2013 Taiwan Trip - The Group

The MCBers

Travel planner-Tour Leader

Yeah, it's me. 

Vina: Public Relation

She is always ready to bargain with sellers when we buy things. 

Nicholas(Vina's husband): Photographer-Translator

Aside from being our photographer, he has been really helpful in translating chinese characters written either on menu or sign board.

Usman: Photographer-Entertainer

A skillful photographer. His architect background and great imagination makes his photography outstanding. In addition, without any intention, he has always been an entertainer to us. He can disappear all of a sudden when we walk around night market, and when we see him back again, his hand will be holding food. Now, you probably have some thoughts why I said he is our entertainer. 

Welly: Chief Financial Officer

He managed our group money for the trip. His perfectionist and careful personality get rid of all our worries about the accuracy of our financial report. 

Suryana: Photomodel-Assistant CFO

She can totally act like a professional super model. Her natural reaction in front of cameras makes almost every single picture of her so wonderful. She helped with our money arrangement, and she even worked over time to be able to report to CFO the next morning.   

Rika: Creative Photographer

Another architect with great imagination. Her idea and creativity about photography is awesome. It's just amazing when she comes out with different ideas about where or how we should take the picture.    

Heinz: Photographer

A very well-equipped photographer. His tripod and remote control makes it easy for us to take any group pictures.

Synopsis:

It was a fun and memorable trip. I came out with the whole itinerary, then arranged for transportation and accommodation  A lot of research were done in order to plan for this trip. Nevertheless, everybody that I mentioned above plays a great role for the trip, nobody being more important or less important. It's like a puzzle, if one is missing then we won't see a complete picture. Eight of us are the puzzle pieces. The combination of all pieces that are placed in the right position makes a complete story for our trip. Great teamwork, guys! We ROCK!!!  

P.S. Please browse through my blog, and you will find what was going on during our trip in every single day.

Second Day in Taiwan (27/4)

Before we left for Taipei, we had breakfast at the B&B cafe. The breakfast they provided was pretty healthy, and it tasted really nice. We had sandwich with fruits, and the drink is either tea, coffee or hot chocolate. It was raining, but luckily not heavy. 

We left Jiufen around 11 am, then took taxi to Ruifang station. Taxi cost is NT$200. The train is quite frequent from Ruifang to Taipei, and we were able to catch one at around 12 pm, and reached taipei before 1 pm.

Direction to the ticket counter at Ruifang:

As you enter the station, turn to your left, then left again, you will find the ticket counters are there.  

In Taipei, we stay at New Stay Inn. It is considered a budget hotel, but I personally experienced a very nice and comfortable stay when I was there. I forgot to take picture of the hotel, but if you go to their website, the pictures showing were similar to what I have seen there. The location is awesome, just by the side of Taipei Main Station. From the station, take direction towards the underground mall, then take exit z8, the hotel is located at the fifth floor of an old building. We booked our rooms by email and phone, and we were able to get better rate compared to online booking.

It was still too early for us to check in to our room, so, we just left our luggage at the reception, then proceed for our lunch at Din Tai Fung. 

You'll be able to find Din Tai Fung in few countries around the world, however, the one in Taiwan is the very first opened. We went to the restaurant at Daan district. It is the oldest Din Tai Fung. 

Appetizer (made from Seaweed)

Appetizer (Mushroom)

Xiao Long Bao

It's a must try. Some of my friends said that the pork inside that makes it different than the one in Singapore. 

Spinach

Not only the appearance of the vegetable looks so fresh, but also the taste was so delicious. 

Prawn Dumpling

Minced Pork Noodle

 

Pork Chop Fried Rice

Dan Dan Mian

Noodle with peanut sauce. It's slightly spicy.

Black Sesame Bun

 The black sesame filling is very rich and nice. From my point of view, this bun deserves the best dish of the day. As my knowledge about black sesame, it has a lot of health benefits in it. It is a good source of Vitamin B1 and calcium. There have been few scientific studies about the health benefits of black sesame seeds. You may click on this website to find out more about it.

