Shoot First Eat Later

China Airlines Lounge at Taipei Taoyuan Airport

I flew economy to Taipei but because of the Mabuhay Miles Prestige Card that Allied Band Mastercard gave me I was able to access the China Airlines lounge in Taipei’s Taoyuan airport.

When I first landed in Taipei at the old, unrenovated airport terminal it reminded me of our old and dated NAIA 1 terminal. At the departure area I was surprised at how nice the new terminal was.

This was just one their wall art featuring Chinese calligraphy.

As much as I wish and dream I don’t think we’ll ever have a restroom as nice as this in our airport.

Yes this mosaic art work hung in the ladies room.

It’s all about small details like this painted glass divider that made the restroom so nice and classy.

No harsh fluorescent lighting here.

Isn’t this the cutest and most practical thing?

I forgot to touch the leaves but I suspect they’re real.

This lounge was for several airlines.

I was so ‘aliw’ with this automated disposable towel dispenser.

It saves on packaging and is sanitary.

There wasn’t much food options but there were a lot of drinks.

This was the first time I saw heated and sanitized coffee cups in a lounge.

I didn’t like the sparse snacks they had.

dim sum

The noodle bar wasn’t exactly booming with orders.

My mom said the noodle soup was blah.

I just had a can of cold and unsweetened strong oolong tea.

Sweet potato!!! This is something you’ll never see in any airport lounge but I was ecstatic to see it.

The sweet potato were thin and scrawny.

I really love Taiwan’s sweet potatoes. They were so sweet like it was drenched with maple syrup. I was so happy this was my last meal in Taipei. I wish I brought some Ziploc to take some home.

Gong Cha Taipei

When I was in Taipei I was actively looking for the popular milk tea brands we have in Manila like Chatime, Share Tea and others but I didn’t see them except for this tiny branch of Gong Cha in a small street right across the massage place we went to.

I wanted to try something new but everything was in Chinese and shame on me for not being able to read Chinese despite my education in ICA.

My dad chose this drink that was ‘special recommend.’

With the help of Google translate and my mom this drink is called 8 herbs grass jelly drink.

八宝仙草奶烧

There’s the grass jelly that my parents love.

It also had sweet beans and barley.

And lots of tapioca or sago.

My dad was half way through his drink when the guy manning the stall gestured that the small cup of cream should be added to the drink. With or without the cream the drink was really good.

Through the wonders of pointing I managed to order this refreshing drink although at that time I had no idea what I was drinking. Google translated this as “Cold jelly: a healthy low calorie cold day with fresh lemon juice with a jelly material good taste, satiety, but without the burden of the body.”

I made a good choice. It was citrusy and not too sweet.

寒天愛玉

Seafood Dinner at Taipei Hwashi Tourist Night Market

I have 3 cousins who live in Taipei and all are fluent in speaking, reading and writing in Chinese. How I envy them. For dinner we met with my cousin, Angie the oldest of 3 siblings. She took us to Taipei Hwashi Tourist Night Market for dinner.

This night market was different from Raohe St. night market since it’s under a roof and stalls were permanent. There were stores selling all kinds of stuff.

There were also lots of foot massage places along the whole strip. This one did brisk business.

This one looked really nice and classy but had only a few clients.

My parents went to this one the day before but they liked the one I brought them to better.

This is my cousin Angie and her adorable son Daniel who wasn’t in the mood that night.

The restaurant Angie chose was called 福州海洋平價海鮮餐廳. Sorry there’s no English name.

My dad selected the seafood and decided how it will be cooked.

Turtles anyone? My dad loves turtle stew and I’m glad he didn’t order any. I don’t eat turtle.

I wish he ordered lobster.

I don’t know what kind of clam this was but it was huge! Jin said it’s geoduck. Thanks Jin!

Look at all the live and fresh seafood to choose from.

The dining area was right across the fish tanks and it was really barebones and filled with locals so it must be good.

Out of all the fresh seafood these are some of what my dad selected. These are some of the normal ones.

Angie brought her friend who ate all the weird stuff my dad ordered. Poor Daniel probably had a premonition of the food my dad ordered thus the sad face.

My dad selected these drinks from the chiller behind us. The one on the left was unsweeted tea and the one on the right was a sweetened plum drink I think.

The steamed fish was really good and fresh.

steamed fish

This was for my mom who loves fresh bamboo shoots.

bamboo shoot

This was my third fried oyster dish in 2 days and I loved it. The one at Tamsui was still my favorite though.

fried oysters

clam soup

The clams were so plump and meaty and the soup was so flavorful. I stopped eating after the soup.

