Idiot on Facebook

This guy added me on facebook; born 1981 and frens we have in common are the ones from girl school... hmmm suspicious hence I messaged him and he messaged back:

Me: Remind me again; who are you?
GG: I love you

Action taken: DELETE & BLOCKED

Retarded fella....

To grin or not to grin???

Just when Adelaide is becoming a "Big" city;

AjisenRamen is in Adelaide!! Go try Go eat!!

Starbucks is closing it's franchise here....

I wished that I had a better camera...

Loved mist and morning dews.
This makes feels like I am in SpiderDemonLand (蜘蛀精 & 盘丝洞)

Those moments...

Everyone went back to see grandma, who by the way is 93. She's getting better now =)



Went to visit Grandpa's grave and my third aunties grave.

Nostalgic

When I was young, listening to Frank Sinatra/ Teresa Teng... etc are always refered as oldies. Now that I'm heading to late twenties music from New Kids on the Block/ Duran Duran are sort of "Oldies" to me, although they are classified as music from the 80s.

Over the whole of last week I've been driving to a friend's place (about 9/10 ish) while listening to the radio. Especially over the weekends, the radio stations tends to put clubbing music and I don't even know half the music that they played. For the ones I knew, it certainly brought back memories.

Music like Sandstorm & Feel the Beat by Darude (seen him performing live in Flux), Rapture by Iio & much much more (can't think of anything else off my head) really brings back memories of me getting ready to go clubbing at J's place; putting on make up, dressing up, look for shoes, find a designated driver (ya right!), speed to the club, speed back home. The flirting/ pulled away/ running away from strangers; The bum into friends and hugs & kisses.

My memories in clubbing; dropping ice down ppl's top; I poured my drink on some idiot's face; eating at mamak after clubbing while a few bunch of wolves stared on; the smell of smoke after clubbing; my 1st ciggy.... good old memories..

Now everything changed so much back home. The names of the clubs have changed, the scene at the club has changed and new clubs popped up. Clubbing used to be bumping into friends and see old rich ahpek trying to pick younger gals; Now it seem to be flooded with young hooligans out to "eat tofu" and chicks who randomly pick a "fight" at other gals (the way they dance/dressed etc)... tsktsk.... Most clubs used to play techno/trance/ house music and now they are flooded with hiphop/ rap music

I must be getting old and out of the scene...

Dream Liqueur Shelf

I love this shelf,so many sake bottle.. so little time.....

Big "urns" of sake....

Lunch in 101

Taipei 101 the tallest building (yet) in Taiwan.
























In the elevator up to the look out point.
























View from the top



















Lunch in the food court of 101, the dishes are slightly different from what you can get in a normal food court. Beef or lamb or chicken with large squid!! Yummy!!! The noodle dish my sis ordered = normal.... but I love the ice-cream waffles. You can actually order savoury dishes with the waffles; fried bacon/ sausages /cheese with ice-cream. If I wasn't full, I would have ordered it but I decided to go for the normal plain chocolate ice-cream with chocolate sauce and cream topping...

I wanna a Fugu too

My cousins' pet fish....
So what is Fugu?? It's blowfish.


Big fugu














Small fugu

















Serve it up raw on a plate in Japan to test your guts.....

The only place you can get good tofu; to be exact (臭豆腐) smelly tofu

There are 2 types of smelly tofu; the wet and the dry. I already had the wet 臭豆腐 with the porriage the first night I arrived. This time I went for the dried one along 士林夜市 (Shi Lin night market) in Taipei city.


Just a small humble stall that fry smelly tofu 臭豆腐 and cook cold noodles 凉面. What can I say about the stall unit? The owner definitely knows how to make full use of the space =)





So many stall to choose from, why did I end up in this stall? 1st, suggested by a friend.
2nd , There was a loooooong queue.
So... was the squeezing and long wait worth it???

Let me see.....
The 1st time (2nd day) I went there with sis and friend, we had 3 plates of 臭豆腐 and 2 plates of 凉面
The second time (4th day) I went back there with 2 sis and 1 bro to be, we had 4 plates of 臭豆腐 and 3 plates of 凉面




There would have been a 3rd time if it wasn't for the buzy schedule... hehe
This stall = definitely worth the wait....


臭豆腐 with pickled vegetables
This stall's tofu does not have the typical pungent smelly tofu smell. It is actually quite pleasent to the nose, especially for those who have not tried this before. Crispy on the outer layer, soft and juicy inside.... mixed it with the pickled spicy vege.... YUM!!!


凉面
Suitable to be consumed on a hot summer day. No oil, just sauces. Served cold. There is a choice of original, Thai or numb spicy noodle.
1. Original flavour; the base of the sauce is sesame oil and peanut sauce.
2. Thai flavour; a dash of lime/lemon with sweet chilli sauce added to the original.
3. Numb spicy flavour; Extra numb spicy chilli added to the original. (really numbs the tongue)


Note: In total I had smelly tofu 3 out of 4 days The moment I arrived -.-

The streets of 九份.....

