Shida Night Market Eats, Taipei, Part II (師大路夜市, Picture heavy!)

Really struggling to put up these last Taipei food posts here...

Lantern Soy Sauce Braised (燈籠滷味) is one of the more well known and popular stands at Shida Night Market.  We actually stumbled onto it prior to reading the CNN 40 Taiwanese Food article and went in head first, not knowing what to expect. There was always a giant crowd gathering around the stand, and given there were several similar food stands at Shida Night Market that were often deserted, our curiosity couldn't resist the consistent stream of business this particular stand got and so we got in line ourselves ^.^

Basically, this is a Taiwanese version of the Japanese oden. Mind you, this is not to say "who came first". I honestly don't know and I don't give a rat's ass. I just know I love oden, and when I saw this I must have it, because I miss oden very much T.T Of course it's not identical to oden, but it's very similar in terms of ingredients: eggs (quail, versus chicken in oden), a wide variety of fish cakes, konnyaku, tofu,  mochi, a variety of vegetables (daikon, shiitake, enoki, green leafy greens, etc.), with added extras of noodles (cellophane noodles 冬粉, ramen, etc.), even meats, seafood, and intestines (a Taiwanese favorite!). 

Day Trip to Tamsui, New Taipei, Part II (淡水, Picture heavy!)

Hey guys, running so behind on some posts here :( Sorry!

My sister came for a short visit earlier in the month and hubby and I took her to Tamsui again. It was her second time in Taipei actually. Two winters ago, she was still living and working in Japan and had been here on a group tour along with her colleagues and fellow teacher. However, her group tour had a super tight schedule full of "touristy" places, which didn't give her any time to explore the city on her own at all. So this was an attempt to chill out a little, taking time to leisurely stroll around, check out the shops, eat some snacks, play some games, etc. 

We started out with lunch at my favorite neighborhood's Fortune Garden. Then at the Taipei Main Station we met up with J., whom my sister used to tutor way back in high school. She's a Taiwanese native but went to high school and college in the US, in the same state and city where we did. Hearing of my sister's visit, she was ecstatic as they had lost touch for a while before finding each other on FB several months earlier.

The funny gold statue man was there again! ^.^

Ningxia Night Market, Taipei (寧夏夜市)

While my old college friend A. is in town to visit, she and her fiancé S. took us to Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市). Being only 2 rows up and down a short strip of road, it is a tiny night market in comparison to my local Shida Night Market, but I was told the locals go here to eat and else where to shop.

And indeed, the Ningxia Night Market was food, food, and more food. It was literally one food stall after another and we all walked up and down the whole place twice before we could make our decision on what to snack on. There were so many choices and everything looked equally delicious!

Taipei Eats - Heping East Road area (和平東路, Picture heavy!)

Disclaimer - another long post ahead of the shops along Heping East Road where I live!

I mentioned in my previous Shida Night Market Eats post that we don't have a functional kitchen in our Taipei apartment, so we eat out 2 meals a day, 7 days a week, which is why I'm gaining weight even though I walk 2+ miles every day to school T.T Anyway, in addition to the night market, we pretty much just randomly pick any stores, shops, carts, stands that looks good.

Zhang Mama Beef Noodles (張媽媽牛肉麵) is the very first shop we had lunch at the day after we landed in Taipei ^.^ We didn't know at the time, but this shop is actually a bit more expensive, about twice as much as most noodle shops and we paid around $6-7 (NT$180-200) for each of our bowl of noodles.

The red braised beef noodles (left) was decent, but not the best. The light broth beef noodles turned out to be disappointingly bland. I guess now I know that "light" really means "no taste" LOL! Won't make that mistake again :P

Braised beef noodle with tomatoes and Braised beef soup.

Sparklers in Zushi

After the week in Tohoku, the summer seminar hubby took part in came to an end. One of the professors, S. sensei decided to throw a barbeque at his home in Zushi to send the students off with a smile. I was invited to join them again and couldn't refused. Spending time with the students in the previous week I had made friends with a couple of them ^.^ 

On the left is S. sensei with his youngest daughter, A-chan, who had taken a liking to my lace-up oxford heels. She said she wanted to be a princess xD On the right is C. who followed princess A. around in her heels and made sure she wouldn't trip and all. Aren't they both just adorable? It made me so very nervous to see A-chan who's barely 2 stumbling around in those shoes, but I guess that's why being a parent makes one brave. 

Ruby Grapefruits

Check out this beautifully red ruby grapefruit I got from my local grocery! I've never seen a grapefruit this red! It was gorgeous, almost too pretty to eat...though hubby and I gobbled it all up anyway :P

It was itty bitty, fitting into our rice bowls, and it set us back about 125yen (about ~$1.50).

Kua 'Aina, Yokohama

A couple of weekends ago, my sister dropped by for a brief visit after having attended an Arashiconcert in Tokyo. Having recently discovered Kua 'Aina, I promised to take her there for a little taste of home so her visit was a good occasion for all of us.

Kua Aina is a chain serving burgers and sandwiches like it's nobody's business. Mos Burger? Ha! Though technically it's not really fair to compare this chain to Mos Burger since Kua 'Aina is an American chain started in Hawaii :P Anyway, the place was an small discovery. On my way home from work one day, I complained to hubby I'm craving for a sandwich, a *real* American sandwich and not a Japanese double-whammy-quasi-carb-sandwich in the form of a glob of potato salad in between 2 slices of super processed white bread. I didn't even feel like a teriyaki shrimp burger ala Mos Burger. Mind you, I have nothing against Mos, and I love their creative and delicious their "burgers." In fact, Mos is Japan's proud and esteemed answer to McDonald's solely because those burgers have a little bit of a Japanese flavor thrown in and are clearly not American.

Holiday happiness

On a cold Tuesday night my employer sent me home with a beautiful LaFrance pear. Her friend lives next to a pear orchard and had sent her a boxful, so she gave me one as I was leaving for the day.

Just look at the size of that thing!!! If I were to buy this fruit at the groceries, it would have cost me a cool $10 each and I kid you not! That's just how expensive fruits are here!