Taiwan 2016 Day 2- Machi cheese/ Mr Love Birthday celebration/ Shopping

Mr Love colleague recommended us to buy Machi cheese while in Taipei and we decided to check out the shop before deciding whether to buy. Sun cakes and pineapple tarts are just too mainstream to be brought back so we were happy with a change.

Turns out to be the best decision to go on 2nd day of our trip to check out the shop since the boss said he would need 2 days in advance to prepare the orders as there are quite a few steps to be done to freeze the cheese to be carried home.

Blueberry flavour

Box of 7

Mr Love wanted initially to just order over the phone and get the boss to deliver but I reckon we should at least try and see whether we like the taste before buying back for our family.

There's only 1 shop front in Taipei and the address is as follow:

台北市西寧北路54-1號1樓

1). We took the metro to Beimen station and once exit, cross the street to opposite to Zhengzhou Road.
2). You will see the underground metro exit to your right.
3). Walk Left along the building and you will see Taipei City Hospital, Zhong Xing branch.
4). Walk straight and take a right turn at 1st junction. There should be a school ( Taipei Municipal Zhong Xiao School on the left of the street).
5). Keep walking along the row of shops after the school and the shop is nested in between.

Original

I didn't managed to take any photo of the shop front but it's kinda easy to miss if you are not careful cuz its not a retail shop and the shop front is cover up with opaque paper. 

Was pretty skeptical initially but the Boss was really friendly and even took out a roll of cheese for us to try the taste before ordering.

Strawberry

We were sold once we got to taste the cheese as the Mochi skin melts and the cheese is just like ice cream! No wonder some customers keep forgetting that it is cheese we are getting not ice cream. Haha. You cannot blame us though, I was confused for a minute too.

Green Tea

We were told that we can deep freeze the cheese and check in for bringing back to SG. However, it requires 2days of preparation and the boss is kind enough to do delivery to your hotel if in Taipei. 

Since we stayed quite out of the way, we arranged to meet him at the bus terminal in Taipei when we were due to depart. Save his time. He is very accommodating towards the delivery time and would collect payment upon delivery of the food. 

Oreo

We brought 4 boxes with 7 flavours in each box back and the boss help to pack them into a foam box to be checked in. Each roll is NTD28 and its really valued for monies. 

Mango

Our family all love this new product alot! A change from the conventional food that was brought back from Taiwan. Mummy can finished 1 whole roll at once by herself!

However, I liked it the way the Boss taught us to eat. Take from the frezeer and chill for 5minutes and divide into 4 pieces per roll. It tastes best this way!

Chocolate

Next, we made our way to the famous 24hr Eslite Bookstore. Cannot believe that I have never been here despite coming to Taipei for so many times.

Reason being, Mr Love simply dislike going to bookstore since he don't read.

Me on the other hand, gets excited on a trip to the bookstore and can spend hours inside choosing on that one book to buy. Haha

Flashcards

This time round, I used his sons as excuse. Wanna get them some flashcards which is cheaper here in Taiwan as compared back home. I managed to buy 3boxes of it at NTD100 each and also 6CDs of nursery songs at NTD100 too. What a steal!

Then I took the chance and go shop around the bookstore to buy some travel guide which is way cheaper than SG and SG version are all imported from here! For some reason, I find travel guide more informative when in chinese as compared to their English counterparts.

We then make our way to have Mr Love's birthday lunch at which I made a reservation before coming here.

Shop Front

The address are as follow:  106, Taiwan, 台北市大安區光復南路240巷50號 

We went navigate our way from Zhongxiao Dun Hua station as this is the same station we dropped to go to Eslite bookshop. But turns out that Sun Yat Sen station is much nearer.

Directions:

1). Take exit 2 of Sun Yat Sen station

2). Turn left upon exiting 

3). Go straight for around 500m and you should see the shop signage.

Big crab

I was actually looking forward to have spicy hot pot but because the weather is too hot and Mr Love is recently steering clear of spicy food due to sensitive stomach we decided to order miso and kunbu (昆布) soup base. The kunbu soup base is apparently the recommended for cooking their famous crabs. 

