Taipei, Taiwan: Ding Tai Feng, Ximending, Barbie Cafe, Shilin (Part 2)

As we woke up quite late on the 2nd day, we decided to skip the hotel breakfast and head to the original Ding Tai Feng at Xinyi (信義) for brunch.  We took the MRT to Dongmen (东门) Station and exit via exit 5, walk along the road until you cross Yong Kang (永康) Street and you will see Ding Tai Feng, it is just a 5 mins walk from the station.

At the entrance you will be greeted by the Ding Tai Feng mascot.  We reach at about 10.40am, although it is crowded but there are still empty tables so we didn't have to queue.

And of course the must order Xiao Long Bao.  I don't know if it is psychological but I feel that it is better than Singapore branch however it doesn't have the wow factor which have me coming back for more.

The drunken chicken wasn't as good as Singapore's though the portion is bigger, the meat is abit on the tough side but they do use sufficient wine which taste quite good.

The guo tie (锅贴) is crispy on the top (or bottom depends how you see it) and soft on the other side which is very well done.

This is something I always order, 炸酱面. The noodles is still 'crunchy' not too soft just the right texture, taste wise its ok very similar to Singapore's branch.

Next we head to Ximending (西门町) and shop around the area until evening, didn't take any pictures there.  Just take the metro to Ximen station (西门) and once you exit there are lots of shopping and food.  The famous Ah Zhong Mee Sua (阿宗面线) is located there as well.  Oh ya there is a Stay Real Shop (open by 阿信 from Mayday) in that area also.

Its close to evening and we wanted try some of the famous theme restaurant in Taipei so we headed to the Barbie Cafe (not my choice though).  We took the MRT from Ximen Station to Zhongxiaodunhua(忠孝敦化) Station and take exit 6.  After exiting cross the road and there should be a standard chartered bank not too far and you can see the Barbie Cafe on the 2nd floor.

The whole place is so pink and Barbie......

This is the Chocolate Brûlée (TWD120), very chocolaty but I prefer more bitter chocolate however it tasted quite good.

The mixed fruit mousse cake (TWD120) tasted not bed as well, will be better if there are real fruits of bite size inside.

Last we had the Barbie Classic Chocolate Honey Toast (TWD 250).  This seems like something everyone order when they are there.  The mix of fruit and chocolate ice-cream on the bread is heavenly however the bread is too tough, would be good if it is silky soft but I guess the whole structure will collapse when it is cut if it is silky soft :D

If you like Barbie and want some dessert in the afternoon or early evening it is a recommended place.  Although we did make a booking in advance but it is very empty at 6pm on a Sunday as you can see from the photos above.

To me the dessert are just like tea break which doesn't satisfy my dinner quota.  So we head to Shilin Night Market.  Take note that Shilin Night Market nearest metro station is Jiantan(剑潭) NOT Shilin(士林).  Surprisingly it is super crowded on a Sunday night, don't they sleep early before starting work the next day?  Anyway as it is already quite late we didn't shop much but wanted to head for some food.  The food stalls are no longer along the streets but instead they have been moved to an underground "Food Court", there's no more night market feel when eating there not sure why they did that.

I had a craving for oyster, in the afternoon I though the mee sua is suppose to have oyster but it didn't, so I wanted to have the egg omelette with oyster (蚵仔煎).  The first stall that we see when we enter the 'food court' sells 蚵仔煎 so we decided to give it a try and it tasted good, I am now drooling while I think of it.  Its not too costly at TWD55.

I have always heard about this 大肠包小肠 and wanted to try it.  I must say that I am abit disappointed when I finally get to try it, not because it doesn't taste good but its totally not what I expected.  All along I thought it made using the pig's big and small intestine (which I quite like) wrapping a sausage, but turn out I was only right about the sausage part (but its taiwanese sausage which I don't really like). For those who don't know what is it, it is actually glutinous rice made into sausage like (which makes up the 大肠) and they wrapped this together with some asparagus and a taiwanese sausage (which makes up the 小肠) calling it 大肠包小肠.  It cost TWD50.

Ended off the dinner with crab (香酥螃蟹), shishamo(黄金鱼) and squid(五味鱿鱼).  All of them tasted quite good if I wasn't as sleepy then I might order some Taiwanese beer to go with it.  Each of the dishes cost TWD150, so total damage is TWD450.

After the satisfying dinner its time to head back to hotel for a good rest before exploring more of Taiwan.

