Bangkok Food ~ Black Glutinous Rice with Pork + Egg Yolk

When the first time CL gave me this, I told her I've tried this kuih before. I thought it's the malay kuih where you can find coconut/peanut inside. I only realized it's not the malay kuih which I thought it was when she told me her mum bought this from Hat Yai, Thailand. She said it's glutinous rice with pork and egg yolk in it.

The next day, she brought another one for me. She told me this is the same like the one she brought yesterday except this is black glutinous rice (黑糯米).

See, looks exactly like the malay kuih here right?

Black glutinous rice (黑糯米)

pork and egg yolk

According to CL, her mum bought a lot back and keep it in the freezer. It is best to eat it while it's still hot (steam). Although it's already cold when I tried it but it still taste good!! The rice blends well with the pork and egg yolk. Yummy!! Remember to try this ya, if you visit Hat Yai, Thailand next time.

Hong Ma Sour Plum Soup (洪妈酸梅汤)

I read from a few travel to Taiwan forums and quite a number of forumers recommended Hong Ma Sour Plum Soup (洪妈酸梅汤). They said must try this if we visit DanShui (淡水). Is this really good? Let's find out!!

Hong Ma Sour Plum Soup (洪妈酸梅汤)

Besides sour plum soup,
you can get sour plum and some other tidbits here too.
All quite pricey lar..

Maybe becos it's famous or maybe becos the business is good, this guy is soooo rude! We were standing right in front of him and yet he treat us like invisible. He some more walked away from us...He probably thought we just planned to stand in front of his shop and stare at the drinks.

nt 30 (RM 3.50) for this.
It's quite nice lar,
sweet sweet and sour sour...

Ah Gei (阿給) at DanShui, Taiwan (淡水)

When we were at the DanShui (淡水商店街), we saw a lot of shops selling Ah Gei (阿給). It seems like DanShui is famous of Ah Gei, Fish Ball and Pork Bun. Why I said that? Cos most of the shops selling these 3 types of food.

What is Ah Gei? We both don't know, we've never try it, never even heard about it. After seeing a few shops selling Ah Gei, we decided to try it at this shop.

this shop consider quite big, consists of 3 shops, and got quite a lot of ppl too.. Most of the ppl sitting at the back, so you can't see it in this photo.

We wanted to try Ah Gei (阿給) but since they only sell 3 items in the shop, we decided to order everything on the menu. hehe..

Pork Bun (招牌肉包)
nt 10 (RM 1.20)

erm, it's not very nice lor.
nothing special..

Fish Ball Soup (鱼丸汤)
nt 30 (RM 3.50)

our fish ball here taste better lar..

Ah Gei (阿給)
nt 30 (RM 3.50)

So what is Ah Gei? It's taufu with sauce, and you will find glass noodle (冬粉) inside the taufu. I think it's quite nice but FL said it's not nice. hehe, different ppl different taste, but I think it's worth to try lar. At least now when ppl mentioned Ah Gei, I know what it is and I know how it taste, right?

Nine Dragon Steamboat (九龙小火锅)

When we were back to the Shilin Station(士林站) from National Palace Museum (国立故宫博物院), we were attracted by the banner in front of a steamboat shop.

The steamboat looks good, don't you think so?
and price is cheap too!!

This shop is situated just beside the entrance of the Shilin MRT station. It was only 1pm and we were not really hungry but the picture of the banner is luring us towards that shop. Besides the banner, the price also attracted us. Since it's lunch hour and I wanted to try the spicy 'ma lak' steamboat, we decided to have our lunch here.

Nine Dragon Steamboat (九龙小火锅)

Menu

It was lunch hour and the shop is full of ppl, there were only 2 empty tables left. As soon as we were brought to our seats, another couple took the other empty table. All the tables were fully occupied!

Hmm, what shall we eat? All looks nice and yummy! On the menu you can see they have pork, beef, mutton, seafood, kimchi + tofu, fish, vege and Taiwan style spicy 'ma lak' steamboat. Finally FL decided to try the pork steamboat(猪肉锅) where else for me, of cos I want something hot and spicy.. I took the 'ma lak'(台式麻辣锅) steamboat.

Besides ordering the steamboat, you can also add extra stuff to your steamboat such as pork, beef, fish ball, tofu, duck blood (yierrrr..), mushroom and many many more.

I told FL if the 'ma lak' steamboat is nice, then we shall go for the proper a.k.a more expensive steamboat shop to try their 'ma lak' steamboat..hehe... After they've taken our orders, they asked us to go get the sauce and drinks ourselves..

drinks and sauce corner
(饮料和酱料区)

This is the place where you get drinks and all the sauce you need, chili sauce, sambal, belacan, soy sauce and etc. They only served one drink..

winter melon tea (冬瓜茶)
surprisingly, it taste good!

chili sauce, belacan, sambal..
there were a lot of different sauces, we only took 3..

