Unagi Don & Night Market | Taiwan Part 2

If you read Part 1 of our recent trip to Taiwan (HERE) you knew that we had almost too much fun at Kanpai with beef tongues and a few beer. To continue the fun, we were going to go to Spark (Taipei 101's basement) but were stopped by locals. They said Myst is the new thing - of which is a new club that just set its roots across from Taipei 101. What can I say, balcony seats, great view and company.

Myst | Taipei Xinyi District SongShou Road. #12 9th Floor

The next day - having rice is probably one of the best ways to cure swollen-ness from toxic in body, having something solid eh? It was already packed with a line of 30 people when we arrived at 11am but luckily the line "dissolved" really fast. Best unagi don in the world with a wait for about 25 minutes? hack yes. 

 

肥前屋 | Tapei Jhongshan District, Zhongshan North Road, Section 1, Lane 121 no.13

The reason 肥前屋 was made famous was because of its DUH!, Unagi (Eel). Inside the store it looks like an old Japanese canteen food court style desu. Personally not a huge fan of eel rice, I can tell you this was pretty damn amazing and no doubt the best unagi don I have ever had. The eel was thin with just a tad of fat but not greasy, the Japanese rice was not soft with the perfect chewiness. Everything just goes so well together. I can easily swallow 2 bowls, not even kidding.

After lunch we went to 五分埔 (wufenpu) where is a market that has a lot of wholesale stores for retail. The weather sucked the whole time so we gave up on finding good stuff in about 45 minutes. Gigi took me to this place that was across the market to have some hot soups. The logo of this store cracked us up. Call me a noob, but can someone really be named Formosa!? And since when Gigi had an uncle in Taiwan lol?

 The soup however was good. I got the one with white fungus and medlar in a sweet syrup. Its one of my all time favourite chinese deserts. People also said that white fungus functions as birds nest that is especially good for women because it is filled with collagen. Oh i need!

Afterwards we went to walk around Ximending and visited the must-have 阿宗麵線 (Ah Zong's noodles). That's also where we saw our Japanese friends. What a small world and how embarrassing! Both of us just ate the noodles quietly because we were speechless about being so hyper the first night. Its a bowl of starchy soup with really thin noodles and intestines. It was so good you can find no replacements even in Hong Kong.

Ximending is also a fun area to just walk around. It is sorta like Dongdemen in Seoul where is also a combination of night street shopping and street foods. I seized the opportunity to get my hands on a few goodies when we stumbled upon Skinfood and Etude House as a loyal beauty blogger. No worries, reviews soon (as always). After 15 minutes of walking around, we went to get white bitter melon juice with honey and had another meal around the corner. Duck blood, Taiwanese styled tempura and more noodle soup.

As we were walking back to the hotel like zombies, we had this sudden urge to go to a night market. So we went back to the hotel to freshen up and did that! Now when I think about it, I cannot believe we had the energy that night (we stayed out til 5 the previous night). Haha crazy! Since we didn't know any better, we just went to Shilin Night Market that was easily accessed to via subway.

It was a fun walk-around for a couple of hours with some back alley shopping and more street food. We adored the family run waffle shop with 8 flavors. We got drinks at this local store 1000cc for less than $1US wth.

Here is the cool thing about Taiwan that is so different than Hong Kong. Being in a not too overly commercial society, people have opportunities to expand their traditional family businesses and live comfortably sans the superficial judgement by other people. Hong Kong government, if you see this please do something for your society instead of solving problems by stupidly giving out $6000hkd. If you have extra money, spend on either the education, medical, social welfare system. Everything is a piece of shit its only been little more than 10 years that you have been "on your own". Well, thats a topic for a different day but lets end the story with I AM SO JEALOUS OF BEING TAIWANESE! 

Nude & Neon Nails

Shiseido Maquillage RD747 (HK$95) |
has a mirco pink sheen inside the bottle but applied to be a muted pink
Etude House OR206 (HK$30) |
is a neon orange with a hot pink undertone without any shimmers
OPI Top and Base Coat


Nude and Neon has always been a trend for spring and summer but is definitely one of THE trends that grabs the most attention for 2012. Hello, Bobbi Brown? Im duping the trend with a few Asian nail polishes that I have recently discovered. Super impressed with Shiseido Maquillage's RD747's quality - it lasts on my for 7 days with a mild chipping. The affordable OR206 from Etude House chips slightly easier but one coat is enough for an opaque even coat.

Love cooperating trends into nail designs. It is fun! What do you think?

Beef Tongues & Beer | Taipei Part 1

4 days of eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping? Im down, of course! Though our trip from Hong Kong to Taiwan was completely last minute (as usual), it turned out to be one of the best trips. Arrived in early afternoon, we decided to kick off our trip with a relaxing place to have some snacks and coffee.

Hasegawa's House 長谷川先生的家 台北市大安區光復南路240巷45號

Invested by artist 陶子 and her husband 李李仁，長谷川先生的家(Hasegawa's House) gives a very relaxing vibe located on a semi quiet street in Taipei. We both got pumpkin soup, salad and I got a simple bbq chicken sandwich. The food were just alright but the atmosphere was very nice. We got here Friday afternoon and it was still relatively empty. I'd say the food was definitely overpriced for eating out in Taiwan but its a great place to chitchat. 

Really want this apple phone case wtf


At night we came to Kanpai because its a must-visit place everytime Gigi comes to Taiwan. She knows someone who used to work there so getting a table was much easier. Without reservation, the wait could be up to 2 hours. This Japanese style barbeque is famous for its noisy and young staff, who sings and helps you grill your meat all the time. A straight up fun place to be with good quality beef tongues and Asahi!


Kanpai 乾杯 106台北市大安區敦化南路一段236巷17號

Beef tongues | chicken cartilage | bacon belly

Kanpai also has this really fun game where you can kiss and get free meat. I know it sounds super lame and freaking cheap to kiss just to get a plate of meat but I swear at that moment you'd really think it was fun and worth it wtf. Sometimes you would even see a guy kissing another guy-_-. We asked if we could get beef tongues if we french kissed wtf. Here is our proof and souvenir to take home - in a valentine's special envelope.

So hyper we met our new Japanese friends (who we embarrassingly saw randomly on the street the following day). We tried to speak in our very limited Japanese like wakarimasu, daijoubu and aishiteru etc-_-. It was a lot of fun and a lot of beer.