The beef broth is tasty and the noodle is not hard. Maybe this is the promotion, the beef was tender but lack of texture.
Current promotion NT50 a bowl from 28 Dec ~ 31 Dec 2012.
Open from 1100H ~ 2200H
Google Map
彭家屯牛肉館 Peng Jian Tun Beef Noodle Shop
The beef broth is tasty and the noodle is not hard. Maybe this is the promotion, the beef was tender but lack of texture.
Current promotion NT50 a bowl from 28 Dec ~ 31 Dec 2012.
Open from 1100H ~ 2200H
Google Map
新大港大腸香腸 Sinda Kang Sausage
Simply delicious, not too oily. BBQ till perfection, the best I have tasted.
No. 52號, Shíquán 1st Road, Sanmin District
Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 807
老爹爹泰式料理 Old Papa Thai Cuisine
The restaurant had a nice touch, love the colour and decor of the building however the Thai dishes were not authentic enough. The Tom Yam seafood soup was sweet instead of sour, the lemon fish and the rest of the dishes was ok. Will we revisit, probably not.
Dinner for 12
Small gathering at our place. The evening dinner was specially prepare for David as he missed curry and beef Rendang. The last time he tasted it was 32 years ago!! Favourite dishes was Beef Rendang, Mutton Curry and Joy's Black Pepper Crab.
辣匠麻辣燙 LaJiang Mala Soup
高雄市左營區明誠二路386號
Singapore Vegetarian Bee Hoon 新加坡素食米粉
This used to be one of our breakfast from the food court. It light and a very healthy meal. Most of the time this dish is served to Buddhist devotees during a festival. The classic ingredient are rice vermicelli (Bee Hoon), sliced cabbage, mushroom and must have fried bean curd wafers which makes this dish fragrance and unique.
雄出沒岩燒生蠔 XiongChuMo BBQ Oyster
Located along Love River bike path and Boai 1st Road. This is a newly opened joint that served BBQ Oysters and some other shellfish. It only opens in the evening from 7pm till 1am. The food is good especially the home made sauce but not the roast chicken as it was oven cooked.
We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of having some beers and BBQ. Best of all, it is near our place and we can cycle back after some Beers.
Fish 'n' Chips
This dish can be considered English and Australian National dish. The last time in Western Australia, Point Sampson Moby's Kitchen served the best fish and chips I ever tasted, somehow they added vinegar with it. Guess this must be the proper way of having fish and chips.
Anyway, I did a simple version from fish fillet available here.
Jasmine's Place 20th Annivaersary
20 years running....simply amazing, it is not easy to ran a Pub business that long. A long Wufu Road, she is probably the longest there. Sakura is one of the sweetest pub owner we knew, very generous and caring person. She threw this wonderful party with Live Band and great food. As usual along Wufu Road, most of the pub owners came and supported this event. Guess living in Kaohsiung, most of our friends are in drinking business. Great Fun and Congrats to Sakura for her success.
Kaohsiung Meals on Wheels Cars-Nibble 創意餐車嘉
油炸鯛魚片 Deep Fried Sea Bream Fillet
There are many kinds of Sea Bream, in Taiwan and Japan mostly they are Red Sea Bream. It is an auspicious food served during Japanese New Year. As a whole fish, it is better grilled or BBQ.
I have decided to do a very simple "Fish and Chip style" but without chips, vegetable instead, takes less than 20 mins to prepare.
2012 Mid Autumn Festival
I remembered when was young when mid Autumn festival was having the best lantern and eating sweetest moon cake. In Taiwan somehow it was different, whole of Taiwan was on fire....BBQ. It took 4 years for me to understand why it has turned into a BBQ season for this festive season on this island.Anyway we were glad our friends had took the time to plan this event. I have done many BBQ gatherings before I came to Taiwan..... preparation, cleaning up was a real headache. End of the night, we stayed back and helped the with the cleaning up.
Just like to Thank Candy and ZhongHan for their effort to make this happen.
