Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Taiwan: 台北地下街 & 淡水

Counting down to CNY! Can't believe that it's happening this Sunday :) February started on a sweet note last Friday, when I received an email from my client to pick up the first signed contract of the year! Thankful that my client trusted the product and wanted to expand the usage to their overseas branches, which happened to be under my care too, haha! Have to get cracking after this CNY holidays, scheduling trips down to visit them and make sure the system is properly set up for their usage, not to mention training & admin stuff. Another item to tick off the list :) Realised that Daddy-in-law is visiting my blog to look at the TW pictures, lol! Though he can't read english but still *waves hi* :) Henceforth, another entry on TW!
 
 
Started the day with my fave Mister Donuts! I googled abit for its company info and was surprised that Mister Donut was actually founded in US back in 1956. After being accquired by another company in 1990, most of the North American stores became known as Dunkin' Donuts. Today, Mister Donuts' main market is in Japan, with more than 1300 stores. It also maintains a presence in Taiwan, South Korea, China, Philippines, Thailand & El Salvador.
 
After breakfast, it was time to venture to Taipei Underground Shopping Mall 台北地下街. The mall is divided into 3 main sections: clothings, electronics and food. 
  
Leecher & his anime. 
Wearing his newly purchased top from our shopping @ 五分埔. 
 Chanced upon this shop, where you get to buy plum wine (梅酒)in cute bottles.
 

We spent quite a lot of time in the shop, choosing gifts & souvenirs. Everything looked so cute that I had the urge to bring home & display in our love nest :)
 
Some of the bottles that we lugged home & Leecher bought a couple of miniature bottles for his colleagues too! I would recommend a visit to stock up on souvenirs to bring back home for family & friends.
梅鄉小舖台灣農特產伴手禮精品館
台北市台北地下街42號店鋪-Y19 出入口
 
Had lunch @ one of the eateries located within the mall. Nothing fantastic, just a simple meal of meat & vegetables. 
 
A new technique in massaging  ~ using knifes! The patient's body is tapped with the sharp side of the blade in rapid movements. It was believed that this "knife massage" releases the body's stored energy, increases blood flow and washes away harmful toxins. I wasn't gamed enough to give this a try though. 
 Roger getting an express hair cut in Taiwan, which pretty much worked the same way as our QB house.
 We took the MTR over to 淡水 (Dam shui), that used to be the center of shipping & commerce in northern Taiwan in the 19th century.
 Tourist bus that will bring you on a tour in the area, visiting the historical buildings and sites. 
 
Parents-in-law. 
  
Once again, it was raining, so out came the umbrellas to keep ourselves dry.

Their scooters/motorbikes are affectionately known as xiao mian yang.
 
The weather made the streets less crowded, but we kept brushing across other people's umbrellas along the way. 
 Taiwanese sausages to snack! I used to love these when I was younger, always bugging my mum to buy it for me whenever there were pasar malam near our area.
 
Guess what is this? 
 
Any clue yet?
 
Smelly beancurd ~ The taiwanese culture of eating stinky tofu:

Deep fried stinky tofu
Deep fried stinky tofu is a common dish in both Taiwan night markets and restaurants. Before the 90s, hawkers even wandered around the street and peddled deep-fried stinky tofu. In Taiwan, people usually eat the deep fried stinky tofu with the local sweet and sour pickled vegetable in order to relieve the greasiness.

Spicy stinky tofu
Spicy stinky tofu is a new cooking method for stinky tofu in Taiwan. Because of the prevalence of spicy hot pot, Taiwanese people came up with a new idea of forming a rich-flavoured spicy hot pot soup base by using stinky tofu, duck blood and Chinese sauerkraut as the ingredients. This innovative cooking method of stinky tofu is now popular in Taiwanese culture.

 Soft Stinky tofu
Soft Stinky tofu commonly used as a condiment for rice, bread, congee or noodles. It can also be used as a seasoning for cooking.

Stinky tofu shashlik
Stinky tofu shashlik is a popular cooking method of stinky tofu in the Taipei Shenkeng district and many of the Taiwan night markets. Cubes of stinky tofu speared on a bamboo skewer are roasted over charcoal with roasted meat sauce. Because of the huge amount of seasonings, the unpleasant odour of the stinky tofu shashlik is comparatively weaker. Therefore, stinky tofu shashlik is always recommended for people trying stinky tofu for the first time.
(source: Wikipedia) 


 
Cowboy Roger in the house!  
 
Catch the fish game spotted. I've never had a go at this game before, for I dunno what I'll do with the fishes later on. 
 Took a lil walk along the river before heading to our dinner destination. It was extremely cold walking along the river and due to the stormy weather, ferries stopped their services till the weather turned better.

We couldn't catch the famous sun-set due to the rain, but here's a picture that I managed to capture on the MTR.
 
The pair of shoes that Leecher went hunting for, cuz it looked extremely comfy, lol! 
 I can't recall where we went next, except that we visited another less-famous night market. Opps, the problem with backlog entries. 
 
Dinner @ the Teppanyaki place, where every dish looked exactly the same, filled with pepper & onions. 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Swirl: Orient Allure II

 
 New Collection coming up tonight @ 8.30pm!
Start your shopping for CNY :)  


 Rem to like & share on FB to win $28 e-vouchers! 


Friday, February 1, 2013

Dec Babies Birthday Celebration

 
The december babies (Kenneth, Pris & Me) met up to celebrate our birthdays together, as well as a pre-Xmas gathering with the Uni mates. 
 
Made reservations @ Shunjuu Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant located along Robertson Quay.
 
Wall of fame.
Arrived early @ 7pm & we were one of the early birds.
  
Got a table tucked at the corner, where we have a clear view.
Miniature Xmas decorations :) 
 
We ordered some dishes first, while waiting for the rest to make their way here. 
 
 Free entree was white cabbage and lady's fingers. I was caught by surprised that the cabbage can be eaten raw, lol! The sweet bean sauce is good for dipping, a perfect complement to the tasteless cabbage.
Shunjuu stocks some of the top nihonshu (commonly known as Sake) from all prefectures of Japan. We got the newspaper Sake (the bottle was literally wrapped up in fancy Japanese newspaper) to start the night.
Mixed Sashimi platter to start the ball rolling. 
 Then we went crazy from there, ordering lots of Sumiyaki, also known as Japanese Tapas, washing these down with the sake that we've ordered.
 Gan-bae!
 
Boss EK got us cake from Laurent Bernard. 
 
And, he only bought 1 small cake to share b/w the 3 of us. Where got like that one? So we sent him back to the shop and buy more, lol! 
 
Ta-dah! A cake for each Dec baby :)  
 The small birthday cakes that we all had :) realised that this year, I've been eating a lot of small cakes for my birthday. Time to cut the sugar level, lol!
 
Desserts on top of the cakes. It's pretty easy to guess which is the hot favourite. 
The most expensive meal in our dining history, no thanks to KKB, lol! 
 Shunjuu Izakaya 
30 Robertson Quay
#01-15 Riverside View Condominium
Tel: 68873577
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