Ximending (西門町)

By: Unknown on Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Food (must try):
1) Ah Zhong Noodle Shop (阿宗麵線)

Picture courtesy of EatPrayFlying

Address: Ximending Headquarter: No.8-1, Emei St., Wanhua District, Taipei City
Business Hour:11:00 ~ 22:30 / Monday to Thursday. 11:00 ~ 23:00 / Friday to Sunday.
Tel: 02-2388-8808  (Delivery service available)
Getting there:
- from the MRT Station exit, look for the McDonalds. It's one alley away from it.

2) Zhang Ji Guo Tie Niu Rou Mian (张记锅贴牛肉面)
Address: Lane 101, Yanping South Road
Business Hour: Open everyday EXCEPT Saturday 11am-2pm & 4pm-7.30pm
Getting there:
- find the entrance of Zhongshan Hall and main courtyard, turn around and look for this alley- Lane 101.
- Exit at Entrance 4.
- 張記鍋貼牛肉麵位於捷運西門站4號出口，於延平南路101巷內

3) Yu's Almond Tofu (于記杏仁豆腐)
Address: No. 101號, Héngyáng Road, Jhongjheng District, Taipei City
Tel: 02-2370-1998

Interesting spaces:
1) Modern Toilet (便所餐廳)


View Ximending (西門町) in a nutshell in a larger map

General:
1) To visit the XiMenDing take the MRT and get off the Ximen Station.

Reference:
A Hungry Girl's guide in Taipei
小盛盛的隨性趴趴go

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zara bag inspired colours

By: Unknown on Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Another one of my nails design. Took the idea from my previous post. The trick is lining the gold trim, initially I used a sticker as guide but only for the 1st 2 nails. Subsequently I ditched it because it's picking up my base colour. The product in the middle is my everyday Zara tote bag.

"There is no ugly girl but lazy girl" - Anonymous

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you are my sunshine

By: Unknown on Monday, February 27, 2012

[via Une-deux senses]
I came across some very gorgeous accessories with very beautiful colours. Now that the festive season is over, I think people are ditching the red and embracing something more fun, like yellow or mustard. Some of the colours to consider when picking up accessories.

[via Garance Dore]

One of the ways to integrate the colours into our daily wear.

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peonies inspired

By: Unknown on Tuesday, February 21, 2012

my new scent.

I have always steer myself away from scent that has flowery fragrant, especially the strong ones. It took me a very long time to try this lotion but to my surprise it only contains a very small hint of delicate peonies smell.

This time, drawing some inspiration from my favourite scent, I did this nail of the day.

silver peonies

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vaseline color inspired

By: Unknown on Friday, February 17, 2012

While I'm no expert in nail art, I did this design. Kind of out of the blue and took inspiration from the one tool that I can never leave home without it, Vaseline.

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Wu Fen Pu (五分埔) & Raohe Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市)

By: Unknown on Sunday, February 12, 2012

While I prepare myself for my family trip, I'll be making notes on the places where I plan to go here. Feel free to share or use the information here but at your own risk, I do not take responsibility for the accuracy of the information here and if you do spot any inaccuracy, please do let me know. ^_^

p/s: I'm back but still updating this post based on what I experienced while I was there.

Some things to know:
- The nearest night market is Raohe St. Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市). So it makes sense to spend about a day to visit both places in a day.
- The main reason people are here is because this place is fame for its cheap clothing. But I would say if you're a tourist here, you're most likely pay more than the local and if you're only buying 1 or 2 piece from the shop, you're still paying the regular price outside. I suppose after all the hype about this place selling cheap clothing the glory days are now over people.
- Make sure you check your product especially those NTD100 clothes. I realised a lot of the things I bought, the threads will start to give way after the first wash.
- If you're there really to do serious shopping, try to go to this place early because after the sun is down, you will have a hard time maneuvering around this area and this place is really huge.

Food to try:
- Pepper buns (福州世祖胡椒饼)

- Medicinal braised pork ribs and lamb (金林三兄弟)

1. Directions:
1. Take the MRT to Houshanpi [後山埤] Station (Nangang line i.e. blue line).
2. At the Houshanpi station, take Exit 4, as you get off the escalator, take a 180 degrees turn, turn right and walk along Youngji Street for about 5-10 minutes. 
3. Lookout for the roadsigns that says "Wu Fen Pu" as seen above, and turn right into the Wu Fen Pu! A good landmark would be to look out for the red YMCA building on the left. The entrance to Wu Fen Pu is directly opposite YMCA.
2. Business hour: Most shops open at around noon and close after mid-night d. On Sundays, shops may close earlier around 9:00p.m. e. Mondays are said to be strictly for wholesalers only, so you might not be served as well on other days.
3. Maps (download maps for a bigger view of the maps):
    
   Macro map view of Wufenpu market
   
   Breakdown view of Wufenpu market, this is best when you have a shop in mind and you would like to head straight to the shop, instead of wasting time searching for it high and low.