Pork Steamboat (九龙猪肉锅)
nt 100 (RM 11.80)
a lot of pork, vege, egg, tofu and duck blood..
i did not try the duck blood but FL said it's
actually tasteless..

Taiwan Style Spicy ('ma la') Steamboat (台式麻辣锅)
nt 120 (RM 14.10)
mine is more expensive but the ingredients
seems cheaper.. fish ball lar, vege, tofu,
got duck blood too... i dare not try lar..

Rice

Between the two steamboat we tried, we both prefer the pork than the spicy 'ma lak' steamboat. Although I love spicy food, but I'm not really used to their chili. It has a weird taste..Don't get me wrong, it's quite spicy, but it's just not my type of 'hot'. hehe...

Winter eat steamboat.. syok lar!! I don't have much complaint about the food, well, I think it's consider quite ok with the price like this. Don't you think so?

Siu Long Bao and Egg Biscuit for breakfast (上海小笼包和蛋饼)

We wanted to have something different for our breakfast on the 2nd day of our Taiwan trip. There are a few small shops selling breakfast opposite our hotel but only this shop allows dine in. So we picked this shop..

It's a very small shop with only 3 tables.

Their menu
Sandwiches.. Burgers...Egg Biscuits (蛋饼)

Drinks and Shanghai Siu Long Bao (上海小笼包)

They have all kinds of sandwiches and burgers. Besides that, they have something which we don't have here, egg biscuit. What's that? Let's find out...Besides all these, they also have Shanghai 'siu long bao' and 'shui gao'..yummy yummy...so many things to eat..

They don't have any hot drinks, only warm or cold. So I ordered a cup of warm coffee and FL ordered warm tea.

Coffee with milk (咖啡牛奶)
nt 35 (RM 4.10)

Tea with sugar (红茶)
nt 15 (RM 1.80)

The coffee taste really bad. It's like coffee mix with butter. The tea taste better, but both also not nice lar..

Burger with bacon + egg (培根堡加蛋)
nt 30 (RM 3.50)

hmmm....smells sooooo good
taste good, the bread is soft and fresh, bacon taste great!

Ham egg biscuit (火腿蛋饼)
nt 25 (RM 2.90)

Sorry for the direct translation, hehe, not sure what this called in english. The egg biscuit is actually fried egg with flour and wrap with ham. Besides ham, you can choose to wrap with cheese, bacon, meat floss, fish and hotdog. It's actually quite tasty, something different. We both like it very much.

Shanghai Siu Long Bao (上海小笼包)
nt 50 (RM 5.90)

This is the cheapest siu long bao I've ever had. RM 5.90 for 7? damn cheap right? It taste great too. We are ready and full of energy to start our journey after the yummy and satisfying breakfast!

Shilin's Hot Star (士林豪大大)

It was 9pm+ after dinner. We do not want to go back to our hotel that early, therefore we decided to go walk walk at the Taipei Main Station underground shops. There are a lot of shops down there, selling bags, clothes, accessories, food, all kinds of things.

Then we saw this...

Shilin's Hot Star (士林豪大大)

Isn't this the famous XXL chicken from Shilin night market? We will go to Shilin market in a day or two and we shall try the XXL chicken when we're there. Let's try something else here...

Tempura 甜不辣, nt 30 (RM 3.5)

I never try this before although
we can get this in Malaysia.
It's nice! I like it!

Fried fish (forgot the name. hehe..) nt 35 (RM 4.10)

not bad also lar..

Hmm, very looking forward to try the XXL chicken at the main branch in Shilin night market after trying their snacks... When are we going to Shilin?

Rare coin as a birthday gift

I was curious when I saw David researching for rare coins. I never heard him mentioned before that he is a collector. He also never shows any interest in these coins before, how come suddenly he is so interested?

When I asked him about this, he told me he is researching for his father, not him. His father is a collector and had been collecting rare coin for many many years. That is why he hopes to get a rare coin as a birthday gift for his father. He's pretty sure his father will be thrilled when he saw the gift.

Bak Ku Teh Klang Yip Yong (吧生叶荣（干）肉骨茶) @ Aman Puri Kepong

A colleague of mine introduce me to this shop, he said this shop's dry bak kut teh is very special and nice. Totally different than others. Although I prefer the wet bak kut teh than the dry one, I still think it's worth to try since he said until so special. hehe...

