Wife’sHubby’s Critique : Our first stop at the Gongguan night market, was at the famous “Blue House Gua Bao” (藍家割包) restaurant to sample the traditional Taiwanese burger. This small traditional restaurant has become quite a local and tourist favourite, with its walls adorned with testimonies from many overseas tourists. The burger consists a fluffy white bun which is filled with traditional marinated pork, pickled vegetables mixed with crushed peanuts and parsley. When ordering the fillings, you can go for the healthy lean choice, the full fat option or if you can’t make up your mind, the half and half. The burger was very delicious and the cost of one burger – NT45 or USD1.50 ! That’s a recession busting burger. The owner of this restaurant is very used to having tourists and his English is quite good and was very friendly and accommodating.We finished off the night with a street snack dessert, loosely translated as the “wheel” biscuit (車輪餅), and the popular milk pearl tea nearby. The freshly made biscuit is filled with red bean paste or custard. This is another local favourite as we had to queue in line to pick up our after dinner snack.
Gongguan Night Market, Taipei
Mu Jee Beef Noodles (穆記牛肉麵), Taipei
Wife’sHubby’s Critique : This small noodle eatery (穆記牛肉麵) in Taipei’s Xinyi District is best known for its beef noodles (hence the name) but I like to come here for their beef pancake rolls – thinly sliced marinated beef with green onions rolled inside a crispy fried pancake with sweet sauce. My only complaint here is that they were pretty unfriendly when it came to photography. They seemed very suspicious of me taking photos and one of the ladies even told me off. I think there’s no reason to be rude. They could have asked me nicely not to take photos.
Ibu Oka, Bali
Wife’sHubby’s Critique : The humble Ibu Oka roadside stall enjoys fame and accolades reaching far beyond Bali after being hailed by the likes of Anthony Bourdain. Despite our short stay in Ubud, we had to drop by and try its famous suckling pig (or babi guling in Indonesian). Instead of the original stall on the main road in Ubud, our driver took us to a newer and much larger restaurant that must have been built after Ibu Oka rose to fame.The suckling pig is prepared by stuffing the whole pig with spices and spit roasted until the skin is crispy. The pig is then carved up and served in a relatively small portion together with some of the innards of the pig and a generous dose of a special chilli sauce blend. I lapped up the delicious spiced pig eagerly, enjoying every bit of the seasoned meat. I wasn’t a big fan of the innards that came with the servings though. A little too exotic for my taste. We also ordered a serving of soup which was absolutely delicious.
Ibu Oka deserves every bit of the fame that it has and highly recommended for any visitor to Ubud. Wifey found the chilli sauce to be a bit too spicy for her taste.