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Din Tai Fung and Those Amazing Soup Dumplings, Taipei 101 Observatory

Taipei 101 is undoubtedly a signature tourist destination in Taiwan. It’s well-recognized for its architectural design looking like a tall bamboo stalk. Standing at 508 meters, it is far taller than any other building in Taipei and, at one point, was the tallest building the world. The first five stories of the building is basically a big mall comprised of various luxury brand stores and a food court in the basement level.

While there is plenty of shopping that could be done there, we had one main goal in mind during our visit at Taipei 101: To dine at the Din Tai Fung restaurant! Din Tai Fung is a Michelin Star restaurant that serves a full menu of Taiwanese dishes but is notably famous for its xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. While we’ve eaten at Din Tai Fung in Southern California locations, there was no doubt in my mind that the food would be far better at Taipei 101. We heard wait times could be as long as three hours but luckily we arrived around 4:30 PM on a weekday, which was just before rush hour, so we only had to wait five minutes to be seated!

One of the things I thought was mesmerizing was watching the entire process to making the famous little soup dumplings. No less than 20 employees were churning this fine-tuned-dumpling-making-machine. Each individual had a responsibility from making the dough, creating small balls of dough, rolling the dough into small circles, making the filling, enclosing the filling with the dough and putting them in the bamboo steamers for cooking. I’ll post a video to show this process.

Being that we were all starving and wanted to try as many things as possible, we ordered a bunch of items from the menu. Of course we got several orders of the xiao long bao soup dumplings. Those delicate little dumplings alone, filled with tender meat and deliciously hot broth, would’ve made the visit entirely worth it. I’m pretty sure I had at least 10 soup dumplings by myself! But we didn’t stop there and also ordered their braised beef noodle soup, hot & sour soup, shrimp wontons, green dishes, steamed dumplings and buns. The dishes were all delicious and were overall better compared to the restaurants in Southern California. The ingredients and soups tasted much more authentic and flavorful. The staff was also very nice and service was great.

The total bill for our meal was about $70 for the four of us for a pretty significant amount of food. Each dish ranges from $5-10. I’d recommend going during off hours and weekdays when possible to avoid long wait times, but it’s well worth the time and price for any visitor try out some famous Taiwanese cuisine.

After our meal, we did the next touristy thing to do which was go up top to the observatory of Taipei 101. Tickets are available for $10/person on the fifth floor and our wait time to get to the elevator was about 15 minutes (but can be longer). When you get into the elevator, you will experience the fastest elevator in the world. According the the Guinness World Records, the elevator can reach the 89th floor from ground level in 40 seconds with a max speed of 37.6 mph.

From the observatory, you can walk around the observatory for a 360° view of Taipei. The views at night are beautiful and picturesque. It’s definitely part of the Taipei experience and worth checking out.

Here is the address, phone number and hours for Din Tai Fung at Taipei 101:

B1, No. 45, Shift Rd., Taipei City (Taipei 101 Mall)

TEL: 02-8101-7799  FAX: 02-8101-7800

Sun-Thu 11:00 am – 9:30 pm

Fri, Sat 11:00 am – 10:00 pm

 

For more information, visit their websites: Din Tai Fung and Taipei 101.

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Our Visit to Otres Beach, Sihanoukville & Koh Rong Island

On the last leg of our Cambodia visit, we ventured to the beaches to seek some relaxation. We spent three days between Otres Beach, Sihanoukville and Koh Rong Island. We didn’t go to downtown Sihanoukville and stayed near our hotel.

Otres Beach, Sihanoukville

At Otres Beach, we stayed at Tamu Hotel, which you can read our review here. The hotel was a great experience and one of the best attractions here. Our room was comfortable and the staff was very friendly to us. It also sits right on the beach, where there were plenty of day beds, a ready staff to bring anything you need and masseuses who provide one-hour full body massage for $8. The beach was overall very nice, from its pristine turquoise waters and fine white sand. Tamu Hotel’s stretch of beach was very well maintained, as its staff would comb the beaches and pick up trash every morning.