The shop is located at Aman Puri, Kepong, somewhere near the "big prawn". I was there on a weekday at around 8pm, business consider quite good.

Bak Ku Teh Klang Yip Yong (吧生叶荣（干）肉骨茶)

Wet Bak kut teh for one person
this is just normal, nothing special..

Dry bak kut teh for one person

Sorry about the picture. hehe.. Their dry bak kut teh is soooo black until i can't really differentiate what i'm eating. is that chili? or meat? I really don't know. But it's really quite nice and different from others.

Vege..

If i'm not mistaken, the total of our bill adds up to RM 29+. Their food overall is ok, but if you like dry bak kut teh, you should definitely come try it, it's really nice! But if you prefer the wet one, you can skip this shop..hehe...

RM 1? What to eat? How about a plate of chicken? (一蚊鸡， 咪走鸡)

You are in a shopping mall and you only have RM 1 in your pocket. And...you're hungry. With RM 1, what can you eat? Fast food? No, you need RM 5+, bread? Bread story's bread costs more than Rm 1 each..hehe...

Thanks to Dragon-i, with RM 1, you can have this....

Oh wait..., before you stepped in to the restaurant, make sure you find another 2 person to dine with you to entitle for this RM 1 chicken. Offer till end of April, so....mai zao gai (咪走鸡) lar...

Cosmetology Schools, here I come!

Susan's daughter told Susan that she do not want to further her studies in college. She hope she can study in one of the cosmetology schools in houston. At first, Susan disagreed with her daughter's choice but after discussing the matter with her husband, they both feel that it is important to let their daughter to do what she is interested in. They want their daughter to be happy and to success next time.

There is really nothing to worry. There are more and more parents sending their children to cosmetology schools. Bright future awaiting for them, so stop worrying my friend, everything will be just fine.

My very first bowl of Taiwan's Famous Beef Noodle (千月小吃 )

What is the must try food in Taiwan? What is the first thing that comes across your mind? I'm not sure about you, but me, the first thing that I can think of is the famous beef noodle (牛肉面). Since I'm in Taiwan, I must not miss the chance to try their beef noodle. I'm not sure which shop sells the best beef noodle in Taiwan but their beef noodle at any shop will be nicer than ours gua...since the beef noodle is "their thing"..

If you can still remember, FL and I were out since early morning and we didn't even have our lunch (no, we're not on diet, it's just that we had too many snacks and we're not hungry at all!). It was already 9pm when we finally back (from Xi Men Ting (西门町))to where we stay. We were too tired to go find food therefore we decided to simply pick a shop opposite our hotel to have our dinner.

here we go, the lucky winner..is this shop!! hehe...
It's a very small shop with only 4-5 tables.

Let's see what to eat...

oo, seems like every shop in Taiwan served this chili sauce. it's nice!

After checking their menu, FL decided to have rice. He said it has been quite some time since he last ate rice. hehe.. actually he didn't get to eat rice for the whole day only lar..

FL's Beef Fried Rice(牛肉炒饭)
nt 80 (RM 9.40)

My Beef Noodle (牛肉面)
nt 80 (RM 9.40)

The beef fried rice is nice but the beef noodle taste better! The noodle is nice (i think is hand made, all their noodle are very nice, if you got the chance, make sure you try their noodle), the beef is nice (it melts when you put into your mouth) and the soup..ahhh.. is superb! I can still remember the taste after so long!! It is definitely better than all the beef noodle that i've tried here.

It was a really satisfying meal!!!

Coffee @ Xi Men Ting (西门町-半岛咖啡)

After a day visiting places in Taiwan, we realized that, Taiwanese prefer take away than dine in. Why we said that? Well, most of the restaurants only provide take away, they did not provide any seats for customers to dine in!

When we were at Xi Men Ting (西门町), we tried to find a place to sit but it seems like all the snacks we had were meant for take away (except those fancy restaurant where you had your meal, but we were too full after trying so many different snacks). After a few hours walking, we found this little shop which provide 2 small tables and a few chairs for their customers to sit and enjoy their coffee...

We don't really feel like drinking coffee but since this is the only shop that provides seats, we suddenly have the urge to drink coffee.. hehe...

PenLand at Xi Men Ting
半岛咖啡 @ 西门町

the menu + price list

Latte & Pearl Bubble Tea
nt 65 (RM 7.6)

FINALLY!! A place to sit and rest!! Our legs were soooooo tired!!!! How's the coffee? Seriously? I don't remember. hehe... I can only remember I'm tired, my legs sore and the reason we choose to have coffee here is becos of the tables and chairs they provide!! :p