Taiwan Instagrammable Food: Hello Burger, Taipei

 When I first stumbled into a snipped of these cute buns from Insta, I thought this is a re-creation of Domo-kun, a famous Japanese character. But surprisingly, this cute burger creation actually comes from Taiwan. Oh what? Is that a burger? I would have thought it’s some kind of dessert because the colorful cube stuff which forms the “teeth” of the burger gotta be something sweet, right? I suppose everything is possible when you are creative, just like the Taiwanese. 

 

After further research, the cute burgers are actually sold by Hello Burger, a burger joint located in Shin Kong Mitsukoshi at Xinyi, Taipei. Shin Kong Mitsukoshi is one of the shopping malls in Xinyi area and I think the easiest way to reach Shin Kong Mitsukoshi is by either taking the train to Taipei City Hall MRT or Taipei 101 MRT station and then follow the direction to go to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (google map will help a lot). It is at level B2 of the shopping mall. You will find out you are the right place when you see the friendly burger in blue saying Hello. 

 

Hello Burger’s menu is simply a math equation. You start by choosing the bun for your burger (oh wow, bamboo charcoal bun looks interesting although it’s gonna be black) and then proceed to choose the topping based on your taste preference. If you like it salty, it will become a savory burger like fried chicken burger (110 NTD). Oh boy, fried chicken with sauce, now you’re talking. It looks pretty yummy. But I personally think that the more interesting choice is gotta be the sweet burger which is filled with ice cream cubes. All the ice cream selection costs 100 NTD and you can choose from many flavours like matcha & milk, black tea & milk, etc. I suspect Hello Burger changes their flavour every now and then so don’t be surprised if you see something funky. The last thing that you have to select is gotta be either the sauce (for salty) or jam (for ice cream).

 

Cold drinks are available too and guess what, they are not just some simply coke or fanta. You can choose either tea or soda but both cost the same at 60 NTD and it seems you gonna get the cute holder when you purchase drink too. I wonder if it’s free but I hope so. 

 Taiwan is so full of interesting food, I really can’t wait to go there again to take a bite of everything cute and yummy. 

Credits: @tali4227, @yun_che_0304, @yen.food.life, @_tyng1116, @luck75424

Taiwan Instagrammable Food: Good Partner Coffee, Kaohsiung

 Good morning, hope everyone have a beautifuulll day. Oh gosh, I sound like this evil bear, Monokuma, a character from a playstation game called Danganronpa. Despite his evilness, he’s so funny and he’s really the main anchor of the game. Hmm, why do I start my day talking about some game...ah right, I need my caffeine fix. 

 

Talking about coffee, does it cheer you up if the barista put some effort into making the latte art? I feel kinda meh if the barista do the latte art half-heartedly, like the shape is something resembling heart and yet the heart looks distorted, you know what I mean? In this case, if a simple latte art is able to make you happy, how about a 3D latte art in the shape of cute bear, panda or even fox?

 

Good Partner Coffee, a cafe in Wenxin Road at Kaohsiung, happens to be able to do that. They have green tea latte and normal latte and the one which comes with the fox latte art costs NTD 80. Oh my gawd, isn’t that 4 SGD? That’s cheap for Singapore standard because latte usually is in the 5 SGD-ish for hot version. However, the most impressive thing about the latte art fom Good Partner Coffee is...is that a cute bear on my coffee? They are so good in playing around with the foam (and decorate it) I must say. When I put foam on my coffee, it will be just a lump of foam, while Good Partner Coffee’s barista is able to turn the foam into an artistic bear sitting on the coffee or even soaking in the coffee. I wonder how long will it take for me to drink this coffee because I will surely spend few more minutes to take picture of it. 

 

Good Partner Coffee is located at Wenxin Road, a 2 blocks away from Yucheng Road where Ruifeng Night Market is located in Kaohsiung. It should not be so hard to find this cafe as long as you have Google Map with you in Taiwan. Have fun with the bear~

 

Credits: @canney_yang, @ms0569170, @nini_food0822, @goodpartner_coffee, @jim890526

One Day at Kanazawa: the Old Town

 

I was super excited when I found out that we were going to visit an old town in Kanazawa. Why is Japanese old town very exciting? This is your chance to do a lot of things at one go: wandering around in Japanese traditional setting, taking nice photography, checking traditional stores and shops, buying snacks and souvenirs, and eating beautiful food. 