Normally my dad does a good job of ordering food like the meal we had in Tamsui but that night he decided to be adventurous and order food even my mom was shocked to see.

Sure Chinese people liked to eat kidney but what are those oval objects that had veins?

kidney and testicles

Yikes! They’re testicles!!! From what animal? I don’t know. What’s your guess? They seem to small to belong to a cow right? Angie’s friend happily ate these.

I was told this was tripe. It looked scary and unappetizing to me. I’m used to white tripe that’s swimming in tomato sauce.

tripe

This dish looked normal so I tried a piece. It was hard and stringy and I didn’t like it.

It turned out to be some kind of snail. I eat escargot and ‘kuhol’ but these weren’t as good or appetizing.

On the other table they had the same snails which were cooked simply with open flame in the middle.

I would have probably enjoyed our meal if my dad ordered more familiar seafood like shrimp, crab or lobster instead of testicles, tripe and snails. Well it was an experience I’m not going to forget soon.

福州海洋平價海鮮餐廳
Taipei Hwashi Tourist Night Market

Tamsui Old Street Night Market

This was the view that met us when we walked to Tamsui Old Street Night Market. There were more locals than tourists from what I saw. There were also lots of dogs with clothes being walked by their owners.

As soon as we arrived we were greeted by so much snack stands. The whole place was just like a night market filled with all kind of ready to eat food as well as food stuff you can buy. Even though we were so full from lunch we couldn’t help but buy some goodies along the way.

My mom gazed longingly at this super tall ice cream cone.

Outside some restaurants you can buy fresh mussels and choose your frog to be cooked.

This is what we call dulong or silver fish. It’s fantastic cooked in an omelet or added to pasta. Really.

You can also buy fresh seafood to take home.

They sure love sausages.

He used a really, really long pole. I wonder if he caught any fish.

Jay got an order of his favorite grilled squid. It was brushed with a marinade and topped with some spice powder.

I love Taiwanese oranges called 柳丁 (liǔdīng) which are among the sweetest varieties I’ve ever tried.

I bought a big glass (700cc) of freshly squeezed orange juice for NT$65 and 9 oranges were used. It was as sweet as sugar!!

Anybody know what this drink is?

fried octopus

My mom couldn’t resist so she bought her own soft serve ice cream. Too bad it looks better than it tastes. It was totally devoid of flavor or creaminess. It tasted just like cold ice. It got dumped pretty quick.

風螺 a kind of conch and it came in regular, mild, medium and super spicy flavors.

corndogs

We turned into this narrow alley to go out the other side of the street.

egg tarts & egg pudding in egg shell

There were plenty of milk tea and coffee places on the street.

My mom and Pat stopped to buy sweet guava.

While my dad and his sister tried several pickled fruit and champoy.

My dad swears this was the best.

dried squid

dried shrimp and anchovies

This was my mom’s favorite dessert made with jelly strips in a lemon flavor sweet base.

I can’t resist buying sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato for me, sweet taro for my dad

As we were leaving we saw a long queue for these red bean cakes.

Taipei is really a great place for foodies. Everywhere there are stalls and stalls that sell unique food as well as old time favorites. Even with the language barrier all you need is to be adventurous and point and pay and you’ll find the food that will amaze you.

Tamsui Old Street Night Market
Zhōngshān Rd, Danshuei District, New Taipei, Taiwan 251

Seafood Lunch at Tamsui

One of the best meals I had in Taipei was at a restaurant in Tamsui Old Street Night Market. My cousin Benjie chose the place.

The restaurant didn’t have an English name.

My dad did all the ordering.

The place didn’t look like much but the food was wonderful.

The fried oysters tasted even better than the ones we had at Shin Yeh. The oysters tasted fresher and fried crispier too.

fried oysters

steamed chicken

veggies

Taiwanese people seem to love squid since I saw it in a lot of the fast-food places. These were cooked perfectly tender.

squid with peppers

clam soup

The rice itself was so good and a bit sticky so when it was made into fried rice it became even yummier. I tried my best to stop at a small bowl. I could have eaten much more.

fried rice

My mom loves fresh bamboo shoots so this was her favorite dish.

fresh bamboo shoots with pork

All the seafood we ordered were really fresh and well cooked.

steamed fish

oyster omelet

clams

before

after

Seafood lunch for 8 people who were very, very full cost only NT$1,910 or P2700 or US$64.

Sorry I don’t have the English name or address.

