Taiwan March 2015: Road trip to Kenting

My parents planned a 3 day 2 night road trip for all of us around Taiwan so we can see some sights! Normally we just stay in Taipei so this time we get to see the rest of the country. However, due to some misinformation, the trip ended up being 70% in the car and not being able to enjoy much of the cities we are in. :( Word of advice... when you go to Kenting (the southernmost part of Taiwan, take the train most of the way AND THEN get a car. We had a driver from Taipei to Kenting and it was torture. Took wayyy too long. We didn't arrive until it was dark and wasn't able to enjoy the beach at all. Also... another piece of advice... 3 days 2 nights is not enough to hit 2 different cities and see the sights. It was basically views in the dark and then views from the car. Blehh... Although we did make time for food and everything was great! (except the afternoon tea...)

On the way south to Kenting, we stopped at a rest stop for lunch. Now the rest stops in Taiwan is nothing like the ones in the US. They are amazing! Large, clean bathrooms, and food courts and shops! The food was pretty good too!
Pork Chop Rice

Tonkatsu Curry

Croissants

Matcha Ice Cream in a Croissant Cone

We arrived in Kenting and my dad had reserved for us to enjoy afternoon tea at the UFO Lounge in the H Resort. It has a 360 view of the ocean, too bad it was cloudy and stormy all day... we didn't get to enjoy the view.

UFO Lounge High Tea NT$450 + 10% gratuity/service charge. Normally in Asia you don't pay tip, but certain places charge you a service fee. The High Tea includes 4 types of desserts, 3 savory pieces, seasonal fruits, and a beverage.

My mom got the fresh Kiwi Juice. 

I got the Earl Grey Tea. There's no milk but they made it frothy! It was soooo strong though.

We each got a food carrier/tray. I always loved this presentation. Starting at the top we had cheesecake, some sort of custard tart, cranberry scone, and a panna cotta with blueberry sauce. The middle tier was a deviled egg, ham and cheese sandwich, and tuna mousse. The bottom was watermelon, pineapple and kiwi. 

 

It looked good and fun. But we soon discovered that you pay for the view, not good food. It wasn't that good at all. The cheesecake was my favorite. 

The scone was too dry, but I spread some of the "artificially tasting" blueberry sauce from the panna cotta on it and it was not bad. Actually we ended up crumbling the scone and mixing it in the bottle with the panna cotta. Genius! haha. 

 

The flavor of the tart was indiscernible. 

The ham sandwich is so generic. 

Deviled egg was good. 

The tuna mousse was soooo salty. 

After we checked into our hotel in Kenting, the driver took us to the main street where it's basically a giant nightmarket. Shopping, food, and lots of people walking around. They had some different things in the nightmarket that I haven't seen before.
Korean BBQ Chicken Skewers. Sooo freaking tender. Delicious!

 My sister got some Clams. They cook on the spot for you!

The difference with this nightmarket? They have booths with bartenders, actually doing mixology and stuff! Not just beer, but cocktails. Wow... first time seeing that. 

Student Chicken Bar. We got a Chicken Bar, more like a wrap. NT$70~ The guy rolls out the dough and cooks it after you order so it's still hot. Fills it with diced chicken, cabbage, onions, some salad sauce, and pepper. It was my favorite of the night. Like a crepe/chicken wrap. 

 

 

 

Grilled Squid - 3 for NT$100~ This is something we always have to get. It was pretty good. This place used pepper instead of chili powder for the spicy version, so it wasn't really that spicy. 

Breakfast - Complimentary of Fun Space (our boutique hotel).
Black Tea and Soy Milk, self service

Yogurt with Granola, Bananas, and Honey

Homemade Sandwiches (with side salad and steamed egg). 

I got to the lobby too late so I got ham and cheese. My family got there earlier and they got sandwiches with chicken, and it was really good! All the food was fantastic, and the hotel was so cute! I'd definitely recommend staying there. It has an ocean view from the front of the hotel.

For lunch, the hotel recommended us to go check out the Kenting Fishmarket. There are multiple vendors but they told us to go to Ah Xing. 