 

If you have been to Gion in Kyoto, you are probably familiar with the scene of Japanese old town. Houses made from wood, sliding door, stores selling all kind of goods from household items, tea bags, skin care, cosmetics, jewellery and pottery. My mum has been lost to the skin care shop which sell skin care products made from gold dust. She’s not alone though, the other aunties in the tour group has joined her in the same store, together with the tour guide. I suppose the tour guide would get some kind of commission if these ladies spent their Japanese yen there. 

 

Since my mum seems to be in safe place with all the other participants, I used the chance to look around the surrounding, checking into every little photogenic details of the wooden house. After all, such shop house does not exist in Singapore. There are a lot of tea houses too but unfortunately, I did not have enough time to leisurely drinking my tea there. The old town is not that huge but there are so many alleys which have small shops so if you want to check them one by one, you probably need at least half a day here. Some stores do sell quirky item like mysterious ice cream which will never melt. Hmm, hontoni?

The food souvenir section is so so so interesting. Do you know that the Japanese are so good with the packaging? You will feel like buying all their food souvenir although the food is probably just normal mochi or candies. However, the fruit filled mochi taste seriously good. The orange one seems to big for me and I’m not really a fan of orange so I chose strawberry filled mochi instead. The mochi is soft, fluffy, and not too sweet, which is good because the sweetness will come from the strawberry. Oishi-desu-ne~~~

 Oh right, eventually, I rendezvous with mum and she came out from the skin care store empty handed. Something about the expensive price I suppose. Haha. 

Takeaway Review: Flame Diced Beef Cubes, ION Orchard

 

ION Orchard was a madness for an introvert to eat alone on a Sunday so I decided to order takeaway food instead. The best place to look for takeaway food in ION Orchard is gotta be the basement level of the mall. There are various option to choose from pizza, donut, kaisen bowl, Korean fish cake, curry puff, etc. But one thing that kinda lured me in that day was the smell of torched beef meat from Huo Yan Shai Zi Niu. 

 

Huo Yan Shai Zi Niu came to Singapore from the Taiwan shore. The funny thing is I’ve never really seen it before, maybe it’s pretty new there too? I was in dilemma whether to have just the beef cubes only or with rice but since I was kinda hungry after walking around checking out clothes, I decided to go with the small beef rice box (8 SGD). 

 

Turns out, there are a few numbers of order came before me so I had to wait a bit patiently before my name getting called to collect my order. The smell of the butter-ish beef dices is enough to entice me to just eat it there right now. Oh but there’s not seat at Huo Yan Shai Zi Niu, right? No problem because there are 3 standing tables near to Bread Society where you can eat your takeaway food (while standing) peacefully. Cony wanted a bite too. 

 

Overall the beef cubes was pretty decent and they are marinated and cooked well in butter. There are some fat parts of the beef dice which I know it’s quite yummy but I tried not to eat them so much. Quite good takeaway food, I must say. Yumz! They have other outlet at Plaza Singapura too. So go give them a try if you have a beef craving. Hehe. 

One Day at Kanazawa: Kenrokuen Garden

 The plan for the next morning is actually to enjoy beautiful cherry blossom view at Kenrokuen Garden. However it seems that the cherry blossom has not bloomed yet at Kanazawa. We could see a glimpse of pinkish hue on the sakura trees but unfortunately we were too early. While we were waiting for the tour guide to settle our ticketing to go inside Kenrokuen Garden, we were playing around with some selfie at the entrance to Kanazawa Castle. The castle was just located right at the opposite direction of the garden.

Being kinda mischievous, my brother and I got separated from the tour group because we wanted to see how the castle looks like since our itinerary did not include a trip to see the inside of the castle. The castle looks huge from the outside and it has its view of its former glory. Story told, there are no more treasures left inside the castle since the government has removed it somewhere else. Some artifacts and valuables are left inside the castle for tourism and education purpose but the tour guide mentioned that it’s not really worth a visit unless we are castle junkie.

 Kenkokuen Garden, however, is the highlight of the town of Kanazawa. The garden is listed as one of the three most beautiful Japanese landscape gardens. Admission fee for adult is 310 JPY while young people from 6 to 18 costs 100 JPY. For people below 6 and older than 65, entrance is free but you need to show the ID to the ticketing staff.

The beautiful garden’s name, Kenrokuen, literally means “garden combining six” i.e. six attributes that all gardens should have like seclusion, antiquity, spaciousness, human ingenuity, water and scenic views. I am very convinced that the view of the sakura trees in Kenrokuen Garden would be very very breathtaking but I guess we have to come here another time to catch it. A very fickle flowers, this sakura.

