Weekend Escape @ Changi Village Hotel

... sort of a Christmas celebration too... Booked a room at Changi Village Hotel over the Christmas weekend, and a small family gathering on the first day (Christmas)... Went up to the 8th storey... scenic view up there... and you can view planes at a close range as they are about to land...

And fortunate to view the feeding of the koi fishes at 6th storey...

At evening, went over to the Chou Bei Japanese restaurant to have dinner... expensive but nice..... let the pictures do the talking...

... cod fish in teriyaki sauce... NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deep-fried pork cutlet... Not bad!!!!

... salmon belly... a bit oily but so smooooth....

... mixed tempura... ok, quite nice... batter is well done though, crispy and not too thin nor thick...

... asparagus wrapped with bacon... This is solid, especially when eaten hot!!!!...

... toast rice cake... (can't help but to say something: this simple food actually taste extremely good!!! )

... Udon... very chewy...

... barbecue squid... a bit tough....

and drank a cup of "fruity" sake-wine... nice.... fragrant and smooth...

Next day went over to CSC, and walked over to OG PP... On the way back, bought the Oil-Chicken noodles (油鸡面), and man, it is GOOD!!!!!! The noodles are still springy after being wrapped and couped up for so long... sauce is sweet and savoury enough... chicken is TENDER... and I really mean tender, not soggy...

... and while at OG PP, bought this Si-Chuan snack at 1 of the stall in People's Park Centre, inside got soy-braised pork pieces and cucumber slices, quite nice... and bought some roasted chestnuts, very very very TASTY!!!!

Today morning went out to try the supposedly famous dim-sum just outside the hotel... and definitely live up to its reputation!

Siew-mai (烧卖): 1 of the 2 dim-sum to try if a stall/restaurant is good or not.

Verdict: surprisingly way above average, did not leave my stomach a "oily" (油腻)after finishing all 4 pieces!

Har-Kow (虾饺): The other of the 2 dim-sums to try.

Verdict: VERY GOOD!!!! Prawn is succulent (restaurant standard, but don't eat too much), skin is thin enough but will not break upon handling with chopsticks, even though it is surprisingly not-oily!!! (but this means the skin is not as "chewable" - as it crumbles a bit more easier in the mouth...)

Prawn-rice roll (鲜虾肠粉): freshly made chee-cheung-fun (猪肠粉) with prawns/shrimps inside, poured on them are some light soy-sauce, sesame-seed oil, and cooked oil...

Verdict: GOOD!!!

Shanghai Small Steam Dumplings (上海小笼包): Surprise find, its not a traditional Canton dim-sum, but...

Verdict: Hahahahaha... Beyond expectation!!!! Bite off a teeny bit of the skin to drink most of the soup-meat-juice inside, thought that was majority of the meat-juice inside, put the shredded ginger ( soaked in vinegar) and put inside the mouth when suddenly... more meat-juice starts to ooze out from the fillings!!! Incredible! They manage to pack the juice even inside the meat fillings!!!! Tried the other 2 pieces ad yes, it is true, amazing. Only not so good would be the bottom part, the skin is a bit too soggy...

After breakfast, went to have a stroll along the coastal walk...

...sit down at the beach... and relax...

Checked out of hotel after that... Quite a nice weekend...

Taiwan Trip

Just came back from Taiwan, a DELICIOUS place!!! Hahaha... Take a short break from this extremely hectic an busy year...finally a breather... Went with my brother, sis-in-law, parents... Was at the airport early, 6.30am... tired, as the night before did not sleep early...



Day 1
After 4 hours 20mins on SIA plane, reached Taipei, and took a coach to our 4-star hotel Hotel Royal Taipei (老爷大酒店), supposedly owned by JAL, and man, this is the BEST hotel I've ever stayed in(ok, I admit, I've seldom stayed in hotels, hahaha...)


Exploration of Taipei starts after a short break. First stop, 西门町, the equivalent of S'pore's Bugis Street area...