Taro Dumpling

 The taro filling is very original, and it is very soft and creamy. I am not sure if we will be able to get the same quality of taro in Singapore. I rate the taro dumpling as the second best dish after the black sesame bun.

All of us were full after lunch at Din Tai Fung. If my stomach still had some space, I would have probably ordered second batch of black sesame bun. 

Our next destination was Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. After the delicious lunch, we decided to walk there, and it took us about 15 minutes. 

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂)

We spent about 1.5 hours taking pictures in front of the hall. Then, proceed to a sport hall nearby (opposite CKS memorial hall at Xinyi Road). Some of us were interested in getting new badminton rackets. I have done some research, which concludes that Yonex and Victor branded rackets are slightly cheaper in Taiwan. I got a Yonex Arcsaber FB. In total, we got 3 rakets from the shop. The owner was nice to give us more discount and also to agree to send our rackets to our hotel.

Actually, in Taiwan whenever you buy anything, you can ask if they can deliver directly to hotel. Most of shops have such service. 

Then, it's dinner time. Our last destination for the day was Gongguan area (near National Taiwan University).  First stop was Chen San Ding (陳三鼎) bubble tea. The famous one is their milk tea with tapioca pearl. The unique thing is the tapioca pearls. They cook it with brown sugar, and the taste of the brown sugar is pretty strong. Most of us ordered their specialty. However, after our heavy lunch and also knowing how much calorie a cup of bubble tea contains (close to 400 kcal which is roughly equal to 1.5 bowls of rice), I skipped the buble tea, instead, I ordered Xian Cao Hei Tang (grass jelly with brown sugar). I love its brown sugar fragrance, but, it's way too sweet for my taste bud. 

    

Picture was taken by Nicholas

When there is a popular and famous food, expect a long queue. Same thing happened here. But, the queue moved pretty fast. They even drew lines with chalk on the road to make people standing in line.   

Lan Jia Gua Bao 藍家割包 (Pork Bun)

This bun is really good. You can choose whether to have fatty or lean meat or their combination. We chose lean meat. 

After that, it was shopping time for the ladies. I wasn't sure what the guys were doing though. But, they claimed that they were mostly seated in KFC. Opsss.....

That's pretty much it for the day.

2012 Medan Trip (Second Day)

Early in the morning we started our day with Medan traditional char kwe tiao (no meat, just fried kwe tiao with eggs), char mee, or char bihun with a cup of coffee.

Then we headed to Brastagi and Simalem. We packed Vegetable mixed rice (Nasi sayur Ahua) from Pasar Beruang for our lunch. It took us about 3 hours to reach Simalem Resort. 

Danau Toba view from Simalem Resort

Of course, we won't miss the Passion fruit juice and Tamarillo fruit juice. They are definitely "must try".

My brother ordered one interesting dessert for us to try. It's fried mashed cassava with chocolate syrup and shredded cheese. We were all surprised after knowing the price. If I am not mistaken it costs about Rp. 25000 (SGD 3) for a small plate of cassava.

We also bought few meat dumpling from Pasar Beruang for our tea time snack. On the way back to Medan, we stopped by at one shop for Grilled Corn (Jagung Bakar). You won't miss the Jagung Bakar stalls, because they are a lot along the street.

We reached Medan around 8:30 pm. It's pretty late, and everybody was so hungry. We went to Jalan Semarang for our dinner.

From Top left to right, then bottom left to right: Nasi Tim, Tiong Sim Chicken Noodle, Nasi Simangunsong, Satay Padang

From my friends' point of view, Tiong Sim Chicken noodle was the best on the list for our dinner.

P.S. All pictures posted on this page are taken and cropped from my buddy's facebook photos, Ushimaro Takeda, known as Usman. Thanks to him for allowing me to use his pictures. 

