My sister is coming to town :D

Yeah! My kakak (elder sis) will be arriving in Japan tomorrow morning. In another few hrs, she will be flying from KL. Must be very tiring for her oledi, as she has to keep changing flight this time (Kuching - Johor Bharu - Singapore - Kuala Lumpur - Kansai Airport), due to a cheaper ticket.

I am very eager to meet her up now. Oops... got to tidy up my room tonite. *Sigh* But nothing better than meeting up ur beloved family when u r far far away from home sweet home. Boy... I am very eager to c her, will sure be excited and get imsonia. Must be a lot of things she brings for me too then. :) I hope she made her specialty marble cheese cake for me. And mama hv time to make her Da Lu Dan (flavoured egg).

So, ff will be off from blogging this weekends. But I'll do some blogging on Monday. And be away for another few days again. There will be a lot of posts for info bout having fun in Japan then. :) I still hv a few posts to put on for my past trips. Ai yar~~ speed too slow.

Ok, have a nice weekends everyone.

Mata kondo ne. (c u next time).

Tata.

Okinawaya (1 Oct)

I went to Hamamatsu to meet Yuko in tat weekend. Took a bus on Friday evening, and reached there around 9pm. Very nice to be able to meet up with her again. :)

"Yang, I hv been thinking where to bring u for dinner. But confuse..." Heee... the usual Yuko when she has many choices.

"I think think think... 2 good places want to go. Okinawa food or Bali food... " She turned even more confuse.

"Which one Yuko want to eat more?" I was smiling and looking at her...

"Ei~to~ Both..." She turned to me... "Yang?"

"Let's hv Okinawa, didn't have it for a long time since the last time I went to Okinawa." I said.

"Yatta! (Great!) Okinawa then..." Heee... her confusion settled. "Tomolo Bali restaurant with Naomi then." Heee... she seems to hv the early plan on her mind oledi. Just tat not sure if I will like it or not. This gal has a very considering mind for others. :)

She brought me to a place called Okinawaya. I try to find the link to it, nope, can't get any. Guess it was a very local izakaya (Japanese style bar).

When we stepped in, everyone was looking at us like an alien. Hee... guess we dun really fit the atmosphere inside. With a lot of middle-aged men drinking. Only a few middle-aged ladies. And a few yellow hair young guys at the counter seat. Interesting. Heee...



Yuko n FF got seats at the counter. These 3 Okinawan things just displayed in front of me.



The left one was snake wine. U dun see this in other part of Japan except in Okinawa.



The middle one called Jimami. It's actually peanut. But I dun know wat so special bout this Okinawan peanut. Didn't buy to try.



I was thinking this a kind of spicy seasonings for adding inside foods, but Yuko was telling me it was Awamori sake (wine). Ee~ never know they put so much chili inside. No wonder it was spicy when I tried it last time.



The interior inside was nice and comfortable even though it was just a small building. A very typical type of conventional izakaya, but with a very strong smell of Okinawan air. :P



As appetizer, they gave us this peanut tofu. The texture was very good. Puri puri (don't really know how to explain this in English. It is a kind of soft and smooth texture with a sense of bounciness.). All the time, I thought the appetizer everytime we had in izakaya was for free, only until today then I realised it has been charged into our bill. Including the hand tower fee as well. No wonder last time when I brought my mum to izakaya, they charged me much more than I should hv paid. Ai ya~ how can I be so naive thinking tat it is free in Japan! :P Anyway, this peanut tofu was very good. Love it.



We ordered 3 dishes. First was this soumen chanpuru. Soumen is a kind of superfine noodle. In Chinese, we call it Mian Xian. Chanpuru means mixing. But an original mixing word in Japanese is 'Mazeru'. The word chanpuru actually as Malay word 'campur' which means mixing too. I learnt bout this when in Okinawa. In fact, the Okinawan cuisine taste very much like the South East Asia regions. So, I believe this 'chanpuru' word might be originated from the south too. Think it was for 480yen (~RM17)



We eat the soumen chanpuru with this chilli sauce. Wah~~ very spicy. But very good when u added some into the soumen. Yuko and me keep saying... "Ah~ karai... oishii..." (Wah! Spicy... delicious...) Hee... think the 2 gals might look sakai (a Sarawakian colloquial which means naive) to the other customers around. Yuko is very good in spicy food, me too... so the 2 gals have very similar taste in food.



The next one is my all time favorite Okinawan dish. Called fu chanpuru (mixing gluten curd). But this one was nothing I hv tried before in Okinawa. The chef was very smart in idea menu. He used egg in coating the fu. So when u eat the fu, u hv a fu texture and an egg flavour. I just love it sooo much. A new kind of experience in Okinawan food. Think it was for 680yen (~RM24).



Our last menu was another great surprise for me. Goya pizza (bitter gourd pizza). Genius idea! I must admit the chef made me really satisfied with this dinner. One of the best restaurant I hv ever been to. Not in the sense of anything else, but the food itself touched the inner of my heart. The first time my kandou no namida (tear of a be touched heart) omost came out for an izakaya.

Bout the taste? One of the best pizza I hv ever tried, the taste, the texture and the ingredients. Very cheap. Only 680yen for a generous portion like this.

It was a treat by Yuko. A welcome dinner for me she said. Think the whole dinner cost around 2500yen. Thank u very much dear, for bringing me there.

Shiawaseeee... :)

Lab Trip 2004 (26 Sept, Pt 2)

My god, when woke up yesterday morning n today, with a room like a freezer. Gosh! The weather suddenly just get so cold in one nite. Even use wool cap n gloves to school. But, now it is getting warmer, nice nice. :)

Ok, my last post for the lab trip 2004. :)

After the lunch, we decided to walk around Omihachiman area. We used ropeway to go up to Hachiman Yama. Up there got a temple and u can hv a good view of the Omihachiman city. When we came down, we decided to hv our nice tea time in Club Hare, western dessert part of Himure Village. It is belonged to Taneya, a very famous Japanese and Western sweets shop in Omihachiman.



This was how the out look of the Club Hare building. The place where we had our tea time.



We went to the back part of the building. It was a very westernized coffee house. I just love the garden, a bit like 'Alice in Wonderland', keep following the bunny.



Inside it, just beside the paying counter, had a layout of lovely cakes that inviting this kuishinbo to taste them. :P I was so confused of which one to choose, as everything just seemed to be so delicious. After waiting for 15 min, we got our place. But can't fit in 7 of us in one place. So 4 inside, and 3 outside. Mirian, Wang Hao and me were arranged to be outside, having a great time by relaxing on a splendid tea time. ;)



We were given a piece of this pistachio biscuit as tea time appertizer. Mmmm... I just love it. It was not sweet at all. A taste of saltiness, which bring out the nice crunchy flavour of this little piece. Arrrggg... I was so attracted by it that I bought 1 package home tat day. :P By the way, 1 piece for 30yen (RM1).



This good looking mont blanc ice cream was ordered by Wang Hao. I love the artistic layout of this plate. So cute. Mont blanc means white mountain. And mont blanc is one of the most favorite cake among Japanese during autumn especially, as it is the season for chestnust. Inside was vanilla ice cream. And surrounding with marron glace, meringue and chocolate sauce. The dessert itself was not too sweet. But Wang Hao was kind of disappointed with the vanilla ice cream inside. It was delicious, but just normal vanilla ice cream, nothing special. Heee... This plate was for 840yen (~RM30).



Mirian oso ordered a mont blanc, but a normal one. with cream and spongy cake inside, instead of ice cream. And no decoration around it. The cream inside was good. And it was much cheaper, 420yen (~RM15).



Hehe... a chocoholic like fish fish never will miss a good chance in having nice choco. S0 fish fish let go of the grape layer cake, and stick to her old choice, chocolate...

If this looks good to u, well... believe me, the taste is even much better than its look. A cute shape dark choco on top, followed by a firm but melt in ur mouth choco mousse, then in the middle, a hidden round choco gave u a surprise when u bitten one it unexpectedly. And finally, a cold choco ice cream taste like cake gave u another different kind of feel. I got 4 kinds of feeling by just eating one cake. :P Chou suki (super like). It was for 420yen, which I think really worth the value.



But hv to admit, the choco was kind of insufficient for ff. So, she ordered another favorite dessert of hers... creme brulee. Too bad, even though it was good, but didn't reach her expectation. Oh well, guess next time I hv to go back to the one I had try in USJ again. Think this was for 400yen++, forgot.



This is Mirian (left) and Wang Hao (right) after a good tea time.



We even found out 2 private rooms tat can be rented for tea time.



With a full stomach, we went to the front part of the building, looking for the famous baumkuchen. My... it was sure a long line for a cut of fresh baked baumkuchen. U can buy a packaged one too with a longer shelflife and cheaper price.



Here is the chef busy demonstrating how the making of baumkuchen. It was the first time I see people getting so serious in making cake. He was like handling with a very fragile artpiece.

See 2 round edges tat left after the long baumkuchen cut into pieces? Know wat happen to these edges? All will go into pig stomach. Yap, it is true, they use this for feeding high class pig. Hmm... I wouldn't want to think bout the price of these pork then.



This is wat people been crazy about in lining up for. Yap, a small cut like this for 210yen (RM7.50). Hv to say it was one of the best baum kuchen I hv ever tried. Very spongy and soft. Hmmm... a freshly baked version really do make a difference.



I saw this imopai (sweet potato pie). Lovely. So bought a long bar as omiyage for my host family. It was for ~470yen (~RM17). My host mama was telling me the taste was great. She really like it. :)



Opposite the Club Hare, is the Japanese sweets corner of Taneya, containing counters selling wagashi (Japanese sweets) and a Japanese teahouse for u to enjoy an authentic wafu(Japanese style) teatime. If u hv a sweet tooth for red bean, must try their most famous zenzai (Japanese style red bean soup).

Overall, the thing I enjoyed the most in this trip was the foods. Really hv a very relaxing time enjoying walking around and munching non-stopping. :)

Donation for Niigata Earthquake Victims

Just a short note here.

I mentioned bout waiting for the Niigata Earthquake donation to start. It started, saw in on NHK news last nite. It is called 新潟県共同募金会. It started on 25 Oct 2004, will end on 31 Dec 2004. So hello fellow readers, especially those who stay in Japan, if u r affordable, would appreciate if can help a bit. Thanks! :) Very easy actually, I went to the post office, all I hv to do was just fill in one form, with the info bout the money u want to donate, to who, from who. Tat's all. And no extra charge. Oh, btw, I printed out the whole piece of the info from here and just bring it to the post office. :P

Thank you for the attention.

Lab Trip 2004 (26 Sept, Pt 1)

Stayed with the others eating and chit-chating till omost midnite. We woke up in the morning with a very fresh air. But the sky was kind of a cloudy. I woke up earlier than Mirian n Wang Hao in my room, took a good ofuro (Japanese style bath) and went outside for a morning short walk.



A morning Yogo Lake was very quiet, and yet full of beautiful sounds around. The sound of morning birds tweeting, early autumn breeze blowing and woods leaves whispering. Ah~~ ur mind just got blank and think nothing else.



Then, I went back to the villa to hv breakfast with the others. This was the normal meal set. With fish, ham and potato salad, pickles, half boiled egg, natto, nori (seaweed), Japanese style cold salad, rice and soup. This was a typical Japanese style breakfast.



As for me, omost the same except tat i dun hv the fish n ham. But was given mushroom pickle tat cook with miso paste. Very nice. I like it. Ate a lot of rice again with tat. Gosh! Dun want to think bout the calories intake for these 2 days.



After the breakfast, we hv another 30 min before depature. So, with a few gals in my lab, we walked along the lake again. This pic was taken in another corner beside the lake.



Then, the villa bus sent us to the nearest station to take train to our next destination. While waiting for the train to come, we strolled around for a short while. I like this paddy field tat just being cut not long ago. Spacious place like this seldom can be seen in Kyoto.



We then took another 1.5 h train journey to our next destination called Omihachiman. A famous riverside district and full of old time shops. We went to a place call Maruyama Suigo Meguri for taking a boat ride along the river. It costs 8400yen (~RM300) for 6 people an hr.



It was Sunday, so the business was quite good. Keep bumping into other boat that bring passengers. "Konnichiwa!" Everyone greeting like this to other boats.



On the way back to the harbour, we saw a group of energetic old folks having a painting session. :) If only when I am old, I hv money, energy and time to do the things I like as them...

After the boat riding, we went to our lunch place. It was a restaurant selling famous beef, Omigyu (Omi beef), one of the 3 most famous beef in Japan. The cafeteria named Senrian was in a shops area called Akindo no Sato. Our lunch set cost 2100yen (~RM75) per person.



Mine was a tempura lunch set.



The main dish definitely tempura. :) Assorted vege tempura. Very generous portion. And very good taste too.



Lisa, my junior in my lab who incharged of the trip asked the restaurant dealer to provide me one more dish. :) It was the red konnyaku tat I mentioned yesterday. Hmm, I like the taste of this better when they mix with the black sauce on top. Good to go with rice.

My, I was very full... bloated indeed after I finished the whole meal.



For those who chosen beef set, 2 choices. First was this Sukiyaki lunch set.



Main dish was this sukiyaki pot. Very red beef. Didn't take a picture of the cook version. But for Sukiyaki, the sauce was sweet, and u eat by dipping into raw egg. I tried a bit of the sweet sauce... hmmm... just not my style.



Majority chose the 2nd menu. Teppanyaki (hot plate) lunch set. A white cube on the hot plate (top left) was the beef fat. Replace butter or oil for doin the hot plate cooking. Cholesterol!



As u can see on the place, there was only very stingy 4 pieces of Omi gyu. If u buy from the fresh market, usually it is 420yen (RM15) per 100g for the cheapest category of Omigyu. The most expensive one is 1890yen (RM67) per 100g. I hv even seen in TV before introducing a kind of super expensive beef, a type of Kobegyu for 10,000yen (~RM356) per 100g. "Eat gold ", I say.



Heee... see the big group of my lab people enjoying their smoky lunch? Everyone was saying the beef was excellent, but everyone was complaining stomach still hungry even after the lunch. So, they still go around looking for food in the next destination after this high class beef lunch. ;)

Lab Trip 2004 (25 Sept, Pt 2)

We reached a national guesthouse called Yogokosou (Yogo Lake Villa). It was oledi omost 6pm. Our bus moved along the Yogo lake, very beautiful scene. Feel like in another world. Mind gets into a very relaxing situation.



This was the long dinner desks where we sat. Got 2 rows. It seemed like all the gals get to a row, and so do the guys. :P



Our kaiseki (banquet dinner) was in a big room. This was a part of the layout for other members who hv normal menu. Each member meal cost 4500yen.



Mine was a vegetarian meal. See a grilled fish lay out for me too? They made a mistake. Later they took it away and replace with something else.



And this was for Hayashi sensei little son, Dai chan. Kid's menu. Cute. But I dun think a small boy can finish it all.



We have 4 types of appertizer. Mine were mushroom, sweet potato, small taro and pumpkin.



The normal version had 4 types too, but I dun know wat was wat. :P



For nabemono (hot pot), the normal version had a generous portion of pork.



Whereas mine was generous in vege and mushroom. Very nice taste. But the portion sure a big one for 1 person, counting the keeps coming up menu later on.



For sashimi (sliced raw fish), they had assorted nice fresh seafood.



I got a very healthy bowl of boiled koyatofu (dried tofu) with kinoko (mushroom), okura (lady's finger) and ninjin (carrot). This was a very mild taste. Which really suited my taste bud.



The fish menu I mentioned just now, was a yaki sake (grilled salmon) with benishoga (red ginger).



They replace mine with a very big plate of Chinese style stir fried vege. I love the capsicum and asparagus inside. Goes very well with the sesame sauce. It was a very nice hot place. Yummy Yummy! I ate a lot of rice with this. :P



For tsukurimono (decorated meal), I dun know what they hv. A combination of few foods make into a colourful cubes. Guess somekind of ground fish or meat maybe.



But I do love mine. Agedashi tofu (deep‐fried bean curd in a light savory sauce) with a topping of mushroom and grated radish cooked with shoyu (soy sauce). The tofu was very soft, and the mushroom still left a lite crunch when bitten. :)



Ah~~ finally my favorite tempura was served in the middle of the dinner. It is a normal pratice for a banquet like this, so that the guests can hv a maximum nice taste of a freshly fried tempura. ;) The pic shown here was for normal meal, with prawn, fish n some vege.



And mine was vege and mushroom tempura. I must say I love this one so much. The shimeji and maitake mushroom... I just love it. Totemo oishikatta yo (It was very delicious!)



When our dinner omost came to the end, one of the master 1st year student who incharged the trip did some performance. See the cute pic? It was his product. He was talking bout story of our ex-senior who had some incident during the research. Ai yar~~ poor frog.



Everyone of us then has a bowl of hot steamed egg with assorted ingredient inside. Mine again, meat omitted.



The takikomigohan (rice steamed with assorted things) for a banquet owez serve in the end... we had kinoko (assorted mushroom) takikomigohan...



With akamiso shiru (red miso soup).



