無老鍋 - 台湾必吃火鍋

Long time no see, my dear blog~~~ I have been busy & lazy to update new food places :)
I just came back some time ago from my week long Taiwan trip with Mum & Sis - we went to Taichung, Cingjing & Taipei! 

I'm suffering from post-holidays syndrome now.. Haha! I'm looking forward to Hong Kong trip in 7 weeks with my dearest gf, it's been a long while since I travelled with her on an airplane. 

I'm going to write about a steamboat - 無老鍋 in Taiwan today, I have came across reviews about this online and the sister also told me about it thus it became my "must-eat" during the trip. There's many outlets in Taiwan and just nice there is one outlet in Taichung so I went to eat for lunch on my first day in Taiwan. I walked a long way from 审计新村 as the mum wants to help her friend buy the famous 小林煎饼 snacks. 

**Credits to Google Image**

Waiting time was around 10 minutes as I reached there approximately 2.30pm. 

The moment we sat down, we saw this.

This is not drinks, it is soup for you to refill.

I love both the taste of the soup and there's free flow of Duck Blood, so so so love it!

There's not much varieties of food but the food standard are quite good especially the scallops!

Last but not least, when you have finished the steamboat, a special type of smoothie will be provided to you to cleanse your palate. I love the 水蜜桃 flavour, sour sour taste. :p 

The overall cost is about SGD 100 which is not cheap and can be compared to HaiDiLao. Of course, the service is also very good her, the staff keep bowing 90degrees like japanese service. 

台中公益店
Tel：     04-2319-1158 或 24小時線上訂位
Address：     台中市公益路二段74號  

Opening Hours: 11.30am t0 4am daily

I can't wait to bring the mister there during our March mini-honeymoon trip. 

2nd Anniversary at Cocobolo Poolside Bar + Grill

Times flies ~~~ We have known each other for 3 years but together 2 years only - our daily lives are like old couple, no gifts on occasions and spending time with each other once or twice a week only. :(

I have been feeling so tired because my house have been going through a revamp - changed the sofa, shoes cabinet, whole set of air-conditioners and now bed-frames and mattresses! The mister insisted to meet for dinner on Tuesday (actual day of anniversary), so I am quite important to him. :p 

I'm so surprised that he got a Kate Spade bag for me because he will never want to buy stuff that are too expensive (maybe only stingy to himself). I have eyed on this bag since a month ago and he knows it. :) Thank you Baby <3

We had our dinner on a Friday (23rd Dec) because he has won a dinner voucher previously by taking part in a radio station contest. Dinner was at Park Hotel, Clarke Quay area. I'm sorry that my following post may sound angry/offensive because I had encountered bad services and people cutting my queue at Taxi Stand.

I'm glad that we don't have to pay for this dinner because I will not want to spend the price on such ambience/food. :) 

The poolside are was small, there were ants on the tables and the ambience made me felt itchy all over. We told the staff about the voucher and he said it's alright and showed us to our seat. It was all BBQ stuff, salad bar and some dessert counter. I only had a steak, some sotongs, 2 prawns and that's it! I told the mister I will not go again even if it was for free. 

Halfway through the meal, the staff came and told us we cannot use the voucher because it is festive season. The voucher can only used on Fri, Sat & Sun and is valid till 29-Dec-2016 so 23rd Dec is the last day we can use the voucher since 24th is eve and 25th is public holiday. I told the staff that we are not using on the eve and they never state that 23rd is festive season. The mister was getting angry (he is a quiet person and very nice always but when he know that fault is not with him, he will argue the reason)! He demanded to see the manager - the staff went to check with another colleague and they allow us to utilise the voucher (we not gian png type, we can pay if we want). After that, NOBODY came to clear our plates or refill our water when there were not many customers! I was so angry that I wanted to leave but it was raining heavily so we had to wait till the rain stopped! Argh~~~~  I don't think I will want to go back there again!

I had a black face while walking to Clarke Quay where we wanted to have drinks - encounter another super rude service at Wings bar. I walked to the table with 3 seats but the waitress said I can only take the seat for 2. Ok Fine! Then 2 groups of 2 people came and they took those tables with 3 seats -.-" what is this?!

It really spoilt my night and luckily we managed to get a table at Shuffle Bistro Bar where I can listen to some nice songs performed by liveband. 

