the wacky wombat weblog

Going on vacation is a great thing. Even better if you fly for free. :p

Two months ago (Dec 2008), we went on a short weekend getaway to Taipei. We had enough miles on our Kris Flyer to each redeem a ticket, and we were given the option of choosing Hong Kong, Shanghai or Taipei. Cheap food, affordable hotels and friendly locals – it’s a no-brainer, so we went to Taipei for a short 3-day 2-night weekend getaway.

We stayed at TS Hotel, located on a street just under 5 minutes from Ximen MRT and Ximenting. It’s cheap, the room’s nice and comfortable, location’s convenient and the service is personal. So if you’re looking for good and cheap accomodation, that’s the place to go to.

At Taipei, you never stop eating. You never really have complete meals as much as you just walk around eating every snack in sight that smells or looks good. That’s probably why I never ended up eating the stinky tofu. I was determined to try it, but I’m sorry stinky tofu, your stench was just too much for me. Everything else was super yummy and super cheap. Gotta love the exchange rate! :p

I enjoyed walking on the streets. It’s filled with people, and food. It’s vibrant and surprisingly welcoming. And a new snack await at every turn, just like this potato chips stick I found. It’s a half-potato that’s carved in a continuous spiral, fried on the spot on a stick, and it never ever crumbles into a million pieces when you pick at it to eat. The trick, as the hawker told us, is to eat from the bottom up. It’s totally coated with MSG (as with every other fried snack in Taipei), but it’s yummy! I’ll worry about hair loss after the trip. :p

Even though our trip was really short (and I agree with most that to have a good tour of Taipei you’ll need 4 to 5 days), but we did manage to check out quite a few spots. The best thing about Taipei is that it’s really very easy to get around, so the only itinerary planning we did was the night before we flew, on Google. Their MRT service is very much similar to Singapore, and I’m very glad that I can comprehend their Mandarin better.

I think my favourite spot was Danshui (æ·¡æ°´). Located in the North of Taipei, it’s a quaint harbour-side town. Away from the hip and happening city, it’s a nice place to just relax. We went there on a Sunday, and it was obviously a popular spot for the local families as well. Thankfully it wasn’t too crowded, so you could still have a slow stroll down the streets on the waterfront while still enjoying a fun carnival-like atmosphere. Again, there’s lots to eat. I especially love that ice-cream is so cheap.

I’ve uploaded some photos that’ll explain more about what we saw on the trip. Hit on the Photo Gallery button on the navigation bar on top, and check out our 2 Taipei albums. If you’re too lazy to scroll, click on this right here.

As much as I enjoyed the shopping and sight-seeing, the majority of my Tokyo experience also revolves around food.

I pretty much love japanese food (ok, except for natto, which is fermented soy beans, and most things fermented taste/smell foul and should be ample warning for people to NOT eat them). But Japanese food in Japan tastes way better than japanese restaurants at home. It’s kinda like when you’re in US and chinese food taste nothing like the chinese food you have at home. (e.g. WTF is General Tso’s chicken?!)

A piece of Japanese food knowledge that I picked up in Japan was about wasabi. Behold – fresh wasabi!

Yes, this is the real deal, the root. To eat, you have to finely grate it first. The flavour is a little lighter and more fragrant than processed wasabi paste (which may not even contain wasabi at all according to this wiki article!), and the hotness does not rush up to your nose and threaten to destroy your nasal passage. It’s all very subtle and pleasant to eat.

Another big surprise about Japanese food (in Japan) is pork. Contrary to the popular belief that seafood and raw fish is all the Japanese people ever eat, pork actually does figure quite heavily in their cuisine. Not only do they eat pork quite often, but they can cook it darn well too! The kind where the pork literally melts in your mouth. It is that good.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of their yummilicious pork to show you, because well, pork + soupy ramen = instant respite against winter chills and palatte satisfaction, so we basically attacked the food right when it reaches the table. There is no time for nilly-willy things like posing and selecting shutter speed on cameras. This is my 3rd trip and I still don’t really have pork-y pictures for you.