Visited the 西门红楼, a old old theatre that is now converted to hold art sharing... or such... the top hall is very ... eerie... and for those who will be going there, watch out for a talisman pasted on the wall before you descend from the hall's staircase...

Extremely hungry, so went to the pasar malam, 士林夜市, both the old and new one.... Super crowded and bustling with life, made worse as this is Sunday night!!!!

Hahahaha......

Ok, our food/dinner (Do note not all food are photo-ed...sigh...):

Hao Da Big Chicken Chop (豪大大鸡排) !!!!! Juicy.....

大肠包小肠 Very nice, glutinous rice sausage wraps the taiwanese sausage....

胡椒饼Black pepper taste is not so strong in the meat filling, as compared to another one bought another day... but quite nice!!!

臭豆腐 A long queue! Because the stall-owner fried the smelly beancurd whole, then cuts into 4 pieces, and then fried again!!! So all surface is crispy!!!! And they are smelly enough!!!! Tasty.... Tasty... Oh, please buy some of the cooling drinks to drink, to cool down all the heaty food inside your body....

蚵仔煎 Funny taste at first! Very different from our local one... But slowly, gets drawn to the sweet taste of the sauce... yummy... The vegetables actually reduces the oiliness, a nice touch... The 花枝羹, or cuttlefish thickened soup, is quite nice. Do note Taiwan's bamboo shoots have a very strong smell...

Ate more food, eg.七里香 chicken backside, 炸鸟蛋 fried quail eggs, 梅子Q球（地瓜球）sweet potato balls with sour plum powder, （烤）甜不辣... chewy fishcake, barbequed...

Day 2

Had buffet breakfast in the hotel cafe-restaurant... It caters more to the Japanese, not surprising, since it is JAL owned...

Late morning, set off to the chain-shopping centre 星光三越. Had lunch at the basement foodcourt... bought this Idiot Noodles 傻瓜面 set...

肉圆 Meat dumpling!!! Did not expect it to taste so good!!!!!!

虱目鱼丸汤 Milkfish-ball (or aka Salmon Herring/White Mullet/Ikan Bandeng/Bangus) soup... TASTY!!!!!!!! The fishball is not floury / bouncy like local ones, but very solid texture, full of fish taste, good to chew, bestest!!!

Mum bought a wooden bowl noodles...

Other food include red roasted meat 红烧肉 and 甜不辣 'Tempurah" - mixed pieces of fishcakes, turnips, etc, with a sweet sauce ...

... and we had the 小南门's mixed flavour jelly-beancurd 综合豆花 as dessert... nice...

Then went over to Taipei 101, and we went up till the 92 floor, outdoor... Nice experience....

In Taipei 101, there's a exhibition on Gemstone Coral carvings...

... and have a nice drink after descending.... relaxing...relaxing...

Then went back to hotel and after a short break, we went to another night market, 宁夏夜市.

鳝鱼意面 Eel Noodles - Fantastic!!! A bit sour, makes your appetite better!!! chewy eel meat, flavourful... noodles are chewy too!

大花枝酥 One word - tasty! Even for a non-cuttlefish eater like me finds this good... (and we found an even better one another day!)

鲁肉饭 Not as good as I expect... and it's true, managed to find even better ones later during the trip...

My brother ordered the herbal rib soup 十全肉骨汤, as it was a cold night... Yeap, we all shared the food... that's how we manage to eat so many types at 1 time... hahahha...

车轮饼 Wheel-cakes!!!! Filling is extremely rich in taste and generous in amount!!!!!!

月亮虾饼 Indonesia's prawn cake! Prawn paste in 2 pieces of popiah skin... fried to crisp... Yummy....

润饼 popiah!!!!!! hahaha... different taste from local one....

梅子地瓜条 Think sweet-potato french fries... with sour plum powder... Result? TASTY!!!!

章鱼烧 Takopachi... so much nicer than local's!!! With vegetables inside too!!!

We had some other food like 臭豆腐 smelly beancurd (not too good), 沙拉船 which is fried sandwich shaped like a boat, spring onion 'prata' 葱抓饼, chive 'box' 韭菜盒...

