bin on the upper level, where some Japanese magazines go for as low as NT109 due to defects with the GWPs.

We came across a photoshoot which seemed more for a magazine than an actual wedding.

You can get the popular Ah-Chung Mian Xian here.

Crispy flavour-enhanced chicken nuggets from Ji Guang Xiang Xiang Ji.

Green tea frozen yoghurt with aloe vera cubes and mochi from Froyoyo. There are 2 tables outside the yoghurt store and if you happen to dine-in, listen out for the song that's playing. It goes 'yo..yofroyo'. It's so cute.

They have a couple of flavours and toppings to choose from, and we tried the mango yoghurt with mango cubes & cornflakes. Nice and refreshing, but not much different from those we can get in Singapore.

There is a mall, FE21, just across the road from our hotel, and it's like a smaller version of Shinkong Mitsukoshi. Similar to OG maybe? They were having a sale and every morning, way before opening time, a long queue would form outside their doors. I overheard a customer asking a staff about the free gift and found out it was a tote.

We decided that we were going to have hotpot for dinner even before we reached Taipei, and since Le Ye BBQ and Hotpot was one of the recommended places, we had our first hotpot experience there. All I can say is, we were disappointed. The soup base was mediocre, and the place was a little tacky.

On the other hand, we enjoyed our wonderful dining experience at Mala Hotpot, located on the 2nd floor of the Holiday KTV building. You can't miss the bright orange facade, if you walk all the way to the end of the Ximending shopping street. It is just across the road.

Certified Angus beef. Sounds good to me!

A twin, or yin yang pot. We chose a collagen soup base and a spicy soup base.

I was looking forward to crunching on these collagen cubes, only to find out that they melt and disappear when heated, leaving me to down bowls of MSG laden soup just to get 2% closer to achieving beautiful skin.

The spicy soup base was fiery hot. It's the kind of spiciness that numbs your lips and tongue, though I have not yet come across any that can stand up to the one at Chong Ching Hotpot. Then again, it might be because we had cowardly asked for medium spiciness, to avoid getting diarrhea on the flight home.