Chocolate Brownie!

Hellooo...! Wow, it's been more than 4 months since my last blogpost, time really flies. First off, I want to say that I'm really sorry for the unannounced hiatus, it was a sudden decision. A lot has been going on in my life and some of them made me decide to step out from the blogosphere as I had no desire to do any posts or take any pictures for my blog. I close my blog for a while as I don't like the idea that people visiting my blog without seeing any updates and I hate spammers too XD. But sometimes I do really miss blogging and all of you (hence I'm writing this blogpost) and I decide to reopen my blog. I still can't promise that I'll be blogging as frequently as I did long long time ago but I'll try to stay around and maybe do a random post once in a while. Also, I want to thank to those of you who've been so kind to ask about me when I wasn't around, thank you!

Now, about the post title, my sister and I had been craving for brownie and we thought why not to make one ourselves. We googled and finally found a recipe that's fairly easy to make! If you're interested, here is the recipe: Brownie Recipe. 

The first time we tried, we used a baking dish that wasn't wide enough and it made the brownie became too thick that it wouldn't bake properly. Here's the mess:

The next day we tried it again still using the same baking dish but we halved the recipe and voila!

It didn't look that good but it was edible XD! Me and my sister were so proud with our brownies and we were thinking to make one for our brother when he's back for holidays, watch out bro!

P.S.: I've just noticed the updated Blogger interface and it looks weird to me, does anyone like it?

Taipei, I'm in Love

Yes, I visited Taiwan yet again! I think I visit there almost every year cause I'm already in love with Taipei :D. It's a really a great place, esp for shopping and eating!

Speaking of food, I stumbled on this really awesome blog that introduces places to eat in Taipei a couple years ago and it's been a really great help for me to find places to eat whenever I'm visiting Taipei, here's the blog: HungryinTaipei, be prepared for massive droolage!

In this post, I'm going to share places (most of them are found from HungryinTaipei) that I went and will go over and over again!

*Pic Heavy*

Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle 阿宗麵線
Ximending Headquarter: No.8-1, Emei St., Wanhua District, Taipei City
Shihlin Night Market: 1F., No.24, Lane 101, Wenlin Rd., Shilin District, Taipei City
Xinyi Branch: No.2, Lane 17, Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei City

This is a place that I'll visit more than once whenever I visit Taipei, esp when I'm staying in Ximending area. I just can't get enough of it :D! You might not like it if you dislike intestine though. Nonetheless, it's highly recommended!

Adding some garlic sauce, chili sauce and vinegar.

Yummmm~~

It was raining the second day we went there but it's still fully crowded!

Yo Froyo

 Shida Night Market: No.9, Lane 59, Shida Rd., Jhongjeng District, Taipei City

DunNan Branch: No. 39, Lane 187, Dunhua S. Rd. Sec. 1, DaAn District, Taipei City

Ximending Branch: Eslite 116 - No. 116 Level 1, HanChung St., Wanhua District, Taipei City

We happened to pass by this stall in Ximending and remembered that HungryinTaipei posted about it before. So we decided to try it and I'm really glad we did because it's by far the best frozen yogurt I've ever tried! Super delish and lots of flavors to choose from!

Acai Berry Froyo!

With extra topping on it :D

ZhangJi Guo Tie (Fried Dumpling) Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodles)
Lane 101, Yang Ping S Road
Open everyday EXCEPT Saturday
11am-2pm & 4pm-7.30pm

Another great place that I knew from HungryinTaipei, see her post here. Since we were staying in Ximending area, we decided to find this place and it's pretty hard to find. But when we finally managed to find this place using a map, it was closed! We're still not discouraged though and went there again on the second day and we're happy to see that it's open BUT they're already sold out! OMG, we're so devastated at that point. When we told them we visited the other day and it was closed, they told us that they're closed on Saturday. So DO NOT go there on Saturday, lesson learned. They also told us what time they're open and the next day we went there as early as we could and we're actually one of the first in there LOL. Yes, we actually had to go there three times to be finally able to try their food and it's really worth it! The foods are really good, we esp love the 'guo tie' (fried dumpling). It's best to go there early cause by the time we're almost finished, the place is already packed and they're almost sold out.

The menu in Mandarin

Guo tie 锅贴 (Fried dumpling)

Super yummy! I'm still drooling when I look at this XD

Shui jiao 水饺 (Boiled dumpling)

Not as good as the fried ones but still yummy :)

Suan la tang 酸辣汤 (Hot and sour soup)

We heard many people ordered this so we ordered one too and it's pretty good!

Ding Wang Ma La Guo (Tripod King Spicy Hotpot)
No. 89, Guangfu North Rd (MRT: SYS Memorial Hall)
Tel: (02) 2742-2116
11am-3am

Yet another one that I saw from HungryinTaipei, read her post here. It's the second time I visited this spicy hotpot restaurant. I had my first experience with spicy hotpot two years ago in this very restaurant and it was a really pleasant one! I'd never tried duck's blood before and always tried to avoid one but after I tried it from this restaurant, I'm hooked! It was actually really good :D. And just like the first time we went there, we had to wait a couple of hours to be seated as it's always packed esp on the weekend. We're not complaining though cause it's worth the wait :). Price wise, it was around TWD700 (about USD25) for the two of us and we're really full and couldn't even finish the hotpot so it's pretty affordable.

We're served with this refreshing rose tea while we're waiting to be seated, how nice!

