岩波庭餐廳 Zen Garden Fusion Cuisine

Being in Yilan…. at the spa resort, my uncle reserved a place for us at the Zen Fusion for dinner…. basically we got a set menu and it was DELICIOUS.

We all wore the kimonos that the spa provided…. which was sooooooooo inspiring and free-feeling

Sparkling Sake… oh Uncle, you know me too well

Delicious Scallion Bread…… Yilan is known for their scallions…. so this was amazing

Afterwords when my family went up to the rooms to gossip and talk I stayed at the bar… having whiskey and wine.

Before heading to the hot springs bath in my room to chill out with a bottle of wine.

Life is just so grand.

吉凡尼的花園 Le Jardin de Giverny in the 美術館 area

Woke up super hungry…… time for some delicious eats at 吉凡尼的花園 Le Jardin de Giverny – I’ve been here before, years ago and it was pretty bad but they changed owners and have definitely improved 10 fold.

I so hangry

We ordered two add on lunch meal sets and two a la cartes to share.

Delicious Fresh Foccacia Breads

[You can actually buy breads and pastries in the front of the house]

You can also buy different vinegar, oils and balsamics in the front as well… yay for dipping yummy warm bread…

Fresh Veggie/Fruit Juice

My clear vegetable soup… which tasted a bit buttery to me so I wasn’t that into it. The flavors were great though.

And of course for my “drink” that came with my meal I got a nice glass of white wine.

Fresh salad with walnuts and starfruit.

Appetizer: Ratatouille

It was absolutely delicious and one of the few times I’ve ever had it.  I’m so glad I ordered this.. it was between this and escargot.

My aunt’s appetizer: A Crab “Tart” which is so not a tart, but it was good and fresh none-the-less

And for her main dish she got the seafood risotto.  YUM.  I had a bite and you could taste yummy saffron…. reminded me of a paella but creamier…

Mama, of course, got the pan-fried duck breast, but which was cooked really well and just fatty enough. So so tender.

My other aunt got the pan-fried sea bass, which was one of my choices….

But I ended up getting, DUH, the spicy seafood stirfry :]

And then we went straight into dessert….

A mini Creme Brulee… which I gave to my aunt since she rarely gets to eat these things….

But I enjoyed my delicious iced coffee…. MMM froth

地址：台中市五權七街58號 (台中綠園道)
電話：886-4- 2376-9755

I ended up staying for tea time as well but while my aunts chatted I explored the area a bit…..

EVA Hello Kitty from LAX to Taipei!!!!!….

For once I had a plane ride at 6pm instead of 6am….  so off I go…. Boston to LA….

I’m excited for the warmer weather…. so tank top it is

Got a yummy Chicken Marinara with Green Beans over Rice meal… Salad, Roll, Butter, the works… had some nuts too…. MMM, nuts… (I may have already snacked and had a few glasses of free booze at the VIP Airlines Lounge earlier…)

LA!!!!… Beautiful view…

Sat in the VIP lounge and ate tons of food include this self made “Asian Salad” with Champagne….  I took some of the “Asian Salad with Wonton Strips” And added some Teriyaki Chicken to it… why not?!… a lot of the other stuff didn’t look too appealing except for Korean Ramen and Japanese Noodles… all which was consumed (duh)

WAIT “Why is this a Hello Kitty ticket?????”

HOLY CRAP!!! We’re on the EVA HELLO KITTY PLANE!!!!

Life is now… complete!!!!

Scallops

Sea Bass? It was freaking CHILEAN SEA BASS!!!! SOOOOO good… and of course more and more booze…

And los of veg…

Dessert was fruits and a yummy mousse cake, some tea… and more wine :]

Midnight snack while watching FROZEN was a Turkey Sandwich… which, I have to say was greasy and pretty gross….. sorry EVA… I didn’t like it, maybe I would’ve more if there was a Hello Kitty face on it…

Breakfast Time…

Coffee….

Congee…. with 1000 yr egg, fried tofu with fish ball…. shredded dried pork, Fermented Spicy Tofu, pickles… and then some…

And fruits <3

Oh hello…. Taiwan beer… I’m definitely back in Taiwan

WEEEEEEEEE 5am and ready to party

Yes we’re back in Taiwan

Best Vegas Trip Ever… the Day of Britney!!! [Day 2 – Part Day]

WTF we woke up at like 8am!!!!!  Probably the one and only time we did the entire trip. Probably because we slept so much the day before…….. I guess normal for me since it’s 11 on my East Coast.. but Kelly?! I guess for work?!  We got pretty  and decided to go out for some FOOD.