For now, we are pretty satisfied to be able to enjoy the beautiful lake view of the lake with tea house in the middle of it, surrounded by the greeneries. Don’t forget the bonsai trees. Oh wow, they are huge. I have this imagination of retired life, taking care of cute pots of bonsai plants. Hmm, can bonsai live somewhere else other than Japan?

One Day at Kanazawa: The Arrival

 

I reached the town of Kanazawa at dinner time and the sun has already set by then. I honestly just wanted to laze on my bed by then after a fun and tiring day at Shirakawago but Avia tour will not drop us at hotel directly without dinner. And the dinner that they gonna give to us is a buffet. Oh wow, buffet? Just like that I perked up again. I find Western buffet in Japan is pretty interesting. They have a mixture of Japanese items such as tempura and miso soup and Western dishes such as pasta, pizza, salad, cream soup. They have seasonal dessert too and back then in end March was strawberry season so the desserts are all made from strawberry. Strawberry cake, pudding, ice cream, you name it. Since the tour have booked the seats for us, the restaurant have assigned us certain tables which we have to STRICTLY follow because we are not the only diners who booked the restaurant. Some of the tour participants changed the seats by themselves and it confused the waiters/ waitresses so they ask them to move back to their assigned seats. Japan is all about rules and neat order I suppose. 

 

We proceeded to check in at our hotel, APA Villa Hotel Kanazawa/ Katamachi and the hotel lobby is so tiny we have to queue for a while for the small lift which bring us to our hotel room. The hotel looks like apartment from the inside though. We quickly put our luggages in our room and got ready to wander around the streets near the hotel. There are two convenience stores near our hotel, 7-11 and Family Mart which are located right opposite each other. I love visiting Japanese convenience stores although these stores must be normal to the residents. A lot of office workers have just left their office and we saw some of them taking cab together seems to be getting ready to go for a drink or something. Some of them just bought their dinner at convenience stores. One or two dudes were reading manga at the stores too. And there are soft porn magazines available and yeah they are displayed in the open. 

 

By the way, yakisoba (fried noodle) bread does exist. I wonder how does it taste but I was still full from the buffet. Oh well. 

 

Few blocks away from the bustling intersection where the convenience stores are located, there are some quiet street alleys which have a lot of what looks like izakayas. My brother was actually kinda curious and feel like going inside one of them but we figured that izakaya is probably not the place to bring our Mum. I suppose we can go to izakaya next time my dear Brother. 

Taiwan food: Totoro shaped pancake, Shilin Night Market

 

I love going to Taiwan but unfortunately I could not visit the country every year because well, I love going to other countries too. So basically, if I follow my wanderlust everytime it pops up, I will go broke in a second. Thankfully we are living in the era of social media and I really like checking out latest food trend in Taiwan. The foodie instagrammer from Taiwan is so good at taking picture and even editting them before uploading into Instagram. I am in awe. 

 

If I have the chance to go Taipei now I will surely go to the food that IG-er @tong_intw took at Shilin Night Market. I know Totoro is a very popular character from Hayao Miyazaki’s creation and even though Totoro is born in Japan, its fame has reached the shore of its neighbouring country, Taiwan. But this is the first time I see that someone has created pancake mold in the shape of Totoro and then selling the filled pancake in the shape of Totoro at Shilin Night Market. 

 

Based on @tong_intw’s picture, you can select one flavor for batter and one flavor for filling. The batter selection is: valrhona chocolate, marukyu-koyamaen matcha and lescure cream (oh wow, what’s with the exotic name?). The filling flavor is: cheese, rice cake, custard, red bean, peanut custard, chocolate custard, brown sugar rice cake. You can mix two flavor too although it’s not very clear if there’s additional charge cause my Mandarin sucks. You can see how the pancake is filled with the cream from @yen.food.life’s pictures. Oh gosh, they look so yummy and cute. 

 

Price wise, the varlhona chocoalte batter and lescure cream costs 50NTD while marukyu-koyamaen matcha costs 55 NTD. I suppose it will be something like Singapore Mr Bean’s pancake but in Totoro shape. Smart marketing move because I would also buy Totoro because I can take picture with it before eating them. 

 

Give it a try when you are there, ok? 

I Eat Alone at Koh Grill, Wisma Atria

 

Do you know why I love the concept of Japanese restaurants? It’s because they usually have counter seats which are the most suitable seats for introvert diner who happen to feel like eating alone. Yay. Good news for the introvert souls living in Singapore because there are many Japanese restaurants in the country. I suppose who can hate Japanese food after all. Hehehe. 

