Taiwan 2012: Sadaharu Aoki

I've previously proclaimed my love for Sadaharu Aoki desserts. And lucky me have actually managed to sample a few of his macarons (and chocarons) through friends and family who help me to bring back boxes of his stuff.

Sadaharu Aoki

Taipei 2012: Food & Sightseeing

To say that Taipei is a food mecca could be an understatement. In fact, come to think of it, most Asian cities such as Taipei, Seoul, and Singapore (but of course!) offer a really good variety of food. Local cuisines, international restaurants, street food, and so much more.

Ximending (西門町)

Taiwan 2012: 新北投 Xinbeitou & 淡水 Danshui

One thing on our list to do during our vacation in Taipei this year includes visiting a sauna. The cousin and I popped by Xinbeitou first for a visit to a hot spring on the way to Danshui (they are located on the same metro line). There are several hot spring hotels in the area, and apparently, the last of the sakura flowers were supposed to be in bloom (it was in April). Sad to say, it was raining the day, and all I saw of the sakura flowers were on the below pitiful tree branch.

 新北投 Xinbeitou

Taiwan 2012: Taipei Night Markets

I know this is super late, but here are more photos of the Taiwan trip in April this year. In this post, it's all about night markets in Taipei. We visited three night markets, but when we visited 師大路夜市 (Shida Night Market), it was raining heavily, so no photos - anyway, there wasn't much to eat there anyway (imo)!

My favourite night market in Taipei has got to be hands down Raohe St Night Market (it is situated near a wholesale shopping area Wufenpu). In fact, we made two seperate trips to visit the market cos there was just so much yummy good food. You might think how do two girls have so much stomach space for all the food below, no worries, it was not done at one go. The food consumed was the sum of our two trips - I just consolidated it all together. It was my second trip to Taiwan, so I mostly went for foods that I didn't try before, so I skipped dishes like 胡椒餅 (pepper meat bun) or 臭豆腐 (stinky tofu).

饒河街觀光夜市 Raohe St Night Market

Taiwan 2012: 永康街 Taipei Yong Kang Street

I've decided to just split up my travel photos according to themes. Instead of going by a day to day itinerary, I'll be posting my travel vacation photos in posts according to say, food, sightseeing, locations, etc. I'll *try my best to post the details of the food places I visited so if you guys want to visit, you can just grab the address to go.

Today, I'll be posting photos of 永康街 Yong Kang Street in Taipei, Taiwan. It really is an interesting place to visit. I was researching online for the best beef noodles in Taipei before my trip, and a lot of the online reviews pointed to a certain shop at Yong Kang Street, simply named as Yong Kang Beef Noodles. And alongside the reviews, I managed to discover that the area is packed with loads of small little cafes. With that in mind, I was determined to pay Yong Kang Street a visit.

I was so taken with the place on my first visit that I actually revisisted the place again on my last day in Taipei. Specifically, just to have another awesome bowl of the yummy beef noodles.

永康牛肉麵 Yong Kang Beef Noodles 

Taiwan 2012: 九份 and 十分

Here are some more photos of my Taiwan trip in April. My cousin and I met up with another two friends in Taipei, and rented a cab (the driver is like a tourguide!) to bring us around 九份 (Jiufen) and 十分 (Shifen).

The two locations were situated quite near each other, and the two popular tourist spots were actually pretty charming and old schooled villages. I liked how the places managed to retain their nostalgic charms, yet is pretty cynic enough to know that slowly but surely, tourism is going to change these spots in the years to come.

It is advisable to head to Jiufen early as it really was no laughing matter when the hordes of tourists start swarming in soon after us. There are tons of food to eat there at 九份老街, the most popular being the 芋圓 - taro balls (sweet), 魚丸 - fish balls (savoury), 花生捲冰淇淋 - akin to ice cream popiah, 阿蘭宇粿 - similar but not quite like glutinous dumplings - wrapped with sweet or savoury fillings.

I'll let the photos (with captions) do the talking henceforth...

九份老街

Taiwan 2012: 花莲 (Hualian)

My second trip this year (in April) was to Taiwan. I've been to Taiwan before, once, like I think, when I was 18? That's perhaps about six years ago, when I had just graduated from junior college and was waiting to go to university. It was my first ever overseas trip with my girl friends and I was super excited about it. Thinking about Taiwan does brings back fond memories (of how young I was...*sigh*).

This time round, I went Taiwan with my cousin. It's our second overseas trip together! Not counting the one and half years of our university days in Aussie. Ever since she's been back, she's been swamped with work (she works at KPMG - I think that's pretty self-explanatory) and I don't meet her as much as I would like to. So, our week long vacation together was thoroughly awesome. ;)

Ello Taiwan!