bbq anyone?

ever since that teppanyaki dinner at nihon the other day, i was kinda craving for bbq, mainly because i like cooking but hate cleaning up. :D bbqs taste so much better than steamboat, and while there's steamboat buffets everywhere, i found it quite hard to find steamboat + bbqs (for some reason i don't like seoul garden). and then, the smart boy found this. so we went after my lesson on saturday.

we reached about 6pm, so it was still quite empty. they were still preparing the cooked food, but the uncooked ones were ready. variety of food was quite normal - the usual fishballs, veggies, prawns, crabs, mushrooms, marinated meat, fish, clams etc etc. i think we mainly took the prawns, fish (for me), chicken (for him), cuttlefish, and mushrooms? rofl.

it's at balestier, near the famous boon tong kee chicken rice stall, and costs $19.80 nett per adult, which i think is pretty okay if you can eat the expensive stuff. and we chose a table with a fan nearby so it wasn't exactly uncomfortable. probably the downside would be the mosquito bites. i'm super prone to them, so i have like ~5 bites just from one dinner. -_-

but it was fun. will definitely pop by again, though not in the near future. stuffing myself like that is so unhealthy! :)

then after dinner, we cabbed down to his place to get car, and look what was on (outside) it! mad cute baby lizard with tiny tail and 'paws'! :| i tried to scare it off but failed. so SSD drove off with it still clinging on to dear life. it wasn't there anymore when we reached my place. awwwwww.

a little cake my mum prepared for him that night, since his actual birthday was yesterday.

guess how SSD spent his birthday? stay home and game. -_- which was such a waste considering it was a weekend and he had the car. tsk. i'm considering to add 'uncle' when i refer to him in future. how, uncle SSD? :P

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how i spent my birthday :)

so, my birthday this year is over and done with. blogging barely an hour after midnight just shows how pathetic my birthday is this year - nua at home the whole morning/afternoon and then head down to school. by the way, class today was fun though. then SSD showed up outside school. he kinda made it obvious he would be coming, so...not surprised. LOL. can't go anywhere else but home because he wants to go back and download movies while i have class again tomorrow. so yeah, pathetic right? :|

it seems that as i get older, my life gets more boring. no more skipping school and hanging out at macdonalds. no more pubbing and going crazy. no more bbqs and gatherings. so boring!! :(

anyway, SSD bought me an anklet. pretty little dolphins! and noisy bell. no more sneaking up and scaring people now, cos i'm so 'noisy'. lols.

have been wanting one for ages but putting off buying mainly because i've lost all my previous ones. they break and drop off and go missing so easily. let's hope i don't lose this one.

on a side note, SSD has given me a complete set of jewellery now - earrings, necklace, bracelet, ring and now, anklet. i have so many other jewellery not worn for the last 2 years because i don't want to remove what he has given. maybe i'll donate them to flea markets. *shrugs*

school tomorrow. plus steamboat bbq buffet! yay!

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TW day 8: back home :(

as ximending (西門町) was a mere 10-15 mins away, we skipped breakfast at the hotel for mee sua. where else but at 阿宗麵線's? both of us had our hands full so no nice pic. they used pig intestines instead of oysters. SSD cheated me into eating one by saying it was sotong. -_- nevertheless, i'm missing this too. ;)

tried the bestseller from 50嵐, one of taiwan's most popular bubble tea stores. quite normal leh. even the common 珍珠奶茶 from our sweettalk tastes better.

and alas, on the way to the airport and home.

will be back, but...where to next? :)

Taiwan Day 7: 美奇一號.山產文物館.忠烈祠.貔貅藝品館.五分埔.饒河夜市

what better way to start the day with an early morning leisure cruise around the picturesque sun moon lake?

some of the nearby buildings our tourguide mentioned were (i think) -

• the ci en pagoda (慈恩塔) that chiang kai shek (蔣介石) built to commemorate his mother
• wenwu temple (文武廟) dedicated to confucius (孔子) and guan gong (關公)
• xuanzang temple (玄奘寺) that houses the relics (舍利子) of xuanzang (玄奘), better known as tang sanzang (唐三藏)

there is a tiny island in the middle of sun moon lake which belongs to the shao tribe and isn't open to public.

according to legend, the shao tribe once lived on alishan together with another tribe. one day while hunting, one of them spotted a white deer and gave chase. the deer jumped into the lake and disappeared. having discovered the sun moon lake area, the entire shao tribe moved over.

the tiny island is known as lalu island, where priestesses of the shao tribe performs annual rites and rituals. 2 apparently important totems on this island are the white marble deer and wooden/stone (whichever) owl.

zoom fail. lol. interesting right? i wish we had more of such stuff instead of wasting time at 101 and miramar. -_-

on the way down, we stopped at this 'shop' selling local products like lingzhi, royal jelly, honey, and the rare 鹿胎 (deer fetus). not cheap. :( shan't elaborate on what SSD bought, even though he used up majority of our available cash. i bought a 6-month supply of royal jelly! please tell me i'm prettier the next time you see me so i can feel the heartpain is worth it. wanted to buy lingzhi for my grandparents but so expensive! and we don't have enough cash left. probably gonna splurge on my next trip there. lol.