Oh, do try the winter-melon tea 冬瓜茶 to cool you down, and fruits like water apple莲雾 and guava 芭乐!

Day 3

Went to 永和 to have 豆浆 soya bean milk, 油条 fried dough sticks, 烧饼 "shaobing", 葱油饼 Spring-onion "bing" and （煎）萝卜糕 fried carrot (Raphanus sativus) cake for breakfast...

Then proceed to 瑞芳's 九份... by train....

We took a bus to reach 九份 , and it is a busy little street, selling food, barang x 2... Go and get some of the roasted peanut candy (see below picture), its good...

Lunch: 醉鸡, 海蜇, 原味鱼丸汤, 花枝丸汤, 鲁肉饭,特制干面, 炒青菜. (Some shown in picture below)

Some snacks include:

草仔粿（阿蘭）grass kueh, salty or sweet version to choose from... like our ang-gu kueh (红龟粿)...

This hilariously dressed lady is the stall owner of the Black pork sausage 黑猪肉香肠 ... "No additional charge for photo pose" Hahahaha.. yes, she is a living signboard... and the sausage is indeed good...

Best time of the day - Having delicious yam ball dessert soup 综合芋圆 （阿甘姨）with fantastic mountain view... ahhhhhhhh...... so relaxing....

Oh, and before we take the return train, we bought a coal-miner lunchbox 矿工月台便当... Whe we open up inside the room, we were all SURPRISE by the quantity & quality of a NT60 lunchbox!!!!! SOLID SOLID!!!!!!!!!!!

After a short rest, we proceed to have dinner. As we are quite tired, we decided to skip night-market for tonight and go to a shop we saw earlier near our hotel for Oyster mee suah 蚵仔面线 , but it is too pack and limited shop space, so we proceed to our last night's night-market 宁夏夜市. Turns out to be a blessing in disguise! Cos we discovered a shop selling DELICIOUS smelly beancurd 臭豆腐!!!!! Their oyster mee suah 蚵仔面线 is also TASTY!!!!! (See pictures below). We also ordered a delicious Hot-spicy Duck-blood soup 麻辣鸭血汤...yummy... can never find this duck-blood (or pig-blood) in S'pore...

麻辣鸭血汤

蚵仔面线

臭豆腐 Extremely DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!

Then went to another shop to have DELICIOUS egg-oyster-fried 蚵仔煎!!!!! And because of the cold night, we also ordered 香菇贡丸汤 mushroom-pork-ball soup and 腰肢清汤 Kidney Clear Soup...

... and proceed to the night-market stalls for snacks...

Muah Chee 麻糬 is extremely soft but chewy!!! On a cold night, eating hot muah chee with red bean / peanut dessert soup is so .... contented...

Day 4

Morning breakfast at Mr Brown cafe, a local brand.

Fresh vegetables makes a BIG difference in the taste of sandwich...

This is the "pager" that will vibrate to inform you to collect your food from the counter.

After breakfast, we proceed to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall... very lucky to witness the whole process of the Military Police changing shifts (guarding the big statue of Dr Sun)...

Went over to 50岚 (KOI???) to buy the bubble tea drinks. Got myself 布丁奶茶 Pudding milk tea and my parents ordered a 爱玉珍珠茶 Jelly pearl tea... 布丁奶茶 is still not bad, quite nice in fact, but the 爱玉珍珠茶 is 通oo sour... anyway...

Then proceed to 孔庙 Confucius Temple at 圆山 to sight-see. Just outside the cross-junction road of the street leading to the temple, there is a small stall selling 胡椒饼. And this time this 胡椒饼 is SUPERB!!!!!!!!! Full of pepper flavour, meat is juicy, spring onion are a bit less though but still ok, and it is piping hot, just nice for a cold day!!!!!

At the Confucius temple....

