Taipei Eats: Fu Yu Wu Sanuki Udon, Zhongxiao Fuxing

It may be weird but it is actually a good idea to try out Japanese restaurants when you are travelling to Taipei. This is because: (1) the quality is there and (2) the cost is cheaper compared to the price tag in Japan for the same food. So, trying out this concept, my friend and I ventured out to Zhongxiao Fuxing area to try out Japanese Sanuki Udon. 

The restaurant is called Fu Wu Yu. First glance to the menu, we knew it immediately that our food will at least look pretty, albeit the taste. For the appetiser, we chose tofu salad. Looks healthy indeed due to the lack of sauce used in the appetiser. 

One of the unique dish that you can try at Fu Yu Wu Sanuki Udon is the Cold Tomato Udon. This may pose a problem if you don't really like the beansprout-like veggie called alfalfa though. Cause the chef put so many of them on top of the tomato udon. XD

As I don't really like cold noodle, I order the dish from the hot udon menu. Here comes my tempura udon. Whoa, looks at the quantity of bonito flakes put on my udon. I'm loving the look of it already. 

Closer look at the udon. It taste more on the mushy side. If you like your udon more on the al-dente side, you should go for the cold udon. 

The full address of Fu Yu Wu Sanuki Udon:

FU YU WU SANUKI UDON 

富玉屋 讚歧烏龍麵 

No. 14, Lane 83, DaAn Rd, Sec. 1 

大安區大安路一段83巷14號 

(02)2778-5255

MRT: ZhongXiao Fuxing

Singapore Cafe: Just the Usual Eggs Ben at D'Good Cafe, Holland Village

I am officially an Eggs Benedict addict because it seems that most of the time my friend brought me to a cafe, 99% I will end up ordering a plate of Eggs Benedict. #hopelesscase

And the same is happening here, in D'Good Cafe at Holland Village. 

The cafe is already packed even though we reached the place quite early around 5+ on a Saturday afternoon. I quite like the birds stickers. I prefer them to the real birds. Real birds flying inside a cafe will be considered chaotic, no? XD 

While waiting for my Eggs Ben, I ordered a cup of iced mocha. Slurp. Taste okay. Nothing special about it. Hahaha.

Here comes my Eggs Ben. Presentation wise, I guess they look okay. The eggs are perfectly poached so they are good. The English muffin is toasted. Bacon is perfectly fried. Salad-wise, you can ignore them really. Okay, I'm quite happy with the Eggs Ben from D'Good Cafe. 

After finishing the Eggs Benedict, my friend and I shared a slice of D'Good Triple Cheesecake. The waiter told us that the Triple Cheesecake is one of the trademark cakes sold in D'Good Cafe. The other one being D'Good Maple Sea Salt Cheesecake. Cake tastes okay. 

You can consider coming to D'Good Cafe when you are in Holland Village's vicinity. The cafe is cozy enough to have a few hours girl's talk. =)

Hong Kong Travel: Disney Characters' Meet and Greet

If you are a fan of Disney's characters, you will probably go head over heels to take pictures with them. The longest queue when we visited Hong Kong Disneyland is not a queue for a ride. It is, in fact, a queue to take picture with Mickey and Minnie Mouse as a pair. Wow. Mickey and Minnie come quite early in the morning. I think it's around the park opening time. So if you want to catch them early, you can start running for the queue when the park opens. 

As for us, we started our meet and greet tour in the afternoon around 5 or 6PM-ish when we had no more rides to try. We managed to take pictures with Winnie the Pooh. 

With Goofy, who's wearing Chinese long shirt. I think this picture will make a good Chinese New Year picture. LOL.

With Mickey Mouse in tux. 

And last but not least, with Minnie Mouse in her trademark red polka dot dress. 

My friend who visited Hong Kong Disneyland this year told me that you can take picture with Anna and Elsa from Frozen too. But be prepared to queue for a while as a lot of little girls are sharing the same interest with you. Hahaha. 

I have to admit, Anna and Elsa are still the most popular Disney icons since December. 