Yeah I’m dressed as a 12 year old in a ballet skirt and sneakers… and BRITNEY tank!!! YAYYYYYYYYY

UM….. Lobsicle sounds gross… I bet it’s delicious… like a lobster corn dog… but the name sounds disgusting…. deep fried happiness. I love lobster.

We decided on La Salsa Cantina… cuz margaritas for breakfast is BOMB.

It was early so we didn’t want breakfast so we had to wait like 20 minutes before they served NON-breakfast menu… I seriously thought it was already noon but it was still 10am so we ordered the margaritas and had to wait til 11 so we could order lunch.  We got our margaritas and I made friends with Zoltar the fortune teller…. who told me to stop talking so much hahahaha…

I got a watermelon, Kelly got a strawberry, both super sweet amd super non-boozey..so I got us more tequila shots. OBVIOUSLY.

Margaritas for breakfast?! It’s how we do!

We wait we wait we wait….. amd them FINALLY WE GOT TO ORDER. STARRRRRRRVED!!!!

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Nachos with extra cheese.. why didn’t get get nix the sour cream? We both don’t like sour cream….

Kelly’s Enchiladas – which she finished later in the night after Britney & Light while I was passed out hahaha…

My “Spicy” Shrimp Taco Salad which was TOTALLY NOT spicy at all.  I even asked the waitress what their spiciest food on the menu was and they said THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY! WTF?!?!?!… But it was fresh and yummy…

And then I realized we were right next to the Club Tattoo SO OBVIOUSLY… I had to go….

ME: “Do you think they do walk-ins?”
KELLY: “It’s Vegas.. they bank on bad decisions”

Thanks but the butt shot Kelly…

I finally got my champagne heart bubbles tatt I wanted… and it came out EXACTLY the way I wanted it to look YAY.

And was photobombed by the cute tatt artist I wanted to tatt me…… but couldn’t cuz they go by order… but I got the cute asian chick :] YAY And he chatted with me the whole time.

TWICE!!!! He was adorable and told me that this was a horrible tatt to get for when I go to Rehab. THANKS DUDE. Hahaha… Photoooooobombbbbb

And then after…. I found this… HUMP HUMP

And more HUMP… so we got 42oz dildo drinks with extra shots… [ DUH ]

Walking back I saw a guy dressed as Britney Spears… at the Britney Spears place… YEP. A GUY.

NAP TIME

Ok done with Nap. Time to get pretty……. while we order dinner…. burgers and fries for both of us….

I already picked out my Britney and Light Night Club dress…spiked ballerina dress :]

Almost ready….

Time for more bubbles.. not even sure how many bottles I ended up buying this trip…. just bubbles for FOREVER… We went thru at least TWO a day…. at LEAST

Me and my Asian Doll Twinsie

And then after room service… I think we got Burgers… we went to Brit Brit.. ended up pretty much in the front….

Continue to read about Britney Spears: Piece of Me Vegas Show

May 8 – Happy Birthday Kate <3

My beautiful sister/twinnie/wifey/lover and I both took her birthday off this past Wednesday and spent the day together. After I went to my morning dentist appointment I headed straight to Kate‘s with a delicious raspberry profiterole chocolate cake and some Moet pink bubbles!

After thinking about what to do for lunch before our “appointment” at Juli Moon… we ended up at Panera… always a yummy choice

Kate got her Bacon Turkey Bravo Smoked turkey breast, bacon, smoked Gouda, lettuce, tomatoes & signature dressing, on Tomato Basil bread.

Which she was craving… [as did her Hubby M]

And I tried the new Salad…

Spinach Power Salad Fresh baby spinach, roasted mushrooms and onion blend, diced eggs, applewood-smoked bacon, frizzled onions & smoky Vidalia onion vinaigrette

Turns out I’m not a fan of frizzled onions which remind me of just canned fried onions but 10x saltier…

I also had chicken added to it.. which was NOT on the menu, but funnily enough there was an “Add Salmon” so I go:

Me: Can I add Salmon to that?
Cashier: Of course you can…. but we don’t have it.
Me: Oh…..

So chicken it was….

And then off to Lynn, MA — my first time in that town… actually not as far away as I assumed it would be… lol

Us waiting. For once I’m not the most pale. Thank you Miami.

