The Last Dinner… Back to AoBa

I’m OBSESSED with this new Jay Chou song for the past week. It’s literally been playing nonstop in my head.


LOVE his new cd. GET IT.

Mine Mine <3

Hehe I love the line: 我寫的小說根本是空白黑夜 你說既然已分開 為何還要幫你撐傘

I WANT CURLS!

I’ve been thinking about it for a year or two but I finally grew out ALL of my bad bleached hair, it’s nice and long and HEALTHY, SOOOOO time for a perm. Yep. I said it. PERM

“Only f*ing jerkoffs get perms” LOL ;]

The end result: Natural looking curls/waves.  To enhance I still need to curl it myself with the iron. BUT… so much fuller an more body. Dang. Two big risks this year in Taiwan with my hair. Bangs and a perm, LOL – I might go for more BANG BANG curls next time :] LOVE my salon, Socie :]

After freaking 4-5 hours in the salon getting treatments and getting the hairs curled… LAST DINNER time!!! My choice? AoBa!

涼拌海蜇
クラゲのにんにく和え
Jelly fish salad

I actually haven’t been eating jelly fish salad that much…. strange cuz I love the stuff. In fact… now that I think about it, I may have only had it at Shin Yeh in Taiwan other than here.. HMMM.. This was light and not too garlicky or vinegary… huge chunks of cucumber and slivers of ginger… MMM… my mom thought it was TOO light in flavor but I ADORED it – crispy jellyfish. YO! I need to get on this and learn to make some.

A菜

My favoriiiiite <3 But I still say Ding Tai Fung makes it the bestest :]

Basically:
A – from Arden.
Arden Lettuce. 別名:A菜、窩仔菜 學名:Lactuca sativa L.

地瓜粥 / Sweet Potato Congee

花生豬腳
豚足とピーナツの醤油煮込み
Stewed pork feet with peanuts

My staple dish here. My must have. I crave this constantly!  I get pig’s feet as much as I possibly can whenever I see it on the menu.  But AoBa’s is just BEYOND amazing, I can’t get over how light and juicy.. tender, fall off the bone happiness this is.  The collagen is so creamy and delicious. GREAT for skin.. [that’s why we asians are so young ;] hehe]

The latest anti-aging food? Pigs’ trotters. […]

The reason for this, […] , is that they are rich in collagen, the protein responsible for skin and muscle tone, more recognizable to beauty addicts in the form of face creams and fillers.

“Collagen helps your body retain moisture,” […] “Your hair and skin will look better, but it’s not just for looking beautiful now. If you begin eating collagen in your thirties, you will look younger in your forties.”

– [Source]

蛤蠣絲瓜
はまぐりとへちまの炒め煮
Stir-fried clam with loofah

The last time we were here, my aunt insisted that we NOT get loofah since it’s not in season therefore not as “sweet” and “juicy” hmmmm. I LOOOVE loofah, as does my mom.. but my aunt can get stubborn about what to eat and what not to eat hahaha so we didn’t get it then, but as you can tell from my string of Taiwan posts this year I’ve been eating it A LOT [sans aunt lol] This was SUPER tasty.. the loofah was AMAZING as was the yummy little happy clams… nom nom!

生蒸魚
活き魚(ハタ)の姿蒸し
Steamed fresh fish

We actually ate this fish the other day in Hsinchu with some of my family… I THINK it was a giant Scorpion fish but lately I’m getting all my fishes mixed up :P We had it in a miso Fish soup.. but this was SOOO meaty and delicious steamed.  The head was big and boney [lol] and it was probably the meatiest fish I’ve had so far IN Taiwan.. SOO good!  Steamed, a light soy-based garlic infused sauce.  Hot oil quickly poured over skin to crisp it up and bring out the flavors of the thinly shredded scallions. SO YUM! We didn’t think we could eat the whole thing but the two of us devoured this fish, CLEAN, literally JUST bones remaining, in minutes.

鹹菜肚片湯
からし菜ともつのスープ
Pork tripe and salted vegetables soup

Light flavorful broth, you could totally taste the tripe…. a few snap peas and 榨菜 [basically a pickled mustard green] not salted veggies…  Usually we get clam soups but mommy really wanted this and I wanted a change :] Why not right?!

Mommy and I both had a glass of California Cabernet Sauvignon [红酒]

花生麻糬 – Warm Bite-sized Peanut Mochi
Little balls of warm gooey perfection per usual <3 XO

Want to be more properly fobbified?

Lollipop F – Dance

F(x) ft Shinee – Lollipop
fanmade MV

2NE1 – I Don’t Care

Yeah yeah I know, I go to Taiwan and buy mostly Korean music back home :]

菊島 – 澎湖海鮮餐廳 Seafood Restaurant

Dressed up and headed off to Hsinchu to see some relatives and eat some good grub early this morning…. new Tod’s foxfur purple bag and furry Prada boots :]  I gots my hair curled and wore some cute short shorts!! HUZZAH!!

Eating Wax Apples/Bell Fruit/蓮霧 on the HSR :] One of my favorite fruits EVER AND I’ve only ever since it here in Asia – none in the States :[ BOO!

When we got to the station we waited for some of my aunts to get there, I was starved so I stopped by the 7 to get some grub…

Salads… For Men, For Women…

Fried Patties? In the fridge?!… interesting…

Steamed bunnnsss!!!

SNAUUUUUSAGES!!!

And then I got some of this yummies

Deliciousness!!!

YAYYYY!!! My fav sort of cheap eats…

Daikon :D

We got to my uncles house and had our own little tea time…
Aren’t these tea strainers and cups cute?! They’re from Starbucks!! How come we don’t sell these in the States? BOO!!!

The most delicious cheesecake in Taiwan :] From a little bakery in Taichung near my aunt’s house!!

Eating cheesecake, peanuts, oranges, cookies and others ALL right before dinner time… :]

菊島 – 澎湖海鮮餐廳 Seafood Restaurant has been open for only a month or so…

A nice welcoming sign :] The lady of the house was a pretty young lady by the name of Sophia!!! She was so nice and came to talk to us :]

My Uncle is pretty VIP and has already been to this restaurant like 4x so we got the Chef’s Tasting… we had no idea how many courses or what was coming out, just a set price and lots of yummies brought out to us!

Housemade super spicy Kimchi. DELICIOUS!

Salad with a Japanese dressing…

Corn, okra, cucumber, apple, asparagus, onions and lettuce!! YUM!!!

Conch and Sashimi plate!

Delicious crunchy fresh conch and tender super super fresh sashimi!!!! :D

Blowfish Skin Sashimi & Quickly Poached Oysters


You pour this garlicky sauce over the raw blowfish skin.. it was crunchy and SO good. A little fishy but fantastic. What a great experience.  The poached oysters were fat and juicy and full of flavor.. but it was the skin that totally won my tummy over.

Fried octopus balls and Fried seafood/chinese chives rolls

I completely fell in love with the octopus balls, they may have been fried but were super light and the innards were ALL octopus, no batter so definitely not like takoyaki.  These were SO good and dense of octopus, tender octopus.  The seaweed rolls were filled with unrecognizable parts of seafood… me thinking squid and sorts. and lots of chinese chives.

Seaweed with  Baby Clams

The seaweed was cooked to the point of mushy but so goood… delicious seaweed taste and simply cooked with juicy tender fresh baby clams! YUM!

Thinly sliced Sirloin with Ginger and Gingko

Each piece of beef had a thin slice of ginger on it.  Simply cooked in a light broth filled with plump juicy gingko seeds.

Sake Shot :]

Partway thru the beginning of dinner we started drinking cold shots of sake – SO YUM!

They brought out a HUGE plate of mixed veggies and mushrooms.. filled with lily bulbs, gingko seeds and a variety of wild mushrooms YUM

Spicy Fried Fish [烏魚 – Mullet] Belly over Flash Fried Basil

The flash fried basil just melted on your tongue into a delicious basil-y goodness… the fish belly was thick and tender and super juicy and mixed with a spicy spice blend and fried. SO GOOD!

Next came Scorpionfish cooked over pickled cabbage and thickly sliced raw scallions
Tender and while not meaty, we had this earlier before and I was so in love with the pickled cabbage… YUM!  Wish it was meatier.. :[ Hahah I probably could’ve eaten the whole thing by myself in minutes… but #mustbealady ;D

Miso Fish Soup

A nice huge hunk of fish.. while boney, so delicious and lots of daikon

Pumpkin Rice Noodles [米粉] stir-fried with Pumpkin, Fatty Pork and baby Clams

Apparently this stuff is famous in HsinChu… oh oh oh oh oh so yummy!!!

I got a nice big bowl of it and ate it all up.  The noodles were tender and orange and pumpkin-y all on it’s own.. not to mention TONS of slivers of tenderly cooked pumpkin with the occasional bite of baby clam or fatty pork. YUM!

After a satisfying and totally delicious meal, out came a light dessert.. Asian ppl have fruit for dessert ;]

Jelly made from 愛玉 [Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang] flavored with caramel and a splash of lemon juice

SO good and refreshing!!!

This place was delicious and totally recommended!!!  It’s brand new and hopefully here to stay.. hopefully it just gets better :] YUM!