 

I have actually visited Koh Grill before when the restaurant has just opened in Wisma Atria, one of the shopping malls in the bustling area of Orchard. We went to try out the famous Shiok Maki and the queue for seats was well...kinda long. But i suppose that’s because we came in a group back then. 

 

Today I decided to check out the restaurant after my gym class ended at 8PM. I find this timing to work well because it should have past the peak dining hour on weekend although to be honest, sometimes it’s hard to fix peak hours at eateries in Orchard. The area is flocked by tourists and they are known not to follow dining rules. But thankfully the counter seats are available and I could quickly get my seat. Counter seat is really good because nobody care about what you are doing there. You can watch how the sushi chef cut the fresh sashimi, play with your phone, take picture of you cute companion, daydream or even dose off until the food arrive at your table. 

 

I did not feel like eating Shiok Maki (which is basically a maki filled with either unagi or jumbo prawn tempura drenched in sauce depending on which version you choose) so I chose something different, unagi omelette. It’s grilled unagi served on top of egg omelette which is cooked on top of a hot plate. Hmm I wonder why is it so difficult to explain the dish so thankfully a picture speaks a thousand words. I did not know grilled unagi goes well with fluffy omelette but I wish the portion of the eel can be a bit bigger after all I’m greedy hehe. But then again, it feels like the right portion after I finish my bowl of Japanese rice. Ok, now I’m confused. The overall feeling that I get is warm comfy sensation in my stomach. Japanese rice is awesome and its awesomeness can enhance the dish that it’s served with. 

 

 Since Koh Grill is always bustling with customers, you won’t get peaceful quiet environment when you are enjoying your food. It’s okay, just imagine it like you are eating in an izakaya in Tokyo. They are loud too. Ok overall, good food, nobody care about you eating alone, counter seat, I guess I will give another visit to Koh Grill. Either alone or with Brown. Woots!

Takeaway Review: Liang Sandwich Bar, Vivo City

 I thought tomorrow is Friday but turns out there’s Thursday in between us. Oh well, no fret because anyway I would need Thursday to be able to meet my due tasks this week. But in order to spice thing up after work, it’s time for another takeaway review post. Today I went all the way to Vivo City (okay, 2 stops away but changing at Outram Park feels like a very long walk...) to get the egg sandwich from one of the new additions in the basement level, Liang Sandwich Bar. 

If you are familiar with Taiwanese breakfast named dan bing (or scallion sandwich in English), you will see the uncanny resemblance between the sandwich offered at Liang Sandwich Bar and those dan bing sold in Taiwan. If you know about Taiwan entertainment, you will also spot familiar face endorsing the brand, Jay Chou. Oh wait, he also starred in Hollywood movie before so I suppose everyone should know him. 

 The basic scallion sandwich costs SGD 2.50 while the rest of the menu is priced depending on what toppings you wish to put inside your scallion sandwich. While it kinda looks like prata in a glance, I find the scallion sandwich to be more flaky in texture. Oh right for my first try, I ordered chicken, egg and cheese scallion sandwich (SGD 3.90). I usually go for egg and cheese scallion sandwich when I buy scallion pancake from my favourite dan bing stall at Yong Kang street in Taipei and oh boy, I wish I can buy that everyday here in Singapore. 

So can this scallion sandwich endorsed by Taiwanese idol beat the original scallion sandwich sold in Taiwan? The answer is unfortunately no. While the texture is not bad, Liang Sandwich Bar’s scallion pancake lack in flavors. I wish they can be more generous with the sauce because it gets pretty bland when I bite a portion which have no sauce. The chicken in the chicken, egg and cheese sandwich is actually chicken ham and not real chicken meat, fyi. And I suspect they may have used less eggs compared to the ones that the Taiwanese aunties use at Yong Kang street because the sandwich was not that thick. 

Oh gosh, I think my standard for scallion pancake is quite high thanks to that Yong Kang street stall. Great, now I feel like buying a ticket to Taipei. Maybe it’s time to check out flight deal, if any. 

Takeaway Review: Hokkaido Cream Polo, Kazo

 July is soon coming to an end and my contract in Tanjong Pagar is ticking out. I figure this is the time to implement “try new food as much as you can” while you are still working in town. The thing is I realise that I did try to tighten my wallet when I was not working and looking back at those freedom (and yet, penniless) days, I did not feel like trying out a lot of new food especially that need special effort from me to (a) travel for quite a distance from my house and (b) costs a lot. 

