3D2N Taipei 2017

Been ages since I last blogged because of being overwhelmed with work and hobbies. For those who still don't know, my first love is still investment and finding new ways to make money. I like the thrill and empowerment that it brings. Recently, I've been dabbling in the ICO space and it's taking up my play time when I'm not doing my day job. In any case, I'm proud to announce that I'm on track to fulfilling my 4 holiday trips this year. As of now, I've been to Rome, Hong Kong, Taiwan and end of this year, I'm going London.

Given that I've written about Taiwan before and the trip is so short this time round, I've took the opportunity to revisit some of the food I enjoyed and tried very few new food. Our first stop was actually a company dinner at Shin Yeh 101 at the top of Taipei 101. As it's a customized menu, I felt it won't make effective sharing. If you wish to see photos of it, visit instagram and search @bluntandfussyeater. 

The highlight meal I brought my colleagues to was Wu Lao Elixir Health Pot. In my view, it's a must try when you are in Taipei! This is the original beauty in the pot. The experience is exquisite top down from the service, the value for money, the freshness of ingredients to the taste. 6 pax with an over-generous boss ordering freely only resulted in a $200 SGD meal. 

Wu Lao Elixir Health Pot

No 143, Section 3, Civic Blvd

This Lu Di Handmade Shaved Ice is one of the unique experiences I had when I wandered around Taipei myself. The sun in Taipei now is very unforgiving. Treating yourself to shaved ice now will make it taste 10 times nicer than usual thanks to the scorching sun. In any case, Lu Di Shaved Ice isn't easy to locate. Searching for it on google, you need to type its Chinese name 路地冰怪物台北. Take note of the cute shop front to spot the shop! 

The ordering process basically consist of the flavour of the shaved ice and 2 toppings. I settled for milk shaved ice with oreo cheese and red bean with dumpling balls. The milk shaving which looks like tissue paper on first glance tastes really good. I'm not sure if I'm bias because I was soaked head to toe with sweat by the time I found the shop. Creamy and sufficiently solid, I liked it that it doesn't melt easily so I didn't have to gobble it up. The eyes are made of cookies so you can eat it too! Toppings wise if I have to choose again, I'll do away with the oreo cheese. Cheese with ice cream doesn't match at all. The red bean with dumpling balls works fine but I prefer the shaved ice with none of them to be honest haha! The damage was about $10 SGD. Incidentally, some Taiwanese food bloggers were filming a vlog when I was there. It's the sort of thing you'd like to show you did something different and cool in Taipei on Instagram. 

路地冰怪物台北

106, Taiwan, Taipei, Da'an District

I felt the content of this post must have something different besides what to eat there. I'd like to share some of the gifts I brought back from Taipei as well. One of which is Yu Chocolatier, winner of International Chocolate Award 2016. There's a mixture of alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavours. Being lazy, I asked the sales staff to select the award winning flavours for me. One interesting observation my colleague made was how the box was designed like a Rolex box. I guess it adds the premium shine to it. 1 box of 6 cost about $30. There's a bigger box of 12 that cost about $60. They offer a total of 14 flavours. They also have a dine in section where you can try the in-house cakes. Personally, I think this is a unique gift to bring home as everyone else would be busy buying sun cakes and pineapple tarts for friends. 

Yu Chocolatier

No 10, Alley 3, Lane 112, Section 4, Ren'ai Road, Da'an District, Taipei 106

Given that I've been to Taiwan before and participated in the Sun Cake frenzy before, I did quite a bit of research to decide what to buy this visit. Sun Cakes has always been a fight between Li Yi, Chia Te and Sugar and Spice. During my last visit, I already bought Li Yi and Chia Te so this trip I settled for Sugar and Spice. It's a pleasant surprise to know Sugar and Spice won some awards before and the general feedback by those who tried all 3 felt that Sugar and Spice's version of Sun Cakes got the balance just right. Not excessively flaky, not too sweet and sufficiently addictive. 

Sugar and Spice

No 158, Section 1, Dunhua S Rd, Da'an District, Taipei City 106

The Dark Gallery

I'm growing sideways. Been meeting up with too many people, I seriously need to cut back on my eating. This week, I celebrated Saturyay by dining at Koh Bar & Grill, followed by some retail therapy. Earlier this week, I just adopted two very adorable soft toy penguins from Mini Sou, called Fatty and Chubby. They have brought me lots of joy since!

I love all things chocolate except chocolate itself. Hence the visit to The Dark Gallery. It's a really small cafe located at the center of level 1 in Millenia Walk. The design gave an impression of class so be prepared for heftier prices. The interior is really small thus locating seats is a challenge. If you have flexible hours, perhaps it'll be better to experience the food on weekday afternoons where office executives are all working their asses off. The Dark Gallery is known for their dark chocolate desserts. It comes in all forms from smores to beverages to ice cream. Probably the perfect dessert shop for bitter chocolate lovers.

Greedy me wanted to try everything. So I kinda forced Fat Fat to order a buffet spread and this was right after dinner. Whoops. The frozen smores ($7.50) you see in the photo was kinda our appetizer. It's basically toasted marshmallows with dark chocolate. Both fat fat and I didn't really enjoy the dessert. We felt that the marshmallows didn't blend well with the dark chocolate and both are separate desserts put together to you know mark up the price. There's also not much blend of sweetness from the melted marshmallows to counter the bitterness of the chocolate. Not something I'll order again. I'll give it an A for instagram-worthiness.

Another dessert we decided to incur calories on is the Chocolate Rhapsody ($18). It's sinful, rich in calories but you won't feel a pang of guilt eating. It's worth it. The Chocolate Rhapsody is a combination of 3 chocolate ice creams, dark, milk and white chocolate, decorated with chocolate crumbs, meringue and shards of cacao tulle. The chocolate ice creams stand out in their individual flavour and goes perfectly with the chocolate crumbs and crunchy meringue. The sweetness isn't excessive, in fact, the balance doesn't make your taste buds frown upon any jarring flavours. I also enjoyed the shards of cacao tulle which I can happily eat without the ice cream. Wonderful dessert!

For beverages, we ordered the Signature Chocolate ($7) and the Chocolate Cube Hazelnut Latte ($9). Fat Fat didn't like her signature chocolate as she felt 'jelat' drinking the thick chocolate drink after consuming all the other desserts. I need to disclaim she isn't a chocolate person so that might explain it. To be fair, the signature hot chocolate was very 'gao' (thick). It'll probably be more enjoyable for chocolate lovers.

My Chocolate Cube Hazelnut Latte admittedly is ordered to cater to my camera more than my tummy. I found the beverage a little on the bitter side. Perhaps they should add some sugar syrup on the side. It is a good hazelnut latte if you prefer your coffee with a tinge of bitterness. I might actually order it again. It did give me my caffeine satisfaction even though it's late at night.

There're hit and misses at The Dark Gallery. Those stuff that were hits, I love them to bits and would definitely return to indulge again. The biggest drawback is the seating space because such cafes are no good if you sit, eat and leave. I'll probably like it a lot more if I can bring someone here to chill, enjoy some good desserts, nice conversation and have some enjoyable beverages without the stress of everyone else who wants your seat giving you death stares. I'll highly recommend this place for a relaxing dessert and coffee on your off day, definitely not weekends to enjoy a good break while the rest of the world is preoccupied meeting deadlines.

The Dark Gallery
9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-K5 Millenia Walk, S039596