View Wufenpu/Raohe (五分埔/饒河) in a nutshell in a larger map

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planning a taiwan trip

By: Unknown on Saturday, February 04, 2012

I have an upcoming holiday to Taiwan this year for 8 days with 8 people (so fatt for a dragon year, right?) in my entourage and I will be the leader of the pack (>_<)". Honestly I'm getting a little nervous as this will be the first time I'm bringing so many people with me while having 2 kids in the tow. Luckily one of my cousins who is part of the group, is around to help me with the planning. God bless us.

Part of my plan includes spending 5D4N in Taipei. I haven't quite plan out the things to do during this stay, so it's kind of bothering me when I thought about the fact that we may potentially camp out all 5 days in the hotel instead (LOL!). Since the last day of our trip we will be heading out of Taiwan already, so I think I only need to plan for things to do for 4 days.

I have a few things I want to do:

1. Shopping (clothes, handbags, accessories)
2. Sightseeing (a little emphasis)
3. Eating

One thing though, on looking for food in Taipei, I think my parents and aunty have been watching too much of Asian Food Channel (AFC), that they seems to think there are many good food around but problem for me will be finding these places. Given that this is also going to be my first trip, I'm afraid they might be setting themselves up for disappointment. Plus, sometimes the food introduced may not be that awesome but the TV host may pretend to eat it like it's some heavenly food, one very good example will be smelly tofu, until today it still smell and taste like shit. I honestly still cannot appreciate this fine street-side delicacy.

Any suggestions on what I should be doing in Taipei?

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qing dynasty drama

By: Unknown on Friday, February 03, 2012

Other than catching up with friends and relatives during this festive season, I've been catching up on drama as well. Our recent tv purchase has resulted to everyone glued to the box more.

Lately I'm a big fan of costume drama. Since watching Scarlet Heart (步步惊心), I have been looking out for drama that is something like that but sadly I still think Scarlet Heart is still the best to watch (I love 4th, 8th and 13th 阿哥 *unabash*). In fact after watching the show I feel I know the history of Qing dynasty even more and even memorised a chinese poem due to it (woah!!! the power of watching drama given the fact that I don't come from a chinese school background).

Anyway I'm currently watching Curse of the Royal Harem (萬凰之王, TVB). The plot is good, my mum and myself can't stop scolding some of the characters in the show such as the naive King, the King's stepmother and 静贵人. But in terms of acting skill, well, I still find myself adoring the people in Scarlet Heart. The cast is so good looking and pretty...

Then in terms of costume, I still very much prefer the costume in Scarlet Heart. So I guess the only thing that keeps us glued to the show right now is really just the plot. I hope it won't disappoint us at the end.

P/s: I have finish watching the drama mention above, ending is abit... hmmm... not quite what I have in mind.

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eye-blinging

By: Unknown on Thursday, February 02, 2012

For most celebration, I think the most enjoyable part would be the preparation of the event. The feeling of anticipation and waiting for the event. All the activities that was planned around it to make it our best (but things don't always go work the way we want it).

This CNY is almost over, while the dust settles and remnants from the fireworks swept into bin, slowly we will be picking up our lives at where we left. This time, hopefully, with a more joyous heart and lifted spirit we can look forward to a better year.

While I was shopping for my CNY outfits last month, I came across a shop that specialise in selling accessories. It's a little treasure trove filled with colourful and eye-blinding trinkets to adorn our new clothes. I was awash with excitement and felt like a little girl, surrounded by all the beautiful ornaments. By the time I head to the check out counter, I realised my little basket was filled to the brim. I sheepishly head back to the rack and sadly place the stuff back at where it belongs to, I know I need to control that evil shopping queen inside me, but I awarded myself by buying a few of my favourites.

One of the reasons lost control was because other than just tempting and beautiful, it was not pricey. None of the items below exceeded MYR20 (less than SGD10). To me that's quite a steal, especially for items that comes with bling bling...

Ok you caught me, I have a love for things that bling. Just cannot help it. Have you manage to buy anything fancy to adorn your CNY outfits?

P/s: Despite CNY is almost over, I still haven't do my fair share of lou yee sang. I wonder who is kind enough to do that with me, before it all ends? Anyone?

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