Bali Travel: Stepping Foot on Pura Tanah Lot

I don't know why but my last few trips to Pura Tanah Lot did not allow me to see the temple on its low-tide moment. Why is this so important? The thing is, if you visit Pura Tanah Lot on a high-tide, you won't be able to cross over the hidden path to make it there. 

But today, it looks like a low-tide indeed. Yeah!

The whole area looks different in a low-tide setting. 

If you visit Pura Tanah Lot on a low-tide, there is usually a religious ceremony performed there. So you may be able to catch the ceremony too. They usually starts at Pura Tanah Lot. 

And ends near the ocean. 

The low-tide usually happens in the afternoon or evening. So do visit Pura Tanah Lot on those timings. I guess I seldom catch it because it happened that I visited Pura Tanah Lot in the morning. 

Singapore Eats: &SONS, a Venetian bacaro bar in Central Business District

There are more and more restaurant cum bar sprung up at Far East Square in Telok Ayer area. &SONS is one of the popular one. The concept behind &SONS is a funky and hip bar in the middle of dull CBD. Since it's located quite accessible from my office, I frequent this restaurant quite often with a different set of people. Here are some of its lunch-time menu:

1. Seafood Marinara Pasta

This one is not bad as it does have a chunk of seafood items like fishes, prawns and that one mussel. The portion of the pasta is quite big and thus, make this a heavy lunch dish. Great dish to fill your hungry tummy if you feel ravenous. 

2. Carbonara Pasta

The carbonara, on the other hand, is way too dry and too salty. I was quite surprised &SONS choose to offer dryer version of carbonara. As far as I know the locals are known for its preference to anything creamy. Too dry, too salty, definitely not my favorite in &SONS.

3. Grilled salmon on mash potato

I love this dish. Despite the oil-looking thingy (which I assume is the fish oil), the salmon taste great, albeit slightly overcooked. The sauce and the mash potato taste yummy too. My favorite in &SONS so far. 

4. Pork Schnitzel

A schnitzel is basically a flattened meat which is deep fried in flour and baked crumbs. Although it is slightly tough to cut this, the taste of the pork schnitzel is not bad at all. I would love it more if the meat is not that tough. Should they make it a chicken schnitzel instead? #justsaying

5. Rigatoni Bolognaise

I've heard so much raving on this particular dish but unfortunately, it taste so so and the portion is too humongous for one lady to finish. My friends mentioned that the quality and taste of &SONS' rigatoni bolognaise have deteriorating over time. Not sure why and what cause this. =(

The lunch menu costs from S$10.00 to S$13.90. It is recommended to come early as &SONS can get pretty crowded at peak lunch hour.

Singapore Eats: Viet Express, Authentic Vietnamese Restaurant in Far East Square

Running out of option to lunch? How about having some Vietnam food today if you happen to work near Far East Square? If you are indeed in the mood for some Viet noodle, let's haste to Viet Express!

Viet Express has been around for really long time in Far East Square, compared to its neighbours who keep on changing. The restaurant is pretty big too and hence, getting a table is not really difficult here.

There is a set menu available at the cost of S$20+. Since the price for a set menu is pretty steep for my wallet appetite, I gave it a miss and went for an ala carte option instead. 

I ordered the dry Vietnamese noodle served with fried meatball and fried spring roll. It taste pretty good and crunchy. I love the sauce of the noodle too. If I'm not wrong, the dish cost S$12.00. Yeah, I know, not a cheap lunch dish. XD

One last view from the top before devouring the dry noodle. Nom nom nom nom. 

Do note as most of the seats are al fresco, it may get pretty hot when the afternoon sun shines. 

Bali Travel: A Serene Morning at Bali Garden Beach Resort, Kuta

Nothing beats an awesome morning near the ocean. And since we were staying at a nice resort in Kuta, Bali Garden Beach Resort, we decided to take a walk before enjoying our breakfast. The morning was pretty quiet. As you can see in the picture, there is only one man relaxing under the umbrella beach at the moment. 