Although to be honest, having a job does not mean you shall splurge either. I have decided to live moderately (and even frugally at times). So with that being said, Tuesday menu for dinner is obviously another takeaway food because eating in front of tv (or in my case, an ipad) rocks! I went to Chinatown at lunch time to buy hazelnut milk tea from woobbee actually and that’s when I passed by Kazo. 

This is not the first time I pass by Kazo but today is the day I finally decide to give it a try. In addition, it’s very tiring to think about what to eat for dinner after a zumba class so I figure I might find something which is good enough to be eaten as dinner. That’s when I saw the huge polo puffs. Compared to Beard Papa, I don’t think the price difference is that huge and the filling of those polo puffs are so interesting. Well, maybe except chocolate. I mean chocolate is good but it’s so normie, there’s no way you will be surprised by chocolate. 

So I chose Hokkaido cream because anything that have the word “Hokkaido” should at least taste good. The funny thing though Kazo is actually set up in Taiwan. Well, some netizen say that Kazo is the direct competitor of Zaku Zaku or something in Japan. So maybe their taste is close enough? I don’t know if Zaku Zaku sells polo puff though. Oh maybe it’s more similar to Hattendo at Tanjong Pagar Centre. 

There is an instruction to keep the puff in the fridge if you don’t consume it within 3 hours after purchase. But, putting food in office’s shared fridge is uhh...undesirable for me because there’s this stone-faced pantry lady who seem to guard the fridge like a hawk. I don’t even feel like coming to the pantry sometimes. Why can’t she be more friendly? Oh well, some people simply can’t get along with certain people. So my puff is left on my table as it is and even withstood the gym locker until it’s time for the puff to be consumed...8 hours later. 

Thankfully, the Hokkaido Cream puff (SGD 3) that I bought still looks okay in terms of texture. For a safe measure, I did put it in the fridge for a good 10 minutes before consumption and it tastes so good. I was kinda worried the cream will not be a lot since the puff looks pretty huge but I was wrong. It was moderately filled and the Hokkaido cream taste is pretty good (albeit sweet). I’m so gonna try the golden lava puff for my second trip to Kazo. Yumz. 

Singapore Food Log: Tanuki Raw, Orchard Central

 I have included Tanuki Raw in my to-eat-list for I don’t know how long but finally after a long wait (and partly due to my own laziness), I managed to make bae to bring me there. We reached Tanuki Raw after our movie date with Skyscraper (which is unbelievable and yet very entertaining movie, but then again which movie is believable nowadays) at 7PM on Saturday evening and there is a queue line forming in front of the restaurant. Oh no. 

Thankfully, even though the restaurant looks pretty small from outside, there are many seats available inside the restaurant. We just needed to wait for around 15 minutes and the waiter assigned us two seats at the bar area. I enjoy sitting at the bar area because I can see how the bartender making cocktail and if you loves to enjoy your alcohol intake (SGD 10) with fresh oysters (SGD 2 for limited 6 pieces per drink order), you may want to grab the happy hours deal (5PM - 8PM daily). 

A lot of people comes to Tanuki Raw to enjoy the happy hour only but I came with different mission: to eat the famous Truffle Yakiniku. Regular Truffle Yakiniku costs 18 SGD however, with just additional 5 SGD you will get a piece of pan-seared foie gras which literally just melts in your mouth. Fresh truffles will cost you additional 7 SGD so since my cheapskate standard has reached its limit, I gave this a pass.

It seems that Tanuki Raw loves to play around with its menu because they have the “New Kids on the Block” section on its menu featuring the latest creation that the restaurant chefs made. Bae opted for the yuzu pepper katsu don and Tanuki Raw was so generous on the katsu pieces. However, I personally feel that the star of the dish is the yuzu sauce. The problem is I love my truffle yakiniku bowl so much, my tastebud is overpowered by it so I could not taste the yuzu pepper katsu don properly. However, bae seems to enjoy it just fine so all is well I suppose. 

Water is provided for free so if you don’t feel like ordering any drink, you’ll survive. The restaurant can be a bit too noisy to have a good chat though. We literally could hear the whole conversation that our neighbours were having (especially after their alcohol orders have been consumed). So Tanuki Raw is not a place where you can have a quiet conversation unless you manage to get the al fresco seats, maybe. But I kinda doubt it will be less noisy out there. 

I would love to go to Tanuki Raw during lunch hours to enjoy their lunch deals starting from 12 SGD++. Should I go there tomorrow?