 

 

 

You pick the live seafood you want and they prep and cook it right there. This was one of the best meals on the trip and guess how much it was total? For 6 people!! US$40 freaking dollars!!! That's normally the price of 1 person at a seafood place in the states.
Super fresh sashimi (tuna, salmon). Freaking US$3~ for 20 pieces!!! What?!?! I'm still in shock! And it was like buttah... Mmmmm.

Squid with Basil

Uni (sea urchin). This was only US$5~ but it didn't really have much stuff in it. Worst choice of the meal. 

Stirfry Noodles

This is Shark Meat!! I've only had Shark Fin, but the meat is good too.

Veggies

 

Fish Soup (made with salmon)

Clams

Whole Steamed Fish

Some sort of Egg and Mushroom mix. It looked like seaweed, but my mom said it was some sort of mushroom. Either way, it was tasty. haha.

$40 US DOLLARS TOTAL!! AHHHHH!!!! Never in a million years will you find this in the US. 

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Trip to the OC! Cali-for-ni-a!

Last weekend I went to the OC for my cousin's wedding at Tustin Ranch. It was a beautiful wedding on a beautiful day and they are such a cute couple! Best wishes to them!

But being in a different city means trying new foods! :P I was traveling with family so didn't do the usual food fest like I normally would, but still got some yummy stuff.

Lunch on Friday started with dim sum. My parents and I were walking around this Asian shopping center and decided to go into this place.

Capital Seafood Restaurant
2700 Alton Pkwy #127
Irvine, CA 92606
(949) 252-8188
http://irvine.capital-seafood.com
Price (lunch): $$

Turns out they were doing dim sum at the time. Sure! I haven't had it in a while.

Chinese Broccoli $4.25~ We got 2 orders of these. Always a favorite of mine. Super tender... even the stalks. Better than Dallas. 

Pork Shu Mai (4) $3.25~ Giant shu mai. My dad wanted them. My mom and I don't really care for it, but I have to say it had pretty good flavor. 

Deep Fried Shrimp Dumplings (3) $2.25~ My dim sum favorite. Theirs was good. The outside was crispy with chewy mochi-like texture and slightly sweet. With the savory shrimp on the inside. I approve!

 

We initially went in this restaurant because my dad wanted some Cantonese soup noodles. Unfortunately they didn't have any. So we got some Singapore Seafood Vermicelli (thin vermicelli noodles, shrimp, BBQ pork, onion, cilantro, curry powder) $12~ Pretty big portion for lunch. Good flavors. The shrimp was tender and plump. Not bad at all.

We also got Preserved Egg and Pork Congee $9~ It was a pretty big bowl. But too much soup/rice, too little egg and pork. We basically scooped out all the eggs and left the rest. The pork was super salty. Tender but too salty. I've had way better.

 

Good start to the trip. My parents took my sister and her bf there again on Sunday after I left for the airport.

Overall Experience:

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In the same shopping center was 85°C Bakery Cafe. The main reason we were there. haha. Love this place!!

85°C Bakery Cafe
2700 Alton Pkwy.
Irvine, CA 92606
(949) 553-8585
http://85cafe.us/
Price: $

From bottom left. Mocha Walnut bread, Bolo, Bread with dried shredded pork, Red Bean bread, Taro filled bread, Baked Custard bread, and Milk Custard bread (top right)
All together under $11.40~

The place was packed. Not a lot of different selection but good enough. You can't find most of these in Dallas. All delicious. The milk custard bread was my favorite.

Overall Experience:

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My sister and her bf flew in Friday night. She had specifically requested Japanese ramen while we're in Cali... so I wanted to take her to my favorite place in the whole world for ramen! I picked them up and went straight to Mitsuwa Marketplace. Can you believe that my favorite place is in the food court of a Japanese supermarket? It is amazing.

Mitsuwa Marketplace
665 Paularino Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 434-1101
http://www.mitsuwa.com/locations/costa-mesa/

Santouka Ramen
Shio Ramen (Salt ramen with special pork; Large) $11.40~ 

 

 

The pork is Toroniku, which is pork cheek. It is so tender with just the right amount of fat. It's like buttah!! The pork makes this my favorite. But the flavor of the broth and the texture of the noodles are also spot on. I went to the Santouka in Osaka, Japan and had the same thing and the ones in Cali were pretty damn close. Talk about consistency! So jealous of people who have access to a Mitsuwa. My sister approved. She can be quite picky sometimes. So yay! Win for me.

Some other vendor...
Her bf got a Katsudon (fried pork cutlet on rice) $7.50?~ It usually comes with egg on top but he said he didn't want it. Not very good... The pork cutlet was not crispy at all, and it was just over rice and some onions. Not very satisfying.

Overall Experience:

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After dinner, we decided to go check out the OC Night Market. A friend of mine told me about it right before I flew to Cali. We love night markets, so definitely wanted to go check it out.

OC Night Market
OC Fair and Event Center
88 Fair Dr.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
http://www.626nightmarket.com/OCnightmarket/home.php

Parking $7~
Admission $5~

It sucks that we have to pay for parking and admission. Normal nightmarkets are free in Asia. But since this is more of a special festival.... AND we're on vacation. Let's do it!

We were all kinda full but I had a few places I wanted to check out. I had done some research online before going. Duh! :P

The main one I wanted to go to was Crunchy Boy. I wanted the Ube Lumpia (with green tea creme fraiche) $2.50~ 

 

Ube is basically purple yam. And lumpia is like a Filipino egg roll. It was so freaking amazing. Best thing ever!! Well maybe not ever, but definitely the best thing I had in the night market. I should've just given them all my money instead of trying other stuff. Still regretting it now. The green tea creme fraiche made the dish. It was like a mix between whipped cream and melted ice cream. It paired fantabulously with the crispy lumpia and sweet ube. Don't judge, but I totally licked the container to get the rest of the sauce... Just take all my money and gimme more!!!!!!!!

My sister wanted grilled squid. It's one of her favorite night market foods when we go back to Taiwan. We found Calvin's BBQ.
Grilled Squid on Skewer. Looked good and smelled even better. But the taste was meh. The seasoning wasn't what we expected. It was disappointing...

 

Hugo Foods
Fried Stinky Tofu (with sweet pickled cabbage) $5~ 

It sure smelled stinky! But good stinky tofu can be really tasty. My sister and I wanted to give it a shot. While waiting we heard someone say it's not as stinky as it should be. After trying it, we both agreed. Neither the smell or the taste was strong enough. I think the pickled cabbage should've been more sour than sweet. It was also meh.

The other place I was looking for was Belly Up because they had listed a green tea ice cream. Turns out it was a Coconut Slushy with Green Tea Ice Cream $6~ 

It sounded pretty cool so I gave it a shot still. It was an actual coconut with shaved ice and coconut water and then topped with green tea ice cream. They were packing up shop when we found them because they were pretty much sold out, but they were able to get one out for me. Presentation is great. A little messy to hold since the water down the sides of the coconut. The green tea ice cream was good. I wanted more tho. The ratio of the coconut water to the ice cream was off, and once I've mixed it all inside the coconut, it didn't have enough flavor.

I really should've just taken all the money I spent and gotten a bunch of the ube lumpias. [sad face] But oh well, at least I tried different things.

Overall Experience:

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Saturday night, after the wedding we had a big family dinner since a lot of my aunts, uncles, cousins are also in town. We also wanted to celebrate another cousin of mine who recently go married too but didn't have a reception.

Shanghailander Palace
1695 S Azusa Ave.
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
(626) 839-7777

We had 2 large round tables. The food came family style on a lazy susan. My dad was the one that ordered for everyone. The food was pretty tasty! We all liked it. But according to my mom, it was laced with MSG. She's allergic so she really couldn't eat much of anything...

Shanghai Style Braised Pork. Supa fatty pork. No other way is better! :P

Eggplant in Clay Pot

Black Pepper Beef

Sweet and Sour Short Ribs

Tofu and Seafood Soup

 

Crispy Chicken

Xiao Long Bao (pork soup dumplings)

Mixed Veggies and Rice

 

Sauteed Eel

Tempura Fish. The tempura batter had seaweed in it. Added some unique flavoring. It was good!

 
Black Sesame Ball in Wine Soup

Overall Experience: 

We were all stuffed after the meal. It was really great to see all my relatives. Most of whom I haven't seen in over 6 years!

Overall a good trip! Just too short! I flew home Sunday morning...

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~