Frog Legs Dish

First time making frog legs.  It tasted good.  Success!

22 Month Anniversary at The Capitol Grill

My calendar today was marked with a Surprise Day.  I love surprises :). 

The plan today as it turns out was to go to the Hama Hama Oyster Rama.  A 2.5 hour drive towards Olympia.  However, when we woke up, it turned out that the weather was pretty wet and chilly… so instead we had our oyster rama at Taylor Shellfish instead.  Wuhahaha.  Taking the bus there, we would eat a bunch of oysters, and also the geoduck sashimi.  One of these days, we need to go to an oyster farm.  Perhaps this is the year I will do it in Washington (since I have talked about it for multiple years now!

The item to note was the geoduck sashimi we had today vs. the night before at Maneki.  Taylor Shellfish definitely cut it nicer (and thinner), but today they had very little geoduck sashimi (it almost seemed like half the plate was missing!).  While Maneki had served a lot more, but the cut was a bit thicker.  For me, I think I liked the thicker cut, but it did come at the cost of a little bit of texture.  Ahhh, if only there was more.

For the dinner surprise, we drove towards Benihana, and for a second I thought that was the surprise dinner.  But I knew it couldn't be, especially since earlier this week I was just there.  We ended up stopping a block from it… and then I realized that we were actually valet parking.  The place: Capitol Grille

This was I think the first (or maybe second) time I have been there.  The first time (if I have), was a couple years back for someone's birthday - since they loved their steaks.  That time though, I didn't remember the service being all that great.  This time though, the service was definitely spectacular.  The lady that served us was amazing, and was pretty awesome.

So we walk in, and the first thing is that they greeted us with our name (last name), took our coats, and then led us to the table (note: technically it was just lil friend's last name, and they assumed we had the same last name).  Nothing special yet, but from then on, things started picking up.

Our server greets us, then asks if we wanted to try their cocktail drink (pineapple infused vodka).  We went no (since we were gonna have wine anyway and I was really a fan of vodka).  She went, oh, ok… but then later she came back with two small glasses and gave us a taste anyway, saying that "oh, you have try it, even if it is just a little bit".  What a nice lady.  Not only that, she also asked if it was a special occasion.  Shy lil friend says no, and of course I went, yes, it is - it is our anniversary :).  So the lady went oh, congratulations…. Then later she comes back and throws some red hearts on to the table, and gives us a hand signed thank you for celebrating your anniversary with us card.  She starts chatting with us more and asks - 'oh how long has it been', and to that I reply proudly 22 :).  She must have thought we were crazy… lol.  To top it all off, she even comp'ed us dessert (which had happy anniversary etched with chocolate on the plate), and we also got a picture.  What service!

The meal itself was yummy. The steak (I had a demonic) was huge, and was done really well.  We also had the lobster mac and cheese, and also the wild mushrooms as sides, but we couldn't finish it.  Lil friend had a porterhouse, which I would definitely have wanted to eat the remains of, but I was already so full from the steak, and the sides, and the calamari appetizer (which was huge!).

The best part of the night was that it turns out we had a $50 coupon for the place (another surprise!).  Great deal, great service, yummy food.  Perfecto!

Happy 22 months! :D

Super Sleepy…

Soldier Mson Day.  Landed, drove straight to work.  But with only 4 hours of sleep in the last 2 days, I was much less effective and super tired.  Somehow though I was able to last till the end of the day.

In hindsight, I was actually pretty tired this entire weekend.  I think with the jet lag, the work last couple weeks, and the late outings this weekend, Solider Mson couldn't march on at the usual pace.  Perhaps this is a sign of aging?

This weekend though was good fun times.  In another 2 months, it will repeat again…haha

4/4 to 4/6 BBW LAX Weekend

After an interview on Friday, proceeded to head towards the airport to get to LAX.  Leaving at 3:05pm, luckily the traffic didn’t pick up fully yet and I was able to get to the airport area in 45 minutes - well before my 5pm flight.  Armed with TSA precheck, and my reservation for airport parking (which I was lucky to have, as the lot was actually full… first time that's ever happened), it was in no time that I was at the gate.

Started the night with some drinks, then some food, then the usual.  Got back to the hotel late.. not remembering most of it the next morning.. Haha.  3 drink limit broken for sure.  

On Saturday, HHH flew in on a whim to join the festivities.  He arrived to see the common sight of basically everyone sleeping (just like when I arrived yesterday), and just like the old days…

Sunday we drank some half yards at the yard house after watching the game.  Then had a pretty chill evening as things were winding down.  Had some deep conversations at 3am in the morning, then at 4am, off I headed to the airport.

