Handmade Mochi @ Fenqihu Old Street in Taiwan

Both Alex and I love muah chee, and you can vividly sense the longing in Alex's expression when we walked past one particular store along Fenqihu Old Street; that "gosh, this looks not bad" look on his face.

Onz, let's just order even though I am not as excited about mochi. Although there are similarities between the Singapore muah chee and the Japanese / Taiwanese mochi, the latter was larger and came in fillings not as memorable as the traditional peanut ones we are accustomed to.

But this seemed promising!

At NT$15 apiece, this looked like a big-sized fish ball (or a foochow fish ball). I was hopeful and can't wait to sink my teeth right in the middle, so that I can accurately secure the immediate burst of nutty goodness! 

Boy it didn't disappoint; this mix of peanuts and sesame seeds, with fine grain sugar of course, was delicious and so satisfying! It didn't feel as if the mochi was too much and I was glad it didn't stick to my teeth! 

Peanuts one was as good; I would say this would be like an enhanced, enlarged version of the pint-sized muah chee we have in Singapore, given that it has a filling whereas the ones we have in Singapore are more wrapped with peanuts. Since I have a home recipe for muah chee, maybe I can recreate this Taiwanese mochi! 

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Location

Along Fenqihu Old Street,

Chiayi, Taiwan

Menu

As above.

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)

Sapa Rose Valley @ Sun World Fansipan Legend [Vietnam]

The mist was heavy when we arrived at Hoang Lien Cable Car Station from Fansipan Station but instead of going straight back to Sapa Town via the Muong Hoa Funicular; we decided to venture out of the station! 

Greeting us was the above; a place, devoid of other humans, shrouded mysteriously in a cloud of mist, reminding me of the scenes in the horror movie, Silent Hill. 

Seriously, if not for the daylight, this would have been darn eerie. 

Advantage; no one else was there except for our family of six. Even though it was only about 2pm, I was kind of surprised as all other areas at Sun World Fansipan Legend were crowded with people, and this rose valley was right outside a cable car station! 

Only reason I could think of was visitors' focus on conquering the 3,143-meter summit of Fansipan and decided to ignore this mid-level attraction, only to realize they were too tired to explore once they were done with the summit.

Plus, it was freezing near the summit! It wasn't as cold in the rose valley although it was drizzling very lightly. Above was a display of water droplets on a spider web.

A pity for those who miss out on exploring this place as there were plenty of photo spots! A luxury for us since it was just us in the area, with no one jostling to take photographs.

There's even this staircase to heaven!

Unlike a clean staircase, it was like the arduous, torturing journey to reach the top! Kudos to both my sister and brother in law, who didn't seem to be too bothered with scaling the height! 

I stopped halfway with the view as above. As I get older, I am not afraid of death but the staircase was slippery and being badly injured would be worse than dying!

Photograph of dad from the middle of the staircase. For a rose valley, I must admit that I don't really see a lot of roses. Maybe it was too cold for the roses to bloom. 

In better weather, I presume it would be a prettier sight. 

Woah, a lot of roses! Maybe I was wrong about the weather!

A closer look revealed they were all fake! :( 

My elder sister is known for being very expressive when she takes photographs. What a lot of people didn't know was that my serious-looking brother in law can also be expressive! Must be the influence from the wife.

Can see that my dad absolutely loved this trip! 

And even till now, he is still talking about Sapa! 

Photographs of my family, without me as I am the main photographer! Last photograph shows how close the rose valley was to the Hoang Lien Cable Car Station.

Rare photograph of my younger sister with my dad! 

My sisters with my dad, using the available props for photo-taking! And I totally adored the second picture, where my elder sister was trying to tame a raging stallion! With the youngest of us already above 40 years old, we were behaving like we were kids! 

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Click here for my summarized itinerary of my 3 days trip to Sapa

Lay Lao - Michelin Bib Gourmand Restaurant @ Ari in Bangkok [Thailand] #michelin

I first walked past Lay Lao after a visit to Dog In Town in Ari back in 2022, after noticing the michelin logo sticker; told myself to check it out soonest and this soonest took me about three years to materialize! 

Opened in 2014, Lay Lao served Hua Hin and not Northern Thai cuisine that some social media influencers mentioned. Even though we reached at about 6.00 pm, the place wasn't crowded as I would have expected from most Michelin bib gourmand eateries, with the second floor being totally empty.

While awaiting our food, I took to exploring the local snack corner next to the cashier. While it's beneficial to sell local food souvenirs, it would be better if sampling can be provided! p.s. the crispy shredded pork at just 248 baht (about S$10) would be nice with plain porridge! 

Coconut Soup with Seafood - this was said to be spicy and I was anticipating the spiciness to make my scalp sweat! It didn't happen as it was surprisingly quite mild. Nothing tomyum about it; in its place was a bowl of aromatic soup with a strong coconut punch that tasted like green curry! 

Homestyle Grilled Chicken - I was expecting this to be like the isaan style one I had at Singapore's Un-Yang-Kor-Dai. Sadly, the meat was bland, and mushy with the tendency to stick to my teeth. Definitely needed the two sauces to up the flavor.  

Deep Fried Sun Dried Pork Belly - lovers of char siew and siew yoke would enjoy this! Nuggets of caramelized pork belly that were sinfully sweet; said to be the result of a secret lay lao sauce! What's lacking, however, would be a bowl of Thai jasmine rice! 

Pad Thai with Crispy Pork Skin - ever since I sold my soul to Thipsamai, it's quite hard for me to try pad thai in Bangkok as I am leaving the heavy carbohydrate dish to my favourite! However, one ingredient stood out from the menu.

Crispy pork skin, which I correctly assumed to be deep fried pork lard! Unfortunately, while they were in large chunks, the pork lard failed for being too cloyingly dry! The pad thai noodles themselves were nice although they could do with more oil as the noodles were clumped up! 

Deep Fried Squid with Roe - said to be a another recommended dish that also used the secret lay lao sauce, I was seriously anticipating this as I recalled it being raved about on a social influencer page! And I love squid. 

Let's dissect the little baby! 

p.s. looks like a slug in this photo.

Utterly delicious! Squid was well seasoned (with a sweet twang) and nicely grilled, resulting in a texture that was non-rubbery and surrounded by a smoky aroma that was so addictive as my teeth chewed through it! For an extra punch to the flavor, dip it into the spicy seafood sauce! 

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My companions didn't quite like the food, although I only counted the Pad Thai with Crispy Pork Skin and Homestyle Grilled Chicken as failures. Maybe I would be back this October! 

Address

65 Phahon Yothin 7, Phaya Thai, 

Bangkok 10400, Thailand

(Near Ari BTS Station)

Map

As above.

Operating Hours

10.30 am to 10.00 pm

(Daily)

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Coconut Soup with Seafood - 295 Baht

Homestyle Grilled Chicken - 195 Baht

Deep Fried Sun Dried Pork Belly - 185 Baht

Pad Thai with Crispy Pork Skin - 155 Baht

Deep Fried Squid with Roe - 295 Baht

(Subject to Service Charge and Taxes)