Taipei: AYCE Thai! - Sat 3/19

Unfortunately on the 2nd day of my stay in Taipei, I didn't get to go out of the convention hall as much. After all, I did come here for work, which meant I was there approximately 8 hours talking, networking, meeting with suppliers. Heck... I even skipped lunch due to meetings and all that... "fun" stuff haha.

However, I did get to meet up with a few friends, Hubert and Tina, for dinner, and to catch up with the two after not seeing them for almost 2 years. Crazy how fast time goes by.

Gotta have a good breakfast to start the day off right! Decided to go to Brother Hotel's bakery 兄弟飯店 麵包房, which is across the street from Nan Jing East Rd MRT station. Also went to 7-11, for some tea egg and the milk coffee. 7-11 in Taiwan really is the most convenient thing ever.

Decided to get a bread that is stuffed with pork sung, tuna, and ham. Crazy combination right?? It's even shaped to look like the scales of a fish! I love Taiwanese people and the magic they perform on bread.

Who knew the combination of pork sung, tuna, and ham would taste so damn good. There's a little bit of clear sweet mayo to help moisten the inside but the bread itself is fluffy, yet firm to the bite.

Tea egg from 7-11! Glad to say it still taste great, but sad now it is $8NT. I remember when it was only $5NT!

Proof that I was actually working XD

After another day at the convention center, met up with Hubert & Tina at Sun Yat Sen Memorial MRT station and decided to have some AYCE Thai at Tai Fu Hao 泰富豪 (7:30pm). For $480NTD, roughly around $16USD, you can order anything off the menu, as many times as you want! It has a salad bar as well.

Unlimited iced Thai milk tea.

Having curry at a Thai restaurant is almost a must, so we got the Chicken with Red Curry. Didn't get the bamboo shoots in red curry but it's tasty with the tender pieces of chicken.

Saw they had big bottles of Taiwan Beer Gold Medal for only $100 NTD (~$3). We had to do it.

辣子雞 fried chicken in spicy sauce. Even though it's suppose to be spicy, it has a lot of citrus flavor that complements the spiciness. Lots of garlic and other aromatics. This is absolutely one of my favorite dish when eating Thai food in Taiwan, so it's a must every time.

蝦醬空心菜 on-choy with shrimp paste. Don't know what shrimp paste is? Well, I don't know what the ingredients are but there's shrimp, it's briny, and it's good :P And really, I'm just a sucker for on-choy, aka water spinach (what a lame name).

炸豆腐 fried tofu. With the same sauce as the fried chicken.

蝦餅 shrimp cake. Fried shrimp cake is a staple for all Thai meals in Taiwan.

檸檬魚 steamed fish in lemon dressing. Every Thai restaurant will make it with a different kind of fish, but it really doesn't matter as long as it is fresh and from the ocean so it doesn't have the freshwater fish taste. It's best when it is the whole fish like that too! The star is definitely the sauce/dressing. Lemony, tart, refreshing, and addicting. You just can't stop eating it. I love pouring the dressing over my rice!

Tom Yum soup. Same as everywhere except with a little seafood! Got a little kick.

Beef in curry sauce. Probably my least favorite. The beef tasted a bit weird. Probably pounded the hell out of it too much and added too much baking soda to try to make it tender.

After dinner (9:30pm), walked over to Hubert's store Yogurt Art to sample his new flavors!

Original tart and GRAPEFRUIT tart. Oh man that grapefruit tart is... tart! The tartness from the first taste actually surprised me. Hubert said that customers have been wanting a really tart flavor so he developed the grapefruit flavor. Can't say enough about how awesome it is, since I love tart yogurt. Check it out, they have 3 Yogurt Art locations in/around Taipei now!

To be honest, I quite like the idea of an AYCE Thai place, that's not a buffet. Yes, the dishes are small, and it does take a long time sometimes for them to make a certain dish but it is just better to get food cooked to order, rather than it sitting under a heat lamp or a water buffet heater!

As I'm On the Way Back

The Hunan restaurant marked the end of my trip as I prepared myself for the trip back home the night before. Just getting back is an adventure all by itself. First, since Huizhou is fairly deep in Guangdong Province, we had to ride for about 2 hours just to get to Shenzheng. From there, cross the border through "buses." The buses are essentially small vans for about 4-6 people and you sit in the van while you get checked by customs, both Chinese and HK. It's pretty convenient since by foot it'll probably take forever. Not exactly cheap though at 300rmb. After you cross, the van takes you directly to HK Airport so it's a convenient way of traveling in and out of mainland through HK. It took about 4-5 hours after lunch for the whole process.

