xmas/study snack

bite-sized, individually wrapped brownies that someone was selling at my mum's office. its another of those colleague's-enterprising-family-members-home-baked-food things but i really do like these ones. again, not too sweet and just the right consistency. it retains some softness even when i eat them straight out from the fridge. and you can taste each and every single one of those chocolate chips when eaten cold. i've yet to really warm them up yet but i'd imagine it'll turn into rich, warm, chocolatey messes that a lot of us seem to love.

on the upside, it makes portion control a lot easier for the conscious. also ensures that its not too much rich food at a single go.

on the downside, its also a lot easier to eat like that. very addictive, these.

home-baked: sha and char

buttery, moist and not too sweet with some ice-cream on the side - good stuff sha. :)



a lot of ppl ard me seem to be baking these few months, esp june and char. unfortunately i haven't had decent photos of the great stuff char's been baking because i've been too busy eating them (the spice cake comes to mind)! bummed. but i do have this long over due picture of the lovely mini mooncakes she made a couple of months ago.


excuse my big thumb. i had to hold it to snap a quick pic cos we were doing the forbidden in the auditorium - eating. muahaha

Food Republic: Beef Dao Xiao Mian

i was wondering where i'd find dao xiao mian in singapore outside from Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, let alone good dao xiao mian. but i did. and quite by accident.

normally when i go to Wisma Atria's Food Republic, i invariably only eat from three stalls. the first is the wonton noodle store with their huge prawn dumplings that cost $1 a piece - a little on the steep side but very satisfying. secondly, the indian rice/nasi padang stall because they actually do quite a mean mutton curry. and thirdly, the hokkien mee of course.

but seeing as how it was only 11 in the morning, hokkien mee was not ready, it was too early for curry and i'd already gotten a bowl of the dumplings for a very busy jasmi to try, i was faced with the necessity of actually trying something new. and so i did. i really very nearly ordered ban mee but i'm glad i didn't.

this dao xiao mian was good! at $5.50 a bowl, you really get the bang for your buck. i ate and ate and barely made through half of it. it is, i suspect also partly due to the rich beef broth that's actually a lot more robust than the taipei one we had. and the beef? ooooh. soft and braised just right with just that little bit of trimming of tendon. fab.

the picture doesnt do it justice cos this was taken when i'd already dug in. been a bit absentminded abt taking food pics of late and missed a good chance last week when june, rae and i went to riciotti. bummed. but means i can go back again i suppose. :)

anyhows, this dao xiao mian is really definitely worth a shot. its from the Formosa Ban Mian stall two stalls over from the hokkien mee stall and is available in a pork rib version.

taipei: din tai fung

was better than the local one, i thought. again, we discovered it quite by accident when we'd gone to Fuxing Sogo after danshui and before shihlin. it was one long day that one. but i was quite glad that we managed to fit this in and at some odd time (around 4 in the afternoon) so that there was no queue at all.

i think that made my day better than the food itself really.



here's the original xiao long bao.



and here's the crabmeat one. can you tell the difference?

i couldn't. i can only tell them apart now cos i put some remnant bit on the plate for the second one to distinguish the two. if i hadn't, i couldn't really bite into it to tell you the difference.

the original was quite a bit better than the crabmeat one though. the meat was soft and tender, the soup was tasty and the skin was thinner than the local versions. coupled with the fact that we'd just come in out of the slightly rainy danshui, it was nice and hot and comforting. especially since we all had soup - and taiwan dou miao - to go along with it.

its not that i don't like crabmeat - i love it actually - but somehow the taste of the crabmeat xlb was just too... crabby without the natural sweetness. and so it remains that the best crabmeat xiao long bao i've ever had, is the one at yu yuan in shanghai. hopefully one day, i can go back again.


