廟口宵夜

Saturday evening.. my partner in crime Iggy Loh Man Bro came to visit me in Taipei. So we had to celebrate in proper Taiwan fashion, and what better way than to PIG OUT on Street Food.

I stay about 10mins away from Keelung 廟口夜市 but alas, have not had the luxury to visit yet. Today was not the day either. It was drizzling lightly and we decided to tapao home to properly enjoy the meal.

Don't ask me how or why, but a bottle of Absolut barged its way into dinner uninvited. Maccallan, Jeremy you're right, after Maccallan, drinks will never be the same again. I steered away from the Absolut.

First perpetrator? Grilled Taiwan Sausages ,with raw garlic. Did you know? Taiwanese pride themselves on their garlic, and I can tell you as a garlic-lover *I've a mortal fear of vampires, especially the Chinese Jumping Ones* these garlics are in a league of their own. It burns! chokes! like tear gas when taken raw and straight up. The sausages are crunchy, succulent and lard-bit filled. SIGHZ, LArd, my 克星.

Next item on the menu? Chicken roll. It's something like Ngor Ngyong. But sweet. Taiwanese seem to like thing sweet. Their carrot cake is sweet. Their oyster egg is sweet. *Their girls are sweet* MOooving on, sweet food doesn't go down well with me. Neither does this sweet chicken ngor ngyong wanna-be. Give me my salty savoury ngor ngyong like the way Ah Ma makes it.

It just keeps coming doesn't it? 水煎包. The lightly pan-fry the bao to create a crispy brown underside, providing a good balance to the fluffy white skin of the bao. The 料: chokeful of cabbage, pork, mushroom overflowing once you've taken a bite. It's a meal by itself!

Chilli-ed chicken and chicken feet with broccoli. HOT! I loved the jellied texture of the cold chicken feet, with all its tendons/skin/bones. But it's just too spicy for me, why why!? I'm ashamed, a Singaporean that can't take spicy food. *gulps tankfuls of water*

鹽淑雞. Apparently, the tougher the chicken, the more tasty it is. And tough this chicken was. Rock-hard. Again, when in Rome, do what Romans do. Give me overcooked chicken to undercooked one anyday.

I'm about the unveil the GRAND-DADDY of all unhealthy food. I was SO DAMNED RELUCTANT to eat this, but it would have impolite because they bought it specially for me. It's called *SO IRONIC!* 營養三明治... you have GOT to be kidding me man. It must have been like a gazillion calories in this! I dub thee, the Heart-Stopper...

Bread-crumbed hotdog roll, DEEP-FRIED. A Whole Bottle of Mayonnaise. Grilled Taiwanese Sausages. Stewed Egg. Ham. A quarter slice of Tomato and a thin cucumber slice doesn't exactly make for a day's recommended serving of vegs does it?

Fake smiling, I gingerly had to push this "treat" down my throat. It's really not my cup of tea. I mean some might like it, but seriously, I hope I don't have to eat one again.

Healthnut Rating: zero
Comments: A health nut's nightmare.

One Tonne Wan Ton

I love puns, don't you? 大餛飩 (NTD70), expensive? Not when you see the size of them. One bowl contains four, one-tonne wantons, so that's four tonnes of wantons at the wanton stall. *tongue twister*

There's prawn, meat, veg, veg/meat mix one-ton wantons for you to choose from. My fave's the veg/meat (was there any doubt from this healthoholic?).

小菜s are common when you eat in Taiwan. (yes yes, that's another pun 小蔡. that's me. I refrain from rolling my eyes whenever I dine with clients/friends here. 你們需要一點小菜嗎?哦,不需要,我們已經有小蔡了 *all look at me & start laughing*) Come on... ah well, at least my name's an ice-breaker.

The cold dish of pickled cabbage and cucumbers are solid (NTD20 each). Fresh, zesty, crunchy with a tinge of sourness. And the serving's pretty generous too.

The noodles here are not the highlight but they sure match up to the wantons. QQ and springy. Dry or soup. So gooood!

And ladieees and gentleemen! In your right corner, standing in at 1cm, weighhing in at 1001kg... the Amazing, the One & Only, One-Tonne Wanton!

Ain't she a beaut? Smooth silky skin. Juicy meat. Crunchy veg. Thick seaweed. Clear sweet soup. Four Tonnes of Wanton. Heaven...

It's run by a team of Vietnamese ladies. Like a fine-tuned engine, wrapping wantons, taking orders, cooking. And rotate their duties. Poetry in motion.

Healthnut Rating:

Comments: Anyone for One-Tonne Wantons?

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast at Tiffany's. I've always wanted to own THE Audrey Hepburn poster, I know i know it's cliche and overused, but i still want it. When I have my own pad.

It's a quaint little breakfast shop, again 2mins from the footclinic where I'm working now in Taipei. It's a conspiracy I tell u to put all the good food within my easy-reach.

Anyway, this is my breakfast everyday for the past 3weeks except Sundays. They have a variety of sandwiches, burgers, bagels, tea and coffee. Quite common in Taipei, these breakfast shops are.

I've tried tuna-egg, terayaki-chicken, pork-chop (both sandwich, bagel and wheat-burger combination) (NTD35-NTD50).