day 7's lunch deserves a little more mention because the restaurant's decoration is special! food first! i think from this trip, we all can see that i enjoy (and is probably better at) taking food photos much more than other kinds. :D this muah chee has a subtle milky taste. and the sweet potato rice. yummy!

a very 'artistic' shot taken by our tourguide. lol photographer phail.

the owner is an artist so the interior and exterior are tastefully done. the art pieces around are also available for sale.

on our way to the next destination, we stopped by the martyrs' shrine (忠烈祠) to see the changing of guards. nothing fantastic imho; they probably simplified it as it was about to rain.

the next destination was pretty special. we were to attend a 'talk' by one of the lecturers/masters from the national palace museum. he's supposedly a very famous master (on tv) but i totally have no idea who he is. oops! anyway, he mainly spoke to us about the pixiu (貔貅). it's used in the olden days by royals for protection, health and wealth (or something like that). he said the common misconception people have is that you need a pair for it to work. on the contrary, pixius used for good are always male. the females ones are mainly used to guard royal tombs (not good).

his students then filed in and they helped us to 算命 just by our names and birthdates. i never used to believe in such stuff but she was amazingly accurate. the attributes she said of me were those that i've learnt about myself over the years. i'm supposedly lacking water so a black pixiu will be able to help me. super tempted to buy! but mad expensive. and not enough cash. *sad face*

gotta make do with a photograph of my pixiu. in which the photographer MAD FAIL! >_<

dinner was at ding tai fung (鼎泰豐) headquarters. and what's DTF without xiao long baos (小籠包)? so yes, i ate pork again. piled lots and lots of ginger and vinegar on it to mask the pork smell. ewwww~ :| the 酸辣 soup was nice, the rest normal. we only had a plate of veggies, a bowl of fried rice, and a few other dumplings. is this even dinner? -_-

back to hotel and out we went. took the 捷運 again, this time to wufenpu (五分埔), a garment wholesale area. it's like bugis street, just a whole lot bigger and more confusing. spent about an hour here. majority of the clothes are weird, but cheap! i managed to get 6 pieces, the cheapest of them only NT100 (~SGD4.35)!! i should probably go back during spring or summer. i have no use for winterwear. -_-

supper was at the nearby raohe street night market (饒河夜市). this was much easier to walk than shilin cos it's basically just one street; go in on one side, u-turn and come out the other. confirm can see all the shops. lol.

my last fried 臭豆腐 of the trip. i'm missing it so so much now! also got another 綜合煎 and tried the famous 'pepper biscuit' (胡椒餅). i had no idea the 'biscuit' was pork-filled and since SSD was full (small-eater or not you tell me!?), i had to eat it. darn disgusting lor. so i, erm, didn't finish it. :|

my loots! the mat is also NT100! and the box of masks from mybeautydiary. should have bought more cos they're the thin transparent ones i like.

last night in taiwan!

jumbo seafood waterfront

yay food post~! :P

took family out for an early birthday dinner at indoor stadium's jumbo. chose this place since it's nearer to my ah gong's place and as an alternative to our usual seafood international. took the set menu for 8 pax even though we had 9 pax. (we got the set menu G @ $328++. different outlets offer different sets at different prices.)

gave us cute little napkins to wear (for chilli crab) in case we dirty ourselves.

jumbo appetizer four - fried youtiao, fried tofu, prawn salad, and some meat salad thingy. everything but the meat is nice. lol. but i was certainly expecting something more expensive than tofu and youtiao. -_-

boiled live prawns. nice and fresh. but they vary in size. and some are small. =\

seafood corn soup. ok this one i got no complaint. it tastes like sharks' fin, especially after adding pepper and vinegar, but i can eat it cos there's no sharks' fin in it! yay! mine had chunks of sotong and crab meat. lovely~

stir fried cuttlefish & broccoli with XO sauce. the veggies are a little hard but the sauce is yummy!

live sea bass steamed with minced garlic. the fish is pathetically small. @_@ but the sauce/garlic is nice and the fish fresh and not overcooked. i likes!

chilli crab. why is it in a claypot? -_- it tastes pretty ok to me, perhaps a little not spicy enough. not really fantastic though.

fried rice with diced chicken & silver bait. they said this was nice, but i find it so-so only. maybe it's because they diced the chicken so small that i can't pick all of them out. why can't they use shrimps or something else? =(

sweet potato sago. we were like "wow!" when it was brought out. perhaps cos it was so pretty. lol. this was refreshing. not too sweet, but yummy. don't have sweet potato taste though. *shrugs*

and last but not least, birthday cake! and guess what? i didn't take photo of the cake! rofl~! it's the lychee martini cake from pine garden that i bought for my dad some years ago. and again, overwhelming lychee taste and no martini. lol. but it's so simple and pink and purple and pretty! :D

overall verdict - i'll probably stick to our usual in future. even though the service is better at jumbo, the food and environment wins hands down (to me) at seafood international. what do you think?

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