Osteria by Angie

I promised that I'd take photos of the food here after my first visit. And how I remember my first visit here so vividly with Joyce and James on a Saturday as I gave birth to Rayray the following Monday!

Since then, I've gone back a couple of times and I enjoyed on every occasion. We took Rayray there for lunch on Christmas eve and since it was only two days after I checked out of confinement centre, both T and I were still very new to the whole taking-baby-for-an-outing business so when she cried in the middle of our lunch, we panicked as we didn't want to get funny looks from people around us. As a parent now, I became absolutely aware about keeping baby quiet in public because I get paranoid thinking people would stare at us if I have a crying baby. Anyway, so I decided to feed baby even though it wasn't her feeding time yet. The restaurant staff were ever so kind and understanding that they told me to use their dining area on first floor and they would draw all the curtains so that we wouldn't get disturbed! We were so impressed as I thought customer service didn't exactly exist in Taiwan.

Freshly baked bread

Cold cuts and cheese platter with a glass of my long lost friend - vino

My Main - Home made tagliolini with vegetables, black truffle and parmigiano

T's main - squid, mozzarella cheese, cherry tomato, black and garlic pizza

Finishing off with coffee, yoghurt, and lemon sorbet - simply divine

Oh and we also ordered their delicious avocado and walnuts salad but was busy eating so forgot taking the photo! hehe

Veggied out on New Year's Eve

We went to pH7, a so-called fusion French vegetarian restaurant on New Year's Eve. It did take a bit of convincing for T to agree to go as he can't have a meal without meat. Though J was very kind to invite us out as our plan was to stay in as we are still following the routine and we didn't exactly have a pleasant experience taking baby out in the evening two weeks ago when she started crying non-stop when we just sat down to start our dinner at this hot pot place. Luckily, it was only next to where we live, so T took her back to settle her while mum and I gulped down the food and left soon after that.

We thought we would brave it again this time and see how baby is doing as we need to be able to have some social life too and not be bound by the routine. it turned out that Raychi slept through the entire dinner and we had to wake her up when we got home! We can't help but wonder... maybe she prefers a more 'serene' environment or what T calls - posh places rather than noisy, chinesey type of restaurants!!!

So what do we think of pH7? The ambiance is modern and minimalist, though it almost feels aloof with white decor and glass floor. The presentation of food is contemporary but the taste is mediocre. I personally think it's too contrived.

I went for the Emerald set.

 My starter - seasonal vegetables with Japanese dressing salad

Organic pumpkin soup

Sous-vide water king mushroom with black pepper corn sauce and angel hair pasta. The pasta is delicious with Japanese sesame dressing.

Brownie with strawberries. This is pretty good and I think is the best course out of all others

The verdict is unanimus. interesting experience but we won't be going back again sadly.

Taiwan IV - Food, Food and More Food

The effect of the prominent food culture in Taiwan seems to have left obvious trail on someone. Well, to be fair, the amount of food that someone wolfed down bounds to pay off.

I am not criticising at all as I am happy that he enjoyed the food there and hence the quantity of food was consumed. Oops, did I say he? Oh, dear – sorry Tao, I didn’t mean it! Though one thing I do need to point out is the pearl milk tea which is T’s absolute favourite. He would have one before lunch; one after lunch; one in the late afternoon and one after dinner. (yes, I do know how calorific they are !)

I don't really need to introduce the famous niu rou mian, but we did discover something that I didn’t know about and apparently it’s been around since 1950! It was some sort of specially cooked & smoked goose with noodles/vermicelli in Ximending. According to the duck expert, it was the BEST ever bird he'd tasted!!!

However, Tao didn't enjoy Ding Tai Fong. To quote - '’the food was okay, nothing spectacular; didn't really have the wow factor!’' Well, I enjoyed my shitake mushroom dumplings as well as redbean dumplings - they are my all-time favourites.

Nevertheless, we utterly thoroughly adored the meal we had at 雞家莊 the day before we left. Traditional Taiwanese cuisine, just by looking at them now makes me dribble.

Here's the spicy steam pot we had with the girls.

To be honest, we had so much food that I just can’t name them all. All I would say is that we had some serious indulgence.

I just want to say huge thank-yous to Benson, Chasel, Ming, Kuan, Joyce and Andrew. If it wasn’t for you guys, our trip would not be as enchanting as it was.
Thanks again and we looking forward to seeing you very soon!