There were some parts of our experience that could be improved. While the hotel’s stretch of beach was very clean, other stretches were littered with trash and pollution. On the most southern part of Otres beach in particular was almost completely covered with trash and even dead animals. There were even some glass shards in the sand so I advise wearing shoes or sandals when walking up and down the beach.

There are locals that offer long-boat rides to nearby islands for snorkeling and fishing for around $10-12 per person. However, based on our experience, I would probably avoid this activity and look for other things to do in the area. Our boat was very late and disorganized, and when we did get picked up, our boat did not look like it was maintained and much of the snorkeling gear was broken. We were hoping that the island’s reefs would be fun to explore, but instead we saw most of the coral reef was bleached white, signaling that they were dying or had died, and there wasn’t much other marine life. It was a very unfortunate sight to see. We did manage to see a beautiful sunset on our way back, but it was still a disappointing experience.

Koh Rong Island

Next, we set off to Koh Rong Island for a short stay at Sok San Beach Resort. It took a boat ride and a truck ride through the island’s jungles to get to the resort. The hotel is right on the beach and we were able to get a room with a nice ocean view. The resort was almost completely empty, as it was the rainy season and very few people stay there. During the peak seasons, this resort can be very busy. Sure enough, it was scattered thunderstorms passed by the island dropping heavy amounts of rain.

The beaches here were very clean and pristine. The waters were nice, warm and very calm. It was also very shallow, so shallow that you could go at least 25 feet into the water without being waist deep. We wanted to go kayaking and snorkeling, but there were somehow not enough kayaks, despite being very few people on the island. So we spent much of our time just swimming and relaxing in the water, walking up and down the beach, and catching crabs. We wanted to lounge in the day beds, but sand flies ruthlessly attacked us despite putting on bug spray. At night, we met some locals who were fishing for squid for a night time treat.

Obviously, three days is not enough time to explore and give a comprehensive description on these location. There are many parts we did not explore and many activities we didn’t do, but it’s a glimpse what these places have to offer. Hopefully, we’ll be back to explore these areas a bit more and give an update in the future.

 

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Tamu Hotel – Paradise on Otres Beach, Cambodia

We were supposed to visit Koh Rong Island for a few days, but we had some unexpected schedule changes and had to book a stay in Sihanoukville. Mat looked for hotels and found us Tamu Hotel on Otres Beach, and we were very impressed with this stylish beach resort in Cambodia.

Located about 10 km from downtown Sihanoukville, Tamu is a small but beautiful minimalist design resort situated on the south end of Otres Beach. Its location is also a quiet area for those looking for a relaxing stay. The property is painted white with rooms designed around a centrally placed pool. Integrated into the design are lush gardens, trees, wood finishes on the ground and doors, and day beds by the pool.

We stayed in a standard room that was stocked with amenities including air conditioning, a comfortable king-bed, WiFi, TV, refrigerator, coffee maker and more. There was a pretty good number of mosquitos in our room but every room has an electronic racket for killing them and mosquito coils to repel them. The bathroom is separate from the bedroom by a sliding door. Unlike the white exterior, the bathroom was predominantly black, had a grey concrete floor, and a partial opening for sunlight to pass in.

The hotel also has its own restaurant with a terrific view of ocean, a perfect place for enjoying a relaxing breakfast, lunch or dinner. Breakfast is complimentary with fruits, bread, honey/jam, juice and milk, and you can order other items off the menu. Lunch and dinner menus include a few different dining options, including Khmer food and western style food.

While we loved the stylish features of the hotel, we were incredibly impressed with the Tamu staff and service. When our sliding door had an issue, they immediately sent a friendly handyman to fix it. Everyone was very nice, very attentive to detail and were always greeting us and trying to remember our names. They helped answer any questions or would bring drinks to the beach if requested, were always smiling, and full of energy that added a pleasant positive vibe to an already beautiful location. The staff also maintains the beach and the resort, as members are routinely seen combing the sand, picking up any trash and sweeping the grounds.