Just below the hills of 金瓜石 (Gold melon stone) is the town of 九份 (Nine). This is where The actual eating began.

If you love peanuts, there are wraps filled with peanut shavings. That huge block on the left is glazed peanuts. The uncle shaves the peanuts layer by layer and the lady wraps them up with a thin layer of steamed pastry (similar to popia skin).


People who are close to me will know that my favourite dishes are all sorts of cockles/snails; "seeham", "zuizui/balidong", the bamboos ones. This is one of them too...












Roll over Mr Potato!! Spin yourself around the stick.... This is unique, one of a kind potato chip. Note the chip without the "s". It's a whole potato thinly sliced to a strip (without breaking) and poked through a stick. Comes in different flavours too; seaweed, curry... Taste just like Pringles/Smith/Lays except it is made fresh...

Ever had "O Ne"?? It's made from yam or pumpkin or sweet potato with chewy texture. When in 九份, you got to try "O Ne" and that glue-ie dessert in the picture below. I cannot remember the name for it, but the flavour = damn nice and not too very sweet either. This is provided you're a fan of yam and red bean.




Thirsty?? You can get yourself a cup of freshly juiced pink guava drink!! TWD $60 = AUD$2.

After all the walking....

By noon = Lunch time... Where do you find the food??

Look for the police station and the hawkers stalls and cafes are around it. This is the one and only police station in Taiwan that is build like that. Although it had been renovated but it maintained the original structure/ form. I can't remember what the building was used before WWII.




Cheap cheap food/ snack. TWD$50 & $60 for a bowl of rice & noodles which comes to AUS$1.50 & $2...












Of course when in Taiwan, what must you eat??? TAIWAN SAUSAGE!! hehehe

金瓜石

金瓜石 (gold melon stone) is famous for it's gold mines and gold mining industry.


This is the miniature version on how the mining works underground. Dangerous job.

Tourist attraction: look for gold, hands on experience... try it once and never again... Definately different from digging chucks of gold; what you get by the end of the session is small amount of gold sand. There goes my dream of early retirement... sigh...















Before1946, this mining industry was control by Japan. Occasionally a Japanese Prince would go over and inspect the work done. This is where he stayed; 太子賓館, The Royal Prince Guesthouse. Huge place; and he plays miniature golf too...

















ps: Mining no longer continued there, too many pits collapsed or caved in and the eighth pit is submerged in the sea.

??Feng Shui??

Place: Cyuanji Temple at Gold Melon Stone (金瓜石) in Taiwan.

There is a statue of 關聖帝君/關公 reading a book & looking over the place/suburb.











I am ignorant in regards to Buddhist religion, just need someone to explain to me... The top of the mountain a stretch of graves. The lower part of the mountain is where "village" is. The Guan Gong statue is actually facing a mountain of graves. I understand if it meant looking after the people in the "village", but what about the graves?


ps: the statue is made out of pure copper, 35 feet tall and weigh about 25 metric ton... cool!!!

Porriage...

How do you normally eat porriage??

Pigeon and I grew up eating different type of porriage. At home, I grew up eating porriage the same way I eat rice, while pigeon grew up eating porriage that had meat already mixed togather, the type that you can buy from the hawker stalls. When it comes to home dinner, we came up with/ calling it "back home porriage"(mixed) and "Taiwan porriage"(with side dishes)

My sudden depart from Adelaide to Taiwan; the story begins...

The first meal I had when I went back Taiwan was porriage, in a Taiwanese porriage restaurant called "No Name". You start lining up from the entrance and choose the dishes that you want to eat.



These were the dishes that aunt, sis and I ordered. The white porriage and sweet potato porriage are freeflow, so you can keep eating until your heart content.

From top left: seaweed, vege, salted egg, pig ears, smelly tofu (wet), oysters and fried strips made from flour (:P). There are alot more choices at the bain marie.

(TADA!!) This is porriage "Taiwan style"... hehehehe

I found it!!

The first time I tasted and fell in loved with it was in Taiwan about 12 years ago. Since then, I could not find this dish anywhere else, until NOW!Good old Adelaide has this dish!! Happy Happy ME!!

Pick a guess; What is this dish???

Telltale sign: Korean food.... So what is it exactly??

Gae Jang

love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love

Any idea what gae jang is??? It's raw crab marinated @ pickled in onion, spring onion, sesame seeds and chilli paste. I don't know the exact recipe is but it is a fantastic dish!!

Raw crab meat in chilli = very soft texture, slighlt sweet spicy flavour.... droolllllll..........

Matsuri

All you can eat Sukiyaki weekdays only...
So if you are hungryyyy and too lazy to think, just pop over for some easy self cook meal without the washing up =)

Appetiser is served only once; tofu and dumpling

Start off with a pot of ingredients....


Followed by another plate of ingredients... Of course you cannot forget to order SAKE!!!


Keep ordering refilled (plate by plate) of beef/vege/tofu/noodles/rice until you are full =)