Happy Mid Autumn Festival!!!!!!!!!!
Anita's Birthday at Joy Place
Last Evening the girls all gathered at Joy place to celebrate Anita's Birthday. Joy had single handedly prepared all the dishes herself. There was one dish, German Goulash was exceptionally delicious. She too made a Wine mixed called Shangrila, as usual the host, Joy always KO first. The ladies and me continued drinking till 3am.
Happy Birthday Anita!!
Window Farming - Watering System
I tried few methods of watering system and finally found the best way of doing it with less material used. On Window Farming website, you can find many post but they did not explain the system clearly. So now I will show you how my was done.
There are few types of watering systems, being popular is the Air Lift System. I did tested it out but found the T-Lift system was better. But somehow this system has a problem, bubbles kept going into the water reservoir however found a solution to the problem.
Topics
- Water Reservoir Construction
- T-Lift System
Window Farming - Recycle Material and Construction
The reasons for Window Farming
- Improve my survival skills
- Understand type of green and their environment
- Produce greens that I often use
- DIY
- Recycle
Living in an apartment has many limitation to produce own greens. My first proto-type did not work really well till I searched the Internet and found there are people doing just the same but at a better scale. You can find more information HERE.
Window Farming - Seeds Germination and Transplanting
When I was young, I found a seed growing behind the refrigerator drip tray. I was curious and took the seed out and found it was an Orange seed which I had mischievously thrown behind the refrigerator. But how can an Orange seed grow in a Tropics? I replanted it and it died. Since then my only seeds germination was from a school project using Green Beans.
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| Basil Seeds from Supermarket |
In the interest on Window Farming, I did some research and found that some seeds do need warm moisture in order to germinate. So I decided to try out using seeds from fresh chilli and Basil seeds from Supermarket, later on with fresh cherry tomatoe seeds, fresh Okra seeds and fresh Calamansi seeds. (fresh means seeds were taken from the vegetable itself). However fresh Okra seeds did not germinate at all. Maybe I did something wrong.
I wrapped these seeds in Kitchen Towel, sprinkle some water and placed in a Ziploc bag. I then placed the Ziploc bags behind the refrigerator and true enough the seeds germinated well after a week only Calamansi seeds took almost 10 days.
Ah Hong Oyster Mee Sua 阿鴻麵線
First time when I came to Taiwan in 2004, I tasted this dish and did not like it. Since then I have not tasted any until back in 2009 when we were out marketing and saw this roadside stall. After trying it, it changed my mind. It was simply delicious, the oysters were big and the pig intestines was well textured. Both the ingredients were plentiful. If you do not like pig intestine, you can ask to opt out. Now almost one month we would visit this stall 3 to 4 times.
I understood from the owner, the family had operated this stall for 16 years. We are frequent customers, so every time before we get off our bikes, he knew what to serve us. We normally order 2 small bowls costing NT40, the big bowl cost NT55. I have to say the price is very reasonable. Most of the time we would enjoy this dish over his monthly PC Home magazine, seems like he is a Gadget guy. This is the place to get monthly IT updates :)
Mee Sua (Taiwanese slang) is a salted noodle made from wheat flour, there are 2 types, white and brown. Oyster Mee Sua always use the brown type as it last longer in cooking.
Operating hours from 430pm till mid-night
Getting Taiwan Driving Licence
Finally today I got my Taiwanese Driving and Bike Licences. In 2009 when I tried to apply for it, I was told I would have to take the Theory and Practical Exams for both bike and car because our country and Taiwan did not have any mutual relationship on this matter. Disappointed with the regulations, I applied for International License instead.
Ladies Gathering
Last weekend 16 Sep 2012, our Lady friends, Sumei, Anita and Joy decided to gather at our place to chill out and also have a taste of my SE Aisan Curry. I decided to prepare Chicken Curry, Sambal Kangkong which is stirred fried in shrimp paste plus some others dishes.
We ended the night with 1 crate of beers, 2 bottles of red wine and chilling out till 2am before everyone decided to call it a night.
Banana Chocolate Sundae
I missed Swensen's Coit Tower Sundae, basically is has almond, chocolate fludge and banana. Decided to create my own version using simple ingredient and it was awesome!!
One of the local ice cream brand Duroyal Chocolate is my favourite, it is creamy and filled with chocolate chips. They do have other flavours but yet to try them. Chocolate is still my choice.
Awesome Dude!! Now waiting for strawberries season.
Mak's Kaohsiung Visit
Mak and me, we knew each other back in 2004 when both our dredging companies merged. Personally as a colleague before, he was a very nice and helpful guy. I have not seen Mak since 2008 and recently we came in contact through Facebook. He mentioned he was married to a Taiwanese wife and will be here in Taiwan.
So today 12 Sep 2012, he and his wife came down to Kaohsiung from Hsinchu specially to pay me a visit. Both me and my partner felt very honoured to be their Host.
Picked them up from Zuoying HSR station and took them round Kaohsiung sight seeing. Later his wife requested that she wanted to visit Liuhe Night Market. So we drove back the vehicle, took the City Bike to the MRT station instead as Liuhe area has parking difficulty. They did enjoyed the idea of City-Bike.
Mak's wife was really a night market hunter, we stopped by couple of stalls and ate till our heart's content. Later we bidded farewell on the same MRT ride, they had decided to take the night coach back to Hsinchu.
I think Mak now knows clearly why I prefer to be in Kaohsiung. He will tell you more when you meet up with him.
Thank You Mak for your kind calling. We really enjoyed the day with you guys. Hope to see you and your wife again!!
壽山 ShouShan Forest Jog and Hike
Been living in Kaoshiung for few years, finally this morning decided to head to Shoushan for a cross-country ran with Siboy. Arrived at Shoushan Trail head around 750am and started the the ran. To my surprise, the whole trail was fully paved with wooden platform. Those wooden steps did make the ran rather tough, ended up hiking up the steps instead.
Apparently from the information map, there are few others different trails in ShouShan. The trail we took started from Dragon Emperor Trail Head (Green) and we did a loop, extended to Lotus Cave, Rocky Banyan and back.
We completed the whole trail in 2.5hrs and ended our session with a cold spring dip before the trail head entrance.
Judy's Pub Birthday Party
Judy's Pub located in Wufu Road, Kaohsiung. Wufu Pubs has been my bloodline since the first time I came to Taiwan. I knew many of the nice ladies since 2004 and they had been swell friends. Some had became good friends and one became my partner. I had never seen Pubs along one street that are so cooperative among themselves. Everyone tried as much to help each other. In any event, most Pubs will support each other.
Judy was a recent friend few years ago, she is a very nice lady and most of the time she only drinks Wine. She had sent us an invitation 2 weeks prior to this event. We came and attended her Birthday Party...Happy Birthday Judy!!!
Wufu Pubs decades ago used to be Seaman get away. Due to economic situation many Pubs have closed down and only handful survived. Today in reality it is no longer a Seaman playground but many locals and profesional expats gather in this area. This area had been my information source to many developments and outcome in Taiwan's economy.
美綠生態園 Meilu Ecological Garden
Friend's invitation to join them camping at this garden camp area. Located in Meinong, Kaohsiung, the camp area is very well shaded with trees and ample space for big group camping. The camp site has power outlet and a common washing area. The feature of this camp area is their in-house garden which is very well laid out and taken care.
高雄市美濃區獅山里竹門14-2號07-6851111
Fee: NT500 per tent
Website
Google Map
Last Visit 24Mar 2012
Kids Biking in Taiwan
When my kids were here in Kaohsiung for holidays, my aim was to let them enjoy biking as much as possible. Our generous friend, Ah Kuei had loan us 2 Giant Yukon mountain bikes.
After picking up the bikes from AK, the next day before the big ride 120Km to Kenting I brought the kids for a 20km warm-up ride around the city. You can find the post HERE.
