Taipei: Ramen Before My Flight - Day 4

Day 4 meant that it was the last day in Taipei for me on this work trip. Diana, Cyeh, Sophia, and I planned to have lunch around the City Hall area since I was gonna be in that general area for work.

We really didn't know where to go for lunch so we ended up walking around a bit and somehow ended up at at ATT Center once again. Like all shopping centers and department stores in Taiwan, there's a restaurant area on the top floors. We got up there and instantly I was drawn to Sanji 三士 because there was a line forming outside! Sanji turned out to be a ramen shop and I've been craving good ramen for awhile so we decided to wait out the 20 minutes in line!

Sanji 三士

ATT 4 Fun Xinyi Store 5F

12, Songshou Rd, Taipei

ATT信義店5F

台北市信義區松壽路12號

Outside it says that it is Kagoshima-style ramen. Don't really know if Sanji came from Japan or just a ramen shop with Kagoshima-style ramen. Never had Kagoshima-style ramen so I was very excited to try!

You can add $65NT to make your ramen into a combo, so I figured why not. Picked the chasu bowl with Calpico as my drink and they came first!

Chasu Rice. Very big bowl of rice... much bigger than the ones I'm accustomed in the States. Nice flavor on the pork but there should be more :P

I've drank so much Calpico on this trip... yet still not sick of it!

I ordered the Deluxe Ramen 華麗三士拉麵, which was #1 on the menu. Comes with 4 slices of chasu, soft-boiled egg, and a bunch of toppings. Kagoshima-style ramen has a tonkotsu/seafood-based broth with thicker noodles than normal ramen. Soup is very nice although it is a bit salty. I can see why the thicken curvy ramen would be popular since it gives it "Q" and gives it a nice bite!

I think Santouka is still up there for me, especially the one I've had in Japan, but this is definitely one of the better ramen I've had in Taiwan! Over the past 2 years, I've noticed more and more of these specialty ramen shops opening up. Gotta make an effort to visit a few more the next time I am in Taipei.

Great soft-boiled egg. Perfectly cooked.

Chasu. Good mix of fatty and lean parts.

Others' Longma Ramen 龍馬拉麵, which is essentially a simpler version of mine. Less toppings with two slices of chasu and only half an egg.

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Afterwards, said bye to all and went back to work. Of course I stopped by Ten Ren again since it was at ATT but didn't take a picture of it this time. Let's just say... I've had over 10 milk tea in 4 days in Taipei :P

After work, decided to head to this street near the Da An MRT Station and the post office since there's a bunch of food vendors there! Michael Lin's favorite beef noodle soup stand is there as well.

The street with all the food vendors. It's sorta like... a nightmarket except during the daytime! This picture sums up the trip pretty well too. Rained the whole time. I didn't see the sun once the whole time in Taipei haha.

Somehow I always end up at this fry stand, 老K雞排. They also have steamed items here but I always get chicken here. The boss lady is crazy! She can speak English VERY WELL. I ordered in Chinese but when a Philipino lady came up, she was speaking English fluently!

Fried Chicken Steak. Dark meat flattened a little, breaded, they sprinkled with chili powder and white pepper seasoning!

After I finished that, saw an egg cake 雞蛋糕 stand so decided to get that!

Ahhh I miss egg cakes so much. Glad to get it this time around. I actually got a machine so maybe I'll try to make some one day.

Fluffy and doughy.

Before I left for the airport, decided to grab an Assam Milk Tea from 7-11 for the road.

Once again, beef noodle soup from the China Airlines VIP Lounge. Still the best lounge food ever.

Dim sum items: dumplings, glutinous rice balls, xiao long bao, glutinous rice 粽子 (Chinese tamales), and shaomai.

The glutinous rice 粽子 was my favorite out of all.

First time I sat in the China Airlines's new business class! Bigger screen!

Generally food is better on the leg from TPE to LAX... but it was whatevers... food came all at once rather than one course at a time like the LAX - TPE leg.

Thai Curry Fish. Again... didn't care for it.

Very bland looking garlic bread. What happened???

Went with the Chinese-style breakfast cause they had some weird omelette on the menu again.

Side items were better than on this leg! Bean curd & egg pancake.

Pickled cucumber and pork sung. The pork sung in Taiwan is sooooo good. It's the pork or something... so much better.

So this was a loaf of bread that I sneaked back from Taiwan: mango bread from the famous Pasadena Bakery 帕莎蒂娜烘焙坊 in Kaoshiung! The bread was ridiculously good. Sweet Taiwanese mango chunk baked into an artisan loaf of bread. The texture and the aroma when I heated in the oven was amazing.

This is the bread that made the bakery famous: dried logan wine loaf 酒釀桂圓大麵包. A loaf of bread with dried logan and nuts that's made without any eggs and oil. The dough is infused with wine. Amazing aroma with notes of barley! The head baker actually placed in several international events, including first in the Asian competition then 2rd in the world competition!

So I got back on a Wednesday and as soon as I unpacked, I began to pack for New York since I was leaving the next night!

Taipei: Quest For 20 Shots - Day 2

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

Another blue drink but this one had a helium balloon attached to it! I couldn't take a picture of myself doing it but you take the shot, then inhale on the helium ballon! There's a minty feeling as you are inhaling the helium and of course for that split moment your voice changes haha.

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.