TAIPEI - Ambience Hotel & Shilin Night Market

Love my fur daughter <3 <3 <3!

Aji-sen Sichuan Ramen w/ spicy beef

And... the non-stop fooding begins!

You have been warned!

At the airport.. spied a bread bus selling bread. get it. hehehehe.

Is it just me that found this absurdly cute?!

Ok I desist.  

This is WAY cuter!!!

I want to fly Eva air!!!

Fei Qian Wu!

Basically the most famous Unagi-Don restaurant in all of Taiwan.

Basically if you see a line ANYWHERE in Taiwan.  

Just get in it.  

This place is legit.. and yes you will have to wait.. and after waiting in a long line you will also most likely have to share your table with other diners. 

It's that good!

Tamago, Calamari, Soft Tofu

Shrimp & Vegetable Tempura, Pork Skewers

Dark Chocolate Ganache & Tiriamisu

Stocking up on Asian mags at 7-11!! :)

Also picked up these Hello Kitty chapsticks at 7-11.  I know I know I'm a sucker.. but they're actually really moisturizing the yellow one smells like Honey and the blue ones smells like roses!  Love it!

My #1 Guilty Pleasure when I visit Taiwan is eating at 7-11!!! 

7-11 in Asia is NOTHING like the 7-11's in the states it.is.so.much.more.awesome!!!

Bajillions of types of yummy ramen, rice plates, bentos, noodles, chips, drinks.. there's this AMAZING milk tea that comes in a plastic container that tastes better then A LOT of boba milk tea's I've had that were made fresh!

They even have these soft boiled eggs that come pre-made.  All you need to do is take it out of the package and add hot water.  So perfect when it's 2am and want something quick and easy.  Perfect addition to ramen!

SO AWESOME

Hawaiian Salad, Fried Chicken Pattie, Shredded Beef Burger, Teriyaki Beef Burger w/ Pork Belly & Egg

Hubs guilty pleasure is Mos Burger.  

Mos Burger is famous for it's Shredded beef burger.  It's basically a traditional Gyu-Don (Shredded Beef and onion rice bowl) but it's in burger form!  Two rice patties w/ shredded beef & onions in the middle.

Mister Donut!

So cute!!! 

I love Mr. Doughnut the doughnuts are actually made from Mochiko flour (the same stuff that's used to make Mochi!) so when you eat it for the first time you have to be cognitive that it's not going to taste like a traditional doughnut that you're use to from the states.  It's lighter tasting and very chewy.

Our Hotel!

Omgosh these were so cute!!

Chinese Wedding His & Her cups!

Wanted to buy them so bad but resisted.  I have really bad luck buying mugs on vacation.  They ALWAYS always without fail (no matter how much I carefully pack and wrap them) are always broken when I get home!

These were so cute too!  

Condiment holders that looks like dumplings that comes in a bamboo steamer!  Salt & Pepper shakers, the back two have open lids so you can put chili's or perhaps sugar (if you're buying this for afternoon tea!) and the one in the front with the little spout is for soy sauce (or cream :)!

Wanted this so badly!

The staff at the hotel was SUPERB one of the nights we came home from a late dinner and they asked us if we would like to sit down and have a coffee!  Their latte was excellent.. I mean seriously waaaay way better then Starbucks.. and they even brought out these delicious cream puffs that were made in house.  ::Thumbs Up::!

We kept sleeping thru their all you can eat buffet breakfast.. and they even offered to send up breakfast for us every morning!!!

Philippe Starck!

Complimentary Snacks, Coffee & Tea!

Complimentary Fruit, Water & Soda too!

Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake!

Remember what I said about if you see a line always get in it!

Well that goes for Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake!

I forgot to snap a pic of the line.. but it was like 50 ppl deep when we got in line.. and ppl really love it.. because they only make 12 cheesecakes AT A TIME.

Seriously it's like when they call you up it's like winning the lottery.  I got the last cheesecake and I was afraid the people behind me where going to riot.

They have a whole case full of refrigerated ones.  But everyone waits for a fresh hot one.. and trust me you WANT to wait in the line and get a fresh and hot one.

It's SOOOOO so light and fluffy it's hard to explain how light and airy it is.  If you've ever tried Japanese cheesecake (and less sweet which is more suitable to Taiwanese palettes as most Taiwanese ppl do not eat sweets) it's closer to that then it is to the traditional American style cheesecake which is very heavy, dense and cavity inducingly sweet.

I can see why nobody wants to buy the refrigerated ones because we ate 1/2 of it right away and then stored the other half in the mini fridge and when we tried eating it the next day it's like it settled onto itself and the air pockets fell and the cheesecake didn't taste as light and airy as it did the day before ::sadness::  But still delicious!!

Clothing haul (to date!) 