Overall they had put in 230Km on these bikes during their Jun 2009 school holidays.
JiMuShan 雞母山 MTB
15 Mar 2009
A short trail ride in Kaohsiung City. Formerly was the army training ground, now it have turned into a small plantation and hiker / biker get away.
This ground is also a dowhill biker paradise as they have created few jumps and drop off. What is amazing is our fellow biker "Ginson" the grandfather of the small boy that you will see in the photos below taking a jump. He's only 8 yrs old, Taiwan's future 'No Fear' down hill rider.!!!
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Mahjong Dinner
Sun 2 Sep 2012
We were invited to Joy places for dinner, she had promised us that there will be Black Pepper Crab served. Recently she came back from Europe and Singapore trip, she had brought back some spices to make these dishes.
Joy's Daughter Nursery Graduation
This was the first time I attended a Taiwanese Nursery Graduation. It was the longest graduation lasted 4 hours. The graduation took place in one of Pingtung's school. They had borrowed this area just to hold this event.
Joy's daughter Daniel is also my partner's god-daughter, that was the reason we were there. Daddy is a Danish who is working Singapore flew back just for this event. The kids had put up quite a performance and mummy was invited to stage to give a parental speech.
After the event, we drove to a nearby mud volcano which erupted couple of days ago but was disappointed as the locals had cleared the area. Ended up having dinner at Wutai
粥老大 Porridge King
Love how the owner had set up the place, there is a small garden with rabbits, hamsters, birds and mini-waterfall. He even planted two aged old Frangipani tree 雞蛋樹, one is 100years old and the other is 60 years old. The whole environment is very comfortable, could just sit there all day.
We ordered a bowl of Seafood Porridge and Seafood Udon plus braised pig's intestine. Both seafood dishes came with generous amount seafood, 5 pieces of fresh prawns, big amount of oysters, squid, meat ball, sliced fish and there is even scallop included. The clear broth was very tasty
高雄市苓雅區文橫三路36之1號
Open from: 4pm to midnight
Close on Wed
Google Map
Friend's BBQ Gathering @ LinYuan
For the last few years since our friends moved to LinYuan, they had been inviting us frequently to their place for BBQ. Every time there were Oysters and they knew is my favourite. Do not know where she got the oyster from but it was simply big and delicious. The oyster tasted very sweet, she claimed these are wild oyster and had to order one week ahead. This time she added something special....Blue Fin Tuna Sashimi which only available on certain season.
Got to know some of the friends in their area, they were friendly and fun to be with. Practical people who lived their kind of life in Downtown area, we really enjoyed being with them although it take 45mins to get to their place.
Bike Ride to ShouShan
Summer of 2011, decided to take Siboy for a long bike ride to Shoushan and view the magnificent Kaohsiung. The day's heat was really eating into us, at some point someone on a scooter came telling me that I am torturing my dog. Told him to get lost, he did not know what Siboy is capable and he is not a pet dog.
On our way back it started to rain and my tire took a nail. By all ass luck which I always carry my tools, this time I forgotten. Called my partner to bring the bike survival kit and Siboy was happy to take the scooter ride back. Me...I cycled all the way back home.
Asian Curry Chicken
In South East Asia there are many version of curries, Chinese, Nonya, Malay, Indian or Thai. To me Japanese Curry is not curry, it is just a stew cook in curry powder. An authentic curry should have a layer of oil which is the curry powder oil. Here is my version I have integrated from my mother's Nonya Curry and my ex-wife's Malay Curry, but the basic cooking style remains the same.
Oilless Fried Rice
This is a simple fried rice anyone can do it. At campsite, you can use a Dutch Oven to prepare this dish. It will take about 20mins to prepare and there is no need to use any oil. Instead this fried rice we use the fats from the chicken thigh skin. If you notice most stalls who sells fried rice, they are very oily however when this dish was made the amount of chicken fats produce was just perfect for this dish.
