Friday, February 14, 2014

TAIPEI - Tong Hua Night Market & Other Randomness


OOTD: Sweater: TAIPEI STREET VENDOR, Shorts: F21, TIGHTS: DKNY, Shoes: NORDSTROM RACK, Handbag: CHANEL



Me: "You're cold Hubby? I share my scarf with you :)"


Macaron Wedding Cake FTW!


Heart shaped Macarons!!

#DYING

Lu Rou Fan, Fried Pork Chop, Meatball Soup, Veggies in meat sauce & Passionfruit Fruit Juice Tea


SOOO OBSESSED w/ Chatime Passionfruit Fruit Tea Juice it's sooo so good and they use real passionfruit to make it.  Makes all the difference in the world!


"Wheel Biscuits" w/ BOBA!!!! 

Yup chewy QQ boba!!


The outside is basically egg puff batter.  Light buttery and sweet!


But the inside is where it's at!! 

QQ BOBA BALLS!!  

So amazing.. and the heat from the griddle melts them and makes them ooey, gooey and tastes almost caramel like!  So crazy delicious.


Blazer shopping w/ the Hubs at his favorite G Star Raw store!



#CoupleSelfie






Tonkatsu Ramen (with LOTS AND LOTS of chili oil) w/ Pork Belly & Par Boiled Egg w/ a side of Chicken Karaage

NOM.



Eyelashes galore!

5 boxes for $1000 TWD which is about $30 USD.  Which is a STEAL considering each box contains 10 pairs.. which works out to 60 cents a pair!!!  (What's really crazy is I've spent $6 dollars for a pair of Ardell's UGH.  10x the price. When I think about it like that it's so ridiculous.  And I absolutely refuse to ever buy another pair of drugstore lashes!)  

The quality is pretty decent too I've used a few pairs already they're very soft and pliable and I've gotten about 3 uses out of one pair!



"OHHHHHHHH"


Chawanmushi Galore!!!



So happy with her Chawanmushi!


What do you mean you don't need a furry Tiger backpack??







Secret speakeasy built behind a coffee shop!!

Would have no idea there was even a bar hidden behind the closed coffee shop!







Playing with fire!



Continued the festivities Taiwan style at 7-11 w/ fruit beer!!



Yakult (Yogurt drink) for me since I'm so hardcore hahahahahahahahaha.

Best line of the night - "MAKE IT RAIN COINS!!"


Causing trouble in 7-11 lol. 

Why are their promotional items so freakin' cute??!



Excitedly opening up her prize!


Yay :)


These are the wedding favors guests receive in Taiwan.. they should do this in the states this is amazing!!


Matcha Green Tea doughnut & White choco rose w/ various nuts shaped heart


So happy with her elephant metal chopsticks haha.



Selfies because we can.. and because we're in a super baller apartment that actually has a phenomenal view of 101!!!!


Thanks for having us over Miles!!!  

To this day Lucas cannot stop talking about Glenfiddich UGH he's like super obsessed now. 


Street market finds!

Love my sweaters ($500 TWD = $15 USD) been living in them this winter in Germany!!!

Palak Paneer, Chicken Tikki Masala, Basmati Rice & Paratha


Formosa Chang!!! 

(Thanks for the rec Wei-Wei!)

Ok so my absolute favorite Taiwanese dish is called "Lu Rou Fan".. it's practically a national dish.  It's minced pork braised in a soy based sauce over rice.  SOOO yummy and comforting.. you can find it EVERYWHERE.. literally every street vendor sells it.  But there's this chain in Taiwan called Formosa Changs that makes it with braised Pork Belly.

Yeah I'm talking about a giant chunk of braised melty fatty pork belly.  Everywhere else just uses regular minced pork.. but not this place.  It's INSANELY delicious soooo fragrant and the fat from the pork belly just melts all over the rice.

Fried Pork Chop, Various mixed veggies, Shredded Pork over rice

This is my form of comfort food.  It makes my belly happy :).

There's quite a few Formosa Chang's throughout Taipei but there just so happened to be one right next to WuFenPu which is Taipei's garmet district.  It's HUGE and you can literally shop for DAYS and not go through the whole thing. (I shopped for about 6 hours and in between had to stop and take The Hubs to Formosa Chang's to feed him because he was getting really realllllly cranky haha.)


My haul from WuFenPu!

Army green cargo vest!  I love it.. it's hard to tell from the picture but it's actually a mixed material vest. Faux leather panels and then the pockets are made out of a chiffon material.  And the other piece is a light weight black trench.  To which the Hubs said "Looks cool.. looks like something a hairdresser would wear" -___-

N-EE-WAYS.  These were $500 TWD ($15 USD) a piece!


