=j(oe) + (l)izz + travel
I was able to sample some interesting foods while in Asia, some courtesy of the ever adventurous eating sensei Frank. Here’s a list of the highlights. Raw marinated crab. The ick factor for me was not knowing how clean the crab was going to be. The water in China is not exactly known for being […]
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*very late update due to nonexistent internet issues for us all week 🙁 q. current home/addy where i stayed (neighbourhood) and how long a. taipei for four nights (airbnb, da’an), ruifang for two nights (airbnb), taipei for one night (airbnb, gonguan) & hong kong for two nights (uncle’s home, aberdeen) q. favourite meal a. gua […]
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our second night market of the trip was guangzhou night market; very close to our airbnb at the taipei main station. we heard that this one was quite big and in the area of two more markets so we gave it a go. one of the first things we picked up was some sort of […]
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ooooh the xiao long bao, asia’s best contribution to modern society along with female drivers. we prepped our stomachs in anticipation of plenty of dumpling adventures and we had our first run in with the infamous din tai fung juicy bun within 6 hours of landing in taiwan. din tai fung the infamous chain seen […]
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with my parents owning two ‘sandwich tree’ shops while growing up, i’ve ingested a good number of calories involving meat and bread. as for home cooking, my fav dish that my dad would make was braised pork belly in a rich red/brown sauce. it was only natural that i had to search out the love […]
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ah desserts. everyone’s favourite crutch to fall back on to make themselves feel better about themselves before they can go back to hating themselves. in the continent where desserts run wild, taiwanese desserts are more fruit-centric, refreshing and can be relatively low on the sweet scale while still making you lick your lips like ll […]
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Our second day in Ruifang area was spent in Houtong and Shifen. We hired a taxi for the day to drive us around to the different villages for 2000 NT. Our first stop is the Houtong Cat Village. So many cats, so little time to take their pictures! I had a giant grin the whole […]
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We made it to the mountain town of Jiufen in the evening, just when the sun was setting. Jiufen is the inspiration for Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away which is one of my favourite animated films. The streets were narrow and lit by many lanterns. I could see how romantic the streets would’ve been if it […]
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maybe the biggest change in culture from japan & korea to taiwan is the inclusion of breakfast as a regular meal. the majority of breakfast options in japan were western style which generally included eggs, toast and minature sausages of the cocktail-weinie type. a traditional korean breakfast is typically not so different from their dinner […]
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it’s taken a while but our first week in taiwan has finally been the relaxing vacation we’ve been looking forward to. a much slower pace to the city, hot weather and good food has gotten us into relax/lazy mode for the most part. the warmer weather has been amazing so that we can finally break […]
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*No elephants were harmed during this hike…or spotted. We started yesterday with a hearty breakfast at Loco Food. I ordered a burger with mushroom, bacon and fried egg. Figured the egg makes it a breakfast burger. By the time we headed to Elephant Mountain to begin our hike, it was 29°C. We questioned our wisdom […]
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There was a pet convention close to Taipei 101 today and there were lots of people out with their dogs in strollers. Fancy tricked out strollers no less. These puppies look perfectly healthy enough to walk. Whereas this human child is in a dinky, too-small-for-her stroller. What has the world come to? Sheesh.
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Second night in Taipei, we are on our way to beef noodle when I see bunch of people waiting at the intersection with blue bags. Turns out they are waiting for the garbage truck. When the garbage truck arrived, they play a song like Fur Elise and everyone runs or bikes over to dump their […]
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q. current home/addy where i stayed (neighbourhood) and how long a. seoul (same airbnb, itaewon), taipei (airbnb/service hotel #1, zhongzheng) taipei (airbnb #2, daan) q. favourite meal a. roasted goose/duck lunch. i’ll eat chinese duck on occasion but i’ve never had goose before. there was the option to get bone-in or boneless; we opted for […]
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joe: what do i like? the deliciousness and familiarity of the food, the clean streets, the orderliness of society and the huge amounts of greenspace within the city itself. the metro turnstiles are also restricted to only one direction as well, what a brilliant idea right?! (points to korea for originality i suppose) oh, and […]
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