Ok, being a foodie, quickly move on... We proceed to 淡水, and went to have the 阿给, which is beancurd stuffed with winter-vermicelli (冬粉) - not bad!!!! Also have a not-too-bad mixed fishball soup 综合鱼丸汤, and Fried Bee-hoon 米粉炒!!!!!!!!!!! Which is so good that we ordered another bowl!!!!!!!!!!! The taste is a mix between pork trotters bee-hoon and normal soy sauce fried plain bee-hoon.... Bee-hoon has a very bouncy and chewy texture.... nice.....

Next, we had our dessert of jelly beancurd (with yam, for my order) 芋头豆花 ... the others ordered some other flavours of jelly beancurd... Beancurd is quite smooth, yam is soft in texture, very very good... and a sea view, wow....

Ordered some 麻糬 Muah chee as well but the texture is a bit hard... taste is still good...

Nice view at 淡水...

Snack attack!!!!!!

大花枝酥 - And this time this stall is even tastier!!! Softer and chewy cuttlefish, and my brother is experienced to choose nori+plum powder combi, an taste that will let you crave for more... and yes, we ended up buying again...

Ate more things there, like 芭乐 guava, 酸梅汤 sour plum drink, 旋转马铃薯 Spira-cut potato (very crispy)...

Don't forget to buy the hand-made fish crackers 手工鱼酥 !!!!


We then went to our last night market on the list, the 师大夜市.

The food/snacks attacked are:
甜不辣 - Mixed "tempurah" with sauce, like the ones eaten in Day 2 lunch... very nice!!!!! Can get some soup to mix with the sauce after eating!!! (see 1st picture below)
贡丸汤 Pork Ball soup
水煎包 （肉/高丽菜）Water-fried Buns with meat or cabbage filling - Extremely tasty!!! Especially the cabbage version, so sweet...
冬瓜茶 winter melon tea / 仙草冬瓜茶 'Chin Chao' Winter melon tea
手抓饼 - a prata like food
Coco方形车轮饼 - similar to the normal wheel-cake but rectangle in shape, and filling is humongous!
水煮花生 peanuts cooked in water
刈包 - like the local 焢肉包, but added salted vegetables, peanut powder, etc, VERY tasty (see 2nd picture below)
盐酥鸡 salt and pepper powder on fried chicken pieces - ok, cos my dad can mimic!!
(炸）甜不辣 -Fried "tempurah" fishcake - what more can I say...
芭乐 guava, 莲雾 water apple; 草莓 Strawberries!!!

Day 5
Ready to go home. But before that, breakfast at hotel cafe-restaurant first... Then went to last minute shopping at a nearby 星光三越 and have lunch there:
蚵仔蛎仔（清汤）面线 Oyster/clam mee suah with clear soup - generous portion of clams & oysters!!!! Tats of soup is clear but nice!
焢肉饭 - Braised meat and a bowl of rice with few pieces of mince meat (used for 鲁肉饭 one)... eh... ok lah... the rice and mince meat is good though, so my brother ordered the 鲁肉饭... which is essentially more of the minced meat, because it is so GOOD!!!!
混吞汤 - Wanton soup, but the wanton is not so good compared to that eaten in Day 2 lunch...
猪血/炒豆干/菜 - Combi dish of pig blood, fried benacurd and some vegetables... of course pig blood is good, the rest, well...
碎肉干面 - same, few pieces of minced meat on dry noodles.. but I got to admit the Taiwan noodles are good, chewy and bouncy...
炸豆干 - fried beancurd, and so GOOD that we have to order another plate!

And finally to proceed to a tea shop 和美茶庄 to buy tea leaves... bought the 杉林高山茶 tea, quite fragrant, light...

Mum bought this egg-cake at the road stall, hahaha...

Hence ends my Taiwan trip, my little breather for this year.... And my haul below (minus the tea leaves) ... yeah, bought 2 Marvel toothbrushes, one is a Spiderman 1-minute timer, the other because wantd the Wolverine figure!!!! Hahaha... Most expensive will be the limited edition Ultraman T-shirts with a free mug/handphone pouch...