First day in Taiwan (26/4/2013)

Arriving at Taoyuan early morning around 5:40 am in Terminal 1 by Scoot, we then proceeded to Terminal 2 to get a prepaid card from Chunghwa telecom. They have one shop at Terminal 2 which opens daily at 7 am. The prepaid card that we got costs NT$500, includes 7 days of data plan (NT$50 perday) and NT$150 for calling. While waiting for the shop to open, we got a small bite for breakfast at 7-Eleven.

We hired an 8-seater van with a driver from Yuyu Travel. It was the second time I used their service. It's definitely a recommended one in Taipei. My experience with them is simply excellent.

Our driver then drove us to Windsor B&B. It's a family business at Jiufen, and the place is very close to Jiufen old street. Check out their website to see different styles of rooms that they have. We dropped our luggage in front of a temple, then the owner helped us to bring them to our room. 

Gold Ecological Park (金瓜石).


Our first destination was the Gold Ecological Park. Here we had soy bean curd with ginger soup. The ginger soup was so good. To be honest, we were hungry. Everybody loves the soup, but we thought the soy bean curd was just ok. 

The purpose to visit this park is to see a big piece of gold. After quite some times of walking, we were able to touch the gold bar. 

Leaving the gold ecological park, we then passed by a big waterfall.

Then, we went to JiuFen Old Street for our lunch. 
Food that we tried:

• Ah Gan Yee Taro ball--> It's a must try. The texture of the taro balls and sweet potato balls are just right. The sweetness is perfect. Nevertheless, you'll be able to view a very nice scene of JiuFen from the shop.

• Crepe wrapped Ice cream--> I simply love it. It was the second time that I had the crepe. However, few of my friends didn't appreciate it so much. 

• Fish Ball, Lu rou fan 滷肉飯 (braised pork on rice), braised pork on noodle, vegetable (@Stall #23)

The vegetable looks really simple, but the taste was awesome. You should try to be able to appreciate it. The noodle texture was really nice.

4. Drink-->Brown sugar with ginger.

The ginger taste was quite strong. I personally think that it's a very good combination in which they add in ginger to brown sugar. All of us bring home few packets of this brown sugar cube. 

A little knowledge that I know about ginger is that, it can be used as an anti-inflammatory. I found a scientific journal, written by Grzanna et al., which explained about this. 

Our next stop was Pingxi, ShiFen (十分). The purpose of us going there was to do sky lantern flying. We designed our own lantern, and then let it fly to the sky. If you want to know more information about the flying lantern activity at pingxi, you may find it from this website.

Nearby the flying lantern place, there's another waterfall park. However, we decided not to enter, and just walked around outside the park. There is an entrance fee of NT$80 per person. 

 

Last destination for the day was Keelung night market. I remember trying their meat dumpling, and it was nice. But, I was too hungry that I forgot to take any picture of it. We also tried mien xian. Our driver told us that their sausage is very nice. I didn't try it, however, my friend did, and according to them, it is indeed nice. 

It was a tiring day, since we stay overnight in the plane. Most of us was exhausted and didn't enjoy much the taste of food in Keelung night market.  

In addition, I should share one experience during our stay at Jiufen. Just before we went to bed, we thought of having a night walk around the B&B area. We went to one shop (more like a combination of bar and tea shop). They serve tea, dessert and alcoholic beverages. So, we decided to order tea. The price was at the high range. It was NT$800 just for tea leaves, plus NT$100 per person for the cup. We ended up spending a total bill of NT$1600. It was a good experience though, since we had the chance to know how to really enjoy a cup of tea. 

P.S. Stay tuned for my next post...

Tiramisu

Recipe:

4 egg yolks

2 eggs

80g sugar 

20g gelatine

6 tablespoon water

400g whipped cream (I used ready used whipped cream, Cool Whip)

500g Mascarpone Cheese

Notes: 

• if you whip your own whipped cream, you may use 350 ml of whipping cream and up to 100 g of sugar, otherwise a ready used whipped cream is already sweet.

