Sunday, August 22, 2010

I love miffy

Hi everyone,

I love Miffy. I am a Miffy Lover.

So let me show off one of my Miffy collections. A limited edition soft toy in celebration of Miffy's 55th birthday. I bought it a few months back.

I posted the picture here. =)

Dinner at Mad for Garlic

Hi everyone, =)

Yesterday night I went to Mad for Garlic at Suntec City with 3 friends. My friend suggested the place because she heard from her friend that the food is nice. Why is the place called Mad for Garlic? It's simple. Let your imagination flow.

Well, Mad for Garlic is an Italian Restaurant. It serves pizzas, pastas, salads, starters, side dishes, desserts and Wines. The prices are clearly stated in their website (you may take a look at http://www.madforgarlic.com.sg/).

We ordered 1 starter (Garlic Bread Tower), 1 pasta (Lobster Pasta), 1 pizza (Grilled Pizza) and House Pour (a decanter of White Wine). We paid about $20 each for the bill.

Overall, the food is not too bad and the ambience is relaxing with dim lights. The customer service is good too! I would recommend you to go if you like Italian dishes. =)

We took some photos.




Saturday, August 21, 2010

Breakfast at Wild Honey!

Dear all,

I had a great breakfast with 3 of my friends at Wild Honey in Mandarin Gallery 3 days ago. This is the first time I visited the place. It sells different countries' styles of breakfasts all day (9am to 10.30pm on weekdays, 8am to 10.30pm on weekends). It does not let you make reservations. So if you are going, I suggest you go on a weekday morning. We went there about 12.30pm in the afternoon.

Mandarin gallery is across the road from Hereens. It is easily accessible by train or bus. For train, alight at Somerset MRT Station and then walk out towards Orchard MRT Station direction. For bus, I took 174 and alight when I see Hereens, then I cross the road. Wild Honey is located at Level 3 of Mandarin Gallery.

Wild Honey has a cosy ambience and a comfortable lighting. It feels like an European or English home setting to me. In my opinion, simply lovely!

We ordered 4 main dishes, 1 side order (something like Potato wedges) and 3 drinks. The bill is about $120. Each main dish ranges from $18 to $20+. The main dishes that we ordered are Basque Breakfast, Mexican Breakfast, Tunisian Breakfast and Sweet Morning. I am going to try and describe each of the 4 dishes in my own way.

Basque Breakfast (My choice): The dish has scrambled eggs, sweet onions, ham and 2 slides of bread.
My Review - I love this dish a lot but I would say the ham tastes kind of raw. I supposed this is the way it is supposed to be. But I recommend that you eat it in small portion.

I took a picture.



Mexican Breakfast (My friend's choice): Burrito filled with scrambled eggs, potatoes, beans, salsa. They are three sauces for you to dip it with.
My review - This is a great choice if you love burrito. For sauce lovers (like myself), the sauces are not bad.

I took a picture.



Tunisian Breakfast (My friend's choice): This dish has sliced sausages in some kind of savoury tomato sauce. The sauce is a little sour and sweet at the same time. There are 2 sunny side eggs in the dish.
My review - If you are a tomato lover, this is a superb choice.

My friend took a picture of it.



Sweet Morning (My friend's choice): This dish has french toasts stuffed with a sweet filling. I had a small bite. The filling tastes like mango. There are 3 sauces you can dip it with. But it tastes fine without any dips.
My review - If you like sweet stuff, this might work for you. But if you are a heavy eater, this might not be the top choice to fill your stomach.

My friend took a picture of it.



Overall, eating at Wild Honey is a nice experience. Even though it is a little pricey, it is worth-while to go there once or twice. Go and have fun with your friends. It is a good place to catch up.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Taipei Shilin

Hi all,

Shilin night market (near Jiantan MRT Station) is one of the most famous and biggest in Taipei.

It has 2 sections, 1 is in a building which comprises of mostly food vendors, and another is nearby the building, where there are many non-food vendors selling clothes, toys, accessories, skin products etc. It is really a good shopping and eating paradise.

I am going to write about food now. There is a popular food stall selling Taiwan Oyster Omelette! You know the famous Taiwan drama series, Corner with love 《轉角*遇到爱》, casting Da S and Xiao Zhu Luo Zhi Xiang? Apparently, the stall's signboard caught my eyes. The Chef of this stall taught xiao zhu how to cook oyster omelette! Yum!

I tasted the oyster omelette twice (I went back another day)! It is different from the oyster omelettes that I tried from other food stalls in Taipei. It is slightly flatter thus the texture of eating the oyster omelette is different. The oysters are very fresh. It is worth a try!

I took some pictures.



Hot springs in Taipei!