Location:
Ding Tai Feng (Xinyi)
No. 194, 信義路二段
Taipei City, Taiwan 106
+886 2 2321 8927

Ah Zhong Mee Sua (阿宗面线)
No. 8-1 Emei Street, Wanhua District
Taipei, Taiwan

Stay Real (Ximending)
108, Taiwan, Taipei City, Wanhua District, 武昌街二段85-4號
Taipei, Taiwan

Barbie Cafe
2F, No.128 Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, Da'an District
Taipei, Taiwan

Shilin Night Market

Taipei (Other Parts):
Part 1: Taipei, Taiwan: Taoyuan Airport, Wu Fen Pu and Raohe Night Market (Part 1)
Part 3: Taipei, Taiwan: Hot Spring, Bei Tou, Dan Shui, Yu Ren Ma Tou, Aranzi Cafe, Wu Lao Guo (Part 3)
Part 4: Taipei, Taiwan: Hello Kitty Cafe, Dian Shui Lou (Part 4)
Part 5: Taipei, Taiwan: Hello Kitty Gate, Silver Kris Lounge (Finale)

Taipei, Taiwan: Taoyuan Airport, Wu Fen Pu and Raohe Night Market (Part 1)

Arrived at Taoyuan Airport, Taipei, Taiwan at around 4.30pm at Gate D4 Terminal 3.  There seems to be quite a few tour group from China arriving at that time from other flights and immigration queue is very long.  After clearing immigration we wanted to get the local prepare sim card so we can still contact each other via call or whatsapp.

When you exit from the sterile area into the public area right in front is the taiwan tourism counter where you can get brochures for buses, different part of taipei or even ask the counter staff for assistance.  If you want to get the local sim card like me, turn to the left once you exit (note this information is for Taoyuan Airport terminal 3) and walk to the end you will see a few counters selling them.  Actually their plan and price are quite similar just different provider.

I got the card from the taiwan da ge da counter as that has the longest queue and turn out that it is also one of the bigger ones in Taipei.  The plan are as follows:

The sim card is valid for 6 months and you can top-up if the pre-paid plan has been exhasted.

If do not need a local sim card and want to proceed to the main city (i.e. Taipei main train station) you will turn right once you exit from the sterile area into the public area.

After turning right and walking further down you will see signs for Bus to city.  I took the Kuo Kuang Motor Transport (as recommended by the staff at the taiwan tourism counter) to Taipei main train station.  Its bus 1819 and cost NT$125, the frequency is 15-20mins.  The bus journey is about 1hr 30mins to the Taipei main train station.

We took a cab from Taipei main train station to our hotel at ChangAn area which cost just NT$70.  After checking-in we head out immediately to Wu Fen Pu.  The nearest met to Wu Fen Pu is Houshanpi station but it isn't so near that you can see Wu Fen Pu after exiting from the station.  Once you reach Houshanpi station take exit 1 and walk along Zhongpo North Road (中坡南路) till the intersection of Zhongpo North Road and Yongji Road (永吉路) and Wu Fen Pu is towards your left.

As it is already dinner time and we are very hungry we decided to eat our dinner first before proceeding to Wu Fen Pu.  We ate at this shop at the intersection of Zhongpo North Road and Yongji Road.

Formosa Chang (胡须张) which is famous for it braised meat rice (卤肉饭), so we decided to give it a try.

This is a half portion braised meat rice, quite a small bowl for me.  The taste is not bad but I wouldn't say that it would have me coming back for more.

Also ordered a plate of bean sprouts, which couldn't go too wrong.  As we wanted to go to Raohe night market later hence didn't eat alot.  After this we proceed on to Wu Fen Pu.

This is the only photo taken there, the place wasn't too crowded although its a Saturday night.  Not a place for guys, most are selling ladies fashion.

So we made our way to Raohe Street Night Market, it is about 15 minutes leisure walk from Wu Fen Pu.  From Wu Fen Pu you should be walking towards Songshan train station (not MRT) to get to Raohe Street.  There isn't much sign around, I used google map to navigate there.

This is the famous pepper bun (胡椒饼), super long queue.

You can see 4 people making the bun here, there is still an army of people behind hence the queue clear quite fast.  Basically it is just a bun with spring onions and pepper minced pork, again it taste not bad but I do not crave for it.

 Next we tried the egg prawn ball, which has quite a queue also.

