Mashi no Mashi, Pickering Street

Mashi no Mashi (#01-42 Nankin Row, 3 Pickering Street, tel : +65 8957 8620) relocated from their previous location at Guoco Midtown to China Square. Place downsized physically from what looked to be a full restaurant to a ramen bar. The menu kinda went the same route and streamlined. I guess a few hard lessons were learnt there.

Some refreshing lemon soda water.

A la carte orders get a complimentary serving of of their charcoal grilled edamame. Wagyu fat is apparently involved. Most of the flavour is on the pods.

Something(s) has changed with their ultra wagyu bowl. I remember the broth being better. Beefier. I'm getting mushroom elements in the broth today. Like those from the gyukotsu bowl at Ramen Makotoya. Except that Ramen Makotoya did it better. Visually, one can already tell it has changed from their previous bowl.

The hard noodles weren't that hard as well. 😮‍💨 

There's a summer truffle bowl.

It's oddly a little sweet. Maybe it's the snow peas.

I decided not to continue putting up with the sweetness. One's made with Habanero and the other, Carolina Reaper. I recommend the latter if you enjoy heat. Instant scalp prickles. But it dragged the summer truffle bowl out of the annoying in the sweetness.

Their wagyu horumon featured offal in some sweet sauce that reminded me of those from bulgogi. I recognised tripe. There was another thing in there that was super chewy. I mean, super chewy.

This was Mr Mashi. Banana sherbet according to the menu with pecans and maple that tasted like ice cream rather than sherbet.

Ameo Pudding Town (雨尾部町), Zhongzheng Road @ Tamsui District, Taipei

Came across Ameo Pudding Town (No. 264, Zhongzheng Road, Tamsui District, Taipei) while wandering around Dan Shui. They're a shop for soft serves, puddings and dorayakis.

I was initially intrigued by their espresso sundae. Turned out to be something like an affogato with too much ice cream so the coffee's kinda weak due to the ratio.

The other sundae which we got had balsamic vinegar and olive oil was delicious. Would come back just for this.

Dan Shui (淡水)

Some bites in our day trip to Dan Shui.

Pancake with cai por (pickled radish). Peppery ones at that. Never had these sweet pancakes with cai por before. Pretty good tasting with a lot of crunch - a texture that one normally doesn't get in these.

Red bean ones were also nice. Love that they weren't overly sweet. Loads of beans inside.

Custard ones were kinda lightweight.

Salted duck egg with powder blue shells.

They were salty, but not as salty as the ones we have back home.

The century egg shells were speckled.

The crystalline blacks were latticed with dendritic salt crystals. According to Gemini, these patterns are known as sōng huā (松花) in Chinese, are a sign of a properly made and high-quality century egg.

Yolk was creamy and molten. These were good tasting century eggs.

Stopped for some seasonal blueberry kakigori at this shop.

White bitter melon juice with honey. The drink was actually refreshing with the bitterness edging in at the back of each gulp.

Jiufen (九份)

Finally at Jiu Fen. We told ourselves to keep our expectations moderated because we've grown wise to the ways of social media whores. The location was magical in its own ways but not necessarily along the old street (老街) where it's mostly and unimaginatively featured.

Here's some of the stuff we ate. 'Some' because it was almost impossible to get photos of everything we ate in the crowd.

Tried some cream puffs. Decent tasting. The orange one was sweet potato custard.

Squid sausage was pretty peppery. No squid ink flavour here.

Finally got some grilled eringi after seeing them around in numerous street stalls. The mushrooms were a little juicy and a little spongy. Tasted much like how I imagined them. 

Snails. The chilli sauce packed a bit heat and vinegar. So while it added some zing, it also mostly overwhelmed the natural briny flavour of those snails.

Crispy milk donuts in Taipei

These fried donuts topped with milk powder are apparently a thing in recent times.

Dough was the first stall that we happened across. We got a batch freshly fried and I loved them. Crunchy surfaced fried bread with the milk powder just worked.

Tried another one from Curly Mama's. Bread was a noticeably more dense and the flavour from the milk powder didn't taste as apparent. Dough beats this.

The one with plenty of hype came from 一脆鲜奶脆皮甜甜圈 which we found in Ximending. Or at least that's what I think the stall's called. Lacked the milkiness from the powder. In our opinion, not as nice as Dough but it has the longest queue because social media.

Re-visiting Alice Boulangerie @ Icon Village

Quick one from Alice Boulangerie.

Basque bleu cheese tart. 😬

Not as melty as I imagined but the blue cheese flavour was a superb blend with the creamy sweetness and the buttery pastry without being overpowering. 👍🏼 

Nicely done Paris Brest. Choux pastry was a little denser than I imagined though.

Not bad hōjicha cream latte.

Couldn't get past the orange Americano. 😬 While there are probably a few renditions of this drink around, this one was I suppose, a bit more......indulgent. That coming from the orangey sweet creaminess.