{ Vietnamese Cyclo }

2013, May 21

I’ve been searching for an authentic Vietnamese place but haven’t found one yet. I recently stumbled upon this place near Roppongi Hills that had pretty good reviews so I decided to give it a try. The lunch sets are a good deal as they all include a small spring roll, fried spring roll, and soup with your set.

Pictured above are the “Rice noodle soup (pho) with chicken + Vietnamese chicken Rice (small)” (1100yen) and the “ Vietnamese chicken rice” (1000yen). They were all good and flavored well but I have to say it wasn’t exactly authentic. If you know of any authentic Vietnamese place, please let me know!

Address // 6-6-9, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-3478-4964
Website // n/a

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:

{ Recent Repeats }

2013, May 18

Went to back to ‘Bills’ to get their famous Ricotta Cheese Pancakes but went to the Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku location instead of their original Shichirigahama location. Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku just had their 1 year anniversary and their rooftop garden is currently decorated beautifully with lots of spring flowers and a fun circus theme. It was lovely sitting outside on their terrace seating overlooking the rooftop garden while having some pancakes with a latte ♡

Original post on Bills:
http://www.tokyoeats.jp/bills-shichirigahama/

………………………………………………………………………………

Such satisfying meal at Ondoru… My favorite Korean restaurant in town. Aside from their samgyeopsal, the Nira-chijimi is highly recommended.

Original post on Ondoru:
http://www.tokyoeats.jp/ondoru/

………………………………………………………………………………

Had a nice time catching up with some friends at IDEE Cafe Parc. Love the terrace seating looking over Roppongi Midtown.

Original post on IDEE CAFE PARC:
http://www.tokyoeats.jp/idee-cafe-parc/

………………………………………………………………………………

Went back to Knock for some Italian food with friends.

Original post on Cucina Buona Italiana Knock:
http://www.tokyoeats.jp/cucina-buona-italiana-knock/

………………………………………………………………………………

{ Taiwan Diary: Jiufen }

2013, May 14

Have you ever seen the movie “Spirited Away” by Hayao Miyazaki?

Jiufen (九份), a small little town in the Taipei country side (about an hour away from Taipei by car), is breathtaking and has an aura of serene beauty. Jiufen has a very calm and nostalgic feeling to it, it’s easy to spot bits and pieces of inspiration & resemblance from the movie.

As you might expect, it’s a very popular tourist destination (especially for Japanese tourists like myself :p) but since it rained in the AM and cleared up by the afternoon on the day we went, we got very lucky and were able to experience it with fewer crowds than usual. According to my friend, Jiufen is known to be the most beautiful right after the rain so it was definitely the perfect timing for us as it sure was beauuutiful. We actually purposefully visited towards the late afternoon so that we could experience both the daytime and the early evening to savor the two different atmospheres. When it started getting darker and all the red lanterns turned on, it created such a magical atmosphere and we were very glad we stayed for both times. I personally LOVED the evening atmosphere more.

We tea-ed at 阿妹茶酒館 aka Yubaaba’s Tea House (湯婆婆の屋敷) and since we had a party of 9, we were seated upstairs where they had the larger tables. Our friends ordered some traditional dishes that go well with tea and we enjoyed chilling here while looking out at the city landscape. Some people say this place is over-rated but this was one of my favorite places we visited during our trip :)

This concludes my “Taiwan Diary” posts. Hope you enjoyed seeing some photos from my trip!

01. Jiufen from the top
02. The inspiration for the tunnel scene that connects to the ‘other side’ in the movie of Spirited Away.
03. Tea time at 阿妹茶酒館 aka Yubaaba’s Tea House (湯婆婆の屋敷)
04. Look who we found! lol A fan dressed as ‘Kaonashi’. 「カオナシ」に遭遇（笑）

…………………………………………………………………………………..
Taiwan Diary: Taipei
Taiwan Diary: Night Markets
Taiwan Diary: Ice Monster
Taiwan Diary: Jiufen
…………………………………………………………………………………..

{ Taiwan Diary: Night Markets }

2013, May 13

Taipei, Taiwan is well known for their amazing night markets and the most famous/popular one is called “Shilin Night Market (士林夜市)”. It is so lively and filled with locals and tourists. However, our friends gave us some insider info and told us that the locals think “Keelung Night Market (基隆廟口夜市)” has the best food so we made it a point to visit both of them. All of the photos above (except the last one) are from Keelung Night Market since we spent more time there.

Keelung Night Market is located slightly in the outskirts of the city center and it’s a little difficult to get to (we went there by car). Our friends told us to pace ourselves but it sure was hard to since there were so many delicious looking foods. As soon as we saw something we were interested in, we bought it and ate it. We were literally stuffed but the funny thing is, our friends didn’t even think we ate that much because they easily ate twice as much as we did…sigh*

There were some hits and misses in what we tried but the most memorable for me was the “nutritious sandwich” and the gyoza-like little dumpling cakes only for NT$10 (USD$0.33 cents). I knew Taipei street markets were cheap but that was really cheap!

The major difference between the Shilin and Keelung night markets was that Shilin was much larger in size and had more clothing/souvenir shops and less food. Keelung was mainly focused on the food vendors with a little bit of shopping. Although we didn’t get to try everything, I’d say we got a good taste of Taiwan’s night market scene :)

…………………………………………………………………………………..
Taiwan Diary: Taipei
Taiwan Diary: Ice Monster
Taiwan Diary: Night Markets
Taiwan Diary: Jiufen
…………………………………………………………………………………..

{ Taiwan Diary: Ice Monster }

2013, May 11

The best . Shaved ice . Ever!

I had to make a special post on this place because this was one of the most memorable things we ate during our trip and we loved it. The shaved ice is just so fluffy, soft, and melts in your mouth. Never had anything like this. Pictured above are “Bubble Milk Tea Sensation” (NT$180), “Lime Jasmine Tea Sensation” (NT$200) , and “Fresh Mango Sensation” (NT$200). All the boys liked the Milk tea flavored shaved ice the best and the girls liked the Mango one the most ★

Address // No.297, Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd. Taipei, Taiwan (map)
Phone Number // 02-8771-3263
Website // http://www.ice-monster.com/

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:

{ Vietnamese Cyclo }

{ Recent Repeats }

{ Taiwan Diary: Jiufen }

{ Taiwan Diary: Night Markets }

{ Taiwan Diary: Ice Monster }

{ About }

{ Search }

{ Blog Courtesy }