[Holiday] Taipei '12 (4)

Last post on Taipei trip. All photos were taken on Day 6, it's also Christmas eve. 

Started the day at zhongxiao area again (ended there also =x)!

 Visited taiwan host, Xiao S's husband's bakery. Thought it was popular because of Xiao S's popularity but I was totally wrong! The breads are seriously delicious and they're sold out pretty fast. You can actually order all types of bread using the order form provided. Not only that, they also post a schedule telling you at what time certain types of breads will be ready! Can imagine how popular and fast selling the breads are now?  

Shopping at SOGO, thought the cute clothes are for kids, only realised they are for pets when I had a closer look. 

 I am not really a pet lover but imagining a poodle dresses up as Winnie the Pooh makes me smile =)

 Can't remember what we had for lunch but we went for tea break while waiting for Christmas eve dinner.. How not to be fat?? **extremely guilty now.. 

Reading some arty farty Japanese magazines provided in the cafe..

Baffi, an Italian restaurant where we had our Christmas eve dinner. It's just opposite Love Lovely. There's quite a few nice eating places (at least nice exretior design =x) around that area, so do explore if you can't make up your mind on what to eat; you might discover some unexpectedly nice restaurants =)

Warning:: The food serving is HUGE!
We ordered creamy soup for one but it is definitely enough for 4! Yes, it's a POT of creamy soup =S

Crispy looooooooong bread stick, served with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We never try this dip before, it's quite interesting. I heard it's usually served in quality Italian restaurants, I must be very suaku ='( Can any knowledgeable, kind soul enlighten me why the dip is used?

Truffled potato wedges served with tartar sauce alike. What's special is not only do they use truffle oil, they also use real truffle. Simply yummy!

I can't remember the name of this dish =x Not sure is penne zita or pennoni as it's much much bigger than normal penne. It's served with tomato sauce and chicken if not wrong =xx
The portion doesn't look large in the picture but the plate is at least 12 inch wide! Yes, like your foot-long Subway sandwich..@@

Conchiglioni (shell pasta) in creamy sauce with salmon. The pasta here are all HUGE, around 2" each!! Unlike those shell pasta (conchigliette) that we usually see in Singapore, conchiglioni is big enough to stuff  some meat inside (like Chinese dumpling?)!

Roasted whole spring chicken. Maybe because of the carbohydrate in all the pasta, we like this dish the most.

The herbs stuffed inside the chicken help to add flavor from the inside.

And we ended the dinner with TIRAMISU! It's 1 serving that we ordered BUT the size is around 6"x 6". And it's really moist and rich with alcohol!! I SWEAR IT'S OMG-DELICIOUS! I should have skipped the main dish and had this straight away! Just think of it make me salivate =x

End the post with the pictures I took in the restaurant's ladies.. hehe.. The design is simply elegant! 

And they provide Aesop!And cotton pad! And dry cotton bud! And wet cotton bud! How can they be so thoughtful??

And this is what I saw on the cubicle wall! No one saw me looking at this poster but I could feel my face reddened.. hehe...But think of it, the guy is quite handsome and well-built, right?? =P

[Holiday] Taipei '12 (1)

Went to Taipei for a week. It's the 3rd time travelling there, so it's more like revisit some of the places I miss
and also try to explore Taipei more.

We arrived at Taoyuan Airport in the early morning (around 6.45am?) and it's still very early to shop around. We napped a while before heading to 阿宗面线. It's nice to have a hot bowl of mian xian in cold weather =)

杂志疯, a magazine cum manga chain store is a must-visit for me to get my Japanese magazines. The magazines are much cheaper, much more variety, and more updated than Singapore (even faster than Kinokuniya). So girls who are into Japanese and Taiwan magazines should never miss this store when you're in Taiwan!

We randomly found a salon and got our hair done. I had my hair cut and dyed. It costed NTD1800 (which is around SGD75) and I like the cut! It looks nice even when I am too lazy to blow dry after wash. I really regretted for not asking the hair stylist's name card =( He's really very good! =((

Randomly trying out a hat in Uniqlo. Yes, it's cheaper than Singapore as well.

 Lunch at a Japanese restaurant that we always visit when we are in Taipei, Ximending. 

Fresh sashimi, generous portion, friendly price! What else to ask for?

It's also come with thick miso soup with lots of ingredients inside. Totally different from some complimentary miso soup we get in some restaurants in Singapore! 

Prawn tempura that come with vegetables **drooling**

Big Oyster (there's also SUPER big oyster but it's out of stock when we're there)

 The bill:: 

3 main courses, 2 oysters and 1 tempura costed less than SGD55!

When to 五分埔 (wu fen pu) in the late afternoon. Yes, afternoon. It's all dark by 6pm in Taipei in the winter. As you can guess, there's not a lot of people but every shop was selling winter clothes.. I bought nothing but 2 belts.. =.= We left very early and headed to cityhall area（市政府站）.

Went to Bellavita just to take photos of the hot air balloons. Nothing we could easily afford there..  Guess the cheapest store might be Tiffany & Co. =x Get the idea now?

Love Chanel's window display! All pastel, ready for spring 2013 =)

 Walked around 新光三越 (xin guang san yue) 

And ended the day with cupcakes from 诚品 (cheng pin)