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).
Flight TZ202
Let’s Scoot out of here! Thanks to the $0.02 promotion 2 months ago, we are Scooting out on a nice Friday morning! Very early indeed, on flight TZ202 departing at 12:55am on 13 Sep 2013 at Changi Airport T1 Gate F50. Check-in was a breeze as there was no queue when we arrived 2.5 hours before flight time.
Flight time was 4.5 hours and we touched down ahead of schedule at Taoyuan Airport in Taipei around 5:25am and were greeted by the beautiful sunrise. It was a very smooth flight, and the plane was very clean with very decent leg space! Descent was very lovely with the countless lights from the grounds that shone through as we watched the skies slowly change from dark to light. Too bad there was a toddler crying for perhaps ⅓ of the time and was sometimes crying directly into hubby’s face so he didn’t get to rest much.
New branch at Toa Payoh
Simple decor but great food
It’s Tim Ho Wan @Toa Payoh this time! In case you didn’t know, Tim Ho Wan is Hong Kong’s most famous dim sum restaurant because it is one of the cheapest One-Star Michelin restaurant in the world!
We discovered that it was finally opened to public yesterday (8 Sep 2013), so we decided to just pop over to see what’s the crowd like! The queue was not too bad, considering we got seats within 30min, close to 8pm. That was also because there were only 2 of us; bigger groups had to wait longer for a bigger empty table. They also placed stools outside the restaurant so we can just sit, chat and wait.
Chicken Bryani
Went to grab lunch at this little outlet right outside the main building of AMKHub before visiting Challenger (hoping not to have to go Comex@Expo… haha!)
Ordered Nasi Briyani Chicken and Sardine Murtabak, along with Kopi C Kosong and Teh Tarik (less sweet).
I think it’s very important to emphasize less sweet, otherwise I will die of sugar high 😛 less sweet was just nice!
We caught the musical Next to Normal this afternoon and totally enjoyed it! So much so that we decided to blog about it 🙂
Our friend jio-ed us to watch the production, and we just went along without really checking out what the show was about (as usual) 😛 But wow! The band was great, sound system in good order, the set was thoughtful, the songs were very good! The storyline was intense; it was heart-warming, funny, and yet heart-breaking at times… it was really quite a roller-coaster as described on the Pangdemonium website! What really impressed us were the singing of the actors and actresses, especially that of Sally Ann Triplett, who plays the role of Diana, the mother battling bipolar disorder. Her beautiful singing, and her very expressive actions really wow-ed us!
The storyline tugged our hearts, and also gave us a glimpse of the difficulties a family could face when dealing with a family member with the illness. Adrian Pang gave a lovely speech after the show ended, and we really think it is worth your time and money to go support this musical!
To find out more about the show, click on the banner or go to the event page at Facebook!
Note: Kooka Cafe has ceased operations in Singapore.
Simply Decorated
With some time to spare after watching the musical Next to Normal by Pangdemonium, and before meeting our friends, we decided to go la kopi 🙂
Strolling along Purvis Street, we saw this little Kooka Cafe with a single outdoor table. Inside this cozy little cafe, there were about 10 tables or so. There’s this very relaxed feel about this place, great place to just chill out and enjoy your drinks!
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 