Wool dress for $700 TWD ($21 USD) and a Tweed Blazer for $1500 TWD ($50 USD) which is admittedly on the pricey side.. but it was so cute and let's be honest if I bought this at Zara's it's be 2x the price!!!




Stocked up on 7-11 goodies for Germany (admittedly a lot of things got eaten en route back to Germany wahahaha. But in our defense we traveled about 30+ hours to get from Taipei back to Frankfurt!

Iced coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, Scallion egg wrap pancake w/ ham, Pork & Egg sandwich and Fried Radish Cake

Last breakfast in Taipei makin' it count!!


Eva Air Check in counter!

WTF SO EFFIN' CUTE!


OK EVERY AIRPORT SHOULD HAVE THIS.  

One of my biggest pet peeves is getting all of my luggage onto a push cart and then realizing that I need to go to another freakin' floor and I cannot take the push cart up the escalator obviously AND you're not allowed to push it into the elevator.  So then you have to unload ALL of your luggage and get onto the elevator/escalator just to go get another push cart. OMGGGG.

End Rant.


Had to tear myself away from this MCM popup shop in DutyFree.

LITERALLY.HAD.TO.TEAR.MYSELF.AWAY.


But did pick up this little kit from SK-II!!

This is my first time trying SK-II.. I basically went from using drugstore to La Mer and never really tried anything in between because I really love using La Mer. 

(My skin is REALLY annoying I have sensitive/combination/oily skin.. and breakout REALLY easily.. and now because of my age I'm also starting to get really dry patches... in other words my skin hates me.

Anyways I've had really amazing results with La Mer Moisturizing Gel Cream but have been feeling for awhile that it's not moisturizing enough for the winter months and my eczema flares.  When I started using it I was living in San Francisco and it was perfect year round because there's no real winter there. I tried a sample of the original La Mer Moisturizer but it's much much too rich for my skin.

I did however notice at Duty Free that La Mer has a new Soft Cream supposedly a less heavy version of the original but more moisturizing then the Gel Cream.. has anybody tried that out??) 

Anyways the prices in DutyFree are amazing.  This set cost $3500 TWD ($120 USD).


I checked the prices of the same SK-II moisturizer (btw it's called "Stempower" in Asia but in the US it's called "Essential Power") same size and everything it retails for $205 bucks at Nordstroms/Neimans!  

And you don't get any of the other stuff (It came w/ deluxe samples of Facial Treatment Clear Lotion & Facial Treatment Essence)!  Crazy.  I just need to reiterate how much I love Duty Free hahaha.

Ok my review of the SK-II - honestly I was about to jump ship after only using it for about a week or so I swear my pores got bigger (although Hubs said it was all in my head) but I did break out a lot more than normal.  However I hate wasting product so I forced myself to continue using it and I'm glad I did!!  After about a month of using it continuously my skin seems to have adapted to it and now I've been really loving my SK-II moisturizer it's significantly calmed the redness around my nose and my eczema spots and most importantly my skins completely cleared up.  It's also REALLY REALLY moisturizing which is perfect for Germany right now.  However I can tell that it would be too moisturizing for me in the summer months and then I'll most definitely switch back to using my La Mer Gel Moisturizer.  

Whelps that wraps up my Taipei posts!! :)  

Hope you enjoyed "traveling" with me!!!

24 comments:

  1. Sounds like such an amazing adventure! I love your street finds. That cargo sleeveless jacket is to die for :)

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  2. Hi Lisa, this looks like such an amzing and fun adventure, waht a great city and your photos clearly define the electricity of it. Love your cute printed sweater, you look so pretty. The macaroon cake is amazing! All the cuisine you presented is very new and interesting to me. The passion fruit tea sounds so yum. and youve found the most fantastic pieces of clothing! Thanks for stopping by, from one blog friend to another...Happy Valentines Day!

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  3. lovely photos! looks like you had an awesome time :D

    katslovefashion.blogspot.com

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  4. I really love the tweed blazer you got.
    On another note, I agree with you on the cuisine at Baccarat :D Next time you stop by in Paris and if your husband did not have the time to find some really gorgeous restaurants (he really does not need any help on the romance side), tell me and I will give you some of my personal favorites.

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  5. Your make-up is so pretty!!
    I heard so much about SK-II, I wish it was available here.. What products do you like to use from La mer?
    xoxo Happy-Vday :)
    xoxo
    Suzanne from written by suzanne

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  6. Love reading your uplifting comments, always so sweet! Have a wonderful weekend hun!