Is it time yet? Whatever O Clock

We are excited

Kate’s readdddyyyyyy to get down and dirty

I went first

“Curiousity often leads to trouble” and two dragonflies

And then this happened

Kate’s turn

Two dragonflies…. the little pink one is me… the bigger purple/orange pink one is her

Even M got in on the action!!!

Feettttsies

Thanks CS for our awesome bestie tatts

And then after going back to Kate and M’s house for a bit with CS we decided we wanted MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT.

Sooooo… Texas Roadhouse it was…

The most amazing bread with cinnamon butter… I think we kept asking for refills til they ran out…

PEANUTS.. which I DEVOURED

Kate is excited. The  menu is HUUUGE, what to get what to get?!?!?!?!?

CS and I both got Margaritas [mine is the LESS girly one] with an extra shot of Patron….

CHEERS!!! And good job on our feets

YUMMMYYYY

Fried Pickles!!!!! Since Kate LOOOOVES Pickles

Her first fried pickle!!!

My Salad…. with…

THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING!!! This is for YOU, KELLY LIN!!!!

Then we all got or food… except Mike, he doesnt get his food…

Kate’s Fried Chicken

Bday girl is super ready

CS’s ribs and steak and sides

Mike’s chicken and ribs…. and sides

And of COURSE I got the bone-in Ribeye…

Although sadly it wasn’t “medium rare on the rare side” like I wanted… but it was tasty nonetheless… I think I was the only one that finished my plate… [ok CS helped a bit]

Another one? I actually thought the tube shot was a fat straw at first…

CHEERS TO KATE THE MOST WONDERFUL LADY I KNOW AND LOVE!!!!

Sisters for life <3

Heading Home…… to NYC… FIRST CLASS BITCHES… MIA to LGA

First class bitches. Yeah I basically slept the whole way back to pick up our luggage and to the airport cuz of the margaritas….

We had some beers at the Sam Adams at the MIA Airport

And I was ready… in LGA I couldn’t find ANY word search books at the airport…. here I found a good one :]

Gorgeous sunset

You’re gona love my [warm] nuts

Champagne and Red Wine

Dinner was Salad, Salmon w/ Rice and Broccolini… and a yummy Cheesecake

J finished his.. but I didn’t like my salmon, WAYYYY overcooked and dry..  but I inhaled everything else. DUH. Loved the rice… so chewy.. the salad was overdressed… but still, I love my veggies…. cheesecake was creamy and sweet and delish! I think the sauce it came with was some crazy butter sauce which I dared not touch. I just watched Modern Family and giggled and ate rice.

#ALWAYSHUNGRY

I love you Miami see you soon, very soon.

I’ve been cooking a lot more lately….

My trips to NYC has been inspiring me to cook more lately.  I’ve been able to experiment more and more with different foods.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned some of these from previous trips:

The dangerous habanero chicken pizza… which was delicious but deadly.

My famous meatballs…

My Short Ribs over Mushrooms and Chard

But here are some more recent things I’ve made in NYC

OK this isn’t really “made” but J and I decided to have a simple wine, cheese and meats night…. with steamed artichokes and baked Yam fries..

Iberico, Chorizo, Duck Salumi and Coppa

So many cheeses…

Half of these are chili/cinnamon rubbed, the other half are truffle butter rubbed..

And then the next night I made a warm grilled brussel sprouts salad with different peppers and veggies… topped with habanero vindaloo chicken…

And some Kale Chips and Fresh Avocado

STOP BEING USELESS
AND START BEING A CHEESEBURGER

So these were the peppers…

That cause me to split my finger open…

and go to the ER :[ WAAA

And then the day before Miami.. uh… night before, we had a a dinner party

I forgot to take pics of the panko pan fried quail I made [marinated in Honey , Orange, Habanero] which each person got a whole quail, cut in half on top of mixed greens as an App]

and I made Duck Breast “Confit style”

Jonathan brought Capri Sun BEER!!!!!!! <3

Oh back to the duck… slow cooked for like 2-3 hours… and then popped into oven with some balsamic vinegar, red wine, pear, raspberries, shallots and fig jam,

See… demolished the salad already… I served with truffled broccolini and mushrooms and baked chili/cinnamon yam fries.