And ended the whole series with a cute little dish of sliced orange and kiwi.

Wow!! FF finished all the food of hers, which most of the gals can't. :P Yappari kuishinbo ya na~~ (You see... I am really a greedy pig).

Overall, we felt very manzoku with the menu served. Not only the portion and variety, but oso the great taste. :)

Lab Trip 2004 (25 Sept, Pt 1)

Our lab trip this year was in Shiga prefecture. I was hoping to go to Shirahama in Wakayama as I hv been to some of the places they planned to go in Shiga, but from the voting, even though it was an equal votes for both, they chose Shiga becoz the 3 sensei vote for Shiga. :( Well, anyway, might as well try to enjoy myself then. Wat really made me not satisfied was those who vote for Shiga, a few of them didn't turn up in the last minute. Hmmm... not quite a responsible attitude.



Here was the starting group for the trip. This was taken at the platform waiting for train to go to our 1st destination. QAA means Quality Analysis and Accessment, my lab's name.



We reached a small harbour in Nagahama. Need to take a ferry ride to a small island called Chikubushima. It took around 30min just to the island in the middle of Biwako, the biggest lake in Japan.



The first thing tat attracted me was this Benten Imomochi (a kind of glutinous cake). One for 150yen (~RM5.40). It was just freshly baked. Yummy!! 2 thumbs up for this. The mochi itself very bouncy when u munch on it, and the sauce coating the mochi was just to the rite match, a flavour of saltiness that make u want to munch more n more on it. :) Chou manzoku (super satisfied).



We then started to go uphill in this small island and reach Chikubushima Jinja (shrine). Saw this small wishing board hanging outside the shrine. It is a very typical practice of Japanese to write their whishes on board or something else, then hang at the shrine for the wish to come true.



Inside the shrine, they hv a big pot for putting the jotstick. As u can see, it is very 'slim' green jotstick, not like the Chinese one. Jotstick in Japan costs a lot more expensive.



Another difference of Japanese shrine is the use of white candle instead of a Chinese red candle.



This is a written oracle of a Japanese version. They called it Omikuji. Basically in every shrine, they hv it. All u need to do is pay money, then get a stick out from the divination box, hand it to the owner of the temple, and they will give u a piece of paper telling u how is ur luck in the thing u wish to know.



I got a bad one. :( *sob sob* Didn't want to bring it back with me, so I tied the bad luck oracle to a string, and let it there with the temple.

Oh, by the way, in case u dun know. Monks in Japan some can be very rich. Why? Because they own the temple. And to be a monk, u dun hv to pay any tax to the government. Wat more, u can get married, hv family, eat meat n drink alcohol. How tat sound?



We then went to another shrine in the island. And 2 gals in my lab wrote some wishing words on a small round plate, and throw it towards the torii ( a gateway at the entrance to a Shinto shrine). But they seem to miss throw. Hehe...



After spending like 2 h on the island goin around a few temples, we leave this peaceful little place.



There we go with the wave getting farther n farther from the island.



We then came to Nagahama shopping street, for our lunch in this cafeteria cum curry shop called Janken (the name of a game called 'paper, stone and scissors').



The reason why we chose it as our lunch place, becoz it sells kurogoma karei (black sesame curry). How many of u hv tried before? ;)

Almost all of them ordered Katsu karei (2 flavours, black sesame curry and normal curry, with fried battered pork. Katsu oso means 'win' in Japan, which very fit the concept of the shop's name). Think this was for 1050yen (~RM38)

I ordered omost the same, except no fried pork on top. But with spiciness class three, so add another 100yen for paying. Which made my curry 950yen (~RM34). The taste of the black sesame was strong, makes the curry sweeter than usual. A new kind of experience, but if u ask me, one time is enough, I will still prefer to stick to the old flavour curry. :)



After the lunch, we had freetime to walked around the street. We went in small groups. I found the dessert which I wanted to eat so much. Had once when last time I came, so thinking to hv another try. But they dun hv a hot one for the flavour I want at tat moment, and I dun wanna eat a hot one for other flavour neither a cold one for the one I want. So, I waited for the hot one to cook. While waiting, my group strolled around a big music box shop opposite the shop. Saw this, think was quite a cute and good combination of Japanese and Western culture. :)



Ok, this was the little dessert tat I wanted to eat so much. Imokenpei (dessert made from sweet potato). It was done by using a hotplate. One is for 210yen (RM7.50).



The one I had was this murasaki imokenpei (purple sweet potato cake). Not only the colour looks good, but a freshly baked hot imokenpei is just marvellous. I just love it. :)



Nagahama is oso a place famous with glass making. They make all short of things from glass. This was one of the workshop showing customer how a glass product was made. Impressive with the patience of them towards the super high temperature working place. All the products definitely very cute and beautiful, but... too expensive for fish fish. :P So just eyes see, but no money buys.



When we past thru a sake (Japanese wine) shop, saw another groups of gals in our lab. Boy~~ these alcohol lovers. They just stand there trying a few types of sake one by one. See their shiawase (happiness) face? They keep telling me, "Yang san, oishii yo~~" (Yong, it's delicious). Hehe... no thanks. I think after tat they bought 3 bottles for tonite's dinner, with our travelling expenses. Btw, we paid 22000 yen (~RM790) for this 2-day 1-nite trip.



We went into this little shop selling handmade Japanese umbrella. A few Japanese customers keep saying "Natsukashii na~~" (Wat a fondly-remembered memory~)

Yap, I do agree. It reminds me of the old old Chinese umbrella tat my past away grandpa used to hv.

I like these rows of tiny version. Very Japanese. The owner was demonstrating how he made one big umbrella in a corner.



Now, I like this one. A lady hold a doggy doll, moving it around, as though she is bringing a real puppy for a walk. :) She was actually doing publicity for her shop. It's a 1050yen shop. Everything inside all priced for 1050yen. I guess this doll puppy oso 1050yen then. Hmmm... too big for me to bring back.



One of my lab gal bought this yuzu ice cream (a small citrus fruit which smells very much like a big pomelo, but Japanese only use the skin of this fruit for making meals). One for 300yen (~RM11). Very nice. I would rather call it yuzu sorbet. As the taste was very sappari (refreshing taste). A very good teatime heat quencher.



As for me, I bought a stick of goma miso dango (sesame with fermented soybean paste dumpling). Forgot the price. But it was good too. Like the goma n miso. And the dango munchy too.

We saw in the guiding map in booklet written 'The world biggest kaleidoscope'. Interesting. We wanted to see how big it is. So... off we go.



Dang Dang! This is how the kaleidoscope looks like. Does it look like a kaleidoscope to u?



My fren hv to help me to turn the wheel, in order for me to able to see the pattern changing of this kaledoscope. It was very beautiful. Amazing. But I had a neckache after keeping my head looking up for quite some time.



Ok, I saw this red red thing selling along the shopping street. Been curious how it taste like as it is written akai konyaku (red konjak). Uuurrgghh!! Look kind of scary, but it didn't stop ff from trying it. So I took one of the tester, put into my mouth. Hmmm... the taste actually much better than the look. Salty taste, good to go with rice. And the texture very unique. Smooth and yet munchy, bit like a over concentrated jelly. But I didn't buy, cause I do believe it somehow will keep staying in my fridge if I do so.



We finish the Nagahama trip around 5pm. Groups remeet in Nagahama station. From there, a bus of the Japanese inn where we r goin to hv our dinner and stay overnite came to fetch us. :) Arrr~~~ wat a day.

To be cont. ;)

Meeting Kok Hann (20 Sept)

It was Monday, but a public holiday in Japan. It was Respect-for-the-Aged Day. Japan is definitely one of the country that has the highest proportion of aged people in the world.

Patrick, Sylvia n me was meeting Kok Hann from Tokyo today. He is goin to Tokushima for a conference in tat evening. Stop by in Kyoto for a nite. We had lunch together in Karakuri Ramen shop. Went there last time with Patrick and David. We glad we chose the rite one for Kok Hann, as he was very impressed by the standard of a shop tat merely sell ramen.

"Man~~ Kyoto is good. I like it. Must come to visit longer next time." He said.

Only 3 ramen menu to choose from. With other side desserts as well.

Kok Hann n Patrick ordered kaisen tsukereimen (cold dipping seafood noodle). As for Sylvia n me, we chose goma tsukereimen (cold dipping sesame noodle). Mine was a vegetarian version.



This one was a normal version with pork. Which I hasn't shown yet in my last post. I like the colour combination. Very attracting.



This was the sesame sauce we used to dip the noodle. The noodle was in a good bounciness as usual. I like the addition of their home made chili oil in the sauce. Make the flavour more appealing.

After a good lunch with the ramen and chit chat, we sent Kok Hann off to the train station for his bus.

On the way, we brought him to pass along Nishiki Ichiba. A very old market street in Kyoto. Oso a must see spot to observe daily Kyoto's people living style. However, price of the things in tat area are more expensive. But it's oso a good place to find some very typical Kyoto things which u can't find in other places.

We went to a very famous shop specialized in soybean product called Konnamonja. The soymilk donut is very famous. But I like the Tofa more (a very soft version of tofu eat in a dessert way with syrup. U can hv black honey syrup or green tea syrup in this shop). Oso hv soymilk soft cream.



The guys wanted to try tofa. So they lined up. Red shirt is Kok Hann, middle Patrick and Sylvia in blue shirt. Hehe... Patrick is the one tat produced the Sunflower. I got permission from him for putting on this pic. This time is an 'OK'.Can see a long Q infront and at the back of them. The tofu donut is 8 little rings for 150 yen (RM5.30).

As for the Tofa, it was usually 250yen (~RM9) for 1. But tat day, it was only for 150yen. Wow!! Tat attracted fish fish to buy one too. But very very disappointed, it's not the usual tofa tat I had in tat shop. The texture was so bad. And the taste was not good too. I wonder why? I would rather pay 100yen more for a good one. If next time I eat, and still the same, I am goin to complaint to the owner.

Anyway, no pics for both of the donut and tofa this time. Too many people. No good take pic and jama (disturbing) the business. Will post tat next time. :)

Tenpozan (19 Sept)

Kuishinbo vs Kuishinbo

What happen when kuishinbo is in kuishinbo? :) This is what happened.



I stayed another nite in Yuriko's house unplanned earlier, as by the time we finished the dinner, it was very late. Yuriko's mother insisted me to stay one more nite. It was good too as it was much nearer for me to meet Sylvia in Tenpozan for her bd celebration. Her exact bd was on 18 Sept though.

Here is sweet dear Sylvia standing in front of this Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho in Tenpozan Marketplace Osaka. She was the one who wanted to come to this place. I didn't know this was the place she mentioned. The first time I came to Tenpozan area was with Wai Wai and Patrick. My, long time ago...

Ok, Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho is a food theme park in Osaka that having 20 different food stalls selling typical foods in Osaka.

Sylvia didn't eat anything in the morning. She wanted to safe her stomach for Kuishinbo. As for me, I had breakfast in Yuriko's house. But, hehe... Kuishinbo wouldn't resist things from Kuishinbo, rite? ;)

The 1st food we had was dango from Tsukushi. Each stick for 80yen (~RM2.80).



For midarashidango (midarashi dumpling), first the shopkeeper roasted it.



Then deep into this big pot of sweet salty sauce. We waited for a while, and noticed tat the other customers who later than us had theirs, but not ours. So I asked the gal, and OMG! Terrible! She forgot she hasn't gave us our dango. Hmmm... But then, she did apologised for her clumsiness.



Here we r with one stick of midarashi dango with the dark sauce, and another stick of sanshokudango (3 colours dumpling). The dumpling itself was just so so, but the sauce was really good. :)

I did a post on dango sankyodai (3 dumpling brothers). If u r interested to know more, can read it.



After the dango, we saw a shop named Momotani Ikayakiya. Hmmm... ikayaki (grilled squid)! Tat's interesting. We never had ikayaki in Japan. This ikayaki is not similar with those normal grilled squid. I would prefer to call it ika pancake. It's Japanese pancake with squid inside, plus sauce. One for 262yen (~RM9) for the one with egg topping. This is highly recommended. The pancake itself was very mochi mochi (good elasticity) and sylvia said the ika was very soft. And the adding of the sauce was just great. Yummy yummy!! Both of us were very satisfied with this choice. V^o^V



Now, the next Osaka food we had is Takoyaki. If u come to Osaka, and u didn't try Takoyaki (grilled octopus ball) and Okonomiyaki (grilled Japanese pancake), it will not be counted u hv tried the real osaka food. But not every place make good Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki. Much depends on ur luck. But Dotonbori will be a good place to look for all the Osaka delicious food.

Ok, the above pic shows how Takoyaki is made.



This is how a ready to eat Takoyaki looks like. Usually with a lot of takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise. But this one with a lot of spring onion. We oso had one Ramune (Japanese soda). Whole set of this for 500yen (~RM18).



The last thing we had in this food theme park was gyoza (chinese dumpling) in Chao Chao. We ordered 3 flavours gyoza. Normal pork flavour, shrimp and vegetable. I had some skin of the pork and shrimp, very crunchy. Like the shrimp one better. The vege gyoza was very good. Juicy for the cabbage inside. One plate of this can't remember the price. Around 850yen (RM30) i think.



We were very full by then. Need to walk a bit to burn off the calories. So we strolled around Tenpozan area. Saw this Santa Maria crossing the sea. Kind of expensive, so gave up having a ride with it.



This was how the Tenpozan harbour looks like. A bit foggy tat day, not a clear view.



We decided to take a ride of the Tenpozan kanransha (Ferris wheel) to hv a good skyview.



The entrance written " World's biggest Ferris Wheel, height 112.5M". Built in 1997. Each ride 700yen per person.



When the ferris wheel slowly went up higher and higher, the Kaiyukan (Osaka Aquarium) became smaller. Not to mention the very tiny humans lining up for entering the Kaiyukan. Yap, it was a public holidays, so everywhere was full of people. I went to this Kaiyukan once. Like it very much. Very nice aquarium. Indeed, it is one of the biggest aquarium in the world.



At higher level, the whole bridge became very clear to us. Big ship turned into such a miniature.



When our cart reached the tallest point, we can see the people in the cart next to us very clearly. A very weird feeling to see other people half hang there. :P

Then slowly, the cart went down again. A very memoriable ride for Sylvia. Hee...

Xue Hua Bing

We decided to leave Tenpozan to another place. On the way to the train station, the three words Xua Hua Bing (Snow Flake Ice) attracted us very much. The shop name is Xue Fua no Sato. It seems like a teahouse selling Taiwanese food. Wat we wanted to try the most is the Xue Hua Bing.

We were really lucky, cause there were only a few left. After us, another 2 groups oso able to taste it. And the other tat lining up hv to be disappointed.

Now, wat the hell is this Xue Hua Bing? Kuching people will know, as we hv that in Thian Food Court in Crown Square. So do the Taiwanese, as it was written dessert original from Taiwan. Can someone familiar with Taiwanese food tell me this? But, this Xue Hua Bing definitely not the one I had owez eaten in Kuching. It totally changed my concept on 'ice'.



This is how the Xue Hua Bing looks like. Very simple. We asked for Jin Yin Cai Bao (Gold Silver Money Treasure). It was actually a mixture of the milky ice with mango sauce. The ice itself was a magic. I dun know how the owner made it, but the texture of the ice, I would say it is micro fine. So fine tat when u put into ur mouth, it just melt away. I didn't even feel like I am eating ice. The milky flavour of the ice definitely merit up the ice itself. Wat more with the sweet sour mango sauce. I am wordless to describe my feeling of eating the 2 things at the same time. Magic food... yap... A magic tat cast a great spell on me... Even reversing now make me feel soooo hunger for it. 450yen (~RM16) per plate. And yes, I would go for it again. :) And now I doubt it, how come I didn't see any in Taiwan?? :(



We oso ordered a Japanese sweet with red bean inside. mmm... ok, hv to admit I'm not so much into red bean. But the munchy bites were good. 300yen (RM10.60).



Hee... a Chinese rice dumpling in a bamboo plate. Cool huh... One for 450yen. We ordered this becoz Sylvia homesick very much, she wanted a Bak Chang (meat dumpling). And yes, this Bak Chang was good. But it took around 30 min to get this Bak Chang served.



These were the 2 ladies tat behind us. Was there first time succeed in having the Xue Hua Bing after 3 times failed to get it. o_O Wow!! Sylvia n me really feel lucky. Now, another Q comes into my mind, why dun the owner just make more and let more customers be happy?



Besides the Xue Hua Bing, they oso hv bubble milk tea and a series of herb and flower teas. But I bet most of the customers come for the Xue Hua Bing.



My presumption was rite, as after the Xua Hua Bing sold out, no more customer come in after tat. Hmm...

Anyway, happy birthday dear Sylvia. Hope tat was a nice day for u. :)

Meeting Yuriko (18 Sept)

Masshu!!

This is little 'babe' in Yuriko's house. Their sweet Pomeranian. I never see it with a full scale blooming fur. Owez being cut during summer to reduce the heat. Wish I can see it in winter. :P Btw, Yuriko told me, for the haircut, it costs 5000yen (~RM176). Man!!