Soup base

My favourite

Fruits and dessert

Veggies, desserts, ice cream and sauces are all self service. You will have to order your meat and drinks from a sheet. 

Service is pretty fast thought maybe because we are the only patrons here on a weekday lunch. Haha Mr Love says no 1 eats hotpot for lunch especially on a hot afternoon.

There's a time limit of 2hours as usual. 

Veggies selection 1

Veggies selection 2

Sauces

We went 1 round of ordering 1 serving of nearly every meat available. Haha This is my usual protocol to see which kind of meat we like best and will starting whacking that. 

Sliced pork

Beef

I loved their slice pork and beef for it's thinly sliced and its fresh. Taste best when pairing with my favourite sesame oil. 

Pork shoulder meat

There's a whole lot of selection of seafood too. And the yong tau fu ingredients like fish ball, sotong balls and whats not. 

Seafood

The 1st serving of their king crab came in a fanciful bowl with some other shells. A whole crab will be served if there are 4 pax. We got partial crab only.

The crab was really fresh and tasty. I do not usually like my crab cooked in soup only, preferring those with stronger flavouring like black pepper or chilli crab. But this when cooked in the recommended kunbu soup base is really nice. And we literally can pull out meat off the shell in 1 swift movement. 

 And of course not to mention how sweet tasting the soup is after cooking all the seafood.

Crab and shells

We opted for the king crab hotpot and teppantaki combo at NT1180 +10% tax and thus can order from the teppan yaki selection too. The food will only be cooked upon ordering and thus is served hot. Woohoo. My favourite. 

We love the teppan yaki so much that took 4 of it.

Teppanyaki menu

There is also quite a vast selection of free flow drinks to choose from .

Order sheet

There are 2 more kind of dining options. NTD 799+ 10%tax for teppan yaki buffet or NTD599+10% tax for hotpot only.

Of course it being Mr Love's birthday treat I choose the most comprehensive buffet. It was quite worth though at SGD 60bucks each, we were full till wanna roll. And not to mention that the ingredients were fresh and tasty and we lucked out by being the only lunch patrons and thus service was fast and good. Haha

Menu

Happy Us after the meal

We then make our way to Long Shan temple when I wanna return prayers and also pray for well being for our whole family. 

Then we also went to this shopping street near Long Shan temple where we were told they sell lots of kiddos' clothes. I actually wanted to buy Dinos' CNY clothing but had no idea where to go besides Wu Fen Pu. 

Then while chatting with Machi Cheese boss, I asked him to recommend as a local and he told us to come here. But turns out there are morel shops selling clothes suitable for my mummy than my Dinos.

Mr Love and I kept walking though and 1 shirt caught my eyes. I thought it would suit mummy and she could wear for the upcoming wedding of my cousin.

Nice?

The store owner was amused when she saw me getting interested in the shirt and told me it does not suit my age. Of cuz! I'm planning to buy for my mummy who is doubled my age. Haha.

It's pretty reasonable at NTD 500 bucks and we brought it for mummy. Again I asked them where to get kiddos clothes since we were told to come here and didnt see much.

She was nice enough to intro us to a shop but at 2nd level at another building and got her hubby to bring us there. 

Red for CNY

Cute jumpers

True enough, there was quite a variety there and I managed to buy 4 sets home at NTD 200 per set. Quite a good bargain I would say and the quality is pretty good. Would have wanted to buy more but didn't want to over do it.

It sort of concluded our day after shopping here since we are too full to eat more. But still we dropped by Roahe Night market which now has a mrt station

Didn't eat too much here and we retreated back to hotel at 8pm but not before buying fried chicken and skin again from our new found favourite store in the alley beside the hotel. 

Had an early night and still haven decide the itinerary of the next day. I'm in between going to Hsin Chu for a day trip or Jiu fen again. Mr Love had no preference and its up to me. 

So I thought I will sleep on it and decide tomorrow morning during breakie. Haha