This here is the Tuna-Egg Bagel (low-cal, low fat of course). Fresh To-Mah-Toes (again not a To-May-To person), never did get why the different pronunciation? Anyone care to clarify? Anyway, fresh greens, thick cheddar slice. I have my egg scrambled rather than sunny-side up. And a generous serving of tuna-mayo topping with corn.

Good start to any day I'd say. Hand-made, Low Cal Bagels. Who needs doughnuts?

Well, and then there are those days where the canine teeth needs some MEAT to shred. *awfully graphic aren't i?* some argue that human molars are naturally shaped to chew greens, and those sharp canine teeth of ours evolved from our changed-eating habits.

The pork-chop burger's rather greasy, but like good vehicles, we need some lubricants for smooth running engines. *Vroom!... heart-attack* =)

My oh my, look at all that glistening oil. The bun's grilled to perfection, the pork chop's sizzling and tender. Green's are still crisp and juicy. Good mix.

Healthnut Rating:

Comments: Depending on my choice of topping, patty, I'll give it a 3, closer to the healthy side. Wonder if I'll ever get bored of the breakfast here.... nahhhh....

Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain

*pitter patter pitter patter* What better way to spend a rainy evening after a tough day's work? I was trudging home in the drizzle, hungry, cold... I needed a pick-me-up.


I made a rash decision. I decided to have ICE-CREAM for DINNER! yes you heard me right, ICE-CREAM for DINNER! I have sinned. *Gluttony*
Well my conscience didn't put up much of a fight, it's was an easy 8-0 kumite victory in a kumite that lasted 5secs.

There weren't many choices of ice-cream tubs in the convenience store (where I bought my Meiji Hi-Black earlier), actually there was only one. Luckily the flavour was still acceptable, choco-chip (NTD75)

To add insult to injury, my gut made me buy BREAD to make the classic ice-cream sandwich. What can I say? I'M WEAK! The ice cream was smooth and the choc-chips quite substantially chocolate enough.

Rainy evening, a tub of ice cream, a good movie (Speed). Life is good. Sorry health-conscience, you live to fight another day.
Healthnut Rating:
Comments: Ice cream AND bread for dinner. Whadaya expect, five nuts?

Why does all the good food have to be around my workplace?

2 mins walk away is this grass-jelly chain called 三角埔仙草. I only have one thing to say: "Why does all the good food have to be around my workplace!?" it's a conspiracy i tell u!

There's the usual redemption card where you earn "stamps" to redeem a free bowl of dessert after ten purchases. (I've already redeemed one and half-way through my second card!)

This dessert is no-bubble tea I can tell u. It's what HEALTHY dessert is all about! They should open a chain in Singapore! There's Mr Bean, there should be a Ms Chin Chao!

This is called the 綜合仙草凍 (NTD45). Although it's pretty costly by my standards now, but Just Look at the Serving! This was my lunch on a few occasions too. 2/5 packed with ice, the top's all the goodies. The grass jelly makes for the main ingredient, slightly bitter & thick texture. Tastes natural vs those sweetened ones. There's ur tapioca pearls, red AND green beans. Yam Pearls anyone? They have it too. Also the gigantic red kidney beans! Who needs lunch now? The mish-mesh of the flavours and the chewy pearls and the firm red kidney beans with the smooth soft grass jelly. Hohoho.

Now that's what I call a healthoholic dessert. *voice in my head: iceeeee creammmm...* Filled with healthy stuff, no condensed milk for this healthoholic too.

Healthnut Rating:

Comments: I'm so glad i'm surrounded by great tasting food that's also healthy at the same time. One 綜合仙草凍 please!

Go Green Campaign

In a bid to go green, in this case is Eating Greens to maintain my girlish figure, this has been lunch for almost every day for two weeks =) Right across our Taipei foot-clinic is a organic food restaurant that I blogged about (expensive).

Anndd two houses away is this Vegetarian Place! (素食). I've eaten there so consistently that the lady-boss wants to introduce her daughter to me (judging from photos, not bad looking too but it's the cutesy-tootsy type.)

Price-wise, pretty reasonable. Usually costs between NTD60-70 thereabouts. Organic rice (五鼓米 they call it), a fanciful selection of greens/beancurd dish. The mock fish fillet's (photo just above the curried po-tah-toes in the last photo) really good too! My stand on mock-meat has always been, for those real-vegans, the whole concept for mock-meat to taste as similar to real-meat is just wrong. U're not even supposed to be craving for meat anyway once u've escape from the Dark Side.

Anyhow, that's just my stand. Back to food. Fish fillet's (probably beancurd skin) is smooth and flakes apart like codfish, with an seaweed underside that's goes so well with it. They have Fried Noodles with fresh herbs.

Soup noodles with winter melon [above] (NTD40) *slurp*, so refreshing and tasty.

There's wild mushroom/veg noodle soup (NTD40) *slurp* my current favourite. Mushrooms! Big solid mushrooms with that wild, grassy flavour.

On occasional days, I'll treat myself to their vegetable Japanese curry for that added kick to the meal. Po-Tay-toes (i'm not a Po-Tay-To person) and carrots stewed till the right mushiness.

Healthnut Rating:

Comments: Food's perfect. Proximity's perfect. Now if only the lady-boss's daughter was my type, it could've been a perfect five nut rating =) Men will be boys...