Of course, from HK, had to fly to Taipei, and then back to LAX. Never really have much time to really sit and eat since you're always on the move, but luckily I was able to join others in the VIP lounge (they flew business while I flew economy back :P).

Before I found out I got food poisoning from the night before, decided to go to KFC for breakfast. KFC is everywhere in China, and most are open 24/7!

No breakfast burrito or sausage & biscuit here. Instead you can get, breakfast chicken sandwich!

So what makes it a breakfast chicken patty? I guess they add veggies to it haha.

You can even get 油條 Chinese donut at KFC!

In HK Airport they got this cool model of an old school plane.

Was lucky enough to be able to go into the 1st VIP lounge for China Airline so took advantage of it. I actually still had food posioning... but once in a lifetime chance to eat in the 1st class lounge! Ordered me some fried rice! It's made fresh for you in the back.

茶葉蛋 Tea eggs! I heart tea eggs.

Good dark colors on the egg.

Even dark colors on the yolk means that the flavors have been fully absorbed :]

糯米雞 Sticky rice chicken. It's actually really really legit and delicious here!

Wanted something sweet so got an almond croissant, jelly donut, and oranges.

It's actually pear preserves inside the donut!

In-flight meal provided from HK to Taipei. I didn't eat much... since my stomach was starting to hurt again. Boo.

Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport has come a loooong way compared to a few years ago.

1st Class VIP lounge in Taiwan. HK's had the exact same decor.

Of course had to get more beef noodle soup. My stomach was hurting for the whole flight after I ate this but it was worth it.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a picture of what China Airline served on the flight back to LAX. It's actually really good too since now China Airline works with 鬍鬚張 Beard Chang to incorporate 魯肉飯 minced pork rice into their menu now.

In the end, this trip to the Far East, I definitely got to try a lot more newer things. Just sucks that I had food poisoning towards the end. Hopefully more trips to come in the future that I can take advantage of. There's more to be eaten out there!

Taiwan: Here and There

Here are some of the random food/snacks/drinks I had around Taipei. There's something good everywhere haha. The best is just walking around Taipei and eating whatever you see :]

Popcorn chicken from 遼寧街夜市, just around the corner from my aunt's place!

So... apparently this place got first place in the annual contest for 魯肉飯. I gotta admit, it's pretty damn good. You can tell they used a lot of the 油蔥 (fried onion).

Goose meat from 鵝肉城. Looks plain but it's actually flavored. Amazing.

Oolong Milktea from 清心褔. Oolong milktea is similar to Jasmin milktea except it has a more robust flavor. It's now my favorite place to get milkteas and boba drinks. I hope they didn't use the poisonous milk from China cause I pretty much had one every day hahaha.

雞蛋糕 is pretty much pancake batter poured into a mold the shape of eggs. Plain and simple but I used to eat this as a kid all the time.

潮州胡椒餅 Chaozhou Peppered pork buns. The outside is flaky and crunchy but I still like the ones near 永康街 better.

Main ingredients: pork, green onions, salt, and a lot of pepper.

Tea eggs. Enough said :]

Beautiful!

Stinky tofu from the street vendor right around the corner from my grandma's place. This old lady there has been selling stinky tofu there since... as long as I can remember. She makes the best Chinese kimchi too. They way she mixes all the seasonings and the sauces together with the kimchi is just amazing haha.

Oolong milktea from 五十嵐, my 2nd favorite milktea spot.

蛋餅包油條 egg pancake wrapped chinese donut. Yea, not exactly the healthiest thing to eat for breakfast... but meeeeh. It's good, yay for traditional Chinese breakfast hahah :D

黑松沙士 and Assam Black Tea. Two of my favorite kids when I was a kid. 黑松沙士 is a sarsaparilla drink, kinda tastes like Dr. Pepper and root beer.

黑糖竽圓刨冰 Brown sugar taro balls shaved ice from 鮮竽仙. All 鮮竽仙 sells is traditional Taiwanese dessert items, like shaved ice, and grass jelly drinks etc.

Coffee bread from Baker's Boy. I saw people waiting in line for it so I had to do it too haha. It's only good when it's right out of the oven (which is always since they sell out so fast) and the smell is just amazing when it does. Not bad but too expensive for bread in Taiwan (30NT).

I miss Taiwan :[