The hotel welcomed us and took care of us like we were family. It is a great place to stay and we highly recommend Tamu Hotel to anyone visiting Otres Beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

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A Weekend in Siem Reap, Cambodia (Video)

Check out our video during a weekend in Siem Reap. Although we were only there for about a day and a half, we were able to see quite a number of things. With the help of our tuk tuk driver, we visited several temples including (shown in order in the video) East Mebon, Angkor Wat, Bayon Temple, Ta Nei and Ta Prohm. There was also the tourist hotspot, Pub Street, where there are many restaurants, bars, juice/food stands and markets for souvenirs. And we even made a cute furry friend during breakfast!

Hope you enjoy! Comment below on what you are wanting to see in Siem Reap!

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4 Places with Awesome Food in Iceland

Icelandic Plate Combination

Even though we were in Iceland for only a few days, we could not stop raving at how delicious the food was! Ok, so we didn’t get to try out that many places and we didn’t try some of Iceland’s most traditional dishes like sheep head, whale meat, puffin or shark (which I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for some of those things)…but the stuff we did eat was amazing! What interested me the most were how simple these dishes were, yet they were some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. However, if you’re on a tight budget, don’t expect to find cheap prices on these menus compared to the United States, but they’re reasonable compared to other parts of Europe. Here’s a list of four of our favorite places we did dine at.

Cafe Loki

Located in Reykjavik, Cafe Loki sits directly across Hallgrímskirkja church and specializes in traditional homemade Icelandic dishes. We tried several dishes including their meat soup, one of their Icelandic Plate combinations, a vegetarian plate and rye bread ice cream. I loved the rye bread combination dishes, which consisted of smoked trout, smoked lamb, mashed fish or egg and herring. But our favorite had to be the rye bread ice cream, which was possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever had. The combination of flavors is unique and absolutely delicious.

Cafe Loki Icelandic Plate Combination Rye Bread with Egg and Herring Rye Bread Ice Cream Cafe Loki Mural ICELAND 1 & 2_158

Restaurant Brúin

Located in the town of Grindavík, this family-owned restaurant was our surprise dining discovery. As we were going through the town, our group was hungry and needed a break, and we came upon Restaurant Brúin. Little did we know that we would have some exceptionally good dishes. We tried some pan-fried fish, soup and even their traditional Saltfiskur, which is essentially salted fish. All of our food was very fresh, as all of the fish were caught on the same day they were cooked. I did like the Saltfiskur, but it may not be for everyone. Their traditional fish soup was also interesting, when it didn’t come out as soup, but as mashed up fish. But to our delight, the traditional fish soup was really good! So if you’re passing through Grindavík, be sure to take a break at Restaurant Brúin for some good homemade Icelandic food.

Hotel Skogafoss Bistro Bar

After our visit at Skogafoss, we needed something to eat before our long drive back to Reykjavik and Hotel Skogafoss Bistro Bar is right next to Skogafoss Waterfall. Presumably, it has a great view of the falls, but it was completely dark by the time we sat down. The interior is very modern and has a nice ambiance. But we enjoyed most the food we ordered. I ordered the lamb leg, which was simply amazing. The meat was fall-off-the-bone delicious and tasted so fresh and tender. We also tried the lamb soup, which was also very good. Another great dish was the baked cod, which was lightly seasoned and cooked perfectly. Fair warning though, we’ve seen negative comments about the dishes, but there was nothing about our food that was short of excellent.

Sjavargrillid Seafood Grill

Also located in Reykjavik, Sjavargrillid Seafood Grill is a great choice for some fine dining Icelandic dishes, although the prices easily exceed far above the other options listed here. The main dishes were pretty high for our budget, so we chose to order some appetizers and light main dishes instead. Our dishes were fish or seafood dishes, and all of the food was very fresh and tasty. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t try some of the main dishes, but if you have a bigger budget, you definitely should try Sjavargrillid Seafood Grill.

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