{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 4: Mr J French Italian Restaurant, Addiction Aquatic Development, Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice

Posted on June 18, 2014 by missuschewy

We have finally come to the end of our Taiwan travelogue! On our last full day in Taipei, we decided to chiong finish all the places that we wanted to visit (actually not many.. LOL) and our first stop was Jay Chou’s Mr J French Italian Restaurant (Mr J 義法廚房)!

We actually came here the night before, after returning from our day trip to Shifen. BUT it was pouring like crazy, the taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong location, my slippers broke, we were totally drenched and to make matters worse, when we finally arrived.. Kitchen closed like 10 minutes before! ARGH. Talk about ultimate suayness! At least we succeeded in the end cuz we are Jay Chou fans! 😀

The theme of the restaurant revolves around Jay Chou’s award-winning directorial debut movie “Secret” (不能說的秘密) which was shot in a school setting and hence, the restaurant is aptly located within Taipei Medical University. I love this movie so much that I watched it at least a few times and I can never get sick of it. It’s such a clever movie but that’s not surprising given that Jay Chou is really talented.

In the movie, this old piano in the old school building is actually a time machine which brought Ye Xianglun (played by Jay Chou) and Lu Xiaoyu (played by Gwei Lun-mei) together even though the latter was living in the past.

Please refrain from playing the piano to avoid being transported 20 years back.

As compared to what we had at Jay Chou’s Fujiwara Tofu Shop, the food here is so much better!

My Mentaiko Pasta had a very rich umami taste. I enjoyed every bit of it!

The hubs’ Mushroom Risotto was also quite good!

Can’t believe we finished checking out all of Jay Chou’s restaurants already! We asked one of the service staff and she said that the other restaurant had ceased operations.

Our stomachs 70% filled, we left for Addiction Aquatic Development which is like an unconventional and modern fish market. I know that this might not best describe it, but I thought the concept is kinda like Singapore’s PasarBella except that you find mostly fresh seafood here.

You can even enjoy a leisurely meal here although you gotta stand throughout.

Not wanting to load ourselves with any more carbo, we ordered only sashimi to share.

Thickly sliced raw fish.

Melt-in-the-mouth goodness! The husband’s favourite.

We decided to go for Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice (金峰魯肉飯) even though we weren’t exactly feeling hungry because quite a number of people favors this over Formosa Chang. Wanted to compare!

Honestly, Jin Feng’s braised pork rice tasted as good as Formosa Chang’s one la. I couldn’t really tell the difference.

We departed Taipei the very next day. The hubs bought this Hello Kitty Chang Kai Shek edition mobile phone strap to add to my collection of ONE. LOL. I have this floating market one which we bought at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. Hehe.

Took this selfie on our way to the airport while eating Ah Chung Mee Sua on the bus! Looking forward to our next holiday, hopefully with Chanelle this time! 🙂 Stay connected with us on Facebook www.facebook.com/missuschewy and on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy 😀

{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 3: Releasing Sky Lantern in Shifen

Posted on June 16, 2014 by missuschewy

I would advise you against travelling to Taipei in May. It rained without fail every single day of our trip! The hubs wanted to have breakfast at Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang (永和豆漿大王) so we took the metro and alighted at Da’an Station. Had to walk quite a fair bit but thank goodness we had an umbrella with us and misterchewy’s navigating skills are good if not I would have whacked him with the umbrella 😛

Eating dou jiang (豆浆) and you tiao (油条) in Taipei has never once crossed my mind but I just went along with misterchewy’s suggestion.

Obviously, we over ordered! I was already quite full when I was done with just the dou jiang and you tiao lor. Haha!

We made a trip to Long Shan Temple to give thanks for the smooth delivery of our baby. My parents visited this temple last year and prayed for the safety of both mother and child 🙂

Our highlight of the day was releasing sky lantern (天灯) at Shifen (十分)! As with Jiufen, we had to take a train to Ruifang in order to reach Shifen. We didn’t get to board the express train this time so the journey was excruciatingly long because the train stopped at every single station! By the time we reached Shifen, I low batt liao. Old already. HAHA.