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  7. Lols I am like, is this Paris but nope, its Taiwan :P
    Loooove the nightmarkets! So much food haha.
    And I kind of laughed how cold your husband must
    have been :P The heartshaped macarons looks so
    cuteee! And the wedding gifts favors are looking
    fantastic! Xx

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  8. Hi hi I am planing to go to Taiwan this year can you tell me which night market you went to? We love to eat!! Was that chatime in Taipei 101

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  9. Ooh... You just made me wanna fly to Taipei right now. Cab you believe it? Many Singaporeans have been to Taiwan and I've not been there before! I would love to try out all the food you mentioned (Except the pork belly... hehehe I hate jelly-like fats) and I wanna visit the night market and I wanna shop at that district where you shopped for 6 hours.

    RYC:
    Hahaha... What a cute camera! It even automatically strings all the mini videos together? That's really cool. No, actually your voice is not squeaky and dorky. It is just fine! I'm surprised at your English accent actually coz you sound lime you lived in the West all your life. Hehehe... I really like how fresh you look with short hair and I love the way your do temp curls with your long hair! So I will be awaiting your new look... Aww... I love your last sentence the most! All the coincidences! I love it too!

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  10. That macaron wedding cake is the best!!! That gives me an idea LOLS! :D and you seem to have a great time! :)

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  11. Seriously, your Taipei posts make me both incredibly nolstalgic and hungry!

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  12. Awesome post, and I really like you casual yet chic look, Lisa.
    xoxo
    Christy

    http://www.am2pmchic.com/

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  13. Ribeye and scalloped potatoes sound so mouth-watering! That's not nondescript at all. Lol... It's a nice little feast for the hubz. Ooh... Why don't you let him eat steak? Too much red meat? We LURVE steak!

    Haha... next time if you ever some to Singapore, you've to let me know! The boys can have their men's talk and we would definitely have loads of fun! I met up with a blog friend when she came to Singapore too and now both couples are like friends who get along pretty well. I love such spontaneous friendship. It's amazing. I would take you to try various versions of laksa! Curry? We have lots of types of curry too. Chinese, Malay and Indian all have their own curry.

    LOL!!! I really laughed out loud when I saw "wai gou ren" and thought of dogs! It's "guo", not "gou"! Hehehe... Cute you!

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  14. u look grgs n awesome pics n post

    my recent one :http://natashabhatt.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/valentines-day-celebration-2014-with-my.html

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  15. Awwww you look like you had so much fun in Taipei darling! I've been dying to try some SK-II products but I am so adamant to stick with my Mario Badescu products because everytime I try something else new, no matter whether it's drugstore or high end, my skin just pretty much freaks out! You should Mario Badescu next I think, maybe you'll like it :D The Seaweed Night Cream is amazing and so soothing :D

    x
    Phoebe
    Eat. Live. Love. Repeat.

    P.S: CHA TIME IS AMAZING :O

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  16. beautiful pics...u look pretty pretty!

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  17. Omg, looks like you had a blast! Cant wait to go back Taiwan again. As usual, i love all the food. Looking forward to trying out Formosa Chang. That is definitely a national dish. Almost everybody I know has their own secret recipe of it, lol!
    I havent tried SK-II, but I stopped using La Mer because it was just too rich for my skin. My friend recommended Chanel Hydra, so Ive been using that for a year now. It's been moisturizing and gentle on my sensitive skin. I like it so much that Ive been trying their other lines too; i never realized that they have decent skincare products until recently, who knew.

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  18. omg! night markets are my fav! I literally starve myself and then go stuff my face with food haha.
    The lashes are so cheap! I would go crazy buying a lot of them :p

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  19. This post makes me so happy and so jealous! I wanna go to Taipei! But somehow, I imagine it will never be the same again now with bebe. Love the pic with your hubby in your scarf. Something about it - his seriousness? Makes me crack up! lol! You're looking amazing girlfriend! When are you going to come to OC so we can finally meet? lol!

    xx Viv

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  20. You look perfect as alaways!!! I really like your new clothes :)

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  21. Lisa you look amazing! i need to catch up on your blog!!!!

    and ummm how do i get those boba filled wheel biscuits?!??!!

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  22. THat was a lovely post,, beautiful picys.. :)
    Do check out my last post dear
    http://natashabhatt.blogspot.in/2014/02/patanjali-aloe-vera-kanti-body-cleanser.html

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  23. wow..lisa u look lovely...i love your lip shade...
    beautiful pics darlin <3<3

    my recent one :http://www.wellnessandvanity.com/2014/02/25/mac-fix-review-pictures-fotd/

    ReplyDelete