After some time there, the mister suggested HaiDiLao for Supper and oh ya, it was my 2nd HDL within a day because I had HDL with colleagues for lunch. :p This made me cheer up a little yet feel sleepy already :D

We finished at around 2.15am and while queuing at the taxi stand, there were many people who were drunk and they were still in the queue. While it was my turn, I saw this lady dressed in sleeveless top and denim jeans who were pretending to text suddenly appeared in front of me and the next thing I knew is, she walked to the taxi and got in. I immediately shouted "Oei! Cut queue, you don't know how to queue up is it!". The taxi coordinator knew what was happening but he was stunned too. The guilty lady dare not look at me - I just wanted to make her malu of her own actions. I should have just got in the passenger seat and demand her to get off the cab (my mood was super bad that day!).

Thinking of it, I still feel 不甘心 to let someone cut my queue while waiting for taxis. 

Day 5-6 of Taiwan 2016 - Taipei

I have previously ended my post on day 4 and here is day 5 and probably day 6 too!

We checked out of the hotel in Taipei at around 7.45am because we are taking the HSR to Taichung! :) It was around an hour journey from Taipei to Taichung. 

We booked a personal driver in advance for the Taichung trip because transport infrastructure was not so advanced in Taichung. If you are in Taichung, you can only rely on mostly taxis or public buses (if you don't find it a hassle) within this beautiful city. 

The driver was at HSR station to pick us up at 9.30am. Upon entering his car, he even prepared fruits (guava and rockmelon) for us! The fruits was still cold because he prepared an ice pack for it. 

Our 1st destination was to 中社花市 - it was a beautiful place with different types of flowers! Here's more photos:

This driver helps to take very pretty photos too! He gave us time to walk around this pretty place and we only go back to his car once we walked enough :) 

Our next destination was 百菇莊 -- a mushroom farm!

The fried mushroom was really yummy and they do sell snacks such as mushrooms biscuits which is a must-buy there!

After the mushroom farm, we headed to Lavender garden.

We had our free & easy time - no rush at all since the driver will be waiting for us at the entrance! 

My love for carousel since  young, it's like a fairytale!

I think the entrance fees is NT100 per pax (if I'm not wrong), you can use the tickets to pay for the food or buy souvenirs within the garden. 

I use it for coffee beans where I grounded it myself and choosing a cup with background story.

What a beautiful ambience with a nice cup of coffee!

I also tried the lavender ice-cream, nothing special. :p

I wanted to go fruit farm to experience the joy/nature of plucking fruits, but nobody pick up the phone so we had to leave it till next time. :( 

The driver brought us to try yam balls (东东芋圆) which he claimed was really famous & good! He did not lie, it was really good, better than the ones in Jiufen!

We decided to skip the Xinshe Castle because the entrance fees was quite expensive. But the castle is good for photos-taking if you like castle scenery.

I asked the driver if there's any nice sun biscuits in Taichung so he brought us to this 如意堂 - I don't like the sun biscuits there but I love their almond biscuits! We bought a box of it. Even if you do not buy any, it is alright. You will be treated like a VIP the moment you step in to the shop, they will serve you tea and let you try whatever snacks you want. 

It was going to be 6pm so I asked the driver to send us to Lavida Hotel where we will be staying for the night. It is at the entrance of Feng Chia night market. One thing good about this driver is - he won't charged for OT even if you exceeded 6pm. He is quite a famous driver for Taichung Tour.

Here is his contact:

吕先生 

+886986770890 

We booked a more luxurious room because there's TV in the bathroom. :p

La Vida Hotel

Address: No. 275-2, Section 2, Xitun Rd, Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan 407
Phone: +886 4 2451 7722 

Here are some of my favourite stalls at Feng Chia Night Market. Oh ya, there's a Minglun 蛋饼 across the road from the hotel which is the entrance of the night market. The  蛋饼 is super nice!

We had our dinner/supper in the room! Actually if you calculated, the dinner is not cheap because you will definitely buy few varieties from the night market. But who cares? Go holidays definitely must enjoy to the max!

I did not take much photos for day 6 because it's the day we had to leave Taiwan :(

Here's some snacks photos which I bought in Ximending.

Famous 鸭肉扁