Din Tai Fung
Fuxing Sogo Basement 1

taipei: street eats

here's a long post for all the street eats. i'm not being lazy, i'm being efficient ;p



here we have curry fish balls on a stick, at danshui. as fish balls come and go, its closer to the consistency of a sotong ball but what made the difference was dunking in fragrant japanese curry. the rather chatty uncle who sold it was still doing his market testing i think. he asked us how it was and whether it was nice. he also told us of how it was slightly different from those that are in hongkong - assuming that there are of course, i wouldn't know. i havent been back in years. but it was good enough for me to get a stick of my own after guinea-pig rae went for it.



cute. lol.



we also tried their local takopachi at danshui. kind of like the 'bomb' thing at shihlin but it tastes a lot better, although different from the one we have here. very hearty and they come in boxes of 6. we also waited quite a bit for this one, but i think it was pretty worthwhile. it came piping hot which was very nice for that day. it'd been a bit nippy earlier at fisherman's wharf cos of the rain.



fresh tie dan (铁蛋） along with pre-packaged ones in the background. i think i'm a proponent of eating food fresh, because the difference is quite something. i love the fresh ones but really don't care for the packaged ones. its not quite like ru dan or cha ye dan but its not that different either.

oh btw, those foot high soft-serve ice-creams at danshui? just like any other soft-serve. still a fun seaside-town eat though.

and then there is xiang xiang ji (香 香 鸡). now this is possibly the best i've ever eaten. period.



i think i had a pack nearly every day i was there. found near the main station exit into hsimending, it had a longish queue at almost all times of the day. and the queue doesnt move very fast cos of wok constrictions. one big wok-full of chicken's probably only good for up to 6-8 small bags. so most people wait between 5-10 minutes, depending how many wok-fulls behind you are. well worth the wait, i assure you.

actually there are a lot of other street eats we had, but didnt have photos of. i had this mochi red bean shao bing at danshui which was not too bad, but was rich enough to really stuff me even though i only had one. we also had a lot at shihlin but the two nights we were there, we were either too bogged down with shopping or too frazzled from the crowd to take photos. aside from this:



mango ice. slurp. actually this is a picture from the last visit with june and char cos i was too busy eating this visit. hehhehheh. and i had the strawberry-mango mix instead too. still good. oh incidentally, if you haven't heard, there's an Ice Monster in PS now. its the taiwanese franchise come to singapore but seriously, something always goes wrong along the way. if you're looking for that soft, almost cotton-y mian bing they have there? well it got lost in transit. cos the ice here is like all ice-kachang here. course. its rather sad really. but the toppings were pretty good so as local ice-kachangs come and go, it was pretty good... if you discount the price. at $4.50-8.50 a plate, i guarantee you its not going to be that hot with the locals.

anyway, that's all the street eats i have for you. but just for good measure, here's a couple of pictures of the gems you find in the little alleys near fu xing. i love that place.









this last picture's particularly sad. read the sign and then try spot the live little pig in the tiny pen by the door. it was so agitated cos it could smells of its brethren on the tables wafting through the main door. poor thing!

donut factory

we interrupt our taipei programming with this local news update.

DONUT FACTORY FRIGGIN RAWKS.

at least their double chocolate donut does. its amazingly soft, not too sweet and the dark chocolate inside oozes its way out into your mouth with each bite. the hazelnut was pretty good too. next on my list of donuts to try: everything else.

i'm sorry Mister Donut (although i have a lot of pictures of you) and Krispy Kreme (since i don't get to eat you), Donut Factory's the way to go.


Picture credits to Donut Factory - donutfactory.com.sg

taipei: shan xi dao xiao mian

although the shan xi dao xiao mian that was recommended was actually some place else, we also happened to stumble across a branch in the fu xing area. just like we did with berry berry cobo, and earlier the same afternoon too.

for such thick slices of noodle with varying degrees of thickness, it was done very nicely just a little past al dente. the beef soup was not bad and it went quite well with the dao xiao mian. seen above here is the beef soup dao xiao mian - a hilarious mistake we made when ordering. it didnt come with any beef, so we can't tell you how it tastes like.

i had the beef tendon soup version. i know not many people eat tendon but this was done quite well too. i liked it.

poor lijun had to have something non-beef in a beefy place (sorry!) and so she settled for something that sounded sze chuany. think it was only all right. we also had guo tie, which was okay, and fried veg which was great! better than din tai fung's - more on DTF another day.


Shan Xi Dao Xiao Mian
No. 2, Lane 118, He Ping Road