Archive for the ‘Bonding : Food’ Category

 

Q: What food lured us to Taiwan? A: Local snacks, bubble tea and interesting food concepts!

Would you try this poo poo ice cream served in toilet concept?

 

See Darren’s expression on our first visit! Toilet bowls? Poo? Shower tubs? Well, he was just exaggerating:) Food presentation looks disgusting but that’s what attracts kids. Gimmicks fascinated them! Haha! No prize for guessing which restaurant:)

 

I knew once we stepped into Taipei, we would never have a concern over food for our young ones especially when Darren must have a taste of at least  a meal of eastern food per day.

Bubble tea, Gong Cha, Shilin chicken cutlets (with lots of chilli and pepper powder), Taiwan porridge, Taiwan vermicelli with oysters, minced pork rice, hotpots, deep fried mushrooms and many more.  Ooooe! They are our frequent treats in Singapore!

To name some…

We frequent Oasis Taiwan Porridge restaurant @ Toa Payoh —Mun Ting Xiang Cha Xuan @ Hougang (We enjoy the bubble tea here in quiet and cosy environment though I love most the strawberry shake with pearls) — Taiwan food store @ e!Hub Downtown East, and — of course not forgetting our must have Gong Cha from Kaosiong, right here in Singapore (Ed’s and my favourite earl grey green tea with 3 Js).  Then there are the recommended Taiwan’s bubble tea from Share Tea (Taiwan’s no.1 bubble tea) —and Drink Tea (we found ours at Nex).

So, can you feel my face beaming already?  Okay! Enough about Taiwan delicacies in Singapore. So, what’s the recommended food waiting for us when we make a real trip to Taipei?

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JOIN US NOW - on our food trails in Taipei, where we walked walked, drove drove, sat sat, stood stood, bought bought….JUST TO EAT:)

 

Vigor Kobo

To buy back food souvenirs for relatives or friends, you may drop by Vigor Kobo which sells Chinese cakes, pastries and even sweets, nougat, chocolates and pop corns. We visited the one at the main outlet at Chengde Road at our personal tour guide’s (Alan’s) recommendation. I was hesitant whether it would really be a good buy. So, we tasted the samples, liked the tastes and freshness and couldn’t believe that we actually bought back a carton box of pastries!

Here are our picks from Vigor Kobo and our boys ate a little too much during the food sampling. *embarrassed*.

 

Mango dried fruit - Our 3 guys love it despite the sugar coating.

 

Pineapple mini cakes - Hmm..soft and not too sweet according to my taste buds.

 

Cheese Popcorns

 

OMG! These seaweed like thin slices PORK is so tasty. Award winner in Taipei. Love it!

 

Sweets - this type not for kids. For my dad to help soothe his throat and cough.

 

Chestnut mini-cakes.

 There are banana and yam flavoured ones too. Our boys love the banana ones and not so much of the pineapple. Too bad! Yam ones are out of stock or my elderly parents will love them.

 

We tried much of the tea too (the cups are really TINY and rose tea is best. We totally agreed!)

 

Tamshui/Danshui

You might have heard of not leaving Tamshui without buying the fish floss/crisps and iron eggs. Thanks to Alan who also brought us to the famous Ah Po’s Tie-dan (grandma’s iron eggs) located at Tamshui Old Street. Didn’t take note of the road name due to heavy rain but noted that it is located behind the shops facing the waterfront.

 

Grandma’s iron eggs - we were taught to look out for this authentic brand. These eggs were stewed in mixed herbs and spices. The eggs come in bigger size too. We found the same brand of iron eggs sold at Taoyuan International Airport.

 

Papa Ed braved the rain and dashed across the road to the shop opposite Grandma’s Iron Eggs. For these….

Authentic Tamshui Fish Floss - Gold Award Winner

 

Tamshui Fish Crisps - Fish Crackers. Tamshui specialty!

 

Tamshui prawn crisps - Papa Ed will never miss any prawn crackers especially an award winner. He bought the spicy ones.  Not bad cos my tummy was tolerant enough but I ended up with sorethroat cos of too much prawn snacking!

 

Maokong Gondola

This was an unexpected find. Not a Taiwan product (from Korea) but we simply love the TAKOR cuttle fish taste and easy to chew textures for kids.  Oh yeah. Can choose different powder coating for other flavours. Nice? Or maybe we were just hungry even after a buffet breakfast. How do we get so hungry after so much eating in Taiwan?

Hmm…a tip for you cos we found that this snack kept our kids quiet in the car trip..they were too busy munching. Haha!

 

Jiaobanshan (Taoyuan county)

Note: This one is not in Taipei. Oooohh! The fried mushroom (or mushroom tempura) is so good. Flavour good! Texture good! Mushroom is thick and fresh! A tasty treat by Alan after our visit to Mount Jiaoban Mystery Tunnel.  If you are there, don’t miss buying these takeaway fried mushrooms in a cup:)

Haha!  I almost got Alan to drive back and buy more:) If it hadn’t been for him, we wouldn’t even know of such a good find.  Not sure about others who don’t favour mushrooms because Papa Ed who never likes shiitake mushrooms actually love this snack:) BTW, noted that they sell lots of shiitake mushrooms at Jiaobanshan.