I grab the chance to take its pics when she was busy eating.



"Hmm!! Dun watch me eating ok? I'm shy... No good to watch a lady eating..."



Gosh! It took me a hard try to take its still look pics. It was hyperactive. Never really stay still. But glad i got this shot of hers. ;)

Ume no Hana

That evening, Yuriko's parents booked for dinner in Ume no Hana. A famous Japanese franchise restaurant serving yuba (soymilk sheet) and tofu dishes. It is belonged to the Umenohana group. This was my 3rd time having dinner in Ume no hana. Everytime was treat by someone. :P And this is a place strongly recommended by me if u want some elegant fine Japanese food. :)



This was the decoration of our dining room. We were led to a private room for 6 people.



That nite, besides Yuriko (left 2), Yuriko's parents (left 1 and right 1), Yuriko's brother, Nao and his future bride, Yuko (middle and right 2) oso joined the dinner. They drove all the way from Hamamatsu. This was the 1st time I met Yuriko's brother in person. Ai yah~ so fast want to get married oledi.



Yuriko's parents order a set of kaiseki ryori (kaiseki dish) called Umenohana-zen for each person. Each set is for 4500yen (~RM160).

On the table, there was a big pot of tofu for 6 of us. When we reached, the waitress tat serve us started to heat the pot with candle. Yap, every room have a waitress specially serving the group.



After it boiled, Yuko distributed it to us. This tofu dish is the 7th menu in the set. :) Hmm... good chance for Yuko to appeal to be a good future daughter in law. Me? Just need to busy with eating. :P



This one is a tofu-like food made from milk, fresh cream and arrowroot starch. I am really amazed with this dish. It is so divine. I would say a texture of tofu with a bit of bounciness. But a creamy cheesy taste. With a mugwort miso paste... The person who think of this combination must be a genius. :)



The next menu is boiled green vegetable. This one is horenso (spinach). Mild taste. Good source of diet fibre.



Then, a small pot of cold yuba was served. Add some soysauce, and just eat. This yuba is not the usual dried up yuba from China. A Japanese Yuba is a high class food. They called it nama yuba (fresh yuba) cause no process of drying up gone thru for it. And the price? At least 10 times the normal yuba we get in Malaysia market.

I made this raw yuba by myself before. An ex lab assistant gave me thick soymilk before, and teach me how to make it. Hee... it was damn fun. And the texture was very rich and creamy. Yummy!!



This one is another very good idea menu. It is a manju (chinese bun) with tofu and lotus root. U can feel a spongy texture surrounding crunchy bits when u munching it. Slurp!



Next, we hv a great cup of chawanmushi (steamed egg custard). I love the yurine (lily bulb) inside and the smoothness of the egg.



This one looks so delicious. It is tofu shumai (Chinese-style dumpling made of tofu) with crab meat inside. Ahh~~ if only they dun put crab meat inside. So me just watched others eating.



Now, this one is a very typical Japanese style dish. Sliced raw tuna rolled with yuba. The white cubes are Chinese yam. I took out the maguro (tuna) and eat the Chinese yam with yuba by wrapping inside the shiso (perilla). :P



Even though it is a restaurant tat serves yuba n tofu, and still got meat. Yuriko's parents so worry I am not goin to be full. So they ordered extra menu for the dinner.

First was this big bucket of kinoko (mushroom) and mizuna (potherb mustard) salad with ponzu dressing (Japanese salad dressing from juice tat pressed from a bitter orange and with a mixture of sesame oil). Very shaki shaki (crispiness for vege).



A big pot of cold tofu with yuba and namafu (the red leaves shaped thing, is a glutinous substance made from wheat gluten) decoration.



And the 3rd extra menu we had definitely the best for me. Tempura! I had a great experience for this tempura, as there were some food tat I never tried in this way. Matsutake is one of them (A very expensive mushroom in Japan, only can be eaten in autumn season. The reason why it is very expensive is due to its failure in cultivation. Matsutake is well-known for its crispy texture and the great fragrance it releases, but in term of nutritional value, shiitake is more recommended. And matsutake in Japan r different from those in Canada or Korea. A true Japanese matsutake prices a few folds compare to these cohorts). The other 2 tempura tat I tried for the 1st time there were fresh ichijiku (fig) tempura and red capsicum. 1 bucket of this for 1500 yen. The batter of the tempura very nice. Not too oily, and very crunchy. :)



The waitress then continue serving us the unfinish menu for the set. This one is namafu age (Fried wheat-gluten coated with miso paste). The green one is mugwort. And the yellow one is normal flavour. Little awa (millet grain) was spreaded on them, istead of sesame seeds. Great dish. Especially love the blending of the taste with the texture.



This was a good one for fish cake lover. Fried ground whitefish meat wrapped with yuba. :( Another nice nice dish tat cannot touch by fish fish. I am very sure a sprinkle of lemon juice on the fish cake will make the taste very divine. *Sob sob* Can see, but no touch. I can even feel the fish cake is bouncing inside my fren's mouth.



The next one we had was this gratin. With creamy white tofu blended with crab meat. Can smell the irresistable tempation once it was served. Too bad, the crab meat very jama (disturbing). I hv to spit out the crab meat like spitting out bone while eating it. Wooosh!! By the time I finish, the dish oledi turned cold.



Before we had our desserts, we ended our main meal with okowa (steamed glutinous rice), tsukemono (pickled vegetables) and suimono (clear soup with yuba). Yap, it is a typical way of Japanese style in serving rice at the final point before the dessert in a series of dishes. I dun know why. Maybe in this way, u wouldn't feel too full in the beginning. And can fill up the empty part in ur stomach with this carbohydrate.



For the dessert, we had 3 choices. Yogurt ice cream.



Red bean willow.



And chestnut ice cream. I chose this one. Very rich taste. Definitely a good sweet thing to rinse ur mouth after all the foods.

Gochisosama deshita (Thank you very much. I have really enjoy my meal very much.) Hontoni umakatta (It was really a delicious meal).



Before we left the restaurant, I took another few pics of Yuriko's family. Here is the future bride n bridegroom. Their ceremony is going to be on 30 October. Yuriko is coming back for that, all the way from US, just for 4 days. Man!

Sue nagaku oshiawaseni! (May happiness be with you till the end.) :)

Meeting Yuriko (17 Sept)

I left school early on tat day. :P To meet my old Japanese fren, Yuriko, who came back for a holidays. She is now studying in University of Oregon. We went to Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art for Kyobijin (Kyoto beautiful gals) exhibition. A good experience for me with the Japanese art. :)



After tat, we decided to look for something sweet and cold. Nothing will be better than a tall glass of parfait. :P

Gion Koishi

We went to Yuriko favorite place in Gion, a place in Kyoto tat famous with Maiko, which I have done an intro in my previous post. Gion is oso a place for finding good Kyoto's cuisine. This shop tat we went called Gion Koishi. It was first time for me. Never know this shop before. But I trust Yuriko's taste bud. She has a good evaluation for Japanese style things.



It seems like this shop is specialized in hereditary Kyoto style candy. It looks very quiet outside. But once we get in, kind of a surprise with the amount of customers. We were lucky enough to be there a few min earlier. Cause after that, a long Q formed.



Yuriko ordered her favorite maccha parfait, but this time with maccha chiffon. I forgot the exact price of hers, but think around 900yen (~RM30). Other ingredients inside are satsumaimo (sweet potato) paste, anko (red bean), maccha dango (green tea ball), shiradango (white ball), maccha jelly and white cream.



I had one seasonal menu, the kuri (chestnut) parfait. 950yen (~RM33). We have omost the same ingredients inside, except tat kuri paste for satsumaimo paste, one whole kuri for anko, kuri chiffon for maccha chiffon and less maccha jelly, but with additional black honey jelly. Silly ff, didn't see the black honey syrup tat attached aside. Only realised tat after I finished the whole parfait. Wat did I do? I drank the syrup. :P

Both parfaits are divine. A fine taste of typical Kyoto sweets. I love the maccha jelly the most. They really make a perfect maccha jelly for me in term of texture and taste. Yummieee!!! Not kalah (lose) to my favorite shop in Uji, Itohkyuemon.

We did window shopping for a while in Kyoto shopping area. Past thru a shop tat selling crepe. Yuriko felt like eating one.

Making of Crepe

After Yuriko bought hers. I got a permission to take pics. Hee... they thought I was some kind of mag writer. :P Nope, I told them I was just having my own web site introducing food. The gals were nice. But the crepe, frankly speaking, was just so so. I was spoilt by the nice nice crepe in the 2nd floor foodcourt of KLCC. :P Crepe in Japan just too expensive, and very stingy with the filling inside. Really miss the crepe.

Anyway, here is how the progress in making crepe in Japan. Usually it is sold in Yatai (stall) style.



First, pour some blended batter onto a hot plate. Let it cooks.



Then, fill in ingredients tat wanted by the customers layer by layer.



This was how one of the done filling looks like.



After tat, with a quick hand, hold up the other end and... in seconds...



Crepe tat was nicely done. One of this costs 280 yen (RM9.90). Which can say very cheap. Usually it costs around 400 yen (RM14). I complaint to Yuriko bout the portion. Heee... Yuriko was saying, "Poor crepe stall, let u take the photo, thinking u will be doin promotion for them, but instead u make a negative comment." :P Well, a consumer got to be frank mar, rite? Anyway, I didn't show out the shop name, for their kind service. :) Actually, the crepe in Japan all taste omost the same to me. ;)

We then headed to Yuriko's place. Am goin to stay in her house tonite. Her parents didn't see me for omost a year. Invited me to go there. As for me, I miss seeing Masshu sooo much. Masshu?? Heee... I'll leave the answer to later day. ;)

Gyukaku

In Itami, we decided to hv our late dinner in Gyukaku, a famous franchise that specialized in charcoal Japanese bbq. Even hv branches in US and Taiwan.



In the middle of the table, got a bit hole to put the charcoal pot. It was damn hot, too bad it was summer, dun feel like having bbq tat nite. So we asked the waiter to take it off. Hee... pretty flame though.



Instead of enjoy ourselves by roasting food and eating at the same time, we ordered some side dishes. First is this kuppa (means rice with soup). I love it. Eat a lot of this. The spiciness of the soup made me sweat a bit, but the sweat cooled up ur body once it was evaporated. Yummy yummy... Chou suki (like it very much).



We oso ordered one cold dish. The morioka reimen (morioka style cold noodle). The noodle is not the normal Japanese ramen, but the typical type of Korean noodle. More transparent for the noodle itself, and with a good bounciness for the texture. Yuriko hv more of this, and let me take more of the kuppa. Wat a nice gal. Thanks.



We then ordered Gyukaku fu hiyayakko (Gyukaku style cold tofu). I like this one too, but a bit troublesome to eliminate the mince meat inside the sauce. Hee... so I tried to eat the tofu and the onsen tamago (egg tat boil with hotspring condition water) only.

Burp!! By the time we ganbatte finish all the food, the 2 gals r even hv a difficulty to breath. :P

It was a treat by Yuriko. Thanks a lot dear. Really was a good place. I like it. :) Next time will try the bbq vege. ;)

Dinner with host family (12 Sept)

It was Sunday nite. Had a dinner promise with my host family. From my apartment to their place, only around 15 min by bicycle. Wanted to pass them the omiyage (souvenir) I bought from Taiwan.



Hee... this is my host family new born grand daughter. Name Haruna. 6 months old at the time this pic was taken. Her mummy, Mayuko was working with the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia. Stayed there for around 2 years. But last year, came back to get married with a Tokyo guy who is now working in Sudan. Oso in diplomatic line. Then, got pregnant. And now having 1 year baby raising holidays.

Very kawaii (cute) Haruna. She laughs a lot. And she loves the pineapple tart I bought from Taiwan. Ai yar~~ kept licking her grandma fingers for the tart. ;)

According to my host family, Haruna laugh a lot when see me. Their conclusion is tat she likes me. Poor Haruna, she likes the wrong person... I am very terrible even at embracing baby in a correct way. *shame shame*



Nothing better than a home made dinner must I say. Everytime when I am having my host mama home cooking, I feel a warmth goes into my heart. :) And yap... I finish all my portion.

In the pic, from top left: yakitamago (roast thick egg), satoimo (taro cooked in soy sauce). From bottom left: Tomato soup (yummy!! one of my favorite dish of hers), kabocha salada (pumpkin salad, too bad she didn't make pumpkin pie tat nite. she can make one of the best I've ever had), nasu no tsukorimono (dish made with egg plant) and takikomi gohan (rice seasoned with soy sauce and boiled with meat or seafood, and other savory vegetables. My favorite way of making rice in winter).



After I was full with the dinner, host mama took out some more stuff to make me 120% bloated. A bowl of annin tofu (almond tofu) with assorted canned fruit and caramel pudding. I love pudding, and I love caramel. Good for this one. Slurp!



And finally, we ended a very good dinner with this big juicy sweet Koushuiri (Kousui pear). In Japan, the normal pear tat sells in market is this Kousui, Nijusseiki(20 century) and Housui species. I am a big fan of Kousui. Can even finish a big one by myself. But tat nite, I only had one cut, cause can't stuck more into my stomach anymore. Burrrpppp!!!

I never like pear when I was in Malaysia. But after I tried the Japanese pear for the 1st time, I am falling in love into it. I know I will miss Japanese fruits when I leave this place one day. The price of fruits in Japan much more expensive, but it really worth the pay sometimes. :)

Watami (11 Sept)

Hmm... it's Taifu (typhoon) No.23 blowing in the Japan these 2 days. Keep raining... and windy. A 1600km diameter Taifu... Kyoto is owez not so greatly effected by the typhoon. Places in Kyushu n Shikoku r much more serious.

Anyway, today I will talk bout an Izakaya (Japanese style bar) tat I went with Patrick few weeks ago. It's called Watami. Belongs to the Watami Food Service Group.



We had this Daikon no sengiri (radish fine strips) as zensai (appetizer). Usually, when u go to an Izakaya, either u want or not, these types of appertizer and warm hand tower will be served. Which will be then charged into ur bill.



We were given coupon for a free drink each person down stair... So, I ordered a Sakuranboshu (Japanese cherry wine). But somehow after 1/3, I felt dizzy, so the rest I gave to Patrick. Normal price 280 yen (~RM10) without tax, and yap all the price i mentioned here not yet including the tax.



As for Patrick, he wanted a glass of Umeshu (Plum wine). An Umeshu is a Japanese must try drink for foreigners. It taste sweet, very easy to drink. Patrick love the one he had in Watami. Yap, it was good. Very much taste like a Choya Umeshu. In fact, I believe it is a Choya Umeshu. Hee... I grabbed the green plum inside and put into my mouth. Yummy!!! Same normal price as the sakuranboshu.



We had organic salad. This was good. And generous portion as well. I like the crispy chip that spreaded on top of the salad. 480yen (~RM17).



Then, we ordered 2 types of rice. One is this Ishiyaki omuraisu (Hot pebble omelette rice, with white cream n tomato rice). 480yen.



The other one is this galikku chahan (garlic fried rice). 380yen (~RM13). I prefer this than the omuraisu. Dun know, the omuraisu was not until my expectation. Just tat bottom of this garlic fried rice, a bit too oily.



Patrick felt like having some meat. So he ordered this seasonal menu, called aburi buta rosu (lighly toast pork loin). The cracker was good, same as those tat spreaded on the salad. Patrick said this pork menu was good. He finished it all. 380yen.



We ordered another seasonal menu. Actually, becoz ff wanted to try it. :P It is Iro iro kinoko no hoiruyaki (assorted mushroom toasted in aluminium foil). This one was good, cause the idea of combine mushroom and miso paste. But the only complaint for tat was a bit too salty. :) Good dish for eating with plain rice though. 330yen (~RM11.50).



Finally, as a dessert, we had this renkon (lotus root) chips. Now, I like this one. Very crispy. Good tit-bits to go with alcoholic drinks. 280yen.

We paid like around 2000yen for each person. Which I think very worth it. Strongly recommended place for varities of good food with reasonal price. :)

Kushiya (9 Sept)

I was shopping with Wang Hao after school time. Very hungry, but she was on diet. It came the right time when I past thru this shop and was given this coupon. :) Kushiya... my favorite shop for deep frying food buffet. Kushi means skewer. Basically, this shop sells food that deep fried with a skewer. It was really a special offer, for usually a 90min buffet, it costs 2625 yen (~RM90). But tat week, for 5 days, there was offering 60min buffet with only 1029yen (~RM36) for annivesary thanksgiving to the customers. Wow! I really wanted to eat, as I haven't ate for many months since last year. But Wang Hao dun want. So, after thinking who I can call, yap, my eating partner... Sylvia. She was learning koto the time I called her. But really glad she wanted to join me too for the special offer after her class. We went into the shop at around 8.30pm, and still many people there. This was the first time for Sylvia to have this kind of experience, she was very satisfied with it. :)

After we were led to our table, :P time for the 2 gals to race against the clock for as much food as possible.