How is the egg prawn ball made?  They crack an egg (those small ones) into the hole in the metal tray and put a prawn into it, they will squeeze a sauce onto the balls depending on what flavour your ordered.  A good snack to eat and shop at the night market.

Again another egg snack which has a long queue.  This is one of the shop that has been recommended on a taiwan show (食尚玩家).

Basically they will fry the egg into a long square roll and depending on the flavour you order they will put different ingredients on top of it.  We realise that most of the stalls which has long queue are selling eggs related snack, we need to watch our cholesterol level so decided to give the rest a miss.

Didn't take much pictures that night as we were eating as we walk and its very packed.  Don't be mistaken that this night market is very small, it is quite a long stretch but of course not as big as Shilin.  After walking the entire stretch we decided to call it a day and head back to hotel.

Locations:

1) Taoyuan Airport, Taipei, Taiwan

2) Formosa Chang, No.146 Section 4, Chongqing North Road, Taipei, Taiwan

3) Wu Fen Pu

4) Raohe Night Market

Taipei (other parts):
Part 2: Taipei, Taiwan: Ding Tai Feng, Ximending, Barbie Cafe, Shilin (Part 2)
Part 3: Taipei, Taiwan: Hot Spring, Bei Tou, Dan Shui, Yu Ren Ma Tou, Aranzi Cafe, Wu Lao Guo (Part 3)
Part 4: Taipei, Taiwan: Hello Kitty Cafe, Dian Shui Lou (Part 4)
Part 5: Taipei, Taiwan: Hello Kitty Gate, Silver Kris Lounge (Finale)

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SilverKris Lounge (Singapore Terminal 3)

Just made a trip on Singapore Airlines to Taipei recently and wanted to share what is there in the SilverKris Lounge in Singapore Terminal 3 (Business Class).  Will write about my onboard experience and my Taipei trip after my trip.

The SilverKris Lounge is located just one floor above the departure hall.  After you have clear through the immigration turn left and you will see signs leading you to the lounge.

After you clear the reception where they check your boarding pass you will enter this corridor, if you see to the end there is another reception checking the boarding pass again if you are going into the first class lounge.

The first turn into the lounge for business class passenger.

The different area in the lounge, it is a very big lounge which isn't surprising since it is Singapore Airlines hub is here.  Pretty empty at 10.30am.

Quite a huge selection of magazines and newspaper.

This is the dining area and the buffet behind, quite a spread just like some four star hotel buffet breakfast.

The fried carrot cake but very little left and was not replenish throughout my stay there around an hour which is quite embarrassing  for a 5 star airline, they should either replenish it or remove it from the table.

Again the braised ee fu noodle with a few strands left again not replenish, disappointed.

There is pretty much left for the chicken congee but the condiments also looks empty.

This looks more decent except for the sauce.  I took 2 baked egg without the sauce.

Mini hot cakes with maple syrup by the side.

Steam BBQ Pork Bun but no other dim sum which I am looking forward to.

Didn't really open this dish, assume not much left as well.

No more grilled spinach as listed but just 4 sausages left.

The spread.

There are also some Indian dishes like Dalcha, Roti Jala and Curry Potato, they still looked filled maybe not too many indian travellers in the morning.

Braised tofu, at last 1 non-indian dish where there is more than just a few pieces or strands left.

Glass noodles, looks like it just came out also.

Chwee Kuay, alot left don't think it is a favourite for travellers.

Dau Suan.

The drinks section, many choices from soft drinks to fruit juice to water.

This is the bread, fruits and dessert section.

These fruits were replenish at around 11.

The dessert section, most seems like yogurt.

They dish out some soba and sushi much later.  Guess its a bad time to be at the lounge from 10.00-11.30am, mostly are left over food.

This is the hot drinks section where they have a good selection of tea from TWG.

And for the coffee lover, the coffee machine.  There is also a bar in another corner of the lounge which I didn't take any photo.  You can request for wine, beer or even hard liqueur there.

Some assorted sandwiches.

This is what I had at the lounge.  Quite disappointed with what is left.

There is also a business centre alike there, where you can finish some work or check your emails before you board the plane.

There are lots of amenities in the washroom just like a 5 star hotel.

The bathing facilities is also very good.

Feature some of the items you can purchase from the Krisshop when you are walking out of the lounge.

Overall the lounge is very well equipped but the left over food which is not replenish or remove is really very disappointing and not up to the standard of a 5 star airline.  I guess if I am there at noon it would have look much better.

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