Besides the fine art of roast pork, there is also the very cute fast food pork: McPork burger (100yen only!). McDonald’s in Japan is Makudonaludo, and McPork is makupoku. And when Mario wins a challenge in Super Mario Galaxy (Japanese version), it is “star get”. English is a whole new language to me in Japan.

Anyway, I’ve posted some photos of my makan adventure in Tokyo. These are the few moments when we actually stopped ourselves from devouring the food just as it’s served and behaved all civilised and snapped away with our camera. Just go to our Photo Gallery and check out the album titled Eating Marathon.

Other food-related thoughts:

• Japanese people eat a lot of radish. I seem to get radish everywhere. I like it in oden (an assortment of boiled stuff in light broth soup), but not so much as a condiment. While shopping in the supermarket on new year’s eve, I see at least 1 big radish in almost everyone’s shopping basket.
• They also eat a lot of rice. I cannot understand how, in between slurping down a whole big bowl of noodles, typical salarymen can wolf down mouthfuls of plain white rice as well. Lunch sets with noodles + rice + condiment are pretty common.
• They eat horse meat too. I’ve seen places sell horse sashimi, but I cannot bring myself to eat horse meat. However it’s not really a common thing, unlike fish.
• I love how restaurants always serve water for free. Some even leave you with a whole big pitcher. Some restaurants in Malaysia should learn: We should not need to pay for plain water, especially when your food is salty.
• They eat innards too! Yay! I’ve eaten chicken heart, chicken gizzard, chicken butt, pork belly, bbq-ed (yakitori) and deep fried, and they taste great! I believe bak kut teh will do extremely well if sold in Japan.

When my family was here in Singapore last week, I was left with the task to feed everyone for all meals. Of course I skipped the usual hawker fare that I have, because there’re far better and far cheaper chicken rice or char kuay teow and wantan noodle without tomato/chilli sauce in Malaysia.

So for one of the dinners, I brought them to Arab Street for some ‘exotic’ Egypt/Arabian food. (Mainly also because I wanna try more items on the menu, hehehe).

Everyone was excited because they haven’t really got the chance to try Middle Eastern food before. There’re probably a few in KL or what-not, but it’s also probably not gonna be cheap. This one at Arab Street (Al-Majlis) is decently priced, dishes cost about S$8 to $12 on average.

Fantastic stuff, great flavour thanks to all the spices, and absolutely yummy.

(Top) Yein ventured to try kibbeh – a triangle of spiced minced beef and nuts, with a side serving of cucumber salad in yoghurt sauce. Looks the strangest but the taste made it one of the best dishes which we ordered that night. (Bottom) I had my usual stir-fry lamb with rice, simple but fragrant. (sadly I’ve forgotten the name of the dish).

(T) For the less adventurous, there’s good ole’ chicken chop. Pei claims the potato wedges taste much better than the ones at KFC Malaysia. (B) Also, another standard dish with a spice-filled twist — mixed grill, consisting of chicken, lamb, beef and rice.

(T) My mom ordered ba’mia, a simple tomato-based curry with okra (ladies fingers) and lamb, served with rice or bread. (half-eaten in this pix. apologies hehe) (B) Mei had harissa, a pan of lamb, no idea how it’s cooked but sure taste great, soft, with flavours that linger in your mouth. Everyone scrambled to try it (and then took extra heaps of it for second tries), so Mei had to order a second one as she had nothing left from the first serving.

We also had a dozen of grilled fresh mushrooms for appetizers. Juicy, and nicely grilled, so it was a treat for a mushroom fan like me. To go with the food, we all had iced mint tea — refreshing and not too sweet.

Great stuff. Gotta go back there again for another round. :p

The meal that lead to the intense battle of procrastination

After my intense battle of procrastination with Benet for a week, he finally caved in and posted about our tom yam feast at his house (his blog post). Go read more about the seafood tom yam feast on his blog.