This is where they keep the ready to fry skewers. Many kinds of meat and vege and other stuffs including smoke cheese n rice cake. Around 20 types of varities for u to choose.



Then, u get the bread crumb and batter coating.



Oso, they got 6 types of sauces for eating with the food. Well, among them, I prefer the most the chili sauce. Seem like a limited edition sauce for the shop. Yap, they didn't have this sauce the last time I went.



Ok, these r the few skewers I took. :P No meat. Then, u dip the food into the batter coating evenly, after tat, dip into the bread crumb, until the whole thing covered by it (see the finely done stick on the right side).



Drop the ready to fry skewer into this frying pot with very hot oil in the table. Chaaaaa~~~~~ wat a nice sound of the food inside the boiling oil. After waiting for 2-3min...



Take out the skewer and put at the side of the frying pot to let the unnecessary oil drip back to the pot. And yesh!! Ready to eat... Mmmm~~~~ yummyyyy... U just couldn't help but to continue frying and eating the same time.



See how satisfy Sylvia after a great deal of the empty skewers? :P



We counted the sticks we hv eaten. Was thinking to reach 60 sticks. But, only managed to reach 57 sticks. U might be saying since only left 3, why not ganbatte? Well, I experienced last time tat I forced myself to take more... and in the end, I omost wanted to vomit... So, I wanted to enjoy my food this time... So enough for the frying stuffs. ;)



Hey wait... if u think there is only frying stuffs, then u r very wrong. They got around 20 more other types of foods for u to try. Curry rice, fried beehoon, soup, blah blah blah... Both of us love the beehoon the most. Soooo nice... Think we took 3 rounds. :P



And oso, they hv the udon set for self serving. Just open the orange packaging udon, dump into the boiling water, topping with things u like, and there u r, the udon. I didn't take this one, cause it will be expanding in ur stomach.



Oso, they hv around 10 types of salads and dessert for u to clean up the oily mouth. Mmm... i like the pineapple and jelly. We oso took some ice cream. Nice nice...

Even though it said 60min buffet, but we turned up to hv 10min extra given. :) I would strongly recommend it. Nice service n good food.

But remember... definitely a dangerous caloric killer... So, once in a year is ok... Make it a regular place for my grumbling stomach?? I will have to think many times. ;)

tata...

New Hair (18 Oct)

Hee... I looked into the mirror yesterday nite, and decided to do something. Instead of letting it disturbs my sight... n keep clipping it up...

So, wat did ff do?

She got a pair scissors, which she owez used for cutting off the junk food sealer... and started to be her own barber.



Dang Dang! It took her 15 min just to cut this front part. Damn! Cutting ur own hair by ur own was just like asking a write hander to use a left hand for writing. But, I guessed it turned out not bad. At least save me a 1100yen (RM38) for a front hair cut.

And yes... I feel much easier with my front hair now. Not jama (disturbing) anymore... :P

Summer in Tokyo (4 Sept)

The final nite of summer 2004 in Tokyo, ended up in this restaurant called Ninnikuya Goemon in Takashimaya Shinjuku, spending eating n chattering with the 'old devils' in Tokyo. :P Ninniku means garlic. So, basically, this shop use garlic in every dish of them. It was a Saturday nite, and glad we managed to find this good place. Yeah... found by Wai Wai, Hui Wen n fish fish wor... ;) We booked and waited for around 1hr before the other joined us and the shop hv vacancies to fit in 10 of us. Finally, we could really place our butts on the chair. But worth the waiting... :)

Ninnikuya Goemon

I forgot bout the order of the foods which came first, which later. But here were the foods we had. :)



Wai Wai:" Fish Fish, I want! The garlic bread... seem sooo oishii..." (This was why Wai Wai decided to hv this shop our choice after we round n round many restaurants.)

Fish Fish:"Can... no problem. Many choices, food seem nice nice too... Price reasonable too." (Well, I decided on this one considering the choices of foods n the price).

Hui Wen was waiting upstair at the 1st french restaurant we earlier booked. We then cancelled tat, cause too expensive. I dun think the other members would be willing to pay too much for a big gathering dinner like this.

The garlic bread was very soft n fluffy, with the nice combination of garlic oil... Mmmm... just so irresistable.



We ordered this mainly because considering my special diet, vegetarian. Heee... owez a normal happening when gangs r having meals with me. It was a good salad. Nice appetizer.



Now this cheese puff was good. Outside very crunchy. And inside, the hot cheese just melting out when u cut it. Yummy!



Some wanted this rice croquette. I seldom had rice croquette. Think this is my 2nd time. Not a bad one. The nice smell of the garlic. But still, I prefer cream croquette better. Caloric killer...



We ordered 3 kinds of fried rice. First, this chahan (fried rice). When u mentioned chahan in Japan, it means Chinese style fried rice.



Next fried rice was this Jambalaya. I love this fried rice the most. Much much better than the one we had in izakaya last nite. With a mild spiciness in it, and the good blending with the garlic... Made me wordless n busy munching. :P



We oso had nasi goreng. Still means fried rice. But when u mention nasi goreng in Japan, it means a more south east asian style like those from Indonesia and Malaysia. More popular one is Indonesian style. Wat's the different? The Indonesian use more kicap manis for seasoning, beside the belachan paste. And must with keropok and a topping of a bull eye egg.



As for spaghetti, we ordered 4 types! This basic Napolitan style. I usually not so keen on tomato based spaghetti. But this was good. The ninniku flavoured up the whole dish. Good job.



We oso get one seafood spaghetti. I like the way they used the roasted garlic as the decoration. Instead, I ate one of it. Heee... guess I had a very stinky mouth then. :P



This spinach spaghetti was my favourite. Needless to say, the cream tells u the reason. :)



And oso this Japanese style mushroom spaghetti. They used shimeji. Well, I like this one for its taste, but dislike it for its oiliness.



We ordered only one type of pizza. Instead, they only have one choice for us. This was very good. The fried garlic bits goes very well with the cheesy flavour and the crispy thin layer of the pizza. We ordered 2nd round for this.

The whole dinner cost less than 2000 yen per person. And we really felt satisfy with the food. Good quality. :) This is the first time I'm into Ninniku restaurant for dinner. Think it will be my choice again next time. But I wonder where is a good one in Kyoto.

Ah Lam:"Fish Fish, good place. First, when u gals mention eating at Takashimaya. My face turned green... Wah lau eh... these gals ar... so rich ar..."

FF:"Heee.. good place ler? ;) Well, remember, we r students, so of course we wouldn't choose a place too expensive for a big group like this."

So, I guessed next time Ah Lam will change his concept in eating in this kind of place oledi.



Here r the devils... the old devils... :)

From left to rite: Angie (Goh gf, or maybe wife oledi, he remain no comment.Hmm...), Ah Goh (now doing his postdoc, got his PhD this March), Li Qing (the only gal from China. ehhem... know why? heee. Now working in Panasonic), Jin Aun (doing PhD in Toukoudai), Kok Hann (PhD in Toudai), Chor Wai(nickname Wai Wai, PhD in Toudai, my very regularly keep in touch buddy thru mail mail), Hui Min (PhD in Juntendo), Hui Wen (yap, dear HW tat went to Taiwan with me. :) Master in Toudai) and finally Ah Lam (they call him little bee. PhD in Toukoudai. Very nice and funny guy. Damn! He got his driving license in Japan with one pass. FF dun know when will go to hv one. Damn scare to fail...)



It was a heavy rain on the way home. Jin Aun tired, went to sleep earlier. We stayed in Hui Wen room for chatting some more n eating fruit. Hui Wen was so kind, she cut the fruit for us. Yellow peach.

Ah Lam:"Ee~~ very sour. How come ar? Doesn't taste sweet as it looks like."

Wai Wai, Hui Wen n FF... looked at each other with ?? How come?

FF:"Nope ar... very sweet wor..."

So I tried a bite from his. Ee~ sour... That lucky guy, he kept eating the sour one. Ha!

So, we chose one sweet piece for him.

"Mmm... Sweet sweet." Heee... finally see his smile.

Ciao.

Summer in Tokyo (3 Sept)

Yeah, finish my preparation for tomolo seminar. Now hv mood to do something light. :P

Today goin to blog an izakaya tat I hv been in Tokyo on 3 Sept. Sorry I can't tell u the name of the shop, cause I myself oso dun know. By the way, those of u who went with me tat nite, in case anyone knows the name of these shop, please let me know. Thanks.

The shop was kind of dark. So all the pic, I hv to get the help from the candle light to focus on the foods. Phew! They turned out good. :P



The first thing we had, is this salty popcorn as appetizer. Hmm... i dun really like salty popcorn, still prefer caramel flavour or choco...



Then, this spicy wedges came. One of my favorite dish for tat nite. We had a second round for this dish.



We oso ordered Yaki udon (fried udon). Not too bad. But somehow dun know why, the food in Tokyo just taste more salty to me.



Some guys ordered this maguro yukke (raw tuna yukke). I didn't eat, just curious in seeing how they eat this thing. They told me yukke is yummy... I doubt so (ok, not for a vegetarian like me, at least).



This chahan (fried rice) was not bad too. Much better than the one I had in Din Tai Fung in Taiwan. Oh well, I was kind of hungry tat time. So the food taste better than usual I guess. :P



They ordered potato croquette. Well, for a person who love deep frying thing, I dun think I can resist it rite? I had half size.



This prawn dumpling looked good. But I didn't eat. Wat attracted me on this dish, is the chili sauce attached. Hee... i used it on other food. :P



These nice nice frens ordered this tofu dish for me n Zi Hao (another cute young guy who oso a vegetarian). Heee... ate kind a lot of this. Good dish for summer.



Oso like this vege stick so much. I crunch on them like a bunny. Krak! Krak! Krak!



Wee~~ someone ordered vietnam spring roll. Once again, I had half size. Healthy dish. And with the sauce, it was good.



Finally, I think this was the last dish. Tebasaki (chicken wing). Looks good? They told me it was.

So we paid like 2500yen (or was it 3000 yen?) each person for a 2hr free drink course with the food we ordered. Well, I think it is the normal price for an Izakaya dinner time. Not really sure... seldom go in a big group like this to an Izakaya. Usually, it's like 3 or 4 people the most for me.

But I enjoyed the dinner very much.



Cause able to meet many new 'devils' in Tokyo. Yap, excluding me, there r 10 of them in this pic (all Malaysians wor). 3 of them r the old devils I know. Sure noisy enough. Not to mention it is a Friday nite. Full house!! I like the 'devils' I met. A few of them actually not really stayed in Tokyo, but they went to Tokyo to take entrance exam. I wonder how was the result. Just hope each of them can get the university they want.



After the dinner, another 3 gals joined us. And we went to this empty place besides Starbuck near the Shinjuku station to borak borak... until nearly midnite.

p/s: Those of u in the pics, if u want a bigger size one, can write mail to me. I'll send to ur email then. :)

Time for goin home. Tata...

Autumn breezeee~~~

I feel more relax now. After finish most of my seminar preparation wok. :) Now hv mood to blog a bit. Heee...

Woke up at 1045 this morning, after a sweet n deep 8h sleep. A perfect sleeping time for me. Wah~~ outside was sooo sunny. Didn't even feel cold at all. Making my mood turned so bright.

So, made myself a good brunch...



It's called fish fish brand Japanese style curry noodle. I used gralic sprout, carrot, canned corn n egg for the ingredients. And use Japanese straight soy sauce mixture called tsuyu and dried curry powder as seasoning. Phewww!!! The taste was oishikatta (yummy). Chou shiawase... (super happiness). :P



After a nice breakfast, and get myself ready, heading to my lab. On such a good day, I decided to stop at the Uji bridge to take some shots. Heee... see the above pics? I used the panorama function in my camera. Then use the camedia softwell to connect them n after editting... this was how it looks like. Not bad huh? Silly ff, never think of using the panorama function all these while. Wat a waste for a place full of pretty scene like Kansai. Think this pic will look much better with enlarge size. Hey, if any of u interested to hv it, mail to me. :)



They seemed like having some kind of function goin on again. Never really care, caused they hv different functions in Uji for the whole year. Well, it is logic from the viewpoint as a tourist destination rite?



I watched the sunflower slowly withering away...



Cosmos gracefully swaying besides the farm field...



And the nice fragrance of the Kinmokusei spreading through the sunny breeze...

What's tat telling me?

Yeah~~~ autumn is here... ;)

10 seconds energy recharge

Ok, today I'm goin to do a bit of talk on Japanese drink. Sixthseal talked bout the Al bottle drink that was exported from Japan to Malaysia. As for me, maybe I should let those of u who interested in this topic know other kind of packaging that is quite popular in Japan. :)



This is how the packaging looks like. Colour of Aluminium, but actually is plastic material. This one is energy recharging jelly drink by Weider. A famous health functional food brand in Japan. This Energy is a product of 'in series'. 10 seconds will give a recharge of energy equivalent to one onigiri (~180kcal). Market price for ~ 200yen (RM7) per pack. But can get one around 130 yen (RM4.50) in some pharmacy shops when got offering.



This is the back side of the packaging. With all the nutritional info on it. I love this fruity taste jelly drink. Yummy. Oso very easy, just twist open the cap, then suck suck suck... hehe... I can finish it in 10 seconds. :P Other products of this series include Protein, Multivitamin, Fiber diet and Collagen beauty.

Besides jelly drinks, normal drink oso packed in this way. Other brands such as amino acid supplementary drink Kirin Amino Supli, Asahi Charge and Suntory Nenshoukei Aminoshiki... fruity drink such as Qoo by Coca Cola and Nacchan by Sunctory oso used this kind of packaging as well for parts of their product. Asahi, Kirin together with Sapporo, account for the top three beer selling in Japan while the number four beer selling Suntory is more famous for its Suntory Whisky. Hee... btw, I only drink Asahi Super Dry when I hv to take beer. (I dun really drink alcoholic drink actually. :P)

Ok, tat's all for today drinks info. Hope u like it.

Taiwan final day

Ah~~ feel so stressed now. The translation of English into Japanese, really make a non-native like me big head!! But if I dun do it in Japanese, then the next Monday talk will merely the 3 sensei n me understand only. Ai yah~ Listened to Wai Wai's mp3 file, ate one big banana n now... my mind still not calm. I need to go out to hv a walk, but hv to wait for my Chinese fren to finish her msn chatting with her ex-classmate first. Oh well... better use the time to finish my Taiwan talk then.

2 September (Final day)

Di Hua Street - Hotel - CKS Airport

Our last day in Taiwan. And goin to fly back to Japan this afternoon. Well, we hv to treasure every minutes we left. So, tat morning, we went to Di Hua street. We didn't know it was a walking distance from our hotel. So we took the MRT, then go down at the station suggested in magazine, and walked kind of a distance. We past thru a busy morning market.



Saw a stall selling vegetarian food. Ee~ sa cha mian (Noodle with Sa Cha sauce). I dun really know wat the normal Sa Cha is, can someone tell me? Anyway, it taste a bit sweet. This vegetarian Sa Cha noodle taste not bad. A bit too sweet for a noodle though. I still prefer noodle in hot n spicy. I lost my record for the price of the final day. But think it was around 30TD.



In the same stall, I saw Cai Pao (vegetable bun) too. Ordered one. Was hoping it to be real good. :( Nope. The skin was too thick, and only very little filling inside. The filling actually tasted good. Stingy... It was for 15TD.

After walking for around 30 min, we finally reached the Di Hua Jie. Mind u, as we walked with a quick pace, so u can imagine how far it is from the station. Wrong info from the mag. :( Anyway, so glad we reached the street.



This was why I wanted so much to come to Di Hua street. It is called Karasumi (dried mullet roe). I saw it in the TV many times, but never try one myself. And I know Taiwan is famous with this, and the price is much cheaper than in Japan. Along the Di Hua street, many shops were selling this Karasumi. With different brand. Finally saw this shop, actually Hui Wen was the one who spotted this shop first. The karasumi looks very fresh. And the lady was very nice person too. It was sell by weighing system. This pack cost 280TD.

Heee... now I know how karasumi taste like. But still I prefer mentaiko.

After we bought the karasumi, we asked the lady how to go back to our hotel.

"Oh, tat's easy, u just walked straight down this street, turn left, then u will see Taipei station from there." In a min, she finish her direction explanation.

"..." Hui Wen n me looked at each other wordless. Tat is?? Damn, wat a long-winded way we had to come here. :( Yah~ u can say we had a very good walk. But think we had enough for the whole trip.



On the way home, we saw one stall selling fried rice vermicelli.



And oso this squid ball gravy. We asked for one each. 2 for 60TD. Nice nice taste.



Next to this stall, got someone selling Bing Nang. The boss showed me, asked if I know wat it is? I answered yes, but never really seen a real one.

He was so kind to show me, 2 types of the ready to sell one. Kind of surprise, cause I owez thought there was only one type. He even arranged it to let me take pictures.



"Hey gal, hv u seen Bing Nang Xi Shi?" He asked.

"No~ no chance. Dun know where to find one." I replied.

"Ah, wat a pity. U can see them in the Hua Lian area."

