Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Europe trip

It has been some time that I didn't update this blog as I was so busy with my 'business'. I thought I will publish this post before the Taiwan post but due to some technical reason, the Taiwan post was up before this post.

Since middle of April till May I was away with my hubby and friends. We were lucky enough to tour some of the Europe countries (Holland, Germany, Belgium and France). I decided to share with you some of my F&B experience during our free and easy vacation there. In fact, I can hardly see any Fusion restaurants/stalls in the countries we visited but foods are everywhere. We still can find some Asian cuisines besides the European cuisines eg. Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Chinese, Indian, Malays, etc.

Holland

I stayed in Holland most of the time as my hubby was there for business trip. Being an Asian who always enjoy eating and trying new food, I still stick to Asian food for most of my main meals in Holland. However, I must admit that their ice cream is really super tasty!! The texture is so fine and smooth, the milky taste is so rich till it stays on my taste buds each time I had it. I must have at least a cone of ice cream everyday there. My favourite flavour is chocolate and strawberry. Of course there are many other flavours which we don't understand but no one bothers:-p Too bad that we were so happy to enjoy our ice cream till forgot to capture a picture of one of the famous ice cream shop in Den Haag. Another must eat in Holland is the fried potatoes chips, in Dutch is called 'Patat'. It has to be eaten with mayo or ketchup. Of course you can eat it plain if you like. This is my first time tasting such a delicious chips especially with mayo. The 'Patat' size is larger compared with what we had in Malaysia and the texture is so juicy and crispy .. slurp slurp.. delicious!!

Belgium

Belgium is a small country and as we know, this is a country of chocolates. Chocolate lovers will definitely like this place. I can see a lot of shops selling chocolates, cookies and candies with beautiful packagings (so irresistable to buy,but thinking of the conversion rate I decided to be realistic:-) . Not only that, some of the shop outlook had attracted me as well. The designs and colours combination dragged me back to my childhood dream. I used to dream myself in the wonderland of Alice which full of colours, candies and lovely animals:-) I wished I was the Alice living happily there. Being a chocolate lover, I would not miss a chance to look for all types of Belgium chocolates products. For those who like to get some chocolates back home, you should try it at the supermarkets or sundry shops as the price is cheaper and more choices too.

Germany

Germany is famous of her beers and sausages. Though we were in Cologne for a day but we were lucky that we manage to find a famous restaurant (after checking with the locals) called 'Fruh' and tried their best and famous delicacies. The locally brewed beer tasted so different compared with Malaysia's one. To describe it, I would say is very smooth and light. I think the best is still the pork sausage! In term of size, is larger than what we normally eat in Malaysia. In term of taste, it's so delicious as the pork and other ingredients are so fresh. Due to that we need to chase for our train back to Holland that evening, we didn't manage to order more food. But we were satisfied with the beer, sausages and the services. We were also amazed with the cashier's system in the restaurant. Each of the waiter also bear a responsibility of a cashier. Great right? save time and effort. I definitely recommend this 'Fruh' restaurant if you would like to try some Germany dishes in Cologne.

Paris, France

I personally like to watch the 'Ratatouille' animation some time ago. I loved the little rat character and also it's passion with cooking and the way he appreciated all the ingredients. And all these was happened in the city of Paris!! Before I was in Paris I always imagine how romantic this place is but once I stepped down, I really can feel the romance in the air. The French people, the music played by the street artists, the paintings, the Eiffel towel, the Louvre museum, the canals, the pigeons mingle around the tourists spots and so many more have made Paris such a beautiful and romantic place to visit. One of our missions were to look for Ratatouille dish but .... unfortunately we couldn't find the place:( Afterall, we did try some pasta in one of the Italian restaurants near the Eiffel towel and is really not bad.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Taiwan trip

Me and my friends had another free and easy trip to Taiwan end of March this year. The weather was still cooling and windy especially in the outskirt area. I have to admit that the country side view is very nice and soothing. The air is so cooling and fresh, the feeling is good and relaxing.

In term of food, Taiwan is famous of it's 'snack' food (means not main meals) or in Mandarin is called 'xiao chi'. I believed some of this 'xiao chi' are traditional and some are modern and fusion. Some of the 'xiao chi' which can be found in the night markets are rice noodle, onion pan cake, mochi, grilled maize, fried sausages, stinky tofus and many more. For the drink, I must recommend the pearl milk tea. You should not miss this drink as it's the best especially the pearl! The black in colour pearls with the diameter of 1 to 1.5 cm are made with some combination of flours and it taste so 'QQ' (QQ is a term used by Taiwanese to describe the elastically and crunchy texture of the food).

I have to say that most of the 'xiao chi' in Taiwan are very or extremely 'QQ' in texture and I personally think that it doesn't suit my taste. In fact we were craving for fast food after few days of eating 'QQ' stuffs including their noodles.


The most delicious meal we had in Taiwan was the Hakka (one of the chinese dialect) dishes in one of the Hakka restaurant located in 'San Yi' near the 'San Yi' wood museum. The ingredients that they used are fresh and home grown. Some of the dishes that we had were frying young green vegetables, braised pork with chinese pickles, steamed 'kampung' chicken and their soup. Our senses was truly and highly satisfied by this Hakka meal.

There is also something which I must not forget to mention - strawberries. There is a place called 'Da Hu' near 'San Yi' which is famous of strawberries plantations. We are lucky that we were there during the strawberries season. Besides fresh strawberries, there are many side products of strawberries eg. strawberries ice cream, tartlet, jam, mochi, alcohol and others.

We also came across a funny concept restaurant. Their concept is using water closet (WC) as their theme to decorate the restaurant and also serving the food.