On the other side of the beach resort, there is a lotus pond with a Balinese statue in the middle of the pond. 

We were suddenly struck by a pang of hunger so we moved forward to the breakfast area. You can choose to sit al fresco under the greens.

Or inside, which somehow..looks like it is surrounded by greens too. We settled down indoor because we were kinda scared by insects. Hahaha.

There's no rule you can't have a sorbet in the morning, right? =)

Bali Travel: House on a Rice Field, Ubud

I've always loved Ubud for its rice field view. That what makes Bali so special. Beaches, rice fields, mountains, Bali has them all. 

There is this old advert that I used to see when I was watching my cartoon last time on telly. The advert shows that people watch telly from a house which is built in the middle of the rice field. 

Okay, calling it a house is basically an overstatement as it was more like a Indonesian rendition of gazebo which is used by the farmers to take a break from farming on a lunch time. Their wives will bring food for them to eat and they will together with their family in the house. 

The telly always makes me and my friends wonder actually. How on earth does the people manage to watch telly from a wooden house which has no electricity? Hahaha. #thepowerofadvert

Taiwan Food: Taiwan's 7-11 Ready to Eat Meal Box

One thing that I love about Taiwan is its 7-11 stores. Taiwan has the best 7-11 stores, even better than Japan's I must say. For instance, its variety of the ready-to-eat meal boxes is really extensive. 7-11 stores in Taiwan change the taste that they sell for ready-to-eat meal boxes at regular interval. No wonder the Taiwanese can go to 7-11 on a daily basis. 

Today, I am trying the briyani rice with mushroom sauce chicken. I assume it's briyani because it looks yellow. Hahaha. 

The product looks like this after a few seconds inside the microwave. I guess more or less it looks the same as how it looks like on the cover. Hahaha. 

Taste-wise? Not bad at all. Price-wise? I can accept it at 65 NTD. 

A good student-meal deal. LOL.

Taiwan Cafe: Colourful Macarons at Tartine Bakery, Zhongxiao Fuxing

It was the evening before typhoon and as what the rest of the Taiwan people doing, I am busy roaming the city to stock for food. Since I'm done with my basic food necessities (a.k.a. breads, water, and a couple of instant noodles), I am now wandering around Zhongxiao Fuxing area to find something...sweeter. Here we come, Tartine Bakery.

Tartine Bakery is famous for its macarons. Once you stepped into the cafe, you will be welcomed with a display of various kind of macarons. 

Here are some of the macarons offered by Tartine Bakery. Don't they look very tempting? I had a difficult time deciding. 

I dunno why but I ended up with three kinds of greens. Now, my mother can't nag about me not eating my greens. Although I'm pretty sure she never imagines green macarons. 

Why did I choose all greens? Actually I go by the taste. The first one is Strawberry Kiwi. The second one is Melon. While the third one is Salted Butter Popcorn. The taste sounds very out-of-the-world, right? 

Okay, with those three in the bag, my preparation for a typhoon day is now completed. Woot!

Hong Kong Travel: It's a Small World After All at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

I don't know if I'm weird but my favorite ride at Hong Kong Disneyland is the doll-watching ride called It's A Small World. And the thing is, all Disneyland around the world has this ride. So there must be a reason for this ride, right? 

It is basically an indoor boat cruise attraction. So all you need to do is sit on the boat and enjoy the view and the song as your boat is carried on a journey around the world. 

Walt Disney himself named this ride "the happiest cruise that ever sailed". I kinda got the feeling too when I rode this attraction. 

During the ride, you can see children doll (not in a horror way I'm grateful for it) moving and dancing to the background songs, depend on which country they are from. This is really clever concept as whoever ride this attraction, no matter where they come from, will feel so welcomed here. 

The main OST called "It's A Small World" is the only song which never copyrighted by Disney. So that the world can just use the song anywhere. This request has been personally made by UNICEF. 

If there's a Disneyland in Singapore, I suppose I will just go there whenever I feel sad. After all, it is the happiest cruise that ever sailed around the world. =)