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 10 (again!) - Back from the future!

Arriving back at 8am, the trip from the future comes to a close.  Got home, took a shower, then went to bed.  Woke up at 5pm… :P

As it got later on into the night, I was feeling hungry.  But with nothing in the fridge, and too lazy to make anything, I decided to go for some omakase sushi at I Love Sushi.  It was the perfect plan because I wanted to check if my car would start up, to avoid finding out tomorrow morning and needing to figure out where to find a car to jump it with.  This place was just the perfect distance to get some juice into the car :).  Plus, I haven't eaten raw fish for a few days.

Ended up not being able to sleep until very late - probably because of my 8 hour morning-afternoon nap…

Back from the future, gearing up for next week, which will be work work work.

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 10: Last Meal…

Final Meal in Asia…

Breakfast @ Airport

Total Spent: NTD 550 = ~18 USD

Lil dragon dumplings and Oolong tea - The lil dragon dumplings was very disappointing here :(.  Should have ate outside before the checkpoint instead of the food court

Beef noodle - wasn't that great either

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 9: Mao Kong and Snake Combo

Last day in Taipei, the plan was to go south to Mao Kong for some tea experience.  Before that though, we would go for some lil dragon dumplings at this place the whale shark Taiwanese girls recommended us to go to.  This place was good.  It was really stuffy though as they didn't have A/C, so I was basically sweating as I was eating the dumplings.  Turns out there were two places next to each other - and we went to the original :)

After a yummy lunch, we proceeded to go to Mao Kong.  Upon arriving, it didn't look like a tea place, but a Hello Kitty advertisement.  Everywhere there were giant pictures of Hello Kitty.  It was cute, but if I didn't know better, I thought we were at Sanrio.  Now that I think about it, there was not Hello Kitty souvenirs to buy though.

Nanjing ding

The night market where the famous snake combo was located was a bit shady, but worth it. 

One each of snake blood (capsule), snake bile, and snake venom (smallest)- and a bowl of snake soup. ......

Summary of What was Eaten Today:

Lunch @ 明月

Total Spent: NTD 890

What we had:

  2 orders of lil dragon dumplings

  Pot stickers

  peanut black sesame mochi

  drunken chicken

  通菜

  onion oil fried pancake

Dinner @ ???

Total Spent: NTD 165

What we had:

  Tea egg (NTD 10)

  Rice, egg, tofu (NTD 90)

  Yodule green tea n green tea bbtea (NTD 65)

Night Market

Total Spent: NTD 350

What we (I) had:

    That famous snake combo!!! (Blood, gall, sperm, soup)

Total for the Day: 890 + 165 + 350 = NTD 1,405 = ~$47 USD

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 8: Beitou Hot Springs

For today, we headed up north for the Beitou Hot Springs :).  But before that, we needed food, so we went to a famous beef noodle place to try it out.  Then had mango ice for desert down the street.

My first time to a hot spring that I can remember.  So I was pretty excited.  Original goal was to go the Grand View Resort (http://www.gvrb.com.tw/) as this one that supposedly had a private room with a view that you can soak in sulphur goodness.  There were quite a few hotels that had 'in house' hot spring tubs that you could check out for a couple hours, use, and then leave.  But alas, after walking up a bunch of switchbacks, apparently they were full :(.  So then we started walking back down and came across 春天酒店 Spring City Resort.  This turned out to be sorta like a spa thing, where for 800 NTD per person, it was a 'public bath' with 8 different types of baths. 

The notable baths were:

• One that was cold water with rose petals in it (this one didn't have sulphur in it - so wasn't hot spring water)
• One that was super hot, so it was super refreshing to jump in the cold water one after soaking in this one for a bit
• There was a section where it was just a hot slab - so worked as a nice butt warmer

There were also 'artificial' waterfall showers, and a few other pretty common ones - though all had sulphur in it. 

Easily spent a couple hours here …. Oh how I love just lounging and soaking around.  I swear my skin was mucho better after that!

The best part was, there was a free shuttle back to the station that runs every hour (and we just caught it)!

With a nice relaxing afternoon, the next stop was another night market, this time the 繞河 night market.  But before that, took up CS buddy's recommendation and tried out  度小月.  Super yummy noodles.

