Dinner x Quinoa Fried Rice

I bought a packet of Quinoa ("keen-wah") sometime back, failed at my first attempt and chugged it aside for a long while. It wasn't until last week I had to make my own dinner and it was the quickest carb I can find & cook. I decided to give it another try! Remember to rinse the Quinoa to remove the bitter taste before boiling in pot :)

I took abit of everything colorful I can find in the fridge - long beans, carrot, corn, red bell pepper, black fugus & chicken/fish slices for my 'Fried Rice'. By the time I was done chopping, my Quinoa was ready and fluffy. I drained the super food and stir-fry everything on the plate before throwing in the Quinoa last. 

This was definitely a successful attempt! Not only it takes me less than 30 minutes, it's delicious, filled with many nutritious benefits and easy to cook. I was eating happily away.

Hope to master this and come up with more varieties when I have the time. hehe :)
Hope you had a great Friday!

Breakfast x Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich

Happy Sunday! Relaxing at home makes the perfect day, but nope, I spent the entire day painting the room and foreseeing an achy body tomorrow. 

A simple breakfast before work few days back. This is one of my favorite to go, a winning combination - two slices of wholemeal bread with peanut butter, banana and blueberries, packed with healthy dose of fats, fiber and protein.

Would be even better if it's toasted or grilled! x

✈ Taipei, Taiwan x Day 5

Day 5 - 淡水- Miramar Entertainment Park - 士林夜市

J & I joined our friend and his family who was in Taipei for vacation on the fifth day! Our initial itinerary was to visit Yangmingshan & Beitou before going Danshui & Fisherman's Wharf but we decided to forgo the first two places of attraction to sleep in & spend our Saturday with a big group of people :)

Morning sight of empty XMD

Lunch after breakfast was at Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice. I'm not a big fan of 滷肉飯 but this is probably one of the must-try since it's a favorite in Taiwan! Located near Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall MRT, the 9 of us took the train and walked over to the highly recommended place online. We were lucky we didn't had to wait long for our seats. 

My bowl of fatty pork belly slabs & 1 pathetic slice of cucumber over steamed white rice. The white rice was very tasty and fragrant though!

Got our daily dosage of BBT upon reaching Danshui station :)

We were also part-time babysitter for the day!

A glimpse of the well-known beautiful waterfront area. 

We spent a good 3 hours walking around the old street. It was scorching hot and we probably got 1-2 shades darker! The 3 of us were all drained playing & taking care of the toddler by mid-day. 

We headed back to Jiantan Station and took a shuttle bus to Mimarar Entertainment Park (yes aircon!!), a new age shopping and entertainment complex. We parted with the adults for 1.5 hours and the 3 of us took this best opportunity to sit down for food and cuppa coffee!

By evening, we took the shuttle bus back to Jiantan and walked over to Shilin night market. It was Saturday and very crowded! The 3 of us left the adults to meet them 2 hours later :)

Famished and all ready for dinner at the basement. 

Some of our eats - 2 XXL fried chicken, egg omelette (all starch), sausages, squids, etc. We also tried the bitter-gourd pineapple juice which was special and good!

We ended the night with another round of foot massage after a good warm bathe back in the hotel. Probably one of the best thing because we were all dead beat. 

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Sunday. Can't wait to see which country will walk away as FIFA World Cup Champion tonight. 

Germany or Argentina? 

Here's to another new week x

✈ Taipei, Taiwan x Day 4

Mid-week. It's been 8 days since I'm back from Taiwan and I'm still feeling the post-holiday syndrome/blues. Truly the aftermath of taking such a long break away from work - Residential, to CISA and vacation!
 But I guess I was rewarded with a rested self, renewed perspective and great recharge. It's definitely time to re-establish back to the usual routine till the next :)

Day 4 - 九份 - 五分谱- 绕河夜市 - Taipei 101

Back to Day 4, we started the lovely Friday morning with a hearty hotel buffet breakfast! It was nothing fantastic though, just some simple spread with assorted bread, appetizers, noodles, rice and veggies. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to having eggs but there weren't any. Anyway, our original plan for the day was to visit 九份&十份 but we ended up going to the former only because we missed the train and was also already half drained by mid-day, haha.