Hainanese Pork Chop
This dish was also known as Tiffin Pork Chop. During the colonial era in Singapore, British Officers would order this dish pack in Tiffin. When the British started to reside in Singapore, they hired Hainanese Cooks to prepare this dish, hence it is called Hainanese Pork Chop.
電飯煲海南雞飯 Rice Cooker Hainanese Chicken Rice
I grew up with Hainanese Chicken Rice. My Hainanese grandfather used to make this dish every year during Chinese New Year. Live chickens were bought from the market 2 weeks before and fed till it come to size, then he slaughtered it and make this dish.
In 2008 I flew to Sabah to meet up with my Aunt just to learn this dish the Hainanese way. Hoping that I can start a small business selling our authentic dish. Well it didn't happen yet as I have still not perfected it. Anyway I will share with you a simple way and it can be as close to our ancestor dish.
Hainanese Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce
Ingredients to Blend:
- 3 Chillies, chopped
- 1 slice Ginger
- 4 cloves Garlic, skin removed
- Juice of 3 limes
- 5 Tbsp of chicken broth oil
新加坡小館咖啡 Singapore Kopitiam
Recently located near to our area. Waited till end of July for renovation to be completed. First time we went there for dinner, we were served with dinner menu. We only wanted to taste two dishes if the taste was as original as back in Singapore but they do not have it so we left.
Came back few days later and we managed to order Hainanese Chicken Rice and Bak Kut Teh (Pork Rib Soup). These two dishes are the most popular dishes in Singapore.
Both dishes was served, my first impression of Hainanese Chicken Rice was miserable. For NT120 you get only few slices of Chicken Meat and the rice was hard. Partner's Bak Kut Teh, she commented it was blend, more like soy sauce added to water.
Before their grand opening, they did mentioned the Chef is a Singaporean but with this standard. Being a Hainanese, I have seen how my grandfather cook Chicken Rice, I even travelled to Sabah to perfect this dish from my Aunt. It is not a difficult dish but to master you have to know the right combination of ingredient.
I have yet to try their dinner menu, maybe one day we will gather some friends and try it out. As for now they get a low rating.
三民區聯興路48號
80707 392 8795
Google Map
鳥松鄉 NiaoSong MTB
This is basically a short trail around 8.5Km but mostly technical, from hill climb, riding down the steps and even carry the bike up the hill.
Last time I rode in this track was about a year ago. It felt good coming back to the place again and see those bridge crossing we made was still intact. Today's weather was hitting hard on me, my whole body was burning hot. Wish there was a waterfall.
大八大飯店潮坊港式飲茶 DaBa Tea Restaurant
The dinner was with our friends Yvonne and Jack. Yvonne now lives in Germany and she was only back to visit her family. While Jack a very busy man working in China Airlines and treated us to this dinner. Thank you Jack.
Yum Cha is my speciality and this is our third Yum Cha Restaurant we tried in Kaohsiung. So far there is not a single Yum Cha Restaurant that can charm my taste bud. This is the first restaurant I came across in Kaohsiung they have push trolley with steam dishes going round the tables just like in Hong Kong.
Most of the dishes are good except dishes that comes with corn starch. They had made it so starchy that you almost can hang the dishes on the wall without falling. All of us were laughing our ass off. This restaurant might get a 4 star rating, because of their corn starch dishes failure. They would only get 3/5 stars.
813高雄市左營區裕誠路486號
07-556-9791
07-556-9791
瑪哈印度餐廳 Maharaja Indian Resturant
Had the craving for Biryani so we went out looking for an Indian Restaurant. Along Mingcheng Road there are two Indian restaurants and we decided to try out Maharaja. All the chefs were Indian, no Taiwanese chef except the pretty waitress.
Ordered Mutton Biryani and Papadom. In SE Asian Indian restaurant, normally Papadom is free flow but here we have to pay for it. Papadom is eaten by crushing and mix with rice, it gives a unique texture to the rice. Used my fingers crushed the Papadom, topped with yoghurt over Biryani. Using the fingers put a handful rice in my mouth and bite off a piece of green chilli. That's how it is eaten my way thought to me by an Indian friend.