"How do the Bing Nang Xi Shi looks like actually?" I am curious to know, wat make these gals so famous in Taiwan.

"Like u lor..." Didn't expect him to say this. His answer didn't anser my Q. :(

Then, later I heard some of my frens telling me how the BNXS looks like. :( So, now I know the boss is making fun of me. Ai yar~ if only I know tat earlier.



We smoothly went back to our hotel street, less than half the time we occupied to go there. Before went back to the hotel, we still got around 20 min. So we went to this nearby National Muzium just to take the building pic.



Then I bought one super big (700ml) bubble tea for only 25TD.



And Hui Wen bought this avocado milk for 50TD. Very smoothie flavour. And the left side was called Sui Jian Bao (Water Simmer Frying Bun). This bun definitely one of the best I hv tried in Taiwan. 10TD only for 1. Love both. :)

Then we back to the hotel, packed up, and said bye bye.



We went to the CKS airport by bus. Very cheap n convenient from the Taipei station actually. The bus station was just besides it. And they hv one bus in every 15-20min. While we wanted to check in, there was this middle aged lady trying to tumpang us with her luggage. Stupid ff, didn't even think bout the risk, omost said "No problem". But smart Hui Wen said no. So, in the end she didnt tumpang us. We saw her bring the 'small luggage' on flight by herself. Make me even more suspicious to see such a small luggage.

On the immigration booth, the person who incharged in my line was damn slow. Know why? He was very 'trouble maker'. When my turn, he looked at my passport, look at me, and look at my passport again. Then he used a ruler to measure my passport.

Ok, this time I am goin to say something.

"Yes, Mr inspector, may I know wat r u doing now? Wat is tat ruler for?" I know wat he did, but I asked him purposedly.

He looked up at me, and I smiled at him. "Oh, I just wanted to check if it is a real passport or not." He said.

"Ah, I c~ So this is how the inspector check one's passport. Interesting. I never see people checking for the originality of the passport. Eee~~ glad I hv chance to see it today. Thanks." I smiled to him even sweeter, but with a very surprising expression.

"Wat else do u do to check a passport?" Heee... think I am getting more nasty.

He then flipped my passport for a little more. Then... "Finish checking." Think he surrended.

"Really? Oh, tat's was fast. So, may I go now?" I smiled at him again.

"Yes". He said.

"Thank you. And bless u hv a good day." Ha!! Feel so relax after tat. Think I haven't teased someone for quite a time.



On the flight I had these vegetarian meal for an early dinner. Think the day came tasted better.



And Hui Wen had this one.

In the airport, Hui Wen left her hat on the flight. So we waited for the staff to get it for us. And during our waiting, we saw this lady tat was trying to let us check in her luggage for her, was under inspection at the quarantine department. Man~~ she got so much luggages. Think more than 10 luggages. Aiyar~ forgot to take pic for that. And all inside r the fresh veggie n fruits... We wonder wat she is goin to do with so much of them? For doin business??? Anyway... sure glad we didn't helped her to bring.

We reached Hui Wen's dorm around 8pm. Went to Wai Wai's place to sleep tat nite. I'm sure was too tired, tat I dun even care Wai Wai stay late until 3am. And me, guess I was sleeping like a pig then. Heee...

Yippie!! Taiwan trip was over. Hope u enjoy the whole trip as much as Hui Wen n me did. :)

Starting next post goin to get back to the Japan's food talk. :) But first, hv to finish my seminar for next Monday first.

Tata. Heavy head now...

Taiwan 7th day (3)

Last nite Wai Wai called me, n we talked for a while. Little part of our talked, was tat she's been complaining my blog updating been extremely slow. :( Yah... I know. So today I must try to finish my Taiwan blog. Damn! Got to prepare my seminar talk for next Monday some more.:( Might hv to stop blog for a few days after the Taiwan talk finish. Got to finish the more important job first.

Ok, back to 7th day 3rd part.

Time for us to hunt for food. We decided to walk on foot to the famous eating street called Yong Kang street.



While walking, we saw a cafeteria style shop written Taipei Niu Ru Da Wang (Taipei Milk King). Hui Wen saw it was introduced in the mag. Can't find a good site tat introduces it. However, it seems like they hv 5 branches in Taipei.

We wanted to hv something different, so we ordered this San Yao Milk. Taste like yam with milk. Nice nice. :) One for 60TD. The milk really helped the 2 gals to walk until the Yong Kang street.



We finally found the Yong Kang street. And the dim sum shop tat Hui Wen been mentioning. She really wanted to try this shop, ever since she saw it in the mag.It is called Din Tai Fung.

This is how it looks like. A 3-storey building. Very easy to spot from the main road actually. A lot of customers even for a normal weekday.

There was this little episode happening when we wanted to enter the shop. The waitress stood in front didn't let me in, when I was still confuse why, she hurriedly push me to the side. Then, within seconds, a few people coming out, seem like the centre was on the middle young gal. She looked a bit familiar to me. But more to more, I was kind of angry why the waitress suddenly pushed me. But she seemed to didn't even notice, cause she was into kind of hyper excited n clapped when the gal came out. Then, I heard the yelling n screaming of the young kids tat stand in 2 rolls. One of them quickly gave this gal some present. She received it. Tat made the kids screamed even louder. OMG!! Crazy!!! So this is wat they call the Zui Xing Zhu (Chase star group)??? To me, they sound more like they hv hysteria.

Then it flashed on my mind. Wait a minute, isn't she Abe Natsumi? The ex member of Morning Musume. Yah! I was rite when those kids screamed her name. Well, she's kind of cute, but very petite. Hmm... I guess my mood been quite bad cause of the push. It was a BIG NO NO for a waitress to act like a kid when she was supposed to do her duty tat time. (Well, if u consider pushing me tat time was part of her duty?) Was thinking of complaining tat waitress tat stood in front the door. But then, I didn't. Somehow I managed to control my temper raised up. Which was a good thing. But poor Hui Wen, she became my companion for my mumbling tat time.

Anyway, besides tat, the service in the shop was quite good. At least the other waiters were very well trained courtesy. So, I decided to forget bout it.

The order was in bucket for the dim sum. At first we ordered each 1 bucket. Then, the waitress who served us said it will be too much for both of us. She suggested we hv 1/2 bucket for each type. Ee? didn't know they can order this way. Much to our pleasure. :)



The first thing came is this Xiao Long Bao (small meat bun). 5 pieces for 1/2 bucket. Same for other dimsum as well. It was the first time for me to hv such a kind of Xiao Long Bao. I always saw it on the food tv programme in Japan, but never really had a chance to try it. Can u see the very soft look of the skin? Yap, it was extremely thin. Once u bite, the juice of the dimsum just flowing out. I love this kind of feeling. Btw, I only ate the skin n juice. The meat, Hui Wen incharged. :P She like this dish the most for the dinner tat nite.



Ok, we ordered this, specially for me. This Cai Jiao (vegetable dumpling) very different from the Xiao Long Bao. The skin a bit more munchy than the Xiao Long Bao,which I like it. But the taste of the filling was only so so. Not as juicy. And a bit too thin for the flavour. Oh well...



Next, the Xiao Jiao (Prawn dumpling) came up. Woo... looked nice. After I tried this, my conclusion was tat this dim sum will be my most favorite for today. Yap, the skin was even more munchy than the Cai Jiao, and it was juicy, though not as juicy as the Xiao Long Bao. But the sweetness of the juice was unbeatable. Heee... again, the filling inside served to Hui Wen. :P



Now, this was the thing we were regretted to order. We haven't had good fried rice for a long time, and we haven't tried one in Taiwan. But this was came out to be 'no good'. Very disappointed actually. Not only the ingredient inside was too simple, but the seasoning was badly done too. I think mine taste much better than this. :( I think it was for 100TD (or 80TD?). Which was not worth at all. This was the last thing we worked very hard to stuck in into our mouth.



Hui Wen has been mentioning want Zhong Zi (rice dumpling) for a few days. So we asked for one. Aiyah... forgot to show the inner part. However... this was a good one. The thing tat impressed me the most was the rice itself. Very very softly done. Like omost melting in ur mouth. The taste was just to the rite point, not too thin, not too thick.



The last thing we had was this yum puff (again! heee... this was ff request). I love this one. The filling was very 'yum'my.... And the skin was very well done too. A bit expensive though. A small puff like this for 60TD. Heee... but felt satisfy after tat.

We paid a total of 455TD for the whole dinner. Reasonable though. If only we didn't call for the fried rice...



After the dim sum, we wanted to go for a noodle shop, tat selling Dao Xiao Mian (Knife shaved noodle). We found it, but it was closed. So we went straight for having something sweet. We found the Bing Guan (Ice Monster) tat Hui Wen wanted to try. Ee~ wat a hot spot. Never ending crowd in n out in the shop. We found 2 counter style seats. Hui Wen went to order.



She came back with a big plate of mango ice. 130TD for 1. Really big wor. With a lot of fresh mango cube and a scoop of mango ice cream as topping. And an adding of fresh cream. Mmmmm... oishiiii... strongly recommended. :) The mango cubes were very sweet. The mix the soft n hard cubes. I prefer the hard one. I just dun like the texture of over ripe fruit. Too soft tat u can't even hv a satisfaction in munching them. Even for banana, I like to go for a greenish yellow one.



We then walked to the nearest MRT station, to go to the next nite market, the Shi Lin nite market tat we went last nite. Wanted to exchange the dress tat I bought, too big size. And oso wanted to buy the glass accessories tat we ordered last nite.

On the way, saw a food store. I wanted to buy passion fruit, as I never had a fresh one before. Heee... they got it here. I just picked 4 pretty one. I dun know how to choose a good one actually, but just wanted to hv a try. Very very cheap wor... they used weight measuring system. The 4 tat I chose, only for 7TD. Imagine, not even reach RM0.20 for one. Saw the one sold in Japan. RM10 for one. Gosh!!

I tried one the next morning. Ahhh... sour. :( Felt like cheated. But then, the other 3 I brought back to Japan. Just let them in the freeze until the outer skin look terribly wrinkled. Dun want to waste, so tried one more again. To my surprise, it taste very good now. Much sweeter. And very good smell. Hah! Now I know how to choose a good passion fruit then. Made me believe 'Dun judge a fruit by it cover'! :P



Passion fruit was commonly used for making drink in Taiwan. We had one when we travelled other place of Taiwan. More sour than the condensed liquid for making drink tat we usually hv in M'sia supermarket. But a better kind of fragrance. Can feel tat it was from fresh fruit. :)



We reached Shi Lin nite market. Unluckily, the dress selling stall didn't open today. :( So I hv to bring my oversize dress back with me. We then went to the food stalls area. Didn't buy any thing to munch, cause was too full. But me want to drink Ai Yu Bing once more, so bought another one. Damn full after finished it. Burrrpppp!!!



"Ee~ boss, u r making our apples now ar..." :) So glad he remembered the apple. But then he didn't recognized us. He just remembered he had to make apple.

I took out my camera, wanted to take pic.

"One pic 100TD!" He said.

"Ai yor, so stingy ler u, boss! I just only want to take the burning glass pic." Hee... stubborn ff.

"Dun take my face, I dun like my pictures." He insisted.

"Ah.. ur face ar... dun worry... I am only interested into ur glass." Which was true. "Nah, proof ar! No u in the pic." I showed him my camera. Heee... he seemed satisfy after tat.

"Btw boss, I'm helping u do free publicity ler..." So next time u see someone making glass accessory selling in front of the building I showed above, tat's him. He was actually easy to do bargain with. Very nice guy. :)

The glassmaker was still making the apples that we wanted. It was still very hot, so we had to wait for 30 more min to cool down before we can hv it. Stroll around the place. Watching the local bidding toys for their kids. Very fun. Hee... Silly ff, use 100TD to buy an electrical torchlite from there. Heavy... now think back... really silly... Wat more the voltage in Japan not suitable to used it. Ai yah... well...

We went back to the glassmaker, chat with him for a while. :P And the 2 gals each got 2 free gift from him. Very nice guy.

"Boss, u dun want to give us discount, tat's ok." Then continued... "But we would love to hv these cute cute little animals here. Heeee... can??~~" Hui Wen n me smiled at him.

"Mmm... arrr... Gao Xin Jiu Hao (If happy, why not?)". Aiyah! Didn't expect he would say yes. Like him. :) If I stayed in Taipei, I sure believe I will be one of his regular customer then.

The last nite in Taipei, turned out to be a good one. Tomolo fly back to Japan liao... Sob sob!!

Taiwan 7th day (2)

Today's is 11 Oct, a public holidays in Japan. Again, now only my sensei n me in the lab. Went to aquawalking today. Feel fresh. But munched on 2 Mr Donut. :( Now in my lab waiting for my samples to incubate. So, time for me to blog... :P

By the way, today's blog might be sentitive to some people. If u mind, please dun cont reading.

After seeing around Xi Men Ding, we decided to go to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. This memorial hall was built to commemorate the memory of President Chiang Kai Shek who past away in 1975.

It was a conincidence tat the time we arrived, was omost the time to bring down the flag by the soldiers. But unluckily, we were not in time to rush for the open hr for the hall exhibition. Oh well, one gain, one lose.



This pic showed one of the soldier who just stand still in front of the flag pole... He didn't even move at all even when I said TQ to him for letting me taking his pic. Hmm... Memorial hall at his back.



For the other 2 soldiers, they went up to the stage. With exactly the same tempo for their movement, they pull down the flag slowly. U can hear the bells on their shoes rang simultaneously when they moved.



Then, then slowly rolled and folded the flag until it becomes a long stick-like.



Then, dang dang dang... the bell rang again with the same tempo for the three soldiers backed to the hall.

I asked a guy who incharged there bout this flag raising n pulling down time. He told me 6am n 6.10pm everyday. So, those of u tat r interested to see it, make sure u got the rite time.



After the ceremony, another guy, think he is a soldier too, hv to tidy up the long rope tat raised the flag. He ran round n round the stage, until the whole rope roll around the pole. Then, he climbed up the pole to make a knot. Ai yah... u can't see his face clearly here... but I can tell u... he is damn cute... :P Too bad me dun hv the gut to talk to him. *Blush*



I tried to find Hui Wen all the way, cause she seem to disappear from the place. She didn't even there when the flag ceremony was on. Sayang...

When I came to this CKS hall (this pic was taken by Hui Wen, nice huh...), then I saw her sitting on the top part of the staircase.

"Hey dear, I looked for u around ler... Didn't know u r here. Wat's up?" I asked her while running up to her place.

"Nothing... just sit hear and enjoy looking around." She said.

"U missed out the good part u know? The flag ceremony." I said again.

"Yah, i saw them walking out to the place. But me too lazy to go to the front. Just see from here lor. Saw u taking pictures." So, I will copy my pics to her then for the flag ceremony.



She took one nice view from the CKS Memorial Hall. Very wide place. U can see the big gate n the 2 National Halls from there. One is the theatre hall, another one is the music hall. I forgot which one is which.

"FF, something very shocking here. See the 2 gals down there?" Hui Wen suddenly said with a very light voice. (She meant the 2 gals on the left of this pic, which were around 20 stair case down the place we sit.)

"Yap. Why?" Didn't really pay attention to her tat time.

"Tell u hor... The 2 of the were kissing just now. Very passionately ler... Even... even touch each other on the... ehhem... breasts." Think she tried her best to say out the whole sentence. But with even lower voice more.

"Not only them ler... the back of this hall oso got one group... Man! Wat a place. First time see gal kiss gal... Gosh!!" Heee... cool cool Hui Wen got a bit excited liao.

"Well, Taiwan is kind of famous with lesbian couples. They even hv societies for tat." I said.

"Really?? How did u know. I never know bout this." Hui Wen eyes big big when I told her tat. Guess she was kind of surprise when I told her.

"Books and magazines. Used to read kind a lot of books from Taiwan." But actually me kind of surprise tat our encounter with this happening was in the CKS-Hall. Kind of ironic huh...

Keypo ff curious too, so went to look around at the back of the hall. Came back with the conclusion,"Hui Wen, not one group at the back, but another 3 groups."

"Really? Wow... tat's a lot."

"Yah. Seem like this is a hot spot for them. Wat more, all just around high school kids. Hmmm..." Yap, they r still very young actually. I wonder if it's a kind of trend among them, to show tat they r 'in'.

Anyway, I wouldn't think the CKS-memorial hall is a suitable place. Cause many family bringing the children coming to the park for a leisure time. In fact, on the rite end of the stair case (we were at the left end), omost the same height as us, sit a mother with a small children. I wonder if they saw wat we hv seen.

When I got back from the checking, it was kind of a dark.



The 2 in front of us started again. This was the pic I took, with a sudden flash. They did look back to us after that, but a little while, cont again. Guess they dun even so care bout our existance. This pic I hv to use the camedia software to make it much brighter. Can see kind of a blur. Too dark.

"FF, do u think they will think we r oso... ehhem... same s them?" Hui Wen suddenly asked.

"Haha! Wow! Such a cute couple? That will sure make them so envy." I make a wicked face to show her. :P

Well, we went away after tat... dun know wat is goin to happen to them then.