To 九份

From Taipei Main Station, we exited the MRT to take another train to Ruifang Station, where we alighted to head to 九份. From Ruifang station, you can either take a cab (NT180) or bus 1062/1063 (<NT50) up. The bus stop is located directly outside the Welcome shop opposite the train station and journey takes only about 15 minutes.

So excited to be here! :)

Coffee and us :)

There were many stalls selling Taros and the smell of it was overwhelming! I love Yam, steamed ones in rice especially and so we bought a bowl to share. Filled with Taro balls and different types of beans, it tastes like cheng teng. Definitely a great dessert to quench our thirst under the hot weather. 

The iconic view at the top of 九份, such a beautiful sight!

Big head selfie of us

Prior to this trip, I've read reviews that the popiah peanut ice-cream is a must-try! We bought one and I really liked it!!! All the popiah skins were laid nicely on the metal table with peanut shavings, all they do is add two scoops of ice-cream & some greens when you order. Super yums :) 

We were done within 1.5 hours and decided to head to 十份. However, back at Ruifang station, we missed the train and had to wait for an hour! The frequency of the train towards Pingxi is really low so it's advisable to check before going. We did took a photo of the timetable but forgotten about it when we left 九份. Since we were also lugging few boxes of pineapple tarts & sun biscuit, we decided to head back to Taipei and come back another day!

We dropped our stuff back in hotel and headed to Wufenpu and Raohe. Stopped by 7-11 and ended getting a bowl of cup noodle to share because the smell was really good. 

Enroute to wufenpu. There was practically nothing we both liked and we went raohe night market for dinner!

Right at the entrance, we spotted the famous Pepper Pork bun and joined the queue. Jack didn't find it that fantastic but it's definitely my favorite street food so far. I love it piping hot, finished mine and even ate some of his.

Miss this so much now! We also got few others snacks - sausages, steak, bbt before we left the night market. By Day 4, I was already quite sick of the night market food!

The night was still young after filling our tummies. We headed to Taipei City Hall station to visit Taipei 101, we didn't went up but did some shopping instead, truly appreciate air-conditioned malls there. 

Our legs were so sore by the time we reached our hotel & we ended the long day with an hour of relaxing foot massage. Not very relaxing though, my whole leg was in pain the next day!

✈ Taipei, Taiwan x Day 3

Day 3 - Taipei, Xi Men Ding

Taichung to Taipei
From Taichung, Jack & I took the bus back to Taipei Main Station at 1230pm. We slept throughout the 2 hours ride, took a train stop to XMD and arrived just in time for hotel check-in :)

Multi-storey Starbucks everywhere

Hotel:

We booked 5 nights at ECFA Hotel for SGD85/night with daily breakfast buffet. The hotel and room wasn't on par and as comfortable compared to Plaza Hotel. Bathroom was also way smaller and I didn't really like it. But anyway, we were out on most days so it was still ok!

 Our hotel was 5 minutes away from XMD and it was almost dinner time by the time we settled. 

We spent the whole night roaming and getting dinner around XMD. First up was bbt from 50 钢, heard it's the same as Koi.

We past by a pushcart filled with different dishes and there were many locals queuing for it. It looks like our local YTF and so we decided to try it out. It was superb!! The stall owner also recommended us some goose meat which was not bad.

Ah Zong Mian Xian 阿宗面线! 

I am not a fan of 面线 but I guess this is a must try when we're in Taiwan! We got a bowl to share and both of us find it okay. The queue was long but moves really fast. We joined the locals by hanging outside the shop to finish our food haha. 

We past by a crowd overseeing a talented man doing his spray artwork and ended up standing there for a good 30 minutes. Totally in awe by how he turned a white piece of paper into an artwork with his spray cans and  we each got a piece from him, magical!

Just the beginning of our Taipei night, 5 more fun days to go :)

✈ Taichung, Taiwan x Day 1 to 3

Taiwan has always been a destination on my travel checklist. It is afterall an Asian country with beautiful scenic attractions and seasons, farms, hot springs & enormous variety of food (prepare to get fat there!).

Jack & I spent a good 8 days there late last month. It was no doubt very huge, but too hard and tedious to conquer. Thankfully, it was a free and easy trip for us, otherwise we may have been badly exhaust. haha!

