Day 2 in Taipei, which was a Monday meant that people had classes or work so after lunch with family, I decided to head out and explore Taipei a little bit. Always been a fan of going to places by myself and exploring Taipei since it's fun to find something new or try something new!
The plan was to do a little exploring then around 7pm, meet up with a few friends for Diana's birthday dinner on her actual birthday since Saturday was just a early celebration.
For breakfast, decided to head to the usual Taiwanese breakfast joint. This time, also got a drink from Ikari Coffee that's in the neighborhood.
Besides the usual fan tuan 飯糰, also got the fried turnip cake 蘿蔔糕! Haven't had good turnip cake in awhile!
Tea Latte from Ikari Coffee. Ikari Coffee is sorta like.. a Japanese Starbucks. Simple black tea with frothed & steamed milk added.
After lunch, decided to head to Xi Men Ding 西門町 since I wanted to try this beef noodle soup place that's getting popular but when I got there, found out they don't open on Mondays!! Definitely frustrated but as I was walking back, saw people waiting in line for Okinawan Grilled Mochi! Decided to check it out!
$25NT per order. One guy grills raw mochi, another flattens it to prevent it from puffing up too much. Flavor is added at the end when it's grilled! Comes in a variety of flavors and separated into sweet & savory. Flavors include condensed milk, cheese, peanut, chocolate, mocha, black sesame, brown sugar, teriyaki, satay teriyaki, spicy thai, and thai curry!
I decided to go with the teriyaki grilled mochi. The teriyaki sauce is very very sweet and not as thick as the teri sauce in the States. Love the texture and the chewiness of the grilled mochi! Nice touch on the seaweed flakes. I really wanted to get another one but didn't want to wait another 15 minutes in line. Moderation is good... :P
Had to get a milk tea to wash it down so got a fresh milk oolong milk tea at one of my favorite milk tea chain, Chin Shin 清新.
I ended up walking around a bit more, went to a few places and by 4:00pm, jet lag was hitting me... HARD. It was weird since it didn't bother me that much so I got off the MRT and headed towards SOGO Department Store, hoping to find a table to rest and saw MOS Burger so decided to grab a burger, hoping it'll keep me up until I meet up with others.
The Yakiniku Pork Rice Burger 燒肉珍珠堡. Still as good as I remembered it!
Oh yea, I also got a green milk tea at Come Buy before I went to SOGO. Very milky.
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I ended up sitting there for about two hours waiting for time to pass and fight the jet lag. Also walked around SOGO a bit but I was too tired, but somehow I was able to last until 7:00pm and met up with others at Fourplay Cuisine, which is this lounge with 2 very very talented bartenders!
Luckily I somehow got through the jet lag and was pretty wide awake when I got there! The cool thing about this lounge is that the drinks have a lot of Asian influence, such as using Asian liquor or food ingredients!
Fourplay Cuisine
21, Lane 270, Dunhua South Rd Section 1, Taipei
台北市敦化南路一段270巷21號
Diana, the birthday girl, decided to start with an aloe drink. Very cool how they add an actual aloe on there!
I didn't know what to get so got an Old Fashioned. For some reason, all the Old Fashioned I've had in Taipei were always muddled. I like it straight more haha.
Christine's Ice Boat. This was one expertly crafted drink: absinthe and Jin Men Gaoliang 金門高粱酒 with a sprig of rosemary. You would think this drink would taste all sorts of nasty but somehow it tasted a little like white chocolate!!
Gaoliang 高粱酒 is a type of liquor that's extremely popular in China & Taiwan. The most popular being from Taiwan's Jin Men 金門, which is a small island off Taiwan, and it is highly sought after by collectors. The older the gaoliang, the higher price it fetches!
Mushroom Pesto Pasta. Of course, since it was dinner time, we had to get some food. Pesto anything is good :P
Thai Fried Chicken Steak. Super crispy skin and a nice sweet & spicy Thai sauce on the side.
Truffled Fries. Truffle flavor not as strong but very nicely fried!
The birthday girl and the free Tiramisu drink! Now that I think about it, the tiramisu drink is perfect since a component of tiramisu is rum and you just have to play with it to make it into a tasty drink with all the right flavors!
Cherry, Blueberry, Pineapple shots. Now... one cool thing about Fourplay is that they are running a promotion where if you can conquer 20 of their specialty shots, you get a "to-go" cup. With the cup, you can order the drink that you'd like and take it home, as well as enjoy a discount on a large drink! Somehow... the night turned into a "let's help Sophia finish the rest of the shots she needs to get the cup!!"
The trio taking the shots!
The bartender asked if we like bitter melon, and we were really confused and a few minutes later he let us try his new creation... bitter melon shots! A little hesitant at first, but wow the shot was good.
Decided to cross 3 more off Sophia's card! Forgot the names of these... but the tastiest was actually the one that looks like a whiskey shot. That one was made with brandy and others then served with a slice of orange. Very smooth.
They also have these weird drinks named after drugs,so we decided to get a few.
First up, Ketamine. Yup. They torch it just like how you would ingest the real deal ahah.
On fire!
The shot is served with a sugared orange/lime slice combo. I don't know what's in the shot, but there's probably absinthe... and it is stronggg.
Sugar "imitating" something... haha.
Cocaine. Now this shot was intense. Obviously made with some sort of brown liquor or maybe it is just bouron straight up, but they light it up, dust it with cinnamon powder, cover it with a glass that was a thing paper film. After the fire goes out, you take the shot and feel the warmness going down, then you take a straw and break through the paper to inhale to cinnamon sugar flavored alcohol fumes trapped in the glass! You feel the alcohol prettyyyy fast.
Forgot what this was... but blue drinks are always a bad idea :P
That was the last that I took and I definitely didn't want more since I still had to go home to relatives. Fun and laidback lounge. We only had 5 more shots left to go before we filled up Sophia's card, so we all decided that we would come back the next day :P
On the way home, I wanted something to help sober up, so went to 85C Bakery and bought a milk tea! I love how the 85C in Taiwan opens so late.
Also got a bit hungry so headed towards Yong Ning 永寧 Nightmarket near my aunt's for some grilled fried chicken steak. It's a fried chicken steak, then grilled and they glaze the sauce usually used for grilled squid! Awesome way to end the night!
Day 3 was when work starts. Boo.
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