Day 1: Taipei (Wu Fen Pu 五分埔 and Shida Night Market 師大路夜市)

By noon, we had headed for Wu Fen Pu – the famous wholesale clothes market. This was not a right move because Wu Fen Pu opens later in the afternoon at about 1-2pm.

As our day started real early on our first day and we did not manage to catch much sleep on the plane, we were honestly feeling bushed as we walked around the few shops that had opened in the early noon.

In my zombified state, I found the fashion to be alittle unexciting among the limited shops I visited there. I have friends who rave about the clothes and yet there are others who commented that the fashion here is dated. It’s worth a trip there if you have time in Taiwan but do NOT visit Wu Fen Pu on Mondays as they mostly entertain the retailers on that day of the week. Clothes for men, women and children are available.

How to get to Wufenpu: Take an MRT train to Hou Shan Pi Station. Leave the station by Exit 1 and walk north along Jhongpo N. Rd. to the intersection of Jhongpo N. Rd. and Yongji Road. Wufenpu is on the left.

Normally after shopping at Wufenpu, people would head down to the nearby Raohe Night Market for part 2- food! However, we went back to our hotel for a snooze and decided to visit the Shida Night Market instead that evening.

How to get to Shida Night Market: Alight at Taipower Building Station Exit 3. Walk for about 5-10mins before reaching the night market.

Shida is a place near 2 universities so you can expect a younger, hippier crowd and fashionable clothing stores. You will also notice more foreign students here. This is the best night market for shopping, among those I had visited!

^A famous looking bun shop along the way to Shida from the metro station.

We came to a nice, warm eatery upon reaching Shida. And we decided to have a healthy(ier) dinner.

The concept was like Niang Dou Fu where you get to choose your ingredients which included meatballs, bean curd products, vegetables, noodles.

^So many sauces and dips to try!

^Cosy interior.

Very tasty and satisfying meal we had here though it was rather pricy (we paid about S$12-14 for our 2 bowls).

I tried the much raved about 王子面 (literally translated as Prince’s Noodles) but it turned out to be like maggi mee which I am not a fan of.

In my opinion, this night market’s food offerings is not as good and varied as the others like Shilin or Raohe but it is more for shopping. Good news for the men cos the shopping for the men here is really cool! (The hubby had a good time sweeping quite a number of stuffs off the racks too!) Nothing for the kiddos here though.

^Clothes I considered for my fashion conscious brother! I got him the polka dotted jeans shirt eventually…

There were a few stalls here selling accessories (mostly Korean style).

^Nail foils for my little sis.

I got these foils from a small stall in the night market and there were such limited designs to choose from. I got these 3 for 200 NT. Alas! When I left the night market, I saw a stall just set up outside the metro station area selling a TABLE FULL of nail foils. Here, 4 packs cost 200NT!!! ARGHHH!

^Falsies going for S$6 for a pack of 10 sets.

There were a couple of pretty cool lifestyle cafes around…

and a nice bakery called I Jy Sheng, that we chanced upon!

^Nicely wrapped confectionery.. very good for gifts!

^Don’t you LOVE breads??!

All in all, the hubby and I really enjoyed shopping at this night market. Most of our clothes we bought during this trip was from here. :)

Homecooked Food Weekend: Pineapple Rice, Tom Yum Soup, Honey Baked Chicken Wings and Lemongrass Tea

It was the weekend again and Val is finally back from her Spain holiday after over 2 weeks! I thought she would like to have something Asian after 2 weeks of tapas. So I decided to prepare a Thai dinner.

With the help of Dancing Chef…

Since it was NO MSG, NO preservatives and NO artificial coloring, why not?

I followed the instructions behind the packs. The recipes are also available on the Dancing Chef’s website. Here is the Tom Yum Soup recipe and the Pineapple Rice recipe.

^My Tom Yum soup using prawns, sliced fish fillet and straw mushrooms.

^Here’s my pineapple rice. I used chicken breast meat instead of prawns (some of us are rather sensitive to seafood) and chopped carrots. I also used raisins and pork floss for garnish.

The honey baked chicken wings’ recipe is here, from Noob Cook again.

^I added some Hua Diao Wine into the marinade and gave the chicken a lovely thorough massage! Kept it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours for the marinade to seep into the chicken meat.

^Chicken in progress

^The end result… Blackened tips for not following Noob Cook’s instructions!

Lastly, here is my lemongrass tea recipe. According to planetwell.com and many other health websites, lemongrass is widely known for its healing and health benefits. Its uses include:

• Cough, cold & sore throats

• Anxiety

• High cholesterol

• Type 2 diabetes

• Colitis

• Digestion

• Rough, dry, scaly skin

• Acne

• Constipation

• Kidney detoxification

• Insomnia

• Relaxation & deep sleep

What an amazing grass! (I am going to walk over to the fridge to pour myself another glass of this tea after I type this!)

^Pounding my lemongrass (and dirtying my kitchen floor) so that its flavor can be ‘released’.

^Looks like a pot of mess? Look again! Lemongrass, pandan leaves and ginger – all things good!

Sweetened the fantastic tea with rock sugar and when served chill, was an awesome and detoxifying end to our Thai food that day!

Wishing all a great week ahead and keep cooking for your family! ;)

Taiwan Day 1: Taipei Main Station Underground Mall

The hubby and I were excited for our 8D7N trip to Taiwan. We spent 2 nights in Taipei, then met up with our friends Keith & Shermin to go to Yilan for a quick 2D 1N trip, followed by Hualien for 2 nights and finally back to Taipei (including a trip to Xin Bei Tou and Danshui) for 3D 2N.
We got on to a Scoot flight and reached Taoyuan International Airport really early in the morning at 6:30am!