The name Shifen came about because there used to be 10 families living in the town. It has this rustic old charm just like Jiufen.

If you had watched the romantic flick “You Are The Apple of My Eye” (那些年，我們一起追的女孩), you would know that Ko Ching-teng (played by Ko Chen-tung) and Shen Chia-yi (played by Michelle Chen) released a sky lantern in Shifen in one of the scenes. The hubs and I loved the movie and naturally, we were excited to be able to do the same right here in Shifen, along the railway track! 🙂

Apparently, the act of releasing sky lanterns had been made even more popular by the movie and of course, it’s not surprising that others would want to capitalize on this as a source of income.

There were so many shops selling souvenirs and sky lanterns of various colors! We randomly said ok to one of the sellers who approached us because we were too lazy to compare prices. By and large, the prices should be similar.

We paid NT$200 for a particular multi-colored sky lantern, meaning all four sides are of a different color and each color represents a different aspect of life. There are various color combinations available for you to choose from. We chose Health (red), Wealth (yellow), Education/Work (blue) and Love (orange). Simply unleash your creativity and write/draw your wishes on the paper lantern. Once you are done, the shop assistants will help to light up your lantern so that you can release it into the sky and your wishes will be carried to heaven.

We were given a calligraphy brush to write with which can get pretty messy if you are not careful. Some of what I wrote was contributed by misterchewy! HAHAHA.

It was pouring intermittently and once it slowed down to a slight drizzle, the both of us rushed out and told the guys that we wanted to release our sky lantern NOW!

It was fascinating to be able to see our lantern drift off into the sky.

I know that our prayers will be heard and our wishes will come true! 🙂

Next blog post will mark the end of our Taiwan travelogue for this year! We ate so much on the last day of our trip! Stay connected with us on Facebook www.facebook.com/missuschewy and on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy 🙂

{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 2: Jiufen & Jay Chou Fujiwara Tofu Shop

Posted on June 12, 2014 by missuschewy

Day 2 in Taipei saw us waking up early in the morning because we had planned to go to Jiufen (九份)! As mentioned in my previous post, we stayed at iTaipei Service Apartment which is located right above Taipei Main Station. It was really convenient for us.

Queuing to buy train tickets to Ruifang.

The express train journey took about an hour. It was raining when we reached Ruifang. 🙁 Waited for the public bus to take us up to Jiufen.

I had been to Jiufen at least 3 or 4 times and honestly, I don’t find this place interesting. Plus it always rains in Jiufen! 🙁 It was misterchewy’s idea to visit Jiufen again.

Stopped by Zhang Ji Traditional Fish Balls (張記傳統魚丸) for lunch.

Braised pork rice! These were quite good, although not exactly fantastic. The rice could definitely use more sweet soy sauce.

Their mixed balls soup was pretty awesome! My favourite was the cuttlefish ball.

We were so hungry that we ordered another bowl of braised pork rice and mixed balls soup to share 😛

Feeling kinda full already but we stopped by Lai Ah Po Yu Yuan (赖阿婆芋圆) for handmade taro balls. Heh.. I think I still prefer Blackball because it’s sweeter 😛

I was initially quite worried about going to Jiufen because I was quite sure that there wasn’t any nursing rooms there. Thankfully, misterchewy did some searching online and told me that we could take a 10 minute bus ride to Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park. Taiwan is really baby-friendly! This kinda place can also find nursing room. Really not bad!

The hubs bought this Agnes B bijoux bangle for me at Q Square shopping mall on our way back to our hotel! 😀

AHHHHHH! I can hardly contain my excitement! We had dinner at Jay Chou’s Fujiwara Tofu Shop!! It was really a dream come true for us Jay Chou fans! 😀 😀 😀

This photo was taken during closing time. There were only about 5 tables of customers that night. The location wasn’t that easy to find, imo.

If you don’t already know, this restaurant is named after the tofu shop owned by the characters played by Jay Chou and Anthony Wong (as his dad) in the popular movie, Initial D.

We randomly chose a place to sit but apparently we hit jackpot! Sat right next to the iconic Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX (AE86)! There was a mini one too! How cute 🙂 I suppose nobody sat there because it was near the entrance. Haha.