We went down to the music n theatre hall. This was how it looked before dark.



I like the after dark look of them. The light make the whole hall shining... :)

Wat a place!!

Taiwan 7th day (1)

I am curi tulang (be a lazy bone) now eating my Mr. Donut n updating my Taiwan trip before start my work. :P Only me n my sensei today. He just came back from Ireland yesterday. Here is wat he handed to me when I greeted him just now.



A square mirror. Red colour. N with a spearmint bag. He said thanks me for helping him did a great job. Aiyah! Made me blush. Coz tat was actually my duty s a student mar. Anyway, very happy to got this. 1. I love puppy. 2. I need a mobile mirror actually. (I dun own one until now, wat a shame for a gal.) But the price was written 10.99 pound (RM75), hmm... kind of a high price for a mirror.

Ok, come to my Taiwan trip 7th day. ^O^ Ganbatte ff...

1st September (7th day)

Yang Ming Hill - Gu Gong Muzeum - Xi Men Street - Zhong Zheng Hall - Yong Kang Street - Shi Lin Nite Market - Nan Guo Hotel

Today, we decided to go to Yang Ming Shan. Hui Wen at first not really interested to go, after she had the experience of artificial Ken Ting National Park. However, since it is a very famous place in Taipei, we decided to take a look then.

We reached the place in the late morning time by bus. On 2nd parking lot stop of the hill, where the city bus stopped, we hv to chance line to take a park bus, which was not too frequent, cause around 30 min only one bus. As we dun hv much time, according to the local, they recommended us to go to the Ching Tien Kang directly. Ok, so we decided our spot for the Yang Ming Shan. Actually if u hv enough time, u can spend a whole day there. As the place is kind of big. Especially for those who likes nature.



While waiting for the bus, I look around. I found this little cute water lily. Yah, I am a fan of water lily.

Yeah, finally our bus came. We heard someone speaking Cantonese, then Mandarin mix with English. Hmmm... our curiosity comes.

"FF, do u think they r from Hong Kong?" Hui Wen ask me.

I remain silent for a while to hear the way they talk more, "Nope, I can assure u that they r Malaysians." I said to Hui Wen.

"How can u be so sure?" Hui Wen asked me.

I wickedly grin at her... "Only typical Malaysians speak this kind of intonation for Mandarin campur (mix) English."

"Wow... U so lihai! U sure?" She kind of a doubt.

"Want make a bet? Let ask them then." I suggested.

"U ask." Cunning Hui Wen. Oh well, ok... me ask then.

"Excuse me. May we know where u gals from?" I turned to the back n asked them.

"Malaysia." One of them answered.

"Really?" Heee... straight away, me n Hui Wen smiled. My guest was bingo.

"We r from Malaysia too..." Hui Wen n me said.

Well, but they dun hv much surprise expression. And during the trip on the bus, they dun talk to us too. Only talked to one of the local, trying to use Hokkien this time instead... But seem likely they hv a very big gap in understanding each other words much. Hui Wen then let seat for an old people, and she went to the front. After we got down from the bus, she asked me.

"FF, did u talked to them?"

"Nope, they dun talked to me at all." I said.

"Really? One of their voice sound like urs. Strange, usually when u meet ur own country people in faraway place, u would sure like to talk more, isn't it?"

"Ee~ got one voice like me? Hmmm... Yah, I hv the same thinking as u. But, well, maybe they r not interested to get more Malaysian frens. Oh well..." But it is kind of ironic we r not Hiew by our own Malaysians, but get a lot of friendly communication from the locals during our trip.

We went to the washroom. They were behind us. We we came out, we smiled at them. They oso smiled back, but tat's all. Hmmm...

So me n Hui Wen started our hiking.



We like this Ching Tien Kang actually. Very green. Instead, me n Hui Wen hike for more than 1.5hr at tat place, with a big big sun on top of us. Sweat like hell, n got sunburn terribly. :P



By the time we got down from the Yang Ming Shan, oledi late noon. We didn't eat anything. Damn hungry. So, we tried to find a vegetarian restaurant to try, as we haven't tried one yet in Taiwan. But the place where we stopped for an interchange of the bus, kind of isolated. Only a few self-service lunch shops were there. We chose one of them.

Hui Wen picked her dish (right), I picked mine (left). With 2 bowls rice. Soup n cold tea service for free. Cost 125TD only. Ok, as u can see, with tofu again!! Oso not much green veggie. Dun know why, the green veggie not attracting me much tat time. I love the seaweed cooking tat I took. Spicy salty. Nice nice thing with rice. :)



After lunch, we went to this National Palace Muzeum (NPM). This muzeum actually keeps a lot of very valuable Chinese antique. The strongest impact for me is a small White Bitter Gourd carving. Very very pretty... Too bad no phototaking allowed. Sob sob!! Hey, it is under renovation, and only part of the muzeum is opened. So we get free entrance. :)



After we came out from the muzeum, we saw one Proton Wira at the parking lot. Ai yar~ didn't expect to c it here. The model somehow to be bigger than the one in Malaysia. I still remember when I visited Brunei 4~5 years ago, I saw one very huge Proton Perdana there too. Wow! Now I started to believe the exported proton cars are bigger in size (according to my frens, price cheaper too, I wonder why?).



We then moved to Xi Men Ding. A shopping area that r very popular among the local youngsters. In fact, when Hui Wen n I first step on this place... Oh oh! We felt like we were in Shibuya, only tat a miniature of Shibuya. I kind of tired with this kind of place, not to mention Hui Wen who only need 15 min to go to Shibuya from her dormitory.



We first went to this Hong Luo Ju Chang(Red Theatre) in Xi Men Ding. The first n largest teahouse playhouse in Taiwan. I kind of like this building. The interior oso very oriental. Red red...



These dolls attracted me. Hui Wen thought they were too spooky. I was thinking to buy one, but too expensive. Heee... so I took this 'cute' pic. Showed Hui Wen, she got shrudded. Can't understand how I can think them 'cute'.



We kind of like one of the part in this building. Know wat is this? It was taken by Hui Wen. Heee... washroom... Cool huh... Now this is wat I call spooky when u doin nature call and see urself reflecting endlessly inside the room with 2 sides mirror. Wat an experience... :P



After we finish the Hong Luo Ju Chang, we decided to walk around the shopping area for a while. Ee~~ how come so many people gathering. Much much more than just now. Ah, ic... the olympic medalists were having parade for celebrating the victory. Hmmm... keypo ff n Hui Wen joined the crowd, just for taking the pics. :P Even though we hv no idea at all who they are. They got 2 gold medalists for this year Athens Olympic. One is this guy (hand waving). Name Zhu Mu Yan. This pic was by me.



The other one is this gal. Name Chen Shi Xin. Both r in Taekwando. Oso got the silver n bronze medals in other events. Which was a very good result for Taiwan since they haven't got such a good result for a long time. This pic was by Hui Wen. :) Hmm... sometimes I wonder, where is Malaysia Boleh??

After we felt enough to keypo in the crowd, we went away to look around the shopping streets. Then, I suddenly remember need to make a confirmation call for our flight tickets. We tried very hard to find one, then finally Hui Wen laughing bursted out.

"I saw it fish fish." She said.

"Where?? How come I can't?" I kept looking around.

"There. In front of us." She pointed to the front.

"I still can't see ler. How come ur eyes owez so good ar? Very far is it?"

"Nope, very near. Come, I show u." She led me to the front.

"Here."

I bursted laughing too. Heeee....



Now u know why? I was looking for a normal phone booth. Didn't expect something like this short and more like a iron box. Too bad, the phones only use card. So we have to find other phone booth then later.



Jin Aun strongly recommended us to try the Mian Xian in this Xi Men Ding. He said he ate 2 bowls by himself. So we found the shop, called Ah Zhong Mian Xian. Many people were buying, and just standing there and eat on the spot. Hui Wen incharged in paying today, so she went to buy. And I took this pic while she was buying it. She was in between 2 tall guys that were selling. :P



This was how the Mian Xian looked like. Taste very similar to the one we had in Shi Lin nite market the nite before. But this one more spicy. Think they put more black pepper in it. 35TD per bowl.



We then wanted to hv some drink to quench our thirst. Hui Wen wanted a bubble tea. No problem for me. She went to buy it, 25TD per glass, and came back with a bitter gourd face.

"Fish fish! The shopkeeper very impolite lar..." She grumbled. "Like I owed her big amount of money!!" She nagged more.

Poor dear. "Well, this is Taipei. U know some city people can be very snobbish. Did u complain on her directly?" I asked.

"Nope." She said.

Tat gal was lucky I was not the buyer.

But hey, next time if u see this BIG SMILEY sign tat sell bubble tea in Xi Men Ding... Dun buy. The taste was only so so. The most important... terrible service. Hehe... I'm trying to make a revenge for u here, Hui Wen. :P

Taiwan 6th day (2)

Today taifu goin to attack the Japan in evening time. My place should be minor effected. But my mood is greatly influent, glooming... by this grey grey sky. :( Came to the lab a while ago for continuing my work. Damn! Dun know why, my sample just dun solidify. So try to put them in refridge n hopefully tomorrow I can cont it smoothly. Oh well...

I hope bloggin would make my mood turns better. Cheer up, ff!

Ok, Taiwan cont...



We reached the Dan Sui MRT station around 5pm. Still early from the sunset. Man! How we glad the sky was clear there. :)

While waiting for Hui Wen, took this pic. This is how a MRT station in Taiwan looks like. Not bad huh...



We decided to see around the Dan Sui by walking from the shop streets before we heading to the harbour site. Saw this shop tat selling Li Bing (Biscuit tat made for good occasion). We tried this Zi Ma Dan Huang (Sesame egg yolk). I was kind of hesitated to try thing with egg yolk, but kind of surprise tat this one really match its taste. The egg yolk crunch was dispersed in the whole biscuit with other fillings. Very harmony. We bought 1, 60TD. This Li Bing then was given to Sylvia, cause I can't find the mooncake with egg yolk tat time for her, too early for Mid Autumn. Hui Wen n me actually walked a few shops but can't find a good one. But I promised will bring her one when she said want egg yolk mooncake. So, after negotiated with Hui Wen a few days after, she kindly sell it to me as Sylvia's souvenir. :)



Then, we saw stacking like mountain round round black balls were everywhere. Oso pack in packages. When I showed this pic to my other frens n asked them to guess.

"Stone, chestnut, guli..." No one answer EGG!

Yap, this is the famous product in Dan Sui called Tie Dan (Iron egg). They have different sizes from as small as a quail's egg until a hen's egg. I bought one medium size one to try. 10TD for 1.

"Hey miss, this one very very nice. It's a special food in Dansui. U can't get it in other place. Very cheap, 10 for 70TD only." She pointed to this stacking eggs in front of me. "How many packages do u want? We can give u furthur discount." She was attempting me. Cause I think she can see my expression of getting interested to buy it.

"Er~ one." I answered.

"One package only ar? Enough or not?" She was smiling... and talking.

"No, I want one egg only." Heee... I think I am kind of blush when I said tat.

"..." The shopkeeper smile gone. ("Stingy gal. Buy one egg only for wat!?") :P Anyway, she can't reject customer requirement, rite?

I just wanted to taste how it was. So, for wat I need so many eggs? Heee... Anyway, the taste was not too bad. Just tat a bit too cold. And yap, it's harder than the normal boiled egg. So tat's why they called it Tie Dan? I dun know.



I hven't had guava for a long time. When Hui Wen n me saw this nice looking pink guava, we can't wait to try. So we bought one package. 50TD. They put some plum powder for us.

We tried it when we reached the harbour... Uuurrrggghhh... becak!! (Over ripe). Both gals were showing the same expression to each other. We felt like being cheated. But it is our fault of not confirming earlier with the owner whether it's soft or the chrunchy type. Never worry bout tat in Kuching, cause the one usually selling on the store r the crunchy type. The taste was good, but the texture spoil the whole guava. :(



In the same stall, we bought a glass of nice nice sugar cane juice. 50TD oso.



Hui Wen oso wanted to try this prawn roll. 15TD for 1 prick. She said the taste was just so so.

With the foods, we decided to leisurely spent our time waiting for the sunset.



In front of the place we sat at Dan Sui Ma Tou (Dan Sui harbour), I saw this stall selling Hong Suan Mei Sui (Red sour plum juice). It is one of my favorite drink back in hometown. Bought one. 35TD. Uuurrrgghhh... too few suam mei inside. Made the drink a very diluted taste. Not worth. The Suan Mei Tang tasted much much better.

Anyway, I must said, tat was one of the evening I like the most during my stay in Taiwan. Good weather, relaxing mood n calm place.



Took many pics for the sunset scene from early sunset till late sunset. I kind of like this one. Actually the harbour in front of us was kind of dirty. But when u see the sunset far from the harbour, ar~~ romantic. Heee... The sunset in Dan Sui will always be one of the deepest memory in my mind bout Taiwan then. It made me miss Kuching beaches n sunset sooo much.



I wanted to ask Hui Wen to take purikura (in Japanese) or Da Tou Tie (in Chinese) when I saw they got one here in Dan Sui. It is actually means sticker photos. She never took one b4. I went down to check the price. Aarrgghh~ expensive. 200TD for 1 sheet. Not worth. In Japan much cheaper. So, we decided to just let go. We made promise to take one back to Tokyo then. But we totally forgot bout it. Hey dear, next time u come to Kyoto, we must take one together then. Believe me, it's fun.



Saw this stall selling something called Hai Hou Hua ( a kind of flower? seaweed?). The right side show the original looking of the unprocessed Hai Hou Hua. Anyway, drink with jelly inside. Something tasted like the Ai Yu Bing. But not really so. 30TD for 1.



We saw someone selling crispy pancake called Chong Zua Bing (Pancake with green leek). With topping of sweet n spicy chili sauce. 35TD. We had a very good impression for our first bite. Our conclusion is "Roti canai". Yap, it's actually roti canai, but with sweet n spicy chili sauce. Maybe back in Malaysia, the mamak stall can try this version too. It will fit the Malaysians "Hot n spicy" taste. :P



We then past thru a stall selling fish ball. Hui Wen read bout it is one of the famous food in Dan Sui too. She wanted to try one. Ok, so we ordered the most classical fish ball for her. As for me, I ordered this pumkin skin with mushroom filling cake. Both for total 60TD.

This fish ball was special becoz they actually have the minch meat inside the ball. But Hui Wen said the taste was just so so, nothing special.

As for my pumkin cake, I dun like it too. Cause the skin r too thick. It will taste much better if they made the skin much thinner n more filling.



This showed the harbour where we took our boat to the next harbour.

We decided to go to the next harbour in Dansui, called Yu Ren Ma Tou (Fisherman harbour). A famous tourist destination. From the 1st harbour to the 2nd harbour by boat was 80TD per person.

Yu Ren Ma Tou was oso a song by Xiong Tian Ping. Unluckily, I dun hv any idea if I hv heard it be4. Maybe I hv, maybe I hven't.

A little episode here. A young guy who work in the harbour talked to me. For a short while. We waited a while for the boat to move out. Then, he talked to me again.

"Where u come from? Student?"

"Yap. Malaysia." I said. Blah blah blah... then he asked me a few more Qs. Can't really remember. Wat I remember the most was this...

He came back with a package of Bing Nang. OMG!Bing Nang. One of the thing tat attract my curiosity a lot.

"Hey, know wat is this, very nice thing, want to try one??" With his cunning smile, he asked me. ("Oh yes, ff, u know u want it." my evil side. "Uh uh, no no, ff. U know wat it is, u know u shouldn't." my rational side reminded me.)

"Nope... I know wat's tat. And thank you." I said. "Saw in the bus... Smoking, drinking, drugs, bing nang n No 18 sign board. Thanks anyway." I smiled back in a wicked way too. So, my angel side won this time.

"Ee~ smart gal. Thought u dun know wat this is" He said.

Well, I didn't tell him another truth. I tried Bing Nang before even when I was only a few years old. My father was teaching in Simunjan, a very small town in Sarawak, few hrs drive from Kuching. And so my family mixed with the Iban n Dayak (the ethnic local) a lot. I remembered some aunties put the Bing Nang into one green leave, and put some white powder on it. Then they just munch munch munch n munch... Puk puk!! The split the things out. And smile at me. Man!!! The whole mouth is all dark red. Like a vampire. And yes, I tried them. But I didn't like it. Crazy people, how can they munch on such a terrible taste stuff... I would say all I remember was tat a very mouth-puckering taste. I wonder if the Bing Nang in Taiwan taste the same. Can anyone tell me how it's taste? Anyway, the locals told me it is a good thing to avoid the long time hr worker like lorry driver to fall asleep. They called it 'Taiwan Chewing Gum'. It's actually not the Bing Nang tat played the trick, but it's the white powder or the content added inside. Some 'good maker' Bing Nang can make one addicted. Hmmm...



