Hi Sushi, Taipei

Hi Sushi just opened a branch near Nanjing East Road MRT station, and we happened to have some vouchers, so we decided to visit this branch for dinner. We opted for the set meals, which came with these ...

Soft-shell crab with salad

Sashimi

Fish in a mushroom broth

Salad with squid

Grilled Fish Collar (Buri Kama)

Erm .... grilled beef steak ... remembered taking pics only after digging in quite a bit ...

Grilled eel on rice ...

Clam soup ...

Red bean dessert ...

Agnes b Cafe, Taipei

One of the recent "in" things in Taipei right now is the Agnes b. Cafe. I had walked past the one at the relatively new Hankyu Dept Store at Xinyi several times, but had been sidetracked by Afternoon Tea cakes and Arrowtree tarts. This time, however, when we happened to go past the cafe at Breeze Center, the timing was perfect as I was craving something sweet, and the best part was our tummies were ready for dessert too! We decided to get these ...

Lemon Tart

Chloe

- supposedly one of their most famous items

(essentially chocolate truffle with a crunchy hazelnut base)

Danielle

(basically layers of choc cake and cream/mousse and caramel)

Christmas 2010 Taipei

While Christmas is generally pretty quiet in Taipei as it's not a public holiday and not really celebrated in Taiwan, it looked rather festive in Xinyi Xintiandi ... check out the revellers here ... (almost every other person was toting a camera and happily snapping ... and posing away ... )

Pretty blue lights ...

I've never seen this area so crowded before! ... hmm ... except maybe during the New Year when the crowds gather near this area to watch the fireworks at Taipei 101...

My Very First Fruit Cake

Every year, my mom bakes her famous fruit cake. But as fruit cakes aren't my fav thing, I never learnt how to bake this. This year, however, Christmas didn't seem like Christmas without fruit cakes, and my mom's fruit cake is the only fruit cake I like. So, I got her recipe and here's my very first attempt at the fruit cake ...

(erm ... do excuse the rather sad pics cos I was too eager to taste the cake, I forgot to snap a shot of it before I cut into it ....)

It was rather crumbly as I later realised I shouldn't have cut into it so soon after baking. It needs some marinating in rum/brandy for a few days to get more moist, otherwise it will tend to be a lil crumbly.

All in all, I thought it turned out pretty decent ... the colours could've been nicer if I'd been able to find the right kind of fruit mix. But overall, it smelled and tasted very much like my mom's fruit cake :)

Gingerbread House!

Still on festive gifts, I was totally thrilled the other day when Hubby brought this home!

A Gingerbread House!

Sooooo pretty!

Turned out that Hubby's colleague's family owns a bakery and every Christmas, they bake these gingerbread houses. This year, we were fortunate enough to receive one :)

Festive Gift fm New York!

Our dear friend from New York sent this to us ...

Something fm Mariebelle?

Now, what could it be?

Hot Chocolate!!! Exquisitely packaged hot chocolate!!! Don't you just love the box, and the ribbon, and the gorgeous tins? Lovely!

As D so accurately described, drinking a cup of this was like drinking pure chocolate ... totally utterly comforting ... and sinful!

Pretty Pansies

Last weekend, we went to the Jianguo Flower Market (it's fast becoming one of my favorite places in Taipei), and I couldn't resist these beautiful pansies. I just love the pretty striking colours. I wish I could've bought more, but I wasn't sure how they'd do under my lack of green fingers ... here's hoping they will do well!

My Marigold!

The marigolds I grew from seeds have grown so tall and healthy that they actually started budding! One of the buds finally bloomed and here's my very first marigold flower!

Update on my Seedlings

The black cherry tomato plants seem to be doing pretty well ... hopefully they'll continue to get stronger, and maybe sometime in the near future, I'll be able to have my first "crop" of black cherry tomatoes :)

The Marigolds also seem to be happy, but the violas (in the middle) seem to be struggling to come up ... I really hope they survive and get stronger ...

One of the marigolds grew so fast that we transpotted it to its own pot ...

Another marigold also grew so well, it earned its own right to its own pot :) And on the right are some other smaller sprouts of the black cherry tomato plants which also seem to be growing pretty happily ...

And remember the bean sprout like flowers? They still look scraggly, but seem to be pretty healthy ...

Lastly, the sage mealycup ... there hasn't been much change since the last time except that some of them seem to have grown at least 4 leaves. However, they are still pretty short ... maybe they are just late developers?

Arrowtree Taipei

I had been wanting to try the desserts from Arrowtree, a Japanese patissierie ever since I'd read about it opening in the new Hankyu Dept Store in Taipei. However, everytime I was around there, I had somehow just eaten and could not take another bite. So, this time, I decided to just get a tart to take away ...

The sales assistant at the counter informed me that this was their signature tart ... a mixed fruit tart ...

Doesn't it look delicious? It's basically a mix of oranges, kiwi fruit, bananas, strawberries sitting pretty atop a frangipane tart base.

Tea at TWG, Ion Orchard, Singapore

A couple of my fellow dessert-loving friends took me to TWG at Ion Orchard in Singapore. All three of us ordered the same drink - Lychee Rose Tea ...

Each of us also ordered a cake from the dessert counter ...

Profiteroles (aka cream puffs) ...

Apple tart ...

Passionfruit mousse cake ...