Taipei food porn

All these food are just the a tiny bit of the glorious food in Taipei. Not to forget all the night markets! Enjoy the food porn!:D

Taipei - 1st week

1 week has since passed for my Taipei trip. Not sure how many pounds I have piled on and the amount of saturated fat that I have consumed...*sob*...but, I am not regretting it... :D

The chocolates and cookies served to me when I checked in at Shangrila is already a sign...haha. The cookies and chocolates are sure good... ;)

On the 1st night, we visited Ximending and had the famous mee suah. Three of us bought a small bowl and stood among the locals, happily slurping down the mee suah, even though the tougue is scalded by the hot soup. Lovely, marvellous... Move away, SG's version of that ShiLin oyster mee suah. Although this 'Ah Zong Mian Xian' does not have oysters, it has bits of the pig intestines, paired with a sprig of basil leaves, black vinegar and chopped garlic. There's no problem in wolfing down a 2nd bowl!

The 1st work week is pretty uneventful...until Friday! All of us can't wait to get off work. Threw our bags in the hotel room and zoomed off to 'Wu Fen Pu', a fashion area. Nothing much...for us actually, haha...we are getting old. Also went to the nearby nght market. Waited long time to visit the night market. My tummy is ready for anything and everything! Saw a queue in front of this stall, so... typical Singaporeans... we join in the Q! Hee, it was a treasure found. Piping hot bun, baked in a hot stone stove... the juices literally flowed from the buns... yummy...

This is just the beginning.. will be posting up more pics which I took over the weekend... :)

Sydney trip, Part 2

Has been back from SYD for more than a week now. Was so tied up that I can't find the time to blog. There are so many dishes cooked/baked but no time to load up... The above pics on the Harbour bridge and Opera House were taken on my last night in Sydney. The job has been tiring and I spent the last night having Vietnamnese food in Chinatown, walking up along George St, stopping at Gelatissimo for my favourite chocolate gelato, and ending up at Opera House for the breath taking view. Will miss the time spent in Paddy's market buying the nuts and dried fruits and the time at Fish Market, buying the fresh oysters and sashimi, sitting by Wentworth park watching the rugby training and seagulls. It's just so mind relaxing. Guess the next time I will be back in AU will in 2008... till then, I have these pics for memory. :)

Sydney Business trip - Part 1

This is the first week of Sydney. Weather is a rollercoaster. We came with the idea that the weather is cool with a high of 21 degrees. But, to our great disappointment, it rained the whole Sunday we were here. We stayed at Shangrila, located at The Rocks. Unduanted by the rain, we walked at The Rocks Markets with our huge Shangrila umbrellas! Sad... cos we had took the midnight flight from SG to SYD with hopes of spending the day shopping in the malls and the Paddy's.
Well this week has been madness... the weather, the workload, the drives from hotel to the office... we spent 2-3 hours on the roads each day, depending on which of the 2 offices we go, and for the past 5 working days, we went to each office on alternate days. I had to recap the route every day! Even my colleague who's the driver says she has to reset her memory every day... urghhh...
But... admist all the complaints... there are some nice things that happened.... :)

Skyline of Sydney from my bedroom

Chocolates and fruits... ;)

The ground coffee, camomile tea and even fat free chocolate! Heaven

Welcome tea! Served from the traditional teapot!

Who says I can't eat mooncake in AU's restuarant? This is the chocolate 'mooncake' I had for dessert in one of the famous restaurants along Darling Harbour 'Meat & Wine Co.'
Friday night TV dinner. Bought it at one the bistros along George St. So sick of eating late every night. Managed to be back before 830pm on Friday... Went to 'ta-bao' dinner, and realised what a big difference is the price. Same food, dine-in was A$16.50, but takeaway was only A$10! Spent the night with Bridget Jones sequel on Channel 10. Bliss...

I got presents from the hotel! Not surprised, cos the last time I stayed here, I got a bottle of wine and cheese platter aa a welcome gift. This time I got a bottle of wine on Thursday, minus the cheese platter... weird I thought... But in Friday, I saw another bottle of wine plus the cheese platter...hahaha... shiok... save $$ on liquor.