Hi guys,

Xin beitou is popular for its hot springs.

There is a public Hot Spring that costs only NT$40, about S$1.70. It has a number of pools with varying heat.

For those who prefer privacy, there are many hotels that offer private hot springs.

For me, I went to Sweetme Hot Spring Resort (Shuimei). It is very conveniently located near the Xin beitou train station, about 3 minutes walk away. Look out for the directory which points to Sweetme. It costs me NT$1080 for 1.5 Hours if I remember correctly for a private room with a bathtub where you can fill it with Sulphur hot spring. It is about S$47. You can share it with your friend. The room comes with a shower place where shampoo, shower cream, towels, comb, body moisturizer are provided. I wore a swim suit into the hot spring though they say I am supposed to go in with nothing on.

The only disadvantage is it does not have the outdoor feel. So if you are looking for a cheap and natural hot spring, I would recommend you to go for the Public hot spring.

I posted some pictures of one of the private rooms in Sweetme Hot Spring Resort below!


Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Taipei Ximending!

Hi all,

I wanted to blog about my experience in Ximending this holiday (29 Jul to 2 Aug 2010).


******Added this particular line in 2015:
Future Star Hotel's new website:
http://tomorrow-hotel.com.tw ******

I stayed in this hotel - Future Star Hotel (http://www.futurestarhotel.com.tw/). The Chinese name is 明日大饭店 (Ming Ri Da Fan Dian). The hotel has relatively cheap rates. I took the room that costs NT$1180 per night (about S$51). It is located in Ximending which gives you an advantage if you like night shopping and supper! Ximending is a popular place for teenagers and young adults to hang out! There are also a couple of cinemas for you to catch a movie. Street performances are plentiful!

I like food so I am going to blog about food! My favourite food in Ximending is Mee Suan ("mian xian"). The shop that sells Mee Suan is Ah Zhong Mian Xian! It is very famous for its Mian Xian. I heard of the place even before going to Taiwan!

It is slightly different from the usual Mee Suan because the dish has pig intestines instead of oysters! But to my surprise, it tastes the same as the usual dish. For those who don't eat pig intestines, just simply eat the Mee Suan, it is nice! I did that. Remember to add the vinegar, garlic sauce and chilli (proportion up to your sweet creation). The taste is heavenly after mixing!

I posted some photos here for your viewing. =)



Mr. J French-Italian Restaurant II

Hi guys,

I will post about Mr. J Secret Restaurant that I went to in Taipei!

The theme of his second restaurant in Taiwan is based on his movie, Secret. The chinese title of the movie is 《不能说的秘密》. So cool right?!

The restaurant is located in Taipei Medical University, which is quite near to Taipei City Hall (train station). It opens mon to sun 11am - 9pm. I took a taxi from Ximending to Taipei Medical University because of time constraint. It costs me about S$10.

The food is French-Italian. So they have spaghetti, lamb chop, cakes etc. What I like about the menu is how Jay manages to implant his creativity into some of the dishes. Like there is a main course - spaghetti with smoked duck in orange sauce. Yum yum! The set that I ordered (Soup, Salad, Main course, Drink and Dessert) costs me NT$350 - about S$15. I think it is really worth it.

The restaurant atmosphere is nice and relaxing! It is elegant (but not overwhelmingly), simple and cosy! There are also decorations like Jay's photos framed up on the walls, his Piano etc.

Overall I love his restaurant. I don't mind going back a second time!

I have posted some photos here. Anyway, there is a website for his Restaurant - http://www.mrj-tw.com














Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Trip to Taiwan!

Hi all, =)

I am back from Taipei! I went to Taipei from 29 Jul to 2 Aug 2010. I departed from Singapore on jetstar. The plane was scheduled to fly at 7am, however there was some delay because of a sick passenger. Oh well I don't mind. Overall it is a fun trip. It is good to bring someone who is close to you to Taipei, you get to share the food and have fun shopping together. Like I did! =)

In the 5 days trip in Taipei, I went to Ximending, Shilin, Wufenpu, Xin Beitou, Zhongxiao Fuxing and Mr. J French-Italian Restaurant II (opened by Jay Chou).

Ximending, Shilin and Wufenpu are well-known places in Taipei for its shopping. The Taiwanese food at Shilin are also very popular. Xin Beitou is famous for its hot springs. Zhongxiao Fuxing has shops underground. It links up with 2 other train stations. There are also many departmental stores around the train station. If you have time, you can go there to shop. If you are in a rush, in my opinion you can skip it.

In the next few posts, I will write more about Ximending, Shilin, Xin Beitou and Mr. J French-Italian Restaurant II in Taipei. This is for those who may be interested in going to Taipei!