AYCE Taiwanese Hot Pot

How could you not have hot pot when you're in Taiwan, right?!? So definitely Koggy jumped at the chance of some real Taiwanese hot pot!

We were taken to this cozy hot pot restaurant in Taoyuan by our lovely local friends... and to our pleasant surprise, it was ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT! (as you can tell, this is one of our favorite terms of all time! and the Taiwanese sure know how to AYCE ^_^) Another great thing about it was we could get both the special hot "mala" broth AND also a lovely chinese traditional herb broth in the same pot. The stone pot was artistically divided to resemble the Yin & Yang symbol... representing the "hot" and the "cold" ^_^ Koala was delighted to be able to enjoy the very wholesome NON-spicy herb flavours, and Piggy definitely loved the spicy mala tang... And boy... did we go through those plates of beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish balls, veggies! Don't think any of them stayed dry on the table for very long at all =P They were sent into the boiling broths as quick as a factory production line and next thing you knew - some more of them paper-thin delights magically appeared ^_^ Yep, definitely one of those nights that ended with ear-to-ear grins (& 'em round pregnant bellies!) *'o'* & ^'(00)'^

Gen Tei Shoku

There's currently a fun festival happening in Taipei which Koggy loves very much, it's the "Taipei International Food Festival". This festival has been going on since the month of May and will only be til the end of this month. Unfortunately, Koggy has just recently discovered what and how this festival can be used to our advantage ;)
Basically, there are tons of participating restaurants and each one of them has graciously created a special discount (ranging from a few dollars off to a percentage off) or free meal (with some purchase requirements).

So, today we're going to cover 1 of the festival's participants: Gen Tei Shoku

Koggy visited this place with a special guest which came to visit us last weekend, li'l K (don't ask why it's not li'l M, she's just known as li'l K)

our hungry faces while waiting for the food to show up a ha! it's finally here (Piggy just can't take her eyes off the plate) close-up of the 2 drooling monsters our free dessert Koala enjoying her pre-birthday dessert

And that's it on Gen Tei Shoku.

Koggy out!

*'o'* & ^'(00)'^

Danshui night market

Danshui is located at the end of the red mrt line. When we got there Koggy was starving that XXS couldn't persuade us to walk a bit further to check out the cool bridge and the fisherman's wharf. I guess we'll just have to come back some other time. tee hee ;p

And here's some great stuff we found at the Danshui night market:

Gigantic crepes

This crepe was pretty fulfilling but of course, we couldn't just stop here ;)

Next up is:

TW hotdog with grilled rice bun + tw sausage

The TW hotdog was pretty interesting. The combo of the grilled rice bun and the somewhat sweet tw sausage is just good.

While we were walking around hunting for food, we saw this stall with a bunch of gigantic fruits!

We didn't buy any, but we did get some of the cut - up fruits in a box ;)

gigantic fruits

There are lots of "deep fried stalls" too ... with different ingredients.

Some has sticks of meat, some has mushrooms, some has chickens or porks, or even intestines ... Yea, the taiwanese love their deep fried food.

sticks of meat ready to be deep fried

1 of our last meal that we took picture of was this delicious onion spring pancake.

spring onion pancake

Oh fluffy yummy pancake!

cool wire souvenirs

And this last photo was taken almost at the end. There were 2 guys that were making and selling these cool wire stuff. You could even have him custom make things for you, whether it be a keychain, business card holder, pendant, and whatever else you can think of really ;)

And now, Koggy is getting ready for a fun filled weekend with our dearest relative, which we'll introduce in the next post. So, stay tune and have a happy weekend!!!

XOXO,

*'0'* & ^'(00)'^

HOT summer days

On a hot summer day, koggy usually stays in with AC on almost 24/7. However, if we do have to go out we'll most likely come back with dripping sweats on our body. And we would have to rename ourselves "icky and sticky" ;p

Anyway, on a typical hot summer day hungry Koggy loves to eat these following meals fresh from our very own kitchen

cold soba Shaved ice with pudding

i (heart) sushi express

One day, Koggy was feeling adventurous and decided to roam around underground checking out the "underground mall". But after a lot of walking down that long tunnel, Piggy tummy started grumbling and that's when we go up and out of the underground tunnel. Went left and right checking out the street looking for a nearby night market. However, Piggy was wayyy too hungry to walk a few more blocks to reach the night market and that's when we discovered "sushi express"

One of the best part of sushi express is their "delicioso unlimited ginger" ... and so we pose in front of these delicious pink ginger