Taiwan: Raohe Nightmarket

First night market we visited: Raohe Nightmarket.

Extremely humid, sweaty and crowded!

Good to have it as ur 'last location of the day' on ur itinerary.

I would like to revisit nightmarkets in Taiwan during their winter season, i'll probably enjoy it a lot more.

This was right in front of the entrance, 'pepper puff'.
i love all peppery food so needless to say i love this!
Gladly replace this with our local old chang kee puff.

Sara & Ernie seemed to like the next 2 item very much,
 but no love from me cuz it's too blend for my tastebuds.

We found an empty 'stand n eat station' with a tiny fan

 to munch on our purchases, away from the crowd.

Fangyi said this is recommended, so we ordered the

  'Thai chilli' flavor for our chicken.

So pretty much just chicken with sweet thai chilli sauce.

But the chicken was juicy!

I'll  love to try the teriyaki flavor and 2 other flavors on my next trip.

Sausages with different salty seasonings!

3 for 100NT
Worth the $,worth a try!

'Shaved ice' was our lifesaver, i swear i was melting along with the ice.

 Or i was close to passing out.

Didnt get a photo cuz those stupid boys ate half of it
before we got there with the camera!

The jelly was bouncy and chewy, definitely better than SG's!

Ending our night with BBQ Scallop! Slurp!

Took us about 40-60mins to do a U-turn out the the main entrance!


+
Watch out for stalls selling unique hp accesories!
They are, however, not cheap =(
Post them next time!

Next: Jiu Fen (MY FAVOURITE PLACE IN TW!! =D)

Ginger Cookie Fat Man

My sis getting Christmas goodies ready for us!

Taiwan: ECFA Hotel, Xi Men Ding

We went with budget lodging so Fy's friend recommended 

ECFA Hotel, 3-4 storey hotel, located in Xi Men Ding.

Tiny, comfortable, clean - Twin sharing and it cost us about $40 EACH/ night.

Main door of the hotel.
This photo looks a little sleazy but no, not at all.

If you're unlucky and end up checking in with a group of kids on school excursion.

Good luck with the noise! 

I'm quite a heavy sleeper so it didn't affect me that much but Sara was PISSED!!

Very cramp toilet but i must say it's clean!

The toilet door took us by surprise, where i'm standing is where the shower head is!

Gonna be problematic if you're traveling with a not-so-close-friend.

Sara and i agreed that we'll just face towards the sink, we're fine with some butt exposure.

Oh and play some music on ur phone when u're pooping, because everything is CRYSTAL CLEAR!

Koi lovers will be so glad!

Right beside ECFA Hotel, we have where Koi is originated from + at a lower price.

Although the hotel serves DECENT food, like cha soba, hash brown balls, toasts, rice, veg etc

I think it's better to head to the surrounding bakeries / breakfast shop.

There's this one egg omelette-like item that FY got for us while we're asleep.

One of the fav food for the trip, but i cant remember what is it called!! pfft.

Here's a pic of my salty french toast Made to Perfection!

i find it very annoying that most places automatically serve sweet french toast, but here they gave me options between salty n sweet. YEAH!! 

飞天麻辣火锅 

$NT 399 Eat-all-you-can Steamboat
In Xi Men Ding as well

I think we had more than 10 trays of Shabu-Shabu 

=DDDDDDD

We also tried the famous Ah Zong Mian Xian in Xi Men Ding.

Overrated for sure.

Maybe we didnt add enough light sauce.

That's pretty much for Xi Men Ding

• Cheap spectacle frame for S$80 (Similar pair in SG costs S$150)
• Freshlook Colourblend contact lenses @S$10/box (Only blue, grey and green) =/ 
• Birkinstocks are cheaper
• Hats are relatively cheap (Bought 2)
• Shoes and apparels are similar to SG's market price (NAH)
• Remember to buy Tai Yang Bing from the specialty store

If I'm going back to Taiwan, I'll most likely continue my stay in ECFA Hotel.

Just make sure u're not given the last room on every floor - 

the boys hated the fushia pink wallpaper + doesn't seem as bright and spacious.

(Sorry for some iphone quality photos)

Next post: Raohe Night Market

Taiwan: Taipei 101, Patisserie Sadaharu AOKI Paris, Bellavita

I must say there's no better gift than getting a free holiday.

I'll never complain if i get to celebrate whatever future anniversaries with holiday trips, no need for Chanels and Pradas!

On my 21st, Fy and Ernie drew me this to HongKong, 

but i've been there and ee-mian + baked rice isnt something i'll like to eat. 



So i convinced them to agree to TAIWAN!

FOOD PARADISEEEE~

We touched down early morning in Taipei and we cant check-in till 12 in the afternoon. Therefore we dropped our luggages at the hotel lobby and head out to the iconic Taipei 101.

We didnt know there's shuttle bus from the Train Station 

so we ended up walking for a long time (30 mins?) under the hot sun. 

HORRIBLE.

I was a lil' grumpy by then + plus it's bright daylight + surrounding doesnt seem to be of any magnificent view  at 9.30am, we decided to skip the ride up 101, shall put S$20 to better use.  

Somewhere round the corner there's a couple of huge malls.

I love this mall: Bellavita

Very luxurious, reminds me of  our local Paragon

Lot of expensive, cozy looking restaurants and boutiques.

 On our last day we came back to Ballavita for Sara's recommended pastry shop 

 Patisserie Sadaharu AOKI Paris

Pricey (our order cost about 1000plus NT), nevermind if Sara and Ernie loved it! 

 Fy and I havent got a sweet-tooth so i only enjoyed a couple. 

All four of us gave thumbs-up for the multi-layer cake.

Really good, must-try! 

I ordered the Dome shape dessert, it's pretty much jelly and tasteless but it's fine for me, the rest of them didnt think was good so i got to enjoy most of it. 

Macarons, i'm still going for Laduree Paris, 

every other macarons in this world is just too sweet for me hehe

Quiche, mild tasting, sara liked it.

Meanwhile i like my quiche much saltier.

Overall, was a great experience n environment!

Haha, this photo is funny.

Fy wasnt allowed to dig into the desserts 

because Sara wants to get good shots of everything.

 Lighting was really good, got pretty pictures of everyone.

My current facebook dp, i like my chubby cheeks here.

There's a mall (Shin Kong Mitsukoshi), connected to Bellavita.

FY was looking for these custard egg with good reviews, hmm.. they relocated to basement level and no staff there seem to be sure of its exact store location. Took as a long time to find it, but it was so-so. Quite disappointed here. On the bright side, it looks really cute with it packaging and all. 

I'm gonna post the Taiwan trip in parts...so next post will be on the hotel tt we stayed in...

Paradise Dynasty: Aedyelliot's 19

PARADISE DYNASTY

3 different eggs in this appetizer. Not bad, i've always loved the taste of salted eggs.

This 'San Cheng Rou' is our fav.

It's as smooth as tofu, also one of my aedy's favourite food.

She looked very happy eating it.

Foie gras, crab roe, cheese and original Xiao Long Baos

I've tasted better originals, but the rest are nice.

Prolly due to the wrong sequence i'm eating them.

Tasty pork buns looking cute.

Not a fan of La-mains but i like this Spicy beef version better than Din Tai Feng's

We're all looking super casual w/o our makeups coz this restaurant is newly opened at CCK! 

Woot! no need to travel far for good food now.

Could tell my mum enjoyed the food because she didnt 

go 'ahh..i can easily cook this at home' at every dish lol.

oh mother, why you so funny.