Flight:

We flew with Scoot with a 50% deal (similar to my bkk trip) at only SGD250 each, how awesome! Departed Singapore close to 1am, slept through half the flight and woke up to bright & sunny Taiwan at 0530am :) We planned to visit Taichung the first two days before heading to Taipei. 

Transfer from Taoyuan to Taichung:

After collecting our luggages, it was still early and we decided to take Ubus 1623 from the airport to Taichung. The frequency of the bus is pretty fast, about every 30 minutes and ticket costs NT240 each. We hopped on the 640am coach, slept throughout the comfy ride and arrived Taichung Train station 2.5 hours later! The other alternative is to take the HSR which I think takes only an hour but costs 2-3 times more. 

Our 630am breakfast from Hi-life. Just some coffee, fruit, sushi & misc to tide us through :)

Day 1 - Taichung & Feng Chia Night Market

We dropped our luggage at the hotel and had about 4 hours to roam around. Most of the shops were still closed at 10am. We headed to 第二市场 and had our second breakfast. In Taiwan, we've learnt to order from whichever stall with the longest queue, and there you will have the best food (at least most of the time)!

We bought a set of Carrot cake, egg and rice sausage & a bowl of soup. Also had our first cup of milk tea which was awesomeee!

We then headed to the Mode Mall, nearest shopping mall near our hotel. We ended going round and round before stopping by Sushi Express for lunch. Both of us loves Sushi Express in Taiwan, especially for their generous portion and cheap rates at NT30/plate.

Hotel:

We booked a deluxe room for 2 nights at Plaza Hotel, which was centrally located at Taichung City for a promo rate of SGD80/night with daily buffet breakfast for 2! We were finally able to check in at 230pm for a good warm bathe and nap. Needed it so much at that point of time. 

It was soon time for dinner after we woke up. We were excited for our first night market walk at Fengjia - 逢甲夜市, one of the biggest and famous night market in Taiwan! There are many buses available from Taichung Train station and the ride took about 40 minutes. 

We ordered quite a bit for share - pork pepper bun, 大肠抱小肠, clams, chocolate crepe, bbt & some fruits, first day only and we were filled to brim! My favorite of all has got to be the pork egg bread as featured. It was piping hot and really yummy!

Day 2 - CingJing Grassland & Yi Zhong Night Market
Woke up early for our breakfast buffet before heading to Cingjing Grassland. 

Super love Taiwan's 茶叶蛋!

We took the Nantou bus transportation and bought the Cingjing Package at NT600 which includes the entrance tickets and our transportation to and back :) The bus ride to Cingjing took about 2 hours and we arrived around noon. 

Cingjing is a beautiful huge green farm situated at Nantou. Sheep are everywhere in the open & I was really afraid! But as long as you're not holding on to any food, they will not come near you :) So I stayed far away from Jack in the wide field. 

That's Jack feeling super excited!

Selfie with the sheep :)

<3

The bowl of hot chicken noodle soup that warms me up instantly, it was really good! :)

It began raining 30 minutes before our last bus back at 1630. We bought poncho without a choice and shivered all the way to the entrance, what an experience!

Back in Taichung, we headed to Yizhong night market 15 minutes away from our hotel. We were famished and again bought many miscs - fried chicken, sushi, etc to share. I personally felt Yizhong was a better place to go as compared to the Feng Chia. I even joined a long queue to trim my brows! 

Day 3 - Miyahara - Taichung - Taipei

So quickly day 3 came! Right after our breakfast, we headed to the Miyahara Ophthalmology Department - 宫原眼料 only available in Taichung. It was located 8-10 minutes walk away from our hotel. The 2 storey building was built with red bricks and hugeee. There were varieties ranging from their famous ice-cream, drinks, chocolates & cookies. 

The ice-cream queue wasn't that long in the morning and we got our order quickly. There were so many exotic flavors to choose from and we were spoilt for choices! 

Smoked Uganda, with 80% cocoa & Assam Black tea

A double scoop ice-cream comes with 3 toppings & we chose some caramelized biscuit, sunflower seeds & cheesecake. The ice-cream was light, not very milky & I love it so much! We devoured it very quickly, got a handful of their cookies (not very cheap at $2.50 each but it's really good) before we headed back to hotel to check-out and make our way to Taipei!