Taiwan III - Nantou & Taichung

This is where we stayed for the night and thanks to Benson, he couldn't have picked a better location. It was just a shame that I couldn't get my lazy arse up in the morning to enjoy the freshest air ever!

This was taken after the wholesome breakfast we had! not to mention that someone scoffed down FOUR mantou!!! or was it five?

The Puli Winery - famous for making Shaohsing wine.

Inside the winery.

Here comes the interesting bit. This is the renowned Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Taichung. Just look at the architecture! It certainly doesn't look like a temple to me, well, at least not the 'conventional' ones. The temple is 150m tall and sits on a 60-acre lotus hill outside Puli.

It was completed in 2001 and is one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan. It took 10 years and the donations of countless members of the community to complete this masterpiece. The five us were completely taken by the grand, contemporary look and realised not to underestimate the power of religion!
Chung Tai Chan Monastery now has established more than 90 meditation centres and branches in Taiwan and abroad.

Some serious top-quality materials were used and apparently one master craftsman is said to have spent ten years collecting coloured jade for the 18 Lohan reliefs.

Fresh orchids were available on the table for anyone who was interested in repeating some sort of motifs.

We were there as if we were visiting a museum!

Taiwan II - Sun Moon Lake

Ah, the famous Sum Moon Lake. Is it what I expected? No, not at all, in fact, 100 times better! I was absolutely overwhelmed with the scenery that made me appreciate Taiwan more. It might be a small island, but there is so much to do and see. Sun Moon Lake is the greatest natural lake in Taiwan and it is composed of diamond-shaped Sun Lake and curve-shaped Moon Lake. The lake is formed by the accumulated water in the broken basin between Yu Mountain and Ali Mountain streams.

We took a boat tour around the lake as well as to the nearby islands to see the legend of the Thao tribe, one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. Surrounded by green mountains, clear water, happy people, I was contented after months’ anticipation.

The beauty of the Sun Moon Lake is rested upon the mountains circling the lake; peaks rise one upon another and range upon range of hills; the light of waves and shadow of mists, in my eye, a true picturesque place to see.

The five of posing for a 'picture perfect'!

Winding down the evening with shabu-shabu.

As usual, I fall alseep early and missed all the fun the guys had...playing the old cards-and-drinking game.

I just remember that it was a peaceful night and I sure slept like a baby.

Taiwan I

Right, here it is…the beginning of my ten-intensive-day-trip. We arrived home at around 7.30pm on Friday and we headed straight to the steam-pot restaurant near by since both of us were soooo hungry that we literally ordered everything on the menu and washed them down with bottles of icy cold plum juice (yum!) We were also really greedy that we kept ordering while we were eating and there was a point that we thought we would have lots of leftovers. But then it rarely happens when T and I are present and not to forget that mum was there and she is also a steam-pot lover, so we actually finished most of the food on the table! It was amazing! The shocking thing was that the total bill came to around NT$2,500 which was equivalent of £40. It might not sound a lot but NT$2,500 for steam pot for three people is considered dear, even in Taipei. However, we truly enjoyed the meal and went to bed with satisfied tummy as well as happy taste buds.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to get ready for the two days excursion organised by Benson and Chasel. T had a ‘Taiwanese’ burger with soya milk for breakfast before jumping into C’s car. We then picked up Ming in Hsin-Chu and headed to Nan-Tou. We had our lunch (street foods) there and T had various things including the famous ‘little sausage in big sausage’ as shown above, a grilled sweet corn, oyster vermicelli, stinky tofu, ice-cream, and some sweet bean curd soup with red beans (YES, all in one go!)

This is an interesting photo, not the three of us looking rather indolent after all the food but the temple behind! The way it collapsed due to the infamous 921 earthquake back in 1999! It is now one of the tourist places to see there!

okay, I am having a few issues with uploading photos here and hence I thought I'd publish this short post first and follow up later on....with more pics and hopefully will figure out a way to do it.

Where Water and Sand Meet

Dear old B and C arranged a trip for us to Sun Moon Lake. I am quite embarrassed to say that I have never been to the famous lake during the 14 years I was in Taiwan.

According to resources, the old name for Sun Moon Lake was ‘’Where water and sand meet’’. I can’t really make any comments at the moment but will sure provide a full report plus photos upon return, and that is in three weeks time! way-hay!

I know I will ‘probably’ need to do some homework before I go otherwise I know someone will whinge that I am not being dedicated enough about this trip especially he made extra efforts!

I just can’t wait! ^^