And then the night after we got back from Miami I made bunny curry. YES. Rabbit Curry. And it was actually NOT overpowering on the bunny as some people said it would be.  You could taste the bunny cuz I left them in big chunks…the legs were kept whole, etc…..  just celery, carrots, potatoes, yams, onions, a whole rabbit [I butchered a rabbit for the first time] 

Some steamed okra on the side…

And then I put it all on a bed of mixed greens, freshly made sushi rice, topped off with rabbit meat and curry sauce. DELISH!

OK, now that we’re caught up on that I feel a bit better and will continue onto more NYC eats and Miami posts.

Valentine’s Day 2013 in Macao

Ok not THAT Macao/澳門/Macau which would have been a bomb ass Vday surprise.

But this one was still on the island of Manhattan.

But anyways… I spent the day laying around, making videos on Social Cam… [okay fine I slept in LATE] and then getting ready for Vday

The only sort of full body shot of my outfit.  I had a cute tube pink dress.

Just to warn you, these are pretty horrible pictures [flash and nonflash GAG]. I need a new phone and a new digi cam.  But anyways… J booked us a table at Macao, another one of his favorite restaurants. I’m not a huge Valentine’s Day person but this was a great one.

So we started off with some… our favorite, pink bubbly!!!!!

[pink bubbles….will make MUCH more sense when I blog about J & I’d adventure in Taiwan… which is still in the process of being written up – here’s pictures until then….]

Llopart Brut Cava 2009 Vintage

The brilliant 2009 Brut Reserva Rose sparkling wine was made from an intriguing blend of 60% Monastrell (Mourvedre), 20% Garnacha (Grenache) and 20% Pinot Noir, and was aged 18 months in bottle prior to being released. The fermentation was done in bottle, which is called Methode Champenoise. Fresh strawberry, cherry and blueberry-like aromas jump from the glass of this rose. It possesses impressive purity, effervescence, tiny, well-formed bubbles, good body, a slight austerity, and a dry, surprisingly intense style.

Cheers ❤

Raw Oysters

Delicious as usual. And plus. Vday. Aphrodisiac right?! ;]

Sexy time.

Bacon/Pork Belly Buns
black garlic slaw, spicy housemade ketchup

I love my baos.

Very yummy!!! Delicious soft fluffy bao with nice fatty flavorful pork.  They gave us three and we split the third one :] We’re sappy like that.

My cute date.

We also got  the Mushroom and Truffle Croquettes

DELICIOUS.  Everything you would imagine and more.  A MUST get when you come here……

And then split the Macanese Chili Prawns with Rice…..

AMAAAAAAAAAZING… especially the rice in the sauce afterwards <3 JOY.  We also had a side of DELICIOUS Brussels Sprouts with chili-lime vinaigrette.

Desserts time.

Fried Egg Tart
maple walnut ice cream, cinnamon sugar

Egg Tart. Score. Fried. Score.  Maple Walnut Ice Cream. Score. TRIPLE SCORE!!!!!!!!!!

SUCHHHHH a delicious Valentine’s Day :]

Flying to Taiwan.. more like Eating a ton of delicious food in Business Class…

Early December, SUPER early one morning.. I woke up to head to the airport…

I slept the entire flight from Boston > DC Dulles so I was starved when we got there…

I ended up at a Diner getting an omelette some home fries and a side of fruit.. and of course a TON TON TON of black coffee…

Want some “Shitty Wok” ?

As soon as we sit down we were offered green tea and champagne. I LOVE IT.

Japan!!!

While we watched at the Japan Airport we got some ramen…

And fries and edamame…

And then headed to the VIP lounge for tons of more free food and a free sake/booze bar…

All the sake, wine and whiskey you can drink.. I had my fair share :D

And then it was off to Taiwan… I can get used to this good food on the plane :D

Finally Arrived!!!!

Die Antwoord & Midnight Drunken Munchies

The other day we got some Chinese takeout and headed to a Die Antwoord concert.

Mango Chicken, Hot & Sour Soup and Sapporo [from North Sea] for meeeee

Food was okay.

I was too excited to go to the concert tho… so didn’t eat much before we headed out…

VIP beeeeeeeetches

The concert was AMAZING. SO much fun.. we went to Brixton for a few drinks and even checked out another band at a neighboring, smaller venue… a few drinks later, we were starved and back home.

I made Annie’s Mac&Cheese with pulled Roast Chicken from our chicken the other day [when W made me a salad] and I added a ton of frozen veggies into the mix. YUM
And an ice cream to end the late night :D YAY