The yummy spicy hotpot with tofus and duck's bloods

Youtiao (Fried bread stick)
Learned from HungryinTaipei to soak these in the spicy hotpot, uber delish!

Handmade meatballs

Not recommended, they're just okay.




Hello Kitty Sweets
No. 90, Da An Road, Sec. 1 (MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing)
Tel: 02-2711-1132
11.30am-10pm

I've finally visited the Hello Kitty cafe! I've been wanting to visit here ever since I first knew about it. I'm sure you've seen tons of Hello Kitty Sweets' pictures online so I don't need to post them here anymore, I'll only do the highlights :). It's a really cute place to visit esp for the Hello Kitty fans out there. I couldn't stop taking pictures because there'll always have Hello Kitty on every single corner! *squeal*

But to be honest, I probably will only visit here once as IMO the foods are just okay and I've already taken more than enough pictures there XD.

Hello Kitty breads and soup

All the carrots inside the baked rice are in Hello Kitty shape! How cute~

Hello Kitty pudding, it's quite delicious!

On another Hello Kitty note, we spotted this Hello Kitty nursery room in Terminal 2 of Taoyuan International Airport. Everything is Hello Kitty in there, really cute!

Not forgetting about the drinks that I love from Taiwan, here are the two drinks that I have to have whenever I'm visiting there:

Watermelon Milkshake

Super good and very refreshing!

Pearl Milk Tea
A really must-have! I think I had more than 3 pearl milk teas on my 5 days visit :D

Yes, I did haul on this visit, esp masks! I think they're always having promotion on masks so it's really a steal to get masks from Taiwan.

Here are the masks that I got before I un-boxed them, they will last me for quite a while :D


That's it for this post. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy:)
Till next time!

A Piece of Me... in February 2011

A game hosted by Shirley of *We Love Toothfairy*

This month....

I like: CNY and red packets (ang pao)! And of course having tons of food as an excuse to indulge a little on CNY, but I always feel guilty later, oh well..

I don't like: spending too little time with my whole family and friends, the holiday is too short!

I want you to know: Happy CNY! I know it's a bit late but better be late than never :) Hope everyone's having a great time!

I've planned: a short vacation trip with my cousin! Hope everything will go smoothly.

I want to say to someone special: I need more time with you~

Here's the CNY reunion dinner that I have with my family on CNY's eve. I instantly gained weight right after the dinner! :( I'm still trying to lose it now... Anyways, here they are!

We were having hot pot!

Some of the ingredients for the hot pot

Fried Prawns

Stir-Fry Scallions

Meat Rolls (Ngo Hiang)

Till next time!

Pineapple Tarts for CNY!

First off, I'm so sorry for being away. It's been pretty busy for the past few weeks and I can't seem to manage my time like I used to. Hopefully things will be less hectic after CNY and I'll be able to do more posts! :)

Chinese New Year is less than a week now (OMG, I still have so much things to do!). Beside red packets (ang pao), things that make me excited for CNY are the pastries/cookies and one of them is pineapple tart. IMHO, the best pineapple tarts that I've ever tried are baked by my mom period. Almost every year I help her, even though the only things I can do are just filling in the pineapple jams and glazing with egg yolks. Of course with no exception, this year my mom baked pineapple tarts for CNY. We didn't bake anything else though since time is running out, so we ordered other pastries instead. Well, here are some pics for the pineapple tarts!

Freshly wrapped with pineapple jams inside

Glazing with egg yolks

All glazed, shiny~

Baked and done!

Closeup for the pineapple tart

The pineapple jam filling, yum!

Another batch of pineapple tarts with different shape, which one is better? They taste as good! :)

Till next time!

*Update*: Since some of you asked about the recipe, here's the pineapple tart recipe that I found pretty close to my mom's and it's very detailed with pics. I do have my mom's recipe but I'm too lazy to translate it :p, hope that helps!

What? I Cook??

First off, I'm so sorry for neglecting my blog for almost 2 weeks and I don't have any other excuse except my laziness (yes, I still can't get rid of it). I'll try to blog more but I can't promise it since I always surrender to my laziness (OK, I need to stop making excuse now).

Back to the title, I'm really surprised that I cook! Although it's not my first time to cook but I haven't cooked like for years if not counting in instant foods. My mum always cooks at home so I don't need to, yes, I'm really spoiled!

So, since some of you have suggested to post about what I ate during the absence of my parents, i decided to post what I cooked instead :).

Omelette with Tomato Ketchup

I know it doesn't look appealing and it's just a basic thing to cook, but I love omelette~

Stir-fry Vegetables with Fish Cake

It's my first time ever cooking vegetables and it turned out better than I thought! :D Still doesn't look appealing though...

Instant Fried Noodles with Meatballs

On my lazy day, I just cooked instant fried noodles and added a few meatballs that my mum made before her trip.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Wings

Another one that I cooked for the very first time. I used this recipe, it didn't turn out as it's supposed to be but it still tasted pretty good! :)

Mashed Potato

It looks really plain but it's so easy to make yet very yummy, I love eating it just like this or I just baked it like below:

Baked Mashed Potato with Crab-sticks

Yummy!!

Pancakes

Recipe here. I love pancakes and the recipe for this pancake turned out really good! I'll be making more pancakes now :D

 Pancake with Chocolate Ice Cream

This is how I like to serve the pancake! Yummm~~

That's all for my cooking adventures (LOL!). Till next time!