Dang dang! Finally we were in Yu Ren Ma Tou. A good place for Pak Toh (dating). Not a bad place huh. This is how the harbour site looks like. See the word "Yu Ren Hao" written on the boat? :)



This bridge they called it Qing Ren Qiao (Lover's bridge). See, even the bridge name is meant for couple. Oh well, Hui Wen n me oso 2 mar... Can lar... :P

From Yu Ren Ma Tou, we took bus direct back to the Dan Sui MRT station, to depart to our next destination. The long waited Shi Lin Ye Shi (Shi Lin nite market). :) One of the very famous nite market in Taipei city.



This is one of the entrance to the stalls tat selling assorted stuffs. Not much of foods for this area. I bought a few pairs of pierce here.



Ok, we came to another stall tat sold Chou Tofu (smelly tofu)(left). Again! :P Ok, this seem to be another kind of version. So me n Hui Wen ordered one. It's deep fried, and topping with chili n garlic based sauce. Ok, I'm not too much into this one. But not a bad taste too. Still prefer the bbq ver the most. ;)Tat made us tasted 4 versions of chou tofu for a one-week tour in Taiwan. Heee... 35TD per plate. The right one is called Ou Wa Mian Xian (Osyter vermicelli noodle). 30TD. The 2 stalls were just side by side. The taste of this Mian Xian was very good. 2 thumbs up!! :D



Now now, this is one of the drink tat I wanted to introduce the most to u all out there. If u been to Taiwan, and u never tried this be4, I can tell u, u r missing something really good. (Provided tat u r not scared of bitter gourd.) Taiwan was actually the first place I saw white bitter gourd. Never know it can be so pretty. If I see one in Kuching next time, I would surely wouldn't let the chance of buying it fly away. Just love it...



So, we ordered one Bai Ku Gua Zi (White bitter gourd juice). One thing I like bout the juice in Taiwan, is the purity of the juice. 100% juice. Means no water, no ice. Just the fruit or veggie itself. I saw this lady making this juice for us. She took out the white white long cleaned cut bitter gourd, and oso pineapple slice. Zzzzrrrrr... go the 2 into the juicer. And with some honey added. And there it is, our nicely come out white juice.

First sip... Aaahhh~~~ soooo nice. It's not as bitter as we thought. We felt a cold flow inside our body. Make a perfect thirst quencher for a hot sticky nite in summer. Ku Gua Ku Gua, I love u... (Modify from Mei Gui Mei Gui wo ai nu). ;)

We then went to the other sides of where all the food stalls gather together. But me n Hui Wen were just too full for anything more. So gave of trying anything. We stayed a while at a glass-made accessories to choose souvenir. Hui Wen bought one glass apple. I wanted one too, but no more. So we told the maker to do more tonite so tat we can hv it tomorrow. Yap, tomorrow we r coming back to this place. :)

Stay tune...

Taiwan 6th day (1)

I am supposed to go to my aquarobic today. But changed my mind. Kind of tired, n outside is raining whole day for me to move. So, will go to dinner soon, then come back to cont my lab work n blog my Taiwan posts. :P

I read the news today, was kind of surprised to know tat the Satok Suspension Bridge was collapsed this morning. Feel sayang. I do hope there will be a reconstruction for it. Miss the feeling everytime pass thru tat area, can see tat old old bridge there.

31 August (6th day)

Jiu Fen - Nan Guo Hotel - Long San Temple - Dansui - Yu Ren Harbour - Shi Lin - Nan Guo Hotel

Ok, the next morning after a long day from the southest to the northest in Taiwan, we decided today to travel mainly the outskirt of Taipei city.



We had a porridge with vegetarian dishes in a coffee shop just opposite our hotel, Nan Guo Hotel. Hui Wen dun really feel like eating yet, n she was not so much into porridge. So she let me chose the dishes. Heee... after she saw the thing I took...

"FF, u eat tofu everyday, u dun get tired ar? How come no green veggie at all?" she asked.

"Err~ I want to try if this tofu different from others. And oso, the green veggie dun look nice nice." I replied.

Anyway, the whole breakfast was 80TD. I like porridge, so it was a nice one for me. Hui Wen ate some too. But she is saving her stomach for searching more delicious stuff. Ai yor~ if u r a porridge or congee fan, and u stayed in Japan for a long time, u will craze for them when u see it.



We were heading to the Taipei train station when I saw this cool cool policeman. Heee... so I took out my cam, and there he is. Guessed he noticed me took his picture, cause when I push my button, he look the other way. Cheh! Anyway, this is the morning office hour street look in Taipei. ;)



This Taipei station was kind of a big.



I like the interior of this building. With the sun shining down from the glass roof. When I was buying ticket from Taipei to Jiu Fen, an uncle was standing behind me and heard my Mandarin. Oops, he suspected I am not a Taiwanese. Yah, he was rite. The 2-way ticket to Rui Fang cost 144TD.

Then, from Rui Fang, we took bus in front of the Rui Fang station to Jiu Fen. 38TD per person. We decided to stop on upper hill bus stop, so tat we walked all the way down for our tour. :P Save energy. When we get down from the bus, after a very short walk, we reached the Jiu Fen street. A very old style street, with many type of shops.

Why this small uphill place was so famous today, was becoz its historical past. Used to be a place for gold mining. Tat time, only 9 families were staying there, all the movement hv to depends on water transport. And today, they preserved the old fashion view of this place as tourist destination. A great favor among the Japanese.

Hui Wen n me bought some very cheap but cute hp strips.



After walking for a few shops, we were attracted by this dessert selling shop called San Su Gong. Well, the layout of the foods seem so attracting. So, Hui Wen n me went in. We tried their hand made n machine made pineapple tart. Sure got different. The hand made one was marvellous. So we go for the hand made one. It was 300TD per box with 15 tarts inside. But the shopkeeper offer us 900TD if we buy 4. Heee... so both of us each bought 2 boxes. ;)

We also bought these 2 Japanese style desserts, which I actually never seen in Japan. Hmmm... left one is called Xue Yu Juan (Snow Roll) and right one is called Jing Xuan Xue Guo (Crystal Snow Fruit). Well, the looks were very attracting, but the taste was not till my expectation. Oh well. Each for 35TD anyway.

Each of us held 2 big boxes of the pinapple tart and started to walk again. Damn, the things were heavy. Showed tat it is real good stuff. :) Btw, I am a BIG FAN for pineapple tart. ;)



After we walk for a while, we saw another shop selling pineapple tart and many other product. These r a corner view of the products they hv. This shop is called Zhang Shi Fu.

"Hello miss, come try our pineapple tart. No where can beat us." The owner said.

"Oh, we hv bought it." Hui Wen n me said.

"Ai yah, it's must be the machine made one. They all cheat one."

"Nope, we bought the handmade one." We added.

"Did u see the handmade process by urself." Hmm... i kind of dislike this guy. I hate people who do business tat like to spoil the other people image in order to pursue customers buy their stuff.

"Nope, but we tasted 2 types. And we know how to differentiate the taste." I answered back.

"Anyway, please tried ours. See, our chef made it on the spot. Very very soft outside and very nice jam inside." He seems to know tat I dislike his talking, so changed the topic.

Oh well, it's for free try, so we ate. And yap, it was good frankly speaking. But it was not as big n as compact as the first one we bought. Both has their own uniqueness. And tat guy offer us 200TD for a box of 20 tarts inside. Nice price though, so again the 2 gals bought 1 each.

"Boss, see... u dun hv to spoil other people image in order to want customer buy ur stuff. If good stuff, people will sure buy. It's not good to do business in this way." :P Hehe, keypo FF kind of giving him a business lesson. (Even though I m much younger than him, doesn't mean tat I dun know how to do business.)

"Yes, yes." Hee... guess he might be kind of felt shy of wat I hv said.



I saw this yum puff seem to be so oishii, and it's still very hot wor... So i bought one. And yes, it was very yummy. 15TD. Me n Hui Wen shared half. I am a big fan of good yum. Hardly can resist them. So, after walking a few shops away, I asked Hui Wen to stop. Then, I went back alone to the shop to get another one of this by myself. :P Oishikatta!! (Yummy!). But the 2nd one did make me feel kind of bloated.

Jiu Fen is a very famous place for its dessert called Yu Yuan. A dessert that made from starchy tuber like sweet potato n yum. Very colourful ball ball. We past thru a Yu Yuan shop with a very long Q beforehand. And past thru another with only a very few customers. But Hui Wen wanted to try the one in the magazine. So we walk for quite a distance again for a shop called Ah Po Yu Yuan (Grandma Tuber Ball). Finally we found the sign board, but the shop under the signboard was closed. So, no choice, we chose to go back to the one with less customer as the one with a lot of customer was kind of far away walking uphill.

The shop got a very nice eating place which u can c the outside view. But it is just happened tat with our height, the band of the window blocked our sight. Aarrgghhh...

The silly owner, just put all the ingredient under the bowl, and put the ice on top. So, can't take any good pic from the bowl. Was trying to take from the big pot then. But the lighting in the shop no good, so the pic kind of blur without the flash. :(

Anyway, this is how the look of the Yu Yuan.





With 3 other types of colourful toping as ur own choice, it cost 35TD per bowl.

Bout the taste. I could only said it was so so to me. I dun like eating yum in this kind of form. I wonder how the other shops will taste like. Hui Wen was oso not too favour into this. Oh well, we didn't finish all i think. Then we went away again. Only went we past thru the Ah Po Yu Yuan again, we found out it was opened actually. The shop was actually the opposite side of the sign board. Damn! If only we walked another few more steps tat time. But oh well, we had tried it. And we can't fill in another bowl anymore. Poor dear Hui Wen, she was looking for this shop the first thing she reach Jiu Fen.



We past thru this shop called Ah Lan Cao Zai Kueh.



Saw these new looking green cake all the way for the trip. And the one in this shop looks yummy. They got a few flavours. So after asking the recommendation from the shopkeeper, we bought one with the Cai Pu (a kind of Chinese pickle) filling (left). And we oso bought one yum cake (right).

Yummy!! The Cao Zai Kueh (the green cake one, actually the green colour was becoz of mugwort, in Japanese it is called yomogi) was so fantastic. In Japan, they only hv the sweet type one, with the red bean. :( I was kind of surprise in Taiwan, they r so smart to make it into a salty n spicy food. Yummy yummy!! Really highly recommended.

As for the yum cake, hmm... no no good. Try to skip tat. Not worth a try. Too hard, and less taste. Each only for 10TD.



We reached the hill view at Jiu Fen. Here, can see the design of the buiding very clearly. Feel relax in this place actually. It faced the sea. And back with mountain. Really You San You Sui (Got mountain, got sea).



After stayed there for a while. We decided to walk down hill to the bus stop. Saw this plant, think it's kind of a cute.



We went down a place with a lot of red lantern. These shops were actually place for drinking tea. Hui Wen n me didn't go to any, not really into tea. But, it was a good spot for snapshot. A bit look like the scene in the animation Spirited Away. I took this shot from top.



This one was taken from the bottom.



Another final shot before I left this place.

We took bus and train to back to Taipei city. Stopby in our hotel for a while for a refresh. Then moved to the next destination by MRT. We bought a 1 day ticket. 150TD per person. It was still too early for us to go to Dan Sui for a sunset view. So we decided to go to Long San Shi (Dragon Mountain Temple) for a short stop on the way to Dan Sui. They were on the same MRT line.



This is the main hall of the temple. This temple design was a combination of Qing dynasty, Japanese era and Restoration time.

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I saw this pretty man-made waterfall in the temple area, so try to take a few pics on it. The effect turned out not bad.



It was still the Ghost Festival month. So, the place were kind a lot of people tat doing praying ceremony. I found out these red candles look attractive to me. In Japan, all the temples used a white candle. Very different from the typical Chinese style. Heee... dun know why, I still prefer temple candles to be in red.



While we were there, heavy rain started to fall. But still, we need to move on for the sunset. Hui Wen n me were very worry tat the weather will failed us to see the sunset. We did pray for a good weather.

On the way from the temple back to the MRT station, we past thru this long long small alley with a lot of booth style shop. They dun sell anything, but with their own unique design. Yap, this place r for those who want to hv divination of their life, romance, money blah blah blah... Was surprise to see tat there were actually quite a few customer was having the predictions when we past. Ah~~ so Taiwan is really a place very popular with this stuff.

Taiwan 5th day (3)

After get down from the park, we were damn hungry. And for sure, we r not goin to miss a chance for the nite market here. :P The nite market we went is called Ji Long Miao Ko. Hee... we sure ate like crazy there. :P We were kind of a lost on the way to go, so we asked a passing by young guy. It just happened tat he n his gf oso heading to the same direction. So we followed their back. And when it is just in front, he told us we reached. So, Hui Wen n me thanked them, and excited for our mum mum exploration. We were walking in front of the couple. When we wanted to cross the road, suddenly the guy ran up to us.

"Xiao jie, ke bu ke yi wen ni yi ge wen ti?" (Miss, may I asked u a question?)

"Ke yi yar." (Sure) I replied.

"Qing wen ni men chong na lai?" (May I know where r u gals come from?)He asked.

Ah ha~ another person curious with our identity again. Sure I would love to solve their doubt. "Ma lai xi ya." (Malaysia) I smiled.

"Ah~ xie xie or..." (I c, thanks). He seems to be so satisfy after the doubt was clear. Heee... bet he kept discussing to his gf just now. :P

"Bu ke qi." (U r welcome).

And yeah!! The market, just in front of us. :D



The 1st thing tat attracted us is this smelly tofu. Yap, the 3rd version tat we tried, after the deep fried ver. n the bbq ver. Ok, this version is called Ma Po Chou Tofu (Mabo style smelly tofu). Now, this one might be a good one for those didn't dare taste the strong smelly tofu, but wanted a try, as the smelly feature of the tofu is kind of suppress by the spiciness of the mabo soup. I would say this is the 2nd best i like after the bbq version. Anyway, I am a big fan of spicy food. Heee... And compare to the previous 2, this version is the most healthy. Low calories. Good for ladies who want to maintain their shape. 60TD for 1.



Ok, this is just normal fruit juice. But a good thirst quencher. We ordered one watermelon juice n one papaya milk. Each for 25TD. Kind of disappointed with the papaya milk, cause the milk portion is a bit too much, can't taste the good papaya taste. Hmmm...



Then, we saw something was sold in HUGE pot. Some gravy soup. They called it Xie Rou Keng (crab meat gravy). This one attracted Hui Wen.



And at the same stall, the You Fan (Oily Rice) attracted me. My brain was giving signal to my taste bud an order... "U must try!". Heee... well, u hv to follow the order, dun u? :P

So, throwing our butts on the small bench, we called for one each. Total cost 70TD. And the taste? Marvellous. The You Fan taste similar to my mum BIG RICE DUMPLING! Of course mum hand made the best. It is really big. Triple size the normal rice dumpling one can c in the market. And mum owez use Bario rice, so u can imagine how good the dumpling is. Slurp!!

And the crab gravy was really good too. Except the green veggie tat they put on top. Uuurrrgghhh... i hate this veggie. Hui Wen love it.

She ate it, and said:"FF, very very nice wor. U will miss so much good thing if u drink this soup without the small green decoration."

"Dun bluff. I dun want to fall into another trap again." Yap, after falling into the trap by my mum persuading before.

"No no, the terrible taste gone when they put it in this soup." She assured.

I think think think for a while, finally i said, "Ok, ok. I will just try. Wait..." Try to drink the soup with as little of that 'grass'. Arrrggghhh... DAMEDA!! (No sorry!!) I surrender.

So, poor Hui Wen, for my sake, she picked up one by one and put them into her mouth. "Mmmmm... yummy!!!"She reminded me of my mum, how she patiently pick away those veggie one by one for me. Not only this, she picked up the crab meat one by one too to eat. It's real crab meat, not the crab meat stick tat made from Surimi (ground fish meat). And she put more mushroon n bamboo shoot strip on my spoon. Ai yar... touch touch. Sweet little gal. I love the soup anyway, very good taste with the black pepper added. Oso got the Fa Chai (Hair veggie) inside. But I do hope they dun put this, cause it is environmentally unfriendly.



Next, we came across a stall that was selling Cao Fen Shi (stir fry bean-starch vermicelli) and Rou Keng (Meat gravy). We only ordered the Cao Fen Shi, coz worry if we had another bowl of soup now, there will be no more space in our stomach to try other stuff. The Cao Fen Shi looks very simple, but the taste was great. I like it. One for 35TD.



This pic shows how the Rou Keng looks like. Very similar to the Xie Rou Keng. Just tat the content inside the soup is different.

We then past thru a few stall, and noticed it seems like a practice for stall tat is selling one type of CHO dish (rice, noodle, vermicelli blah blah blah...) will be selling a kind of gravy soup too at the same time (crab meat, squid ball, fish ball blah blah blah...). And yap, the business r good for these kind of stall. Guess the local love these. Me too. :P



Now, this is wat I really wanted to introduce for ur guys, especially those outside Asia. As for me, I've seen this in drama ever since I was a very young kid, but never got any chance to had one. They called this Bing Tang Hu Lu (Rock sugar coating dessert prickle). The one selling in this stall hv a very good coating colour, not the one tat usually very red, but with caramelized shining attraction. Ok, my sense is telling me, this is goin to be a nice nice one.