This thing here is called 'Emperor Cream Puff'. I chanced aross it this afternoon at Chinatown. Saw people queuing for it, Asians and locals. Initially wanted just 2 to have a try but at only A$1 for 5, I ended up taking 5...hee. Also bcos the wait is pretty long, so might as well. Quite stupid to queue 15 mins for 2 cab laden sweets... :p Verdict: Worth queuing for. Eat it when its piping hot, my tongue got scalded! But it's worth it. The custard oozing out from the little cake... yummy

Did I tell you that Spore will have a chocolate drought soon? That's why I am buying so much!!! HAHA, I did a stock count of the chocs I bought over this week... horrible, from Timtam which is only A$1.99, Nestle Club Noir of A$1.49, Nestle Club blocks of A$2.49, Haigh's dark chocolate coated coffee beans and Darrell Lea's Rocky Road... wow... chocolate overload. I also manage to get my hands on 100% unsweetened chocolate and cocoa nibs over an online AU website. www.tava.com.au. Enough, think I need to get an empty carton box to keep all these.

Beautiful sunset... taken from my bedroom window with my hp camera. Weekend is the only time to be here during sunset.

Well, this weekend will be loaded with lots of work documentation... its almost 6pm now... another 6 hrs of work before I hit the bed... :(

Jarkata pictures - Emping

Emping, or Belingo, or 'Kor Pia' (Bitter biscuits) as we sometimes call it, its a fantastic snack in Indonesia. They come in all flavours: spicy, sweet, plain. They go really well with sambal. My auditee was so nice that she brought me few packets from Surabaya, which she claims produce even better emping. So below are some of the pics of the emping I took on the office floor... drool....:P


ok, other than the cooked or dried emping, have a look at the fresh one. Its used mostly in vegetable soups. It has an outer layer which needs to be removed, a internal hard husk, which literally has to be bitten off into 2... before u can see the nut inside. Somewhat looks similar to a peanut, doesnt it...

Jarkata business trip

Its 8.40pm now in Jarkata, one hour behind SG time. I am still in the office, slogging away, waiting for my Indian colleague to finish off his last audit comment before i can send off this damn long report to the auditee...

Urghhh!!! Tired, hungry.... xian...
I took some photos of my stay here, been waiting for a chance to blog, but I am in no mood to do it, as I still very stuck in work....

Shall upload my pics shortly and see what I can do about it...
Can't he write faster??!!!

Trip to Phuket 5th - 8th July

Was away to Phuket for a short break with my hubby, W. These are some snapshots during our 4D3N stay. The beach was fantastic, food was gorgeous. W and I literally screened every roadside stall which we walked past! From the stalls in the fresh markets to the waffle store in Robinsons supermarket, our eagle eyes are not letting go of any delicacy. From grilled bananas, bbq chicken liver, curry noodles, hokkien mee (yes, they have it there too!), som tom, mango with glutinuous rice... the list goes on and on...

As you can see, with all these food, I came back packed with a couple of pounds of extra baggage, guess I need to go back to my yoga class today and burn off the pad thai, and som tom which i had over the past few days... ;)

Shanghai trip, 17 to 30 June

Just came back from a business trip in Shanghai for 2 weeks. Well, a business trip means working from 8 to 5, dinner, work some more and more work during weekends... This means that I don't really have much time to eat, sightsee and take in the little bits and pieces of SHG.

And, the lunches at the factory doesn't help in any bit to make me feel better. The amount of oil and salt in their food makes me out to cry out for a bowl of hot water to wash all my food in! I did not do that, of cos, for fear that the plant manager and the operators will look at me in wierdest look in their eyes!

Hee, but I did do some shopping though.... cookbooks, snacks, kitchen supplies, things you find at YuHwa store at half the price in China.

Here are some pictures of the snacks bought in Carrefour, Parkson, snack shops in Nanjing Road...