Escargot Hunting Round 2

Escargot Hunting Round 2 = SUCCESS!!!

Place: The Corner Bistro
(along Leigh Street)

I love this French restaurant; simple design, similar to a French cafe, cute French waiter with strong French accent that makes most gals weak at the knees (including me :P) and I met a very charming French cook. There is a pretty French waitress who also works there (part time; I'll leave it to the guys to find out)

Starters:

Champagne and bread.....















I love my escargot!!! Savory, strong garlic flavour and chewy texture = I LIKE!!!



















Mains: Steak cooked differently (with red wine & with cream)











Dessert: Crepes and Ice-cream











PS: Mains and dessert was good, but the escargot just dominated my appetite. I can picture myself eating 5 plates of escargot in one sitting...yummy...

It's a Crazy World out there....

The fashion right now (2008) are

1 : Having babies
There are so many famous pregnacy and birth of babies going on in the gossip world. Naming a few: Alba, Jolie, Spears, Blanchett, Richie, Kidman, Garner...etc

2 : Beheading/ ripping bodies apart/ cannibalism
The killers don't hesistate and kill their "loved" ones or some random strangers. Not just ordinary killing where you stab the person or put a bullet through; It's slashing/chopping the victim's head off.
View here, here & here

In Canada :
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,24136340-401,00.html?from=public_rss

In Brazil:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24111677-23109,00.html

In UK:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24159957-23109,00.html

In Greece:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,24123966-401,00.html?from=public_rss

and much much more, these are the recent Big Headlines that occured in July & August...

Crazy Crazy Crazy Crazy Crazy Crazy Crazy Crazy Crazy Crazy
World World World World World World World World World World

鼎泰豐

There is a saying (not sure how true is it): If you go Taiwan and didn't go 鼎泰豐 to eat 小笼包 = you've never really went Taiwan.
This restaurant has already branched out/franchised into Japan, USA, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Indonesia; and recently to Sydney (June 2008).



The one I went in Taiwan; Honestly, their 小笼包 is very good (thin pastry skin and juicy on the inside). Here are the dishes that we've ordered.... YUM!!!





































How an organised restaurant works to fulfill the demands; first they need "a few" chefs working non-stop, kneading and rolling the buns and dumplings (about 15 of them, not including chefs that fry the food) . Then they need a few humidifier to "expand" the buns (about 4 big ones). Not to forget, lots and lots of steamers... The last 2 pictures was taken about 1 minute apart (just me stepping back to photograph a bigger view) and the height of the basket increased in record speed.























I wanna go back there again...

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.