The Mutton Biryani was good, they had used Indian Basmati grain but there were still some flavour missing. Biryani is the most complex rice to cook and requires many different kind of spices. The best we had was in India.
The restaurant do serve other Indian dishes, Nan, Roti and different types of Curries. We did not order any of these because I know how to make them and I have the best curry powder imported to Taiwan but Biryani is out of my league. Worth trying out 4/5 stars
明誠分店: 高雄市明誠二路392號
07-5581123
Google Map
Sumei's Birthday Gathering
7 May 2012
Our friend Sumei decided to gather all her friends to celebrate her birthday. Here we were in this restaurant eating drinking and ended up 3 scooters got towed away... Haha
It was good fun to see all our friends again.
26Km Bike Ride
Sun 8 Jul 2012
Me and my dog, Siboy decided to take a bike ride down to the southern part of Kaohsiung, it has been a while Siboy have not done any endurance walk since his broken leg in a car accident. We followed the bike path from Love River all the way down to Splendour Hotel and even tried a short cut back till I lost the way.
We passed by Hakka Museum, Flea Market and when we arrived at 星光水岸公園 XingGuang Water Park, thinking to let Siboy to cool off from the Summer heat but it was filled with people...Guess a wrong day to take a weekend ride.
全海岸活蝦之家 Quan HaiAn Live Prawn House
The first time I tried a live prawn house was near our place but since then it has closed down. I am not a prawn lover but the way they cooked in a pot full of pepper simply made one hell of an exciting dish. We found this joint when one our prawn loving friend invited us. Since then we been back couple of times.
The prawn used are all Thai Prawn and most of them come with the yummy roe. Tried a few cooking style but still prefer the pepper prawn. Another one of our favourite dish is Chicken Bitter Gourd Soup, their bitter gourd is so small and bitter that we can''t even eat it however prolong boiling will make the soup even better.
高雄市左營區博愛三路170號
07-350-0727
Google Map
Website
茹絲葵牛排餐廳 Ruth Chris Steak House
It's my partner's birthday and since she like beef steak, I decided to give her the most premium treat in town.
This was one of the most expensive steak we ate in this town. We ordered a 8oz Ribeye Steak and it costed NT2300. We decided to share the steak as the waitress told us the other portions of salad and dessert that comes with it was enough for 2 to share. Ordered additional lobster soup and it was the best lobster soup I have ever tasted.
We will be coming back to this restaurant again and this time I had better bring my camera and not using a cell phone camera.
07-241-8888
Google Map
鄔珍那斯特庭園餐廳 Oogenlust Restaurant
This Western restaurant we tried, not sure if it is Italia because the served Pasta too or Dutch since the name sounds like it. However they do have a lovely garden and the building is almost filled with creeper crawler plants. Atmosphere was rather comfortable.
We ordered Chef's selection of Roast Chicken and NZ Beef Tenderloin. They come with buffet style salad and dessert bar. I must said both our selection was very tasty and cook to perfection. We too like the mushroom soup that came with it and bread tasted freshly baked.
07-556-5281
Website
Google Map
山姐姐海鮮燒烤 Shan JieJie Seafood BBQ Restaurant
Pass by this aboriginal restaurant many times, did not patronised as it was not ideal for 2 person meal. Finally on 27 Jul 2012 my partner gathered few of our friends and we decided to try out this restaurant.
They served varieties of seafood dishes, they even have urn roast chicken but we did not order that. What I like best is their deep fried port belly which was grilled on a hot stone before deep frying. Not fattening taste but rather crunchy and goes well with raw garlic. The fish roe was good so is the sweet sour fish. Think we order around 15 dishes!!!
高雄市鼓山區明誠三路682號（近中華路）
Tel：（07）553-7330
營業時間：下午04：00～凌晨01：00
每個月第二ˋ四星期日公休
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