FF:"Hui wen, I want to try one. Haven't had any of these yet."

Hui Wen:"K, no problem. Pick one then."

FF:"Mmm... dun know which one too choose, so many here..." Yap, was kind of hesitated.

Hui Wen:"Get one of those very traditional one then. How bout this one?" (She pointed to the right bottom corner)

FF:"Heee... ok." (In fact, tat was the one I wanted to try too. Ai yar... so happy we hv the same choice). I chose one with 8 balls on the prick. ;) The way they arranged it so cute, from big to small.

I had many time the dessert inside, but it's my first time with the coating outside. My comment? I must said I am falling love into this little things. It captured my heart for sure. Subarashii!! (Marvellous!). Even thinking it now can make my saliva keeps dripping. :P We really chose the rite stall for my first time 'Lips contact' with it. Slurppp!!! 20TD per prick.



Ok, we agreed we need something cold to clear our thirst. We saw this Tou Hua Bing (soft soybean curd ice). 3 flavours for 50TD. The Tou Hua is a must, then we added the yam cube n lotus seed. The To Hua was good, very soft. But was disappointed with the other 2, not the texture, but the taste. Supersweet for me. I kept complaining to Hui Wen why can't they make the sugar content much lighter. Oh well, after much ganbatte, we did finish all. :(



The Miao Ko night market actually was formed by 2 night markets connecting to each other. We finally came to the border line of the first half. OMG! Just first half? I wonder how much things we can try to take into our stomach. I wish I was ruminant tat time. On the border, we saw 2 stalls selling Shi Hua Kao (a kind of plant jelly). One stall is drink, the other one is jelly. And interesting tat they use green bean powder as topping. Very much like the Warabi mochi tat sell in Japan. The owners of this stall are 2 people tat r disable to talk. But I can feel they hv a very bright n happy soul inside. So after communicate with the jelly selling lady, I bought one of the jelly. Only 25TD.

The taste was good. The texture was very interesting. Something like a jelly, but not really jelly. I would say it taste more like a Japanese kuzu mochi (a pudding like arrowroot cake). But it is very interesting they use green bean powder, very unique taste. I myself kind of like this first experience.

While we were having this dessert, 2 ladies saw the stalls too and was talking to each other whether it's goin to be good or not.

The keypo (busybody) FF, "Very nice wor! C, I just bought one. Heee... try it." I offered them my jelly.

"Oh no, tq. We will buy one." One of the lady replied. But then, she suddenly asked,"U r not Taiwanese hor?? Where u come from??" (Hee... she didn't even wait for me to answer the 1st Q before she asked the 2nd Q). (Oh oh~ time for explaining again).

"Err~ I'm from Malaysia." I said.

"Wah!!! Malaysian wor. Eh, ur Mandarin very good ler. How come u can speak so well Mandarin. Malaysia is a good place wor. My frens went before, said it is nice nice. U come with tour??" Ok, she keeps asking Q by Q. OMG! She is sure a very passionate local.

"Err~ nope just the 2 of us." I pointed to Hui Wen who usually remain silence.

"Wah!!! Backpacking ar? So brave ler, u two. How long hv u been in Taiwan? R u gals students? School holidays hor~" Hee, she kept talking on.

Ok, I'm goin to omit the continuing conversation. Anyway, after standing there for quite a while talking to Hui Wen n me, the 3 ladies asked us to take a pic with them. The three of them are from Hua Lian. And one of them name Lian Hua, exactly the converse way writing of the place she came. Interesting. They offered to bring us around Taipei n Hua Lian, but we hv to reject cause no time. (Thanks anyway). Using Hui Wen camera, promised will mail the picture to them. Yap, hv edit the pic, will mail to them in these couple days time. Nice nice people though. :)

But they did give us a very good info, tat the nite before we were in Ji Long, tat is the 14 July of lunar calendar, in Ji Long, a very big ceremony called Fang Sui Deng (Water Lamp Releasing) was on. Aarrrggghhh!! We missed the gist. Hmm...



So, this is the look of the nite market. Many people huh. Sure they were.



We admitted we had too much food for the first half session. So, the later half, we seem to lost interest in much food. Except this Suan Mei Tang (sour plum soup) (left) for quenching our thirst. I wanted to try the Gui Ling Gao (a kind of herb jelly in chinese cuisine)(right), so we ordered one too. Both for 70TD. Ar... i love the Gui Ling Gao. So smooth n nice. Wat a nice thing for a hot summer nite.



With a full full stomach n nice nice feeling, we walked back to the train station. This is how the nite scene of the Ji Long harbour look like besides the station.



And this is the train tat we took. Sweet sweet Hui Wen with her tired looking. Poor gal, no N even to smile oledi. Heee... yap, we sure very exhausted after such a busy day.

Nite nite.

Fruit Personality

Well, the first thing I came into the lab today, saw this forwarded mail from Sylvia. Ee~~ nice nice kind of fruit divination. Thanks dear. Ok, goin to share with ur all out there. Which one is urs? Mine is MANGO! ;) Which is kind of a true. Hv fun then.

PICK BEFORE YOU PEEK this is very interesting.....something to make you go hhhhmmmmm.

Which is your favourite fruit:

1. Orange
2. Apple
3. Banana
4. Coconut
5. Pineapple
6. Papaya
7. Mango
8. Cherry
9. Grapes
10. Peach
11. Custard Apple
12. Pear


What is your pick???


ORANGE

If orange is your favorite fruit, it speaks of a person who has enduring patience and willpower. You like to do things slowly, but very thoroughly and are completely undaunted by hard work. You tend to be shy, but are reliable and trustworthy friend. You have an aesthetic bent of mind. You select your partner with care and you love with all your heart, and not in for just a fling. You avoid conflict at all costs.


APPLE

If apple is your favorite fruit, you are extravagant, outspoken, and sometimes impulsive. While you may not be the best organizer yourself, you make a good team leader and are good at taking things forward. You can take quick action in most situations. You enjoy travel immensely. You ooze with charm when you are with your partner. You have an enthusiasm for life, unmatched by most.


BANANA

You are a softie! Loving, gentle, warm and sympathetic by nature is the banana lover. You often lack in self-confidence and are quite timid by nature. People often take advantage of your sweet temperedness, and sheer vulnerability to a situation. You adore your partner in every which way, both for their mental and physical beauty! Because of the way you are, your relationship is always very much in harmony!


COCONUT

The coconut lover is a serious, very thoughtful and contemplative person. Though you enjoy socializing, you are particular about the company you keep you tend to be stubborn but not necessarily foolhardy. Shrewd, quick-witted and alert, you ensure that you are right on top of any given scenario, especially at work. You need a partner with rains, and while passion is important it certainly isn't everything for you.


PINEAPPLE

You are quick to decide and even quicker to act. You are brave in asking career changes, if that is what is to your advantage. You have exceptional organizing abilities and are undaunted by the size of the task at hand. You tend to be self reliant, sincere and honest in your dealings with others. Though you are not given to making friends very quickly, but once you do, it is for life. You rarely, if ever, make romantic overtures. Your partner is often impressed with your sterling qualities but disappointed in your ability to show affection.


PAPAYA

You are truly fearless and take much that happens in life, in your stride. You give considerable thought to things you do. You have a sense of humor that along with your generous nature keeps you in most people's good books. You are a go-getter in your professional life, and have a knack for being in the right place at the right time. You enjoy meeting new people and seeing new sights whenever you can. Your sense of humor is what attracts members of the opposite sex to you more than anything else. It is simply charming!


MANGO

A mango lover is a personality to be reckoned with, quite often you are a person who has quite fixed ideas, and influencing you is not an easy task. You tend to be an extremist with strong likes and dislikes, and times even like to control a situation. You enjoy getting involved in something that presents mental challenge. Strong as you may be, you are like a kitten when you are with your partner. You accommodate the love of your life, and make up for all the strong will elsewhere!


CHERRY

If cherry is your favorite fruit, life isn't always as sweet for you. You often face ups and downs, particularly professionally, and find that you make small sums of $$$, instead of a lump sum. You

have a fertile imagination and are often involved in creative pursuits. You are a very sincere and loyal partner, but find that expressing your feelings is not very easy. Your home is your haven, and you love nothing more than being surrounded by close family and your beloved partner.


GRAPES

You are a polite person in general, but do have quick flare-ups of temper that cool down just as quickly. You enjoy beauty in all forms, including beautiful people. You are very popular because of
your warm, gregarious nature. You have a zest for life; you enjoy everything you do, right from the way you dress, to your style and your day-to-day life. Your partner must share your zeal and zing for life to enjoy all you have to offer!


PEACH

Like a peach, you enjoy the juice of life it all its lush ripeness! You are the friendly sort, and are quite frank and outspoken, which adds to your charm. You are quick to forgive and forget; and value your friendships highly. You have an independent and ambitious streak in you that makes you a real go-getter. You are the ideal lover, fiery and passionate, but sincere and faithful in love. You don't however like to display all that passion in public.


CUSTARD APPLE

You are a modest and conservative person who can be quite sensitive at times. You tend to be thoughtful and contemplative, and therefore are rarely rash in doing things. You are quite ambitious and are good at anything that requires much detailing or working with numbers. You are quick at finding fault with others. While looking for a partner, you value a person's intellect far above their looks or good old passion. You are quite shy and not very comfortable demonstrating affection.


PEAR

If you put your mind to something you can do it successfully, but by and large you tend to be fickle and have trouble completing a task with the enthusiasm you started it with. You need to know the results of your efforts almost immediately. You enjoy mental stimulation and love to get into a good discussion! You tend to be a restless and high-strung person, and are easily excitable.

The world

Well, I talk bout this topic today, coz inspired by a blogger's post concerning his insane act. Yap, nothing to be connected with food. Maybe some of u hv know bout these facts, but how many actually put a deep care. Including myself...

The miniature world

I received the fact 100 People in the World many times, but everytime after reading, I will just delete them. Just basically it is memory consuming in my mailbox. But if I put it here, I hope a lot more people will know bout this fact.

The Quote:

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
(an unknown number of girls would be genitally mutilated before puberty)
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be apparently heterosexual
11 would be apparently homosexual
(67 would actually be bisexual, leading various lifestyles)
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all
6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read (in any language)
50 would suffer from malnutrition (near starvation)
1 would have a college education (yes, only one)
1 would own a computer

And also consider:

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

Work with passion
Love without needing to be loved
Appreciate what you have
And do your best for a better world

(Modified from the net sources 1, 2 and 3)

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

How many of u out there actually first time hear this term? I only know bout the existance of this kind of practice for gals too 2 years ago. I thought it was only meant for boys in a much lighter way. It was shown on a documentary in the Japan's tv. I must said it was a great cultural shock for me!

If u still don't know wat it is, please go to read this 2 sites. Or just simply type 'Female Genital Mutilation' on the search engine, u will see numerous sites concerning this topic.

Site 1

Site 2

Waris Dirie

She is a supermodel. But she is one of the FGM victim. And today, she stand out to fight for termination of FGM. The 'fight' is still going on...

Story bout her.

A newsletter bout her fight towards FGM.

And these r the books she has written.

We r now flooded with new n hi tech, but is our world hv been really civilized??

Taiwan 5th day (2)

We found the hotel we wanted to stay after we reach Taipei railway station. The hotel room was damn cheap for Taipei rates. One room with 2 single bed, 900TD per nite. We decided to stay there 3 nites.

Hui Wen:" Eee~~ FF, u see this red spot... look like a lipstick sign... Hmmm... sooo..." ok, so she is getting suspicious of the possibility wat might happen to the bed cover tat she is goin to sleep tonite.

FF:"Well, u know, it's cheap hotel... and u see... they hv rate for 3 hr staying only. so wat do u think u can do with tat 3 hr?"

FF:"I think they hv washed the bed cover. Dun worry..."

Hui Wen:" Yah... they washed... just tat the spot dun go away..."

Heee... poor Hui Wen... but she was alrite then.

Actually the place was kind of clean actually. The most important, very convenient place, near to the bus, subway n train station.

So, after rest for a while, we decided to go to a small town nearby Taipei city. Called Ji Long city. We reached there around 4pm i think. Then, we took a bus to the place we wanted to c, Kek Lok Si (Paradise temple)and Zhong Zheng Park.

I actually know bout this city in Taiwan from a song called "Piao Bo de Xin Ting Bo Zai Ji Long Gang" which means 'A floating heart anchored in Ji Long harbour' by Zheng Hua Juan, a Taiwanese writer who married a German guy. Since then, I had owez dreamt tat Ji Long Harbour is a very romantic place, yet full of sadness...

Well, it happened tat the day we in Ji Long city, it's the Chinese Ghost Day, we called it Zhong Yuan Jie. And yap, it's a very big ceremony in Taiwan.

We can see lantern decorating the street.



Our bus stopped very nearby this temple. Kek Lok Si. It's kind of a wide place. The Smiling Buddha was welcoming us. :)



I usually dun take the pics of Buddha in temples. But I'm kind of attracted to this white Buddha, so break my own rule tat day. Hui Wen was surprised I took the pics of Buddha, as she knows I usually don't. Heee... well... she then did the same thing. :P I hope we didn't do a sin.

Then we started to climb a stair near the Kek Lok Si to the uphill of Zhong Zheng Park. It's a big park. With a few scenic spots to c. We just climb up to the main spots.



On top of the hill, they hv this big Guan Yin standing just between the 2 Qi Ling (Legendary chinese animal) take care of the Ji Long harbour.



So, this is how the Ji Long harbour at dark evening looks like. I like this harbour. It is actually makes u feel very relaxing by seeing from top of the hill.



Ok, it's the ghost festival. Before we reached the top of the hill, we past thru this altar. So this main altar is having a big ceremony tonite. This is how the altar looks like when the day still bright. Very colourful building.



Now, when we came down from the top hill to reach this altar again, it was very dark oledi. Light up is sure very pretty now. And the crowd were getting more n more.

Among the ceremony, the thing tat amazed me the most is - PIG!



See this one? Hmm... at first, Hui Wen was telling me the pig here very different, they dun use real pig, but mimic version. Really?? Kind of a boubt with her words, I went to check one by one. Well, the small n medium pigs mostly r the mimic one.

But... hey... see this above? This is a real~~ one. I omost couldn't believe my eyes when I look at it very closely. The hair on the pig body is too real to be imitated. OMG!! This is a real one... I screamed out once more. Even called Hui Wen to come close and had a look. She was kind of a shock too when realised tat it is a real one.



Still dun believe? Well, look at the pig head. See the bloodstream around the ears? I dun think one can imitate this. Dun u?

Wat really puzzled me was how they made it into this round.



Ok, it was just not one giant pig there, but 2 of them. Can u see the chicken, fish n duck below the pig? I purposedly took this picture for the comparison of size.

Then, the local people told me it's the champion pig this year. Yap, champion pigs mean the No 1 & No 2 biggest pigs. Heard they was feeded with beer or something. Eee~~~ sound like the Japanese branded beef.

Poor pigs... if they know the final episode of their life will be ended like this, they will die hard for a good diet to keep fit.

Hmm... very agree which a chinese colloquial 'Ren Pa Chu Ming, Zhu Pa Fei'. Means 'Men scare fame, pig scare fat'.



The ceremony finally starts around 8pm. All the things tat bring by believers for praying their ancestors, were laid on long desks. And on top of every of them, was inserted jotstick n flag for the ceremony.

We only stayed there half way then went away to our next destination.

Patrick's Drawing!

Well, today I got a very short mail from Patrick. Actually he is sending to a few frens in one go. Wooo~~ impressing. So, I mailed back to him ask if I can post these pics on my blog. The answer is 'Ok'. :) :) Heee... last time he rejected my requirement on posting his pic when we had ramen with David. Ai yar~ so glad this time his answer is yes. Of course, good things need to share with everyone mar...



This one he named it Hokkaido-summer. Now u might wondering wat is the connection of Hokkaido summer with sunflower? Well, tat's the symbolic things u will c when u go to Hokkaido in summer time. I've never been to Hokkaido yet, sadly to say, even though I hv been to 28 out of 47 prefectures in Japan.

I must said I love this pic. I hv a great passion towards sunflower even since I came to Japan. Thought the stroke of Patrick is not the type of Vincent van Gogh, but it's another kind of beauty inside for the sunflower. Hey buddy, good job!! I showed Wai Wai these pics, heee... she can't believe they r Patrick's painting, :P Well, dear... it's really his artpiece.



Ok, this is a pic based on a famous animation called 'Sen to chihiro no kami kakushi'. In English, it is called Spirited Away. Another siries of Studio Ghibli. Product by Miyazaki Hayao in 2001. He has a new film called Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) this summer. Well, I hven't seen it yet. But really looking forward for a chance to watch it for sure.

I love Spirited Away story plotting soooo much. In fact, hv watched it a few times. Well, if u haven't got any idea bout this film, I must say, u hv been missing something really good. Especially for those who likes mysterious kind of fairy tale. I get a lot of surprise from it the first time I watched it. The first surprise... 'Chihiro parents changed into pig...'... want to know more, watch it for urself then. ;)