I was grinning from ear to ear the entire time we were there 😛

We bought an unopened bottle of Ramune soda (also known as marble soda) and brought it back to Singapore as a souvenir.

I might update this space again if I manage to find the receipt. Honestly, the food is mediocre but we didn’t regret at all! 🙂

HAHAHA. I swear it wasn’t my idea! 😛

It was an extremely memorable night for misterchewy and I. I know it sounds kinda funny but it was as though we could feel Jay Chou’s presence. LOL! We visited another of Jay’s restaurant two days later which will be featured soon! Stay connected with us on Facebook www.facebook.com/missuschewy and on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy 🙂

{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 1: Ah Chung Mee Sua, Formosa Chang, iTaipei Service Apartment Review

Posted on June 10, 2014 by missuschewy

Hot on the heels of Part One of our Taiwan travelogue featuring our short stay in Cingjing, Part Two will be spilt into 4 mini posts because we spent 4 nights in Taipei. Hehe. As I had mentioned in my previous posts, misterchewy and I really enjoyed our two-night stay at Dreamtown Minsu (嵐山小鎮) because our room was comfortable and the people were very hospitable. My heartfelt gratitude to 二姐 who thought of an ingenious way to transport my frozen breast milk from Cingjing to Taipei. Will be sharing tips another time! 😉

Upon reaching Taipei, we left our luggage with the hotel concierge and immediately headed to Xi Men Ding for Ah Chung Mee Sua (阿宗麵線)! It’s a must eat each time we go to Taipei and this trip alone, we patronized Ah Chung thrice!

Salivating at the thought of a delicious piping hot bowl of mee sua with braised large pork intestines, topped with some garlic, chilli and vinegar! YUMS!

Look at that! The pork intestines were damn chewy! Ah Chung Mee Sua is legendary. I used to think that it’s overrated but not anymore. Totally missing this now!

And then we decided to have Hot Star Large Fried Chicken. Aiya since we were already at Taipei, then just eat all the way.

Just fyi, the fried chicken cutlet are not cut up like what you typically see in Singapore. The entire slab was bigger than our faces. The ones that we had in Singapore were usually dry and a little tough but Hot Star’s fried chicken was superbly crispy and succulent.

It started to rain and we decided to go back to our hotel to rest and for me to express my milk. Got a shock when we saw this. We were rudely reminded of the crazy human traffic back home! Muahahaha. After our short break, we took the metro to Wufenpu to do some shopping.

It wasn’t our first time visiting Wufenpu and each time, I would leave almost empty handed because I don’t fancy lacy dresses. I see plenty of that at Wufenpu! Guys clothing are so much nicer!

If you intend to do some shopping at Wufenpu, do cross over to Formosa Chang (鬍鬚張) for a taste of really fabulous braised pork rice (滷肉飯) that you will never be able to get in Singapore! Food is damn cheap and good!

This bowl of braised pork rice (NT$33) may look simple but its taste is far more complex. Stewed in sweet soy sauce, every mouthful was so fragrant and the shreds of fatty pork melted in the mouth. It’s a pretty small bowl so we ordered another large one to share.

You have to order the pork trotter (NT$80) to go with your braised pork rice. Loved it for its gelatinous texture! I think I almost polished off the entire plate because misterchewy is not a fan of pork trotters.

Spent four nights at the very awesome iTaipei Service Apartment. Our room was lofty and spacious, clean, and the location of iTaipei is good! It is situated at Taipei main station, above Q Square shopping mall. Talk about convenience!

Sorry for the rather short post! Been busy since I got back to work! Promise that the next few posts will be more interesting 😛 Stay connected with us on Facebook www.facebook.com/missuschewy and on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy 🙂

missuschewy

Singapore Lifestyle and Travel Blog

Tag Archives: missuschewy taipei blog

{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 4: Mr J French Italian Restaurant, Addiction Aquatic Development, Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice

{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 3: Releasing Sky Lantern in Shifen

{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 2: Jiufen & Jay Chou Fujiwara Tofu Shop

{ Taiwan Travelogue Part Two } Taipei Day 1: Ah Chung Mee Sua, Formosa Chang, iTaipei Service Apartment Review

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