The Original Mitsui

Meals in Taiwan are usually either several hour 12 course affairs or casual street food eats like noodles and dumplings. Our meal at Mitsui (Sanjing) was definitely in the former category. We've gone to Mitsui on our previous three trips, although this was my first time at the original Longan Jie location. It's always a crowd pleaser for high end Japanese.  Japanese food is very popular in Taiwan and usually the cuisine of choice for locals to take out-of-towners. We had 12 people so ordered a set menu family style. We had everything from sushi / sashimi, grilled fish and meat, bbq seafood, hot pot and stolen birthday cake. We definitely left stuffed but everything was delicious as usual.

Abalone salad

Fried salmon

Sashimi plate (for one person)

Grilled prawn

Uni and yamaimo

Seared scallop

Bbq king crab legs

Deep fried soft shell crab

Grilled fish

Sushi platter

Seared beef

Seafood hot pot (we were already full at this point)

Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang: Typical Taiwanese Breakfast

I picked our hotel partially due to proximity to a few of my must eats in Taipei, Din Tai Fung as well as Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang (Yong He Soy Milk Big King). Thanks to jetlag yesterday and waking up at 4am, we were able to get a delicious breakfast at the Fuxing South location and go for a nice stroll in the Da An Shen Ling Park across the street from our hotel all before 8am. Dou jiang is one of my favorite breakfast foods; you can get a freshly made delicious breakfast for less than $3 for two. They make everything there, including the famous you tiao (always explained to me as Taiwanese french fry, but really a big flaky yet chewy stick of fried dough to dip in the warm soy milk). I'm usually a fan of the xian dou jian (salty soy milk) with all the savory delicious bits in there, but I also enjoy the tian dou jian (sweet soy milk), which is the simpler perfect dipping vessel for the you tiao. We also got a shao bing jia dan, a flaky sesame pastry with a freshly fried egg in the middle. Take that egg mcmuffin!

Assembling the xian dou jiang

You tiao making

Xian dou jiang

Tian dou jiang with the shao bing you tiao

Shao bing jia dan

Yong He Dou Jian
Fuxing South Road, 2nd Section, 102

Din Tai Fung: Taipei Lunch

Always our first real meal in Taipei: the original Din Tai Fung on Xinyi Lu and Yongkang Jie near my grandparents. This trip, we only went to Din Tai Fung twice; usually I try to hit it up at least 3-4 times per trip! On our second visit, we got the famous "tang bao," true soup dumplings: mini xiao long bao that you dip in a spoonful of clear broth for extra juicy deliciousness, only available on weekends until they run out.

Regular xiao long bao

Hong you cao shou: wontons in red chili sauce

First stop

Breakfast after getting in at 6am. Love Taiwanese savory pastries! This place was only ok, my favorite place is Sheng Kee on Xinyi Lu near Xinsheng Nan Lu for the softest, fluffiest, tasty breakfast pastries.

November Farmers Market

I didn't actually buy anything as I'm headed out of town soon but I took a quick stroll around the Santa Monica Wednesday farmer's market today as I was at the office, right next door. All sorts of varieties of winter squash: delicata, acorn, butternut, kabocha and spaghetti, and lots of dark leafy greens. The market was quite busy as I think quite a few people were getting a head start on Thanksgiving shopping. A little sad to be missing Thanksgiving this year, but I'll be having lots of beef noodle soup, stinky tofu and nasi goreng (any guesses on where I'm going? I guess its pretty obvious).

Kindle Touch 3G

Just in time for my trip to Asia, I picked up the new Kindle Touch 3G from Staples today. I had a bunch of Staples rewards coupons that were about to expire, so it was free to me! I wasn't planning on getting the 3G, just the Kindle Touch, but due to some snafus with the order process, I got upgraded. I've loaded it up with a few books from my library as well as downloaded some free classics from Amazon, should be more than enough for my travels. I'm still getting used to it, I've had some issues turning it off and on, it appears to freeze occasionally and runs a little choppily with flashing screens and it sucks that it has to charge through a computer as no power adapter was provided. Despite the flaws, I'm still happy that I got it and glad that I won't have to lug 10 pounds of books around with me while on vacation.

Versace for H&M: Creepily Awesome

I love the marketing geniuses over at H&M. The Lanvin x H&M video was amazing, I must have watched it a million times. They certainly don't skimp on the budget, the Versace x H&M video is pretty awesome to watch and they put on a killer fashion show earlier in the week. Too bad I'm going to be in Asia and miss the launch on November 19th...

The campaign:

The runway show: