TAIPEI

Basically all I did on vacation was eat and shop.. eat and shop!  Muhahaha.. so don't view these pictures on an empty stomach you have been warned!!! :p

Club sandwich

We flew from Germany to Taiwan and had a few hours layover in Beijing.. and yes the eating journey begins!  Don't you just love asian bread??  Something about it has an inherent sweetness to it that I love!!

Potato Salad

And asian potato salad too!!!  Asian potato salad is so noms.. I love the sweetness.. I'm completely obsessed with kewpie mayo.. unfortunately I haven't been able to find it in Germany ::sadness::

Shrimp Tempura

Eating shrimp tempura after nearly 12 months of not being able to eat it!! HUZZAH!

Landed in Taipei!!  

My dad took us to Jin Din Rou!  Yah Xiao Long Bao's!!  Those of you not familiar Xiao Long Bao's they are these little soup dumplings made with pork.. and basically a little pocket of deliciousness all wrapped up together! muhaha.

I think Jin Din Rou is a Japanese company.. that makes Taiwanese eats.. hahahaha..  if I'm not mistaken it's a worldwide chain.. they HAD a store in Hawaii... but just recently closed down I think in the past few months.. ::sadness:: :(  They have interesting eats like Green tea Xiao Long Bao's and Oolong tea xiao long bao's.

Apple Sidra my all time favorite childhood drink! :)

Fried rice and fried pork chop

Xia Long Bao's

I'm a purist so we got the original Xia Long Bao's.. They're pretty good.. but admittedly Din Tai Fung is definitely better.

On our way home we passed by a lot of food stalls... miss night markets so much!!

Salt & Pepper chicken and Turnip cake w/ Fried Sausage

And so yummy!  We got some of my fav Taiwanese eats.. all of this was $1 US dollar!!! 

Turnip Cake, Chicken Feet, Pork Ribs and Siu Mai

We started the next day with Dim Sum! WOOT!

Shrimp Cheung Fun

One of my all time favorite dimsum eats.. Shrimp in long noodles they put a sauce on it that's sorta like soy sauce but I think it's soy sauce mixed with rock sugar and other goodness.

Fried Shrimp w/ Mayo

OMGOSH this was SOOOO NOMS!!  Fried + Shrimp = Awesomness.  Traditionally this dish comes with a side of sweet mayo.. like kewpie mayo (can you tell I'm obsessed.. this is the 2nd time I've mentioned kewpie mayo in one blog post hahah) but THIS particular dish came with mayo dipping sauce with chopped up Taiwanese pineapples it was SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!  I wanted to ask for a 2nd plate of the dip hahaha.

Hai Gow

Lotus leaf sticky rice

This was super noms.. It's basically sticky rice that's been steamed in lotus wrapping.. The inside was chock full of all sorts of yumminess.. Taiwanese pork sausage, chicken, eggs and mushrooms.

After Dim Sum we decided to go to a local Taiwanese department store called Sogo... But as we were walking there we came upon this magnificence!

OH EMMMMMMMMMMMMMM GEEEEEEEEEE!

::CRIES:: 

But I was so stuffed from Dim Sum UGHHHHHH 

So I just took a bunch of pictures for all of us to drool over.  HAHA.

Looks so good.. especially the last picture it looks like some kind of ham and egg salad sandwich. 

I FOUND IT!!! YAY!!! One of my top goals for my trip to Taiwan was to eat as many yummy things as possible and to buy beauty products.. LOVE LOVE Asian beauty products!

Sasa is I believe a Hong Kong beauty company that sells products from Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China.

SOOO excited I stood outside and took frantic tourist pictures for a good 5 min... while locals looked at me like I was a freak hahahahahah

I was inside Sasa for a good 2+ Hours... after that we proceeded to Sogo which is a giant mammoth department store.. that now has not ONE but TWO giant buildings located right across from each other.. they have everything from clothes to beauty products to a giant grocery store on the bottom level.  What I like to refer to a shopping heaven! Muhaha. Suffice to say we were in Sogo for a good 2+ hours as well..

4+ hours later.....

AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

But don't worry I promised he would be rewarded and he was rewarded with..........

Mos Burger!!  

The hub's absolute favorite fast food chain.. Mos Burger is a Japanese company that specializes in special meat rice pattie sandwiches.. think of a burger but instead of two buns substitute two rice patties and instead of a piece of beef pattie substitute Japanese style shredded beef.

IT.IS.SO.GOOD.

Fuzzy shot of some of the menu options.. they even offer a fried shrimp burger now!  Didn't get to try it but I regret not trying it now :(

Chicken and egg potato salad 

HAHAHA.

He looks like such a pervert.

I told you he REALLY REALLY loves this place.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Fried Chicken patty

They also have really awesome fried chicken patties.. They are lightly coated in a cornstarch mixture and deep fried.. they are SOOO NOMMY!

I continued to reward him for patiently shopping with me for 4+ hours by heading over to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi.

My super awesome dad gave us these gift certs to this luxury department store. (YAY!  Thanks dad!)

And we were on a mission to spend them! muhaha

The Hub's picked out these awesome grey suede high top sneakers they are sooo cool!  You can't see in the picture but they actually have tiny laser cut outs in them.  They are SO RAD. and yes I said RAD hahahahaha!

He also got this free man bag filled with man beauty products. HAHA.  

Love how in Taiwan every time you buy something you have the opportunity to get something for free.  Feeding into the stereotype that Chinese people love free things ::CRIES::  I cannot lie.. granted I consider myself Taiwanese but REALLY I love free things HAHAH.

YAY! :)  In case you were wondering Shin Kong Mitsukoshi is a Japanese department store (can you tell there's a theme.. Taiwanese people REALLY love anything Japanese).  Anyways this is a luxury mall.. it's actually made up of a couple of buildings.. I think like 4 separate buildings.. not sure.. but it's HUGE!!  They have everythinggggggggggggg in the mall from home goods to clothing to kids toys and a super yummy food court.. It's probably one of my favorite malls in Taiwan!

He's so happy :)  

Maybe now I can finally convince him not to wear those awful Nike sneakers with shorts and jeans BAHAHAHAHA! 

Outside of Shin Kong mall it's a busy shopping and entertainment district.. they have everything from nightclubs to a giant movie theatre in this area and it's located directly across from the infamous Taipei 101!

Taipei 101! :) I love the pretty lights!

Damper baby!  Taipei 101's mascot for the big damper ball on the top of 101!  You can read about it here if you are interested. The Hub's an I went to the observation deck the last time we were in Taipei so we passed on it this time.  Interesting fact the Damper baby's face is "101" :)

By this time we were pretty hungry and we wandered into the giant food court on the bottom of 101.. where we passed by this interesting place.  It looks like pizza baked into a pizza bread cone? Haha we didn't try it though but it looked interesting.. anyone out there try this by any chance?

Got a recommendation from Shiny Pretty Things to try out this place!  Thank you for the rec hon because it was really nommy!! They make super yummy boba drinks.  I had a passion fruit boba drink that had really passion fruit and chopped mango inside with mango jelly!

Fried pork chop w/ lu rou fan and egg and meatball soup 

One of my all time favorite Taiwanese eats (this is considered a Taiwanese speciality and we probably ate this like 3 to 4 times were in Taiwan and yesss it is that good)

The pork chop is lightly battered in cornstarch and it is so juicy.  The meatball soup had fishballs and beefballs in it.. and the spinach was fried with garlic and covered in chunks of tiny pork.  But the real star of the show is the pork and rice bowl called Lu Rou Fan.  It's stewed minced pork that's been stewed for HOURS and is so fragrant and yummy.. the fat kinda just melts into the rice and it's usually accompanied by a egg that's been stewing in the same pot.

Fried Turnip cake w/ ham and egg wrap

                                                              

                                                                 Breakfast!

This is one of my favorite breakfast eats in Taiwan.. Lou Bou Gao which is fried turnip cake and Dan Bing which is this grilled egg crepe with ham.. They sorta fry the egg into the crepe.. so the crepe and the egg mold into one fried delicious mess. YUM!