 

Eating is believing! Try the list of food recommended  above when in Taipei. However, again, I know different people might have different preferences and taste buds.

Oh! There is so much more to share. Night market specialties, Ah Zhong Mian Xian, special-themed restaurants!  I can’t possibly finish them in one post.

In Taiwan, in fact, those small eateries do give good taste bud surprises with reasonable cost too!

So. Stay tune for Part 2. Oh! my tummy’s growling! Meanwhile, don’t drool:)

 

One of the joy I have living in Singapore is that we are blessed with wide choices of food. Even at home, when we are tired of cooking chicken the local Chinese style, we can cook it with Malay recipe, Thai recipe and many other flavourful ways. It’s hard to get sick of eating here. Err…have I ever mentioned that even if I could sacrifice any other perks now as an unemployed, I will never say NO to good food?  Yay! Good food lights up my face:)

While Papa Ed has never had a really big appetite and my eating capacity can never be compared to before, I am still on the hunt for good eating places. As long as I could savour the food even if it is in small proportions - that is what my stomach can accomodate now (maybe with age or gastritis condition).

I am really glad that I have recently found an enthusiastic companion who is as ardent in sampling good food with me.  He is always the first to sample my first experimented homecooked dishes and we will travel that distance to yum yum at different eating places. How I wish this little eating companion could start paying for the meals soon *haha*.  However, there are many brighter sides of eating with him. Well, he will have a big enough appetite to finish up all the food, he accomodates my likes and dislikes and we always have a good bonding and chatting time while feasting. I simply love the “wow! delicious” face.

It is appetite boosting eating with people who enjoy food. Agree?

*Thanks Brendan, mommy really enjoys every moment we dine together:) Don’t forget to give your old mommy great foodie treats when you have the earning power, hehe*.

 If there is one thing I name that bonds me and my son, I would gladly say that it is FOOD:)

 

Although we have eaten at Putien (Tampines) before as a family, last week the two of us decided to pop in at the branch at Nex to savour the heng hwa cuisines again for dinner when Papa Ed was overseas. My 12-year old definitely has a big appetite - 5 dishes, fried rice and dessert! Mommy could hardly eat more especially after we also had a heavy lunch earlier.

 

pork ribs

 

deep fried tengirri fish

 

fried yam duck

 

kailan

 

herbal prawn soup

 

fruit jelly dessert

 

not so spicy lala  (earlier when we dined with papa)

 

poached spinach (earlier when we dined with papa) - a common vege dish in most chinese restaurants

 

sweet and sour pork (earlier when we dined with papa)

 

crunchy and tasty peanuts

Somehow I prefer the dishes served at Putien (Tampines Mall) compared to those that we ordered at Nex although Brendan doesn’t find that much difference in tastes. Haha…maybe I was not in a mood to eat that day.

We enjoyed the yam duck on all visits and the peanut is a hot favourite (love it for being cruncy and those sesame seeds).   The yam duck is the dish that we will order each time we visit Putien. However, I still prefer the sweet and sour pork served at Soup restaurant (more crispy) and Paradise Inn (love that lychee with pork), the spinach served at Crystal Jade and Zhou’s kitchen suits my taste bud better and the herbal prawn soup at Carousel is unbeatable in my heart and nowhere else I go can overtake that herbal prawn soup taste even though my family will always order the herbal prawn at Putien. As for the lala, it somehow resembles the taste of those cooked by my dad and emmm….I couldn’t resist it.

Well…just my personal taste bud and I am actually quite particular with taste in food. Maybe I am spoilt by my dad who will always be the best cook in my heart…

 

My family simply loves blackcurrant drinks. RIBENA blackcurrant and glucose juice cordial is definitely one of the few beverages that BONDS my family.

 

Most interestingly, I spotted both Papa and son producing the same sound of “Aahhhhhh….” as soon as they start taking a sip. Same reaction, same sense of satisfaction, unaware that each other is producing the same sound at different parts of the day:) It’s like “It makes my day!”

I usually add 1 cup of RIBENA concentrate to 1.2 litre of room temperature water and cool it in the fridge.  Then just throw in a few ice cubes before serving and my guys at home will adore me and the RIBENA, of course, for creating a simple and yet thirst quenching and icy cold blackcurrant drinks:)  It is rich in vitamin C but as we know nothing is good if overdosed - so I avoid serving it to our boy everyday in case of the sugar content.

 

For Darren, who tends to develop cough easily, we do not give him the blackcurrant drinks. But he still has his opportunity to have a close fight with Brendan in chewing up the RIBENA blackcurrant sweets in no time. Of course, Papa and mommy will always reserve our share first before it is snatched up:) It seems that, for us, the sweets have this “keep alert effect” (with its sour flavour and sugar)  in maintaining a safe long distance drive when we drove over to Malaysia.

Papa Ed was telling me that he looks forward to enjoying a glass of RIBENA blackcurrant drinks every evening during dinner. Looks like I can work less hard in perfecting my culinary skill because a glass of RIBENA blackcurrant drinks is my secret in luring the hubby home early everyday.

Grin:)