Third season already!
We saw an episode of 超级小吃赞 3 (Snack Attack 3) on Channel U a few weeks ago recommending chocolate buns, coffee buns and custard buns.
So we came here after our leisurely stroll at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve 🙂 on this bright Sunday morning!
Yummy Dumplings
This is the new place that I come to when I need some healthy lunch, because they only serve vegetarian and organic food. In fact, the 3 times that I have been here, I’ve been eating the same thing :p
Beautiful station in Kaohsiung
[I know we started this blog in Aug 2013 and this trip was in Jun 2013, so it’s kinda backdated. But after documenting the Taipei trip, we thought we should ‘complete’ it by documenting the Taiwan trip as well, even if it’s just a photostream. So here it is. 🙂]
And so we went on a Taiwan trip in June this year after more than 4 years. I believe many Singaporeans goes to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Bangkok probably once every year or maybe even more than once, so > 4 years sounds incredibly long.
But this trip was not really planned for, because I was supposed to be going to Boston for a conference, and wifey was supposed to come join me after that and we could tour around the academic city of Boston and Cambridge. But for a totally incredible reason, we ended up booking on a trip to Taiwan instead. You wouldn’t want to get me started on that incredible reason…
You could never tell a cafe is in here!
We were at this area for a book launch (very proud of Ms V’s daddy :D) and decided to all pop by for drinks and desserts.
What a crowded place on a Saturday afternoon!! Completely packed and slightly chaotic within the air-conditioned area, we had to make do with outdoor seats on a sunny afternoon…
Enjoyed the music, but it was a very noisy place with people shouting at one another over the music. Not suitable for chilling on weekends perhaps? While we find the place quite interesting, it was really too noisy for our liking, and the fans at the outdoor seating area were simply insufficient.
Perfect place for dinner
Happened to attend a conference at Expo today, so we planned to drop by Changi City Point to check it out.
Decided to try out this place coz hubby read that the burger is good! It was pretty crowded at 7+pm on a Friday, so reservations may be a good idea.
The restaurant is divided into a small indoor area and a bigger alfresco dining area. The tables are lined up into one long curved stretch rather than individually island-ed, and diners sit on both sides of the long table, very much like in a canteen. This gives the diners a very communal friendly ambience and everyone feels like we could be friends instantly!
We decided to go healthy today and came to Miao Yi Vegetarian Restaurant.. wow, haven’t been here since JC days and it’s still going on strong!
Claypot Tofu with Assortment
Claypot Tofu with Assortment ($10): The tofu was very smooth! But the fried skin tasted a tad sour-ish. The gravy had a hint of herbal taste, quite delicious! Assortment refers to the peas, mushrooms, yam bits, carrots and wong bok. Continue reading
FInal day in Taipei!
Today is our final day in Taipei and our flight was 3:35pm. We planned to reach the airport 3 hours before departure, so we had plenty of time in the morning.
Morning was basically slept-in till 8am, enjoyed room facilities (Nespresso and the super nice tea bags provided) with cheesecake bought from 7-11 just behind the hotel the night before.
Simply but delicious Minsu breakfast
Breakfast was served at 8:30am at the Minsu and we were stunned when we stepped out of our room at 8:30am sharp. All but one table were filled! Everyone was already tucking in and there was this mummy from a big family (Singaporeans :-() who practically swept away all the sandwiches. We were shocked by the speed and ferocity that everyone was attacking their breakfast 😮 I guess that they must all be rushing off, just like us, aiming to catch the 9:15am 臺灣好行 黃金福隆線 (Tour Taiwan Shuttle Bus Service – Golden Fulong Route) to 金瓜石 (Jinguashi). Luckily, the Minsu owners were also very quick in replenishing the food, so we still managed to have a hearty breakfast which consisted of very yummy home-made sandwiches, slightly burnt but still delicious thick corn soup, steamed buns and refreshing iced red tea/hot coffee.
Shifen is our first destination
This was an exciting morning! We woke up at very early at 5:45am to check out of hotel and to go queue for Bus #1061 (stops at 瑞芳 Ruifang) or Bus #1062 (continues to 九份 Jiufen and 金瓜石 Jinguashi after 瑞芳 Ruifang) because we saw a very long queue yesterday afternoon. The first bus on Sunday was at 7:10am and was empty! There were also very few people waiting for the bus early in the morning. So we got up, set alarm for 8:15am, thinking that the ride would be around 90min, and promptly went to nap. Luckily hubby was a light sleeper! I woke up briefly just before 8am and decided to continue to nap a bit more and hubby woke me up just 1min later and pointed to the display screen: next stop Ruifang! Wah seh! 50min ride (NT61? with EasyCard) was way shorter than expected, which meant that we would be able to grab breakfast before the 8.45am train ride! The bus stop was near the police station, about 5min walk away from Ruifang train station. After you get off the bus, turn right and walk straight all the way till you reach a big junction. The train station is on the right side.
Slept in and went for late breakfast at 姜太太包子店 , this time getting a 韭菜肉包 (chives pork bun – loved the aroma of chives!) and 雪里红肉包 (pickled potherb mustard pork bun – the veggie was slightly bitter and crunchy), as well as the soya bean drink (slightly burnt taste today).
Addiction Aquatic Development
Took MRT to 捷運中山國中站 Zhongshan MRT Station, cross the road to take Bus #74 till terminal and walked less than 5min to reach 上引水產 (Addiction Aquatic Development). Actually we could have taken the bus from Zhongxiao Fuxing too but we didn’t know that till we checked out the bus route. Not much savings in time when comparing taking MRT for 2 stations and taking the bus directly (about 10 min bus ride between the 2 MRT stations).
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 