I love love shopping in Taiwan.. everything is so affordable!  You can just be strolling down the street on your way to the mall/coffee shop/bakery/lunch and you'll find these random street vendors!

Every piece above (with the exception of the doll sweater which I purchased at a department store) was roughly $300 to $500 TWD which translates to $10 to $15 USD!

Hahah do you like my two obviously faux wannabee Chanel inspired pieces?? 

I love love the CC beading on the blue sweater!

Chinese pizza - It's a fried scallion pancake w/ melty cheese and soft scrambled egg.

There was a line a mile long.  

We didn't even know what they were selling but when I saw the line I immediately turned to The Hubs and said "Get in line".. to which he responded "What are they selling?" and I said "Doesn't matter."

lololololol.

The Hubs said this was his absolute most favorite thing he ate on the entire trip. 

Boom.

Prince Cheese Potato!

It's famous!!

They have lots of pictures of various Asian celebrities eating at their vendor.  They have a couple different branches throughout Taiwan now. 

Basically it's a deep fried potato.  

Yes AN ENTIRE potato rolled in panko battery and deep fried.  The outside is crunchy and the inside is piping hot soft and mushy.  They'll add whatever you want one top.  They have like 20+ different types.  We just picked a rando combination one.  And then they'll cover the entire thing in hot boiling unnaturally orange not found in nature cheese.  It's awesome.  Ok you might go into cardiac arrest after eating it.  But it's worth it.. if just for the novelty factor!

This one had like ham, mushrooms, corn, broccoli, pineapples (YES pineapples! Taiwan is famous for it's pineapples so juicy and sweet so they put them in pretty much everything!)

"Frying Milk" 

HAHAHA

Fob English at it's best

It's actually a cube of frozen custard dipped in batter and deep fried.  While it's frying the custard melts.. so it's basically a deep fried cream puff it's EFFIN' AMAZEBALLS!

Best sweet thing I ate in Taiwan!

It's that good.

Hubs had to tear me away because I was about to go back and buy many (SO many) more sticks.

The reason why he pulled me away is because we were headed here!

Shilin Night Market basically the largest night market in Taipei!

Hot Star Chicken!!!

Also UBER famous as you can tell by the HOARDS of people in line.  There were actually 4 separate lines that wrapped itself around the vendor.  They're so famous now they've spread all over Taiwan.. and actually to other parts of Asia.. in fact I think they just opened one in Singapore recently!

Deep Fried Chicken Patty as big as your face!

And there was a slush ice place next door I got passion fruit and they actually had real passion fruit inside w/ the seeds! Yum!  So perfect with a giant piping hot deep fried chicken patty.

So Happy!

This place made flower designs w/ different colored cotton candy!

So neat!

And yes I'm such a creeper hahahahaha.

Reusable bags!!!!

3 for $500 TWD = $15 USD!

Such a lifesaver especially on this trip because we had coats/scarves and seemed to accumulate various shopping bags randomly through the day haha.

Hubs made me get a Army Camo one since he was the one that had to carry our coats/snacks/my shopping bags HAHAHA.. he apparently wasn't a fan of my pink cupcakes reusable bag. HAHA.

I veto'd this. 

The "beard" was actually furry. 

::shudder::

This is apparently what I look like while shopping for shoes.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I wanted this bunny bathrobe!

So cute.. but it would have taken up too much luggage space so it sadly did not go home with me :(

"Coffin Bread" aptly named because of the shape!

It's basically a giant piece of deep fried toast filled with lots of random things inside (see the picture above on the bottom right).  We got a combination one with shrimp, chicken, kewpie mayo, veggies and yes pineapples (cannot forget the pineapples) and it's smothered in a chowder.

Can't forget the Taiwan Beer of course!

Hubs and I both agreed this was in our top 3 things we ate on the entire trip!

Taiwan beer + a BB Gun.....

"Da Chang bao Xia Chang" literally translate to Big Sausage wraps Little Sausage. 

It's a Taiwanese Hot Dog!

The sausage is wrapped in a glutinous sticky rice "bun"!

It's very heavy and filling.  For obvious reasons.. sausage + sticky rice. 

Do not attempt this unless you are starving/haven't eaten like a bajillion things by the time you found this vendor.

Deep Fried Crab

Found these ADORABLE outfits for our fur babies!!  

Honeybee Bear & A Moo Cow!!

Picked up these things at Shilin Night Market it came out to about $900 TWD which is just under $30 USD.  Wool Infinity scarf w/ the faux horn buttons, 2 belts and a pair of faux leather shorts.  I have another pair of faux leather shorts but they were getting too big and were actually falling off my waist... although after this trip they're feeling pretty snug again

#FML.

Loving my new faux multi-belt belt!

All you can eat breakfast buffet in our hotel.

They both a hot food and cold food buffet - western & eastern foods.  

It was very nice :)

Getting our morning latte on! :)