佘家孔雀蛤大王
新北市淡水區中正路55號地下1f

Starbucks Taipei

After Yangmingshan we went to Tamsui (淡水, or Danshui, Danshuei, Tamshui) Old Street and waterfront to have lunch and walk around. While waiting for my cousin Benjie to park his van I saw this Starbucks store celebrating it’s 14th anniversary in Taipei and some products were on sale for 15% off.

Tinned egg rolls, cookies, and tea were on sale.

You could buy the whole pack of cookies of waffles. I just bought 2 pieces of the waffles and double chocolate cookies. Both were delish!

Starbucks Chinese teas

Starbucks rose fancy tea powder and matcha powder

What really caught my eye was this goose neck electric kettle specially for making hot water for pour over/drip coffee. I’ve been wanting this for a long time and the only one I’ve found is Bonavita which cost US$50. I’ve never seen this in any Starbucks store in the USA, Hong Kong or Manila.

Starbucks gooseneck electric kettle

Even after discount it still costs a lot more and to my dismay it’s 110 volts.

This gooseneck pot is good for transferring hot water then using it to make pour over coffee.

This single drip coffee maker with built in metal filter was a very good buy and I convinced Pat and Jay to buy it. I have a similar one made by Hario. Muji also sells one like this. The kettles above are just perfect for this kind of filter. I haven’t seen this anywhere else either.

It was really fun seeing all these new stuff in Starbucks Taipei. I also got a black mug with orange interiors that wasn’t available in Manila before but recently I saw it selling in Starbucks Galleria.

Yangmingshan National Park

Since my cousin Benjie is a local tour guide on occasion he took us to Yang Ming Shan for some sightseeing.

The park was beautiful but it was so hot that day that the ‘oldies’ didn’t want to walk up and explore the flowers and plants in the park.

Pat, Jay and I walked for a few minutes and took these pictures.

This clock actually told the correct time.

We were too late to catch the full bloom of the cherry blossom trees but I was glad to see some tiny buds left on the tree.

Tsk, tsk, tsk…

If the weather was cooler it would have been nice to walk all around the park.

Beautiful eh?

Call or email my cousin Benjie if you’re going to Taipei. He has a big VW van that can seat 7-9 people. He can even take you to Costco where the have a lot of things similar to the US stores. I wanted to buy so many things but I couldn’t take them home.

Benjie speaks Filipino, English and Chinese fluently.

Benjie Young (Taipei City)
van rental/tour guide
telephone: +886988073435, +886939070314
tax_van@yahoo.com

Raohe St. Night Market 2012

Two years ago I went to Raohe St. Night Market with some friends. This time I went with my parents and some friends. The advantage is my parents can speak and read Chinese so we were able to order different food.

Our first stop was dinner at this small restaurant with a Chinese only menu.

I guess you could also point at the pictures to order.

Pat and Jay

My dad ordered a bowl of rice topped with their famous braised pork.

It was very good but the pork was quite fatty. There was only a small quantity of pork so I asked for more sauce which they gladly spooned over my rice.

braised pork rice

I don’t know what they call it in Taipei but in Manila we call this kikiam. It was really yummy and we ordered another one.

fish ball soup

The food was simple but satisfying. We didn’t want to eat too much since there were much more food in the market to choose from.

sautéed lettuce

In the next stall we had dessert of finely shaved ice topped with sweetened red beans, milk pudding and condensed milk.

I wonder what these candied fruits and tomatoes taste like.

candied cherry tomatoes

candied fruits

I couldn’t help but buy these sweet potatoes cooked in syrup and topped with peanut powder. It was my favorite but then any way of cooking sweet potato in Taipei is the best and sweetest. This looked overly sweet but I was happy that it was just right. The touch of peanut was unexpected and delightful.

A giant block of peanut brittle and wood shaver. I’m curious what the end product looked and tasted like.

Here’s something new that I didn’t see two years ago. Mini pancakes stuffed with a variety of fillings from vanilla or chocolate cream, tiramisu and peanut butter. Pat bought a box of 6 stuffed pancakes and she liked them. I think we will see this in Manila soon.

stinky tofu

egg tarts & french style bake egg shell pudding

Egette or bubble waffles in the following flavors: original, chocoalte, strawbery, blueberry, Japanese macha, black sesame, peanut, seaweed mix.

eggette or bubble waffle

These bubble waffles are very popular in Hong Kong and can be found in a lot of street markets.

I told Pat and Jay to try one. I would never think of buying this until an aunt made me try it in Hong Kong. I think the secret to this is the inclusion of custard powder in the batter. It makes it so much more tasty than the regular American style waffle.

As soon as it was removed from the waffle iron it was draped on the metal stand and cool air was blown onto it so it will be crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside.

This was the seaweed waffle.

Raohe market had food, clothes, toys, games and even fortune tellers.

This guy uses birds to tell your fortune.

fried crab

Hu Jiao Bing or charcoal baked black pepper pork buns

We left the market happy and so very full. It’s a must visit when you go to Taipei.

足足樂養身會館 Foot Massage, Taipei

We all wanted to get an authentic massage so we asked our hotel’s concierge where to go. He directed us to a place on this street but we went to this place which was cheaper.

With my super minimal Chinese we managed to get a massage by pointing at the list below.

I was so impressed at how sanitary the place is. They gave us disposable slippers to change in to. Too bad after our massage Pat saw them put the slippers back into the plastic bags. Eeeww.

Each chair had a tv and remote control. The sound came out of the headrest of the chair. Hi tech!!!

Individual sinks to soak and wash our feet.

They added this colored powder to the water. I don’t know what it is.

They even have a timer to guarantee there is no short changing of the massage. Since we got the 90 minute body and foot massage the time was equally split.

For the body part of the massage we moved downstairs where they had massage beds. I can honestly say this was one of the best massage I’ve ever had. They really know how to work the tight muscles on my shoulders and it was the best and most relaxing foot massage.

If you’re going to Taipei print this out and show it to the taxi driver. It’s in the Tonghua Night Market district. Our cab fare from Grand Hyatt Taipei was around NT$70-100 only.

足足樂養身會館
台北巿通化街38巷5號
預約專線: (02)2784-6567

No. 5, Lane 38, Tōnghuà St, Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
telephone: (02) 2784-6567

Eslite Bookstore, Xinyi Taipei

To call Eslite just a bookstore is a huge understatement. It’s more like a lifestyle store with everything from food, bags, shoes, houseware and gadgets.

When Eslite opened their first 24-hour bookstore 17 years ago, they started a trend. The latest XinYi Store is eight stories and 7,500 pings large and has adopted an even more international and unique style that surprises visitors with what a bookstore is capable of. Situated near the Taipei City Hall MRT Station, this new store intends to become “Taiwan’s cultural window to the world”. The second-to-fourth-floor bookstore has a collection of over a million books, making it the biggest in Taiwan. It also introduced a new concept of shops within a bookstore, with a Japanese bookstore, simplified Chinese bookstore, arts bookstore and many other outlets. There is a wide range of English and Chinese books, as well as audio/visual equipment in a specialized department. Other floors offerings include the first-floor Design and Living Floor; an almost 200-ping-large children’s bookstore and children’s discovery museum on the fifth floor; the Eslite Culture sixth floor with a theme restaurant for speeches and activities; a B1 level mainly selling young trendy designer items; and a B2 level offering snacks and exotic foods, as well as vegetarian dishes, to fill browsers’ stomachs. The Eslite XinYi Store is a whole new world of possibilities. from TaiwanFun.com

Porter bags

There were lots of snack items but all were labelled in Chinese so I didn’t know exactly what most of it were.

In today’s market where ebooks are gaining ground and some brick and mortar bookstores have downsized Eslite’s books are still fully stocked with all the subjects you can imagine. Even obscure topics and international subjects were well represented.

The Alpen Garden

all kinds of tea

My favorite section was this area selling European houseware items. I just love looking at serveware specially for coffee and tea.

They even had an Apple store inside.

Just take a look at their store directory.

I remember ‘reading’ 老夫子 (Lǎo Fū Zi) when I was a kid.

The Japanese section was all white.

I had to ask my friend who is Japanese what these colorful cloths were. She said “tenugui” literally means to wipe your hands. It is a traditional cloth used back in “Edo era.” They used to use it to wipe their hands and other purposes like tie up kimono or wrap around their head to keep their sweat from their face. These days these tenugi are used for wrapping gifts too.

The cookbook section was quite extensive too.

This level had lots of stationery and cutsie stuff. Somebody on this level finally told me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. Good thing I managed to take a lot already. I could spend hours just browsing all the things in Eslite. It’s a must see when you visit Taipei.

Eslite Bookstore (Xinyi Store)
No. 11, Sōnggāo Rd, Sinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
telephone: (02) 8789-3388
Hours:10 am -2 am Bookstore (2F/3F/4F)
10 am-10 pm /Shopping Mall (B2/ B1/ 1F/ 5F/ 6F)
website