At the night market …. ate more :)

Summary of What was Eaten Today:

Lunch @ 永康牛肉麵

Total Spent: NTD 740

What we had:

  小菜 (pickled cucumber, pig ear)

  牛筋，牛肉面

  'muni' 牛肉面

  steamed spare ribs

Desert after Lunch @ 芒果雪花冰

Total Spent: NTD 370

What we had:

   Fruit shaved Ice

   Red and Green Bean Puffy Ice

   Mango smoothie

Dinner @ 度小月

Total Spent: NTD 880

What we had:

    3 Bowls of Noodle (we had one of each)

    Egg

    Meatball

    Small clam (Served Cold)

    Long yuan Pudding

    Slices of Goose

Night Market @ 繞河

Total Spend: NTD 150

  QQ Egg (NTD 25) - this was really yummy.

  Oolong honey tea (NTD 40) - loooove oolong bbtea

  Red bean bread (NTD 15)

  Grilled Corn on the Stick (NTD 70)

Total for the Day: 740 + 370 + 880 + 150 = NTD 2,140 = ~$71 USD

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 7: Eating Every Hour

Goal: Eat something once every hour…

First stop: National Taiwan Museum

Thought it would be about the history of Taiwan - but apparently it turned out to be a lesson on Darwinism and evolution of plants, and animals.  Pretty cool exhibit but not what we were expecting.  For 20 NTD though, can't really complain.

Also left myself a little note in the booklet there…. If you ever see the line below, that's from me!

"Present me leaving a note for the future me.. But the present me is actually in the future!  Woah!..."

Second Stop: Shilin Night Market

After quite a few more snacking, we proceeded to go to the night market in Shilin

This was pretty fun - since we got to eat a bunch of stuff here.  The best was the first thing I got, which was the whole squid!.. Mmmmm.. See below for a summary of what we ate.

We also ended up buying some tea.  Some Ginger Tea (NTD 170) and Normal Tea (NTD 280).

To round off the night, we had one final meal at one of the Ding Tai Fungs (the one by MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing).  I mean, what is a Taipei trip without trying one of them!  For kicks, ordered more or the less the same thing we would have here, so that I could compare.

Summary of What was Eaten Today:

Lunch @ Noodle place next to hot pot:

Total Spent: NTD 960

What we had:

  麻油雞麵線 x2

  香菇雞湯

  An intestine medley

For snacks (so we meet the food every hour goal):

Total Spent: NTD 140

What we had:

    Coffees near National Taiwan Museum (NTD 65)

    Snack near National Taiwan Museum - 豆漲 x2, 油條, 曉餅 (NTD 45)

    Snack near the Subway Station - 胡淑餅 (NTD 30)

For Dinner @ Shilin Night Market

Total Spent: NTD 570

What we had:

  Grilled Squid (NT 100) - This was delicious.  One of my favorite items I ate in Taiwan!

  Duck Wing (NTD 30)

  Bubble Waffle (NTD 20) - Which is < $1 USD!!!... In North America it is at least $3!

  Oolong tea with tapioca (NTD 40)

  Crab (NTD 150)

  Taiwanese Beer (NTD 50)

  Sausage (NTD 60)

  Aloe drink (NTD 35 )

  小籠包 (NTD 70) - Wasn't that good.  I am beginning to think that there are only a few places with decent XLBs…

  Marinated tofu and egg (NT 35)

  Winter melon bubble tea (NT 30)

For Dinner #2 @ Ding Tail Fung

Total Spent: NTD 898

What we had:

   The picture says it all :)

Total for the Day: 960 + 140 + 570 = NTD 1,670 = ~$56 USD

… To think that first night hot pot was NTD 1661… AND this was the amount we spent on food for two people for a WHOLE day!... Mmmmmm….

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 6: En route and Arriving in Taipei

Last day in Okinawa and it was a windy one.  We went to KFC in Okinawa (because I just had to :)) - and there was rice balls being served. 

We also made some purchases at Don Quiote - a bottle of Mount Fuji sake, and some candies and chips

We arrived back in Taipei towards the evening, and took a bus out of the airport which would drop us 0.5 miles from our hotel.  The hotel (called FX Hotel) was pretty nice.  Very new décor and trendy looking.  Room was pretty big and the bathroom was pretty cool.  It was also very near the subway so super convenient!  They also offer free umbrellas for loan (since I guess it rains a lot in Taipei?)

For the first night that we arrived, we had a hot pot dinner.  This ended up costing 1661 NTD.

It was yummy, but not sure if it was ~$55 USD yummy.  But with very few places open and being super tired, this was alright.

Side note - my back's been hurting.. I wonder if it's because of too much walking in the last two days?

Summary of What was Eaten Today:

Dinner @ Hot Pot Place by the FX Hotel

Total Spent: NTD 1661

What we had:

    Different plates of beef, duck and vegetables.  Pictures are worth a thousand words… .. .

Total for the Day: NTD 1,661 = ~$55 USD

Note: This was the most money we would spend in a single meal in Taipei.