Coffee:

30 g Coffee powder (I used Luwak powder)

400 g warm water

2 packets of lady fingers cookies

Procedure:

Cheese part:

1. Beat egg yolks, eggs, and sugar on top of a pan of simmering water. Beat until the mixture turn pale yellow in color. Cool it to room temperature.

2. Add mascarpone cheese and mix lightly. Do not overmix.

3. Soak gelatine powder with water then microwave for 20 seconds. Stir it well, and make sure no lumps.

4. Fold in whipped cream, and gelatine mixture. You may use tea filter when you add in the gelatine mixture, in case the mixture has few lumps in it.

  

How to assemble the cake:

1. Arrange lady fingers cookies on 9 inch round baking pan. 

2. Pour coffee mixture on the cookies (use tablespoon, and do it slowly (one tablespoon at a time), make sure that you don't wet the cookies too much, else it will be soggy). 

3. Pour in half of the cheese mixture.

4. Arrange lady fingers cookies on top of the cheese layer, and wet the cookies with coffee again.

5. Pour in the remaining half of the cheese mixture.

6. Refrigerate the tiramisu for a night. 

7. Sieve cocoa powder on top of the tiramisu cake, and you may decorate it as well.

This is how it looks like inside.

2012 Medan Trip (First Day)

Last year, June 2012, I brought a group of friends to Medan. It was a very short trip. We reached Medan around 11 am on Saturday, then we were back to Singapore early morning on Monday. They are from Jambi, Tanjung Pinang, Tanjung Batu, Jakarta. One said Medan is a Food Heaven. It was too much food that they want to try, but we only had such little time. 

Saturday:

We started with Mie Lindung (Mie Siantar) at Jalan Singa. 

    

Our second menu was Soto Medan at Rumah Makan Sinar Pagi. 

Soto Medan (Shredded chicken curry made with coconut milk)

Third destination was another mie keriting siantar. Actually, I was planning to bring them here for our first destination, but, I didn't realize that I went to a wrong shop. Both were good though. They were actually very satisfied with the first place, which was actually a mistake. We even took a video reviewing the noodle. But, after I met my brother, then only I realized that we have gone to a wrong place. Here is the right one. It is located at the corner of Jalan Singa. 

Mie Keriting Siantar(Curly Noodle with pork)

Siantar is a place in North Sumatra (about 3 hours from Medan)

Then, I was craving for Es Campur. We went to a shop located at Jalan Sei Kera. They sell all different kind of Ice dessert. Some had Es Campur, some had Avocado juice. Everything was so refreshing and delicious...

Es Campur (Mixed shaved ice dessert, contains Palm Seed, Chendol, grass jelly, fermented cassava, coconut milk, and palm sugar) 

Avocado Juice with chocolate milk

After that dessert, we thought we should take a break from filling up our stomach. Or I should say that there is no more space in our stomach. It was too much food in one afternoon. So, we went to Istana Maimun to have a walk.

For dinner, we decided to try Nasi Padang Pondok Gurih at jalan Brigjend Katamso.

Udang Sambal Petai (Shrimp & Petai cooked with Chilli)

Sayur Gori / Gulai Nangka (Young Jackfruit Curry)

Sambal Kentang Goreng (Sliced fried potato cooked with Chilli)

Ikan Goreng (Fried Fish)

Ayam Goreng (Fried Chicken)

Tamarillo Juice (Jus Terong Belanda)

It's a bit embarrassing to tell. But, our meal didn't stop there on that day. After the heavy meal, my brother's friend brought us to try Mie and Kwetiao kangkung belacan.   

Fried Kwetiao with Kangkung and Belacan (dried shrimp paste). 

Fried noodle with Kangkung and Belacan

The noodle and kwetiao ended our meal for the day. Please wait for my next posting about Medan trip for the 'Second Day' part...

P.S. Some of the pictures were taken by my buddies. Big thanks, buddies!