Wednesday, June 9, 2010

礁溪飲食

we went to a steakhouse, taiwanese style.  what do they have on the menu?  "American style bbq pork rib".  sounds promising.  we ordered it.  and...

this was an atrocity.  an affront to all the bbq ribs in the world.  it was a wrong cut.  the membrane on the back of the rack was not remove.  it was charbroiled and tough instead of slow-smoked to a melt-in-your-mouth tenderness.  and it has no bbq sauce.  it was the most horrible bbq ribs i've ever tasted. 

to wash the horror away, we went to a craft brew restaurant.  they have a green-algae beer (yes, really, and it's grassy green) on the menu that weren't currently available.  so we ordered a dark and a wheat. pretty good.

礁溪漫步

五峰旗瀑布

跑馬古道

蘭陽平原

Monday, May 3, 2010

礁溪易遊居

new year hotel were hard to book and expensive.  i ended up booking 2 nights for the end of new year at a loft-style hot spring hotel in 礁溪。

the first floor of the loft.  first thing kevin tend to do at all the hotels was to plop down on the sofa and turn the tv on....

the hot spring was piped straight into the bathroom in a big nice stone tub.


the loft has a bed and another tv.


it is not kevin-sized....

the breakfast was sent up to the room every morning.  looks pretty good right?  but kevin hated it so much...  he complains about the bread, the sandwich, the salad, the mayonnaise.   this theme shall persist in our travel.  he practically threw tantrums when unpalatable food should cross his way.  should i call him an uncompromising gourmand or a picky whiny eater?

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

dark washroom

the bathroom is kind of dim, as a result, kevin often shaved badly. 

Ocean in the Washroom

Hawaiian theme bar in the 101 area. 

the woman's washroom has soothing ocean sounds.  the man's washroom has vocano noises and light simulation. 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Shojo Formosa Chang

Kung Hei Fat Choi Burger King!

the king gave us red pocket...

北投

during new year break, we went to Beitou, the hot spring on the subway line.  since 2 years ago, someone has decided to dress up the station and the train.

Kevin had picture taken with little people with no genitals taking a hot soak in front of the Beitou Hot Spring Museum.


 I had my picture taken with people singing karaoke in the park. 

醬太郎

lots of restaurants and stores are closed during new year.  Taipei was rainy, cold, and empty.  we went to eat some bbq to cheer up.  we went to 醬太郎 by 中山 station.  they have all you can drink beer on tap and a pretty good selection of meat.  their hotpot and sashimi were decent (that's pretty good for an all you can eat bbq).

kevin grilling some french fries, onion rings, and edamame....

finally we went 爬山...

kevin thought we would go 爬山 (it means climbing mountain but in reality more like hiking trails in our case) every morning and do taichi on top of the mountain.  but the mountain (in our case, the four animal mountains 四獸山) is not that close to us, so we never went...

finally, during new year break, we go 爬山。this is Elephant Mountain, over looking Taipei 101.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant

Lunar new year this year is on the same date as Valentine's Day.  This restaurant got decorations for both.  The burger and beer were pretty good.  Kevin ordered seared tuna.  Not so good with the beer.

alibi suitable picture

here's the high speed train we love so much.  so fast, so reliable...

Tainan Trip Day 2

we hired a taxi to go to 七股 salt mountain. i thought there would be mountain range made of salt but there was just one big salt mount.

because of the cold wind, kevin bought a bird-watching hat to protect his bare head.  then we drank salt coffee (pretty good), ate salt 豆花 dessert tofu.  then we won salt face wash and salt shower gel in a draw. 

in the afternoon, we were scheduled to take a boat trip of 七股潟湖 inland sea.  the trip included unlimited amount of grilled oysters!  Kevin wanted to skip the boat ride and just ate the oysters while knocking back six-pack of beer.

but unfortunately for Kevin, we still went on the boat.  this picture is taken by me.  please compare it to the next picture taken by Kevin.

this is the picture taken by Kevin.  you can see the difference in arm lengths.  almost looks like someone else took the picture.

we went to a sand bank on the inland sea then we went to the oyster farm.  our guide looking for the oyster....
viola!

than our captain (funny man, he used the boat as his stand-up comedy club) cast the net....
and there were the fish!

after the boat ride, we drank some ginger tea to expel the cold.  Kevin wants to keep grilling the oyster, but for time consideration, we went on to our next destination: the Black Spoonbill Conservation.  (that's the bird on Kevin's hat)

they fly through Jeju island.  maybe they can take a message to Erica...

Kevin係一個漂泊ㄟ男子....

for dinner, we went to the teppanyaki restaurant in the Landis Hotel.  there was a nice big fish tank in the back.  in the front was Kevin's prawn.  in the middle was the innocent couple who accidentally became involved in my picture. 

The Salad
The Soup
The Steak
The Dessert

everything was good but a bit expensive for the amount of food.  not quite satisfying.  that's the end of the second day.

Tainan Trip Day 1

it's very hard to book hotel during the new year period, so Kevin and I did a pre-new year trip instead.  2 nights at Tainan.  We stayed at 愛閣汽車旅館 Love House Motel, $1690 ntd per night big rooms with flat pannel TV, with jacuzzi, steam room, and a small TV in our bathroom.  the toiletry supply went beyond the basic, there were face wash, bath oil, even disinfectant.  snacks and drinks at the mini-bar were complimentary.  everyday we came back to the motel, they gave us herbal dried fruit and a deck of player cards.  breakfast was above average. excellent value. yes, i am recommending it.  

Now back to the trip.  the weather in Tainan was nice, so Kevin shaved his head to expose his scalp to sunlight.

in front of the city hall, Kevin sat on a dog.

on the way to the motel, we walked by a new year market.  they have a beer-drinking contest that Kevin almost participated in.

going out for dinner.  Kevin accentuated the sunset with the contour of his nicely shaven head.

we walked by a wine store downtown that sell fruity Belgium beer.  Kevin got a passion fruit lambic.  i got a tea lambic.  the beer was even served in the proper glass!

then we have pizza served by a block of cheese.

they have a brick oven and make the pizza fresh from scratch.

we enjoyed our food.  too bad they don't have a branch in Taipei...

on the way back we walked by a basketball court on top of a scooter parking lot.  it looked weirder than this picture shows.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Chocolate Loonies

Kevin's teacher gave all the student red pockets with chocolate coins inside.  It's....a.....LOONIE.  New Year in Taiwan with a Canadian touch.
 

大直 Riverside Park

Kay left...

Kevin and I went to 大直 Riverside Park along the Keelong River.  It's mainly new residential buildings.  everything is kind of spread out.  the open, spacious feeling is really nice, but Keelong River is still stinky.