This time, we decided to take a bus to our hotel. The hubby had so wisely booked a hotel that is situated opposite the Taipei Main Railway Station. The bus to take is from the Kuo-Kuang company.

^Display boards showing bus timings. The Kuo-Kuang bus departs from the airport at intervals of about 20-30mins.
 
^We bought our tickets on the spot from the bus counters. No need to choose timings!

The journey took an hour and brought us almost to our doorstep!
I will be doing more posts on our hotels. Our first hotel accommodation was called New Stay Inn.
Now we were ready to start conquering Taipei… by looking for breakfast! The time was 8:30am. Most of the shops were not opened yet save for the food outlets.




^Fresh from the oven giant buns who were bigger than my face! Really cheaper when compared to SG…
We settled for this stall along the street near our hotel with a small seating area… There were a few of such shops around selling similar breakfast foods.


^Iced coffee (in TW it is called ‘冰咖啡’and not ‘咖啡冷的’) – A must for us at this time!

^Piping hot savory pancakes with fried egg, topped with sweet sauce!

^Delicious burger with a fried-on-the-spot meat patty.
After eating, time check 9+am. Still too early. Even the huge Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store was not opened yet. No, not even the shops at the Taipei Main Station.
In this metro station, you can find many linked malls including Station Underground Mall, Station Front Metro Mall and Q Square. Also, this metro station has 28 exits/entrances! So do make sure that you follow the signs and don't get lost...… and happy shopping!

^Shop shutters at the Underground Mall.
At around 10:30-11 am, you can start smelling the aroma of food and the bustling noise of the shutters being opened.
The shops here are a delectable mix of food stalls, cafes, small restaurants, bakeries, clothes, shoes, cosmetics, local produce.
I did not really have the time to explore these malls but I personally thought the fashion here (those that I had seen) is not too updated? However, I did hear from others that there are a lot of ladies’ shoes sold here at very good prices. Go check them out!
Outlets of beauty cum pharmacy chain Cosmed (somewhat similar to Watsons… Watsons can be found in Taiwan too) can be found readily underground. Do visit the bigger outlet to look for interesting stuffs.
Interesting stuffs like a small blue bottle of body spray that apparently effectively removes food smells from your clothes. It is called Xiong2 Bao3 Bei4 and is available in Cosmed.
I also bought a pack of facial masks from Cosmed.

^The box of masks (25 pieces) I bought that costs 349 NT (S$14.80 only!).
Gosh and the socks here at the Underground Mall! You’ve got to stock up on socks from here (and Raohe NM (it has more variety))! 4-6 pairs of socks for 100 NT! The hubby bought ten over pairs and wore them as disposables since they were soooo cheap!
Food wise, there was a section of the mall near the ‘Z’ entrances that sells smelly toufu. Beware, if you hate the smell! There are also cafes, restaurants, fast food and even specialty shops such as this famous cheese cake store at Q mall.

^Looks like nobody is here? Look again….

^It has a designated area for queuing!

We bought a cake to share. It was freshly baked and when eaten hot, it was fluffy and melts in your mouth. Really quite worth the wait!
The bakery next too it also sells delicious garlic breads in all sizes! YUMMY!
I am missing TW so much even as I blog… Do stay tuned for a lot more of my TW posts! :)

Homecooked food weekend: Braised Broccoli in Dangui and Chicken Stock, Tofu Beef Cheese and Chrysanthemum Tea Jelly

The weekend had just passed and I hope you all had a great one!

I have been cooking for the family the past weekends and Sundays would be a day dedicated to trying out new recipes.

A few weekends ago, I did a simple luncheon meat fried rice with a couple of side dishes.

I had got the recipes once again from the Noobcook and they were all well-received by my family!

First up, BRAISED BROCCOLI IN DANGUI AND CHICKEN STOCK.

Full recipe here (I used prawns instead of scallops).

All the above 3 vegetables were steamed. Very healthy! Additionally danggui was used to enhance the chicken stock.

I googled and found a way to cook juicy succulent prawns. The trick is this…

Cold water!

After placing the prawns into boiling water for 1-2 minutes till it is cooked just nice, I took them out and threw them into the icy cold water to prevent them from further cooking. This really made a difference as the prawns ended up tasting oh so springy and fresh!

Secondly, I baked TOFU, BEEF & CHEESE. It was an easy and yet exciting recipe to follow… check it out here.

^Giving my minced beef a good massage after adding the yummy marinade sauce.

I sliced my tofu and placed them at the base of the baking dish. I should have used a less watery type of tofu as this one I used produced a little too much water at the end.

Here is the semi cooked beef after stir frying, laid on top of the tofu slices.

Now, here comes the yummiest part.

Throwing my entire packet of shredded mozzarella cheese to more than cover the beef. At this point, I was sure this dish would turn out well.  Which dish could fail miserably with that much cheese??

Here is the end result!

This was so yummy! I definitely could do this again for parties!

Lastly, here is dessert – cooling and refreshing CHRYSANTHEMUM TEA JELLY. The recipe is here. As per the recipe, I added wolfberries which are supposedly good for the eyes.

I hunted high and low around my neighbourhood to find these rubber jelly moulds. They didn’t come cheap at S$3.50 a piece!

1 packet of the Konnyaku powder I used yielded 10 pieces of jellies.

I will continue to put in good effort to try new delicious and healthy recipes for my family! Do you have any ideas for easy, fast homecooked food? Do share!