The Lake House 勻淨湖

Last weekend after our lunch at Chateau in the air, we visited the lake house. We enjoyed a coffee and tea outside a restaurant beside the lake which was located on the edge of a Mingde Reservoir in the hidden valley. This is by far the most amazing restaurant with the view in Miaoli County.

The Lake House is a French restaurant and B&B guest house. The decor inside the house is contemporary. Behind the glass windows allows the customer to dine comfortably and yet be close to nature. The outdoor garden is definitely the place to sit for afternoon tea. We were given the menu and we was surprised to see that only one afternoon set meal for NT$450. So we almost have the same order. However the les desserts theme already include a small portion of snack. If you are coming here for lunch and  dinner there are some several  dishes to choose from.

 We were stuffed when an assortment of desserts arrived at our table was a mousse cake, pates de fruits, madeleine cake, fruit cake and chocolate. They were absolutely looks delicious!

The next plate arrives was a 3 hors d’oeuvres with chicken salad served in tiny glass.

Our drinks finally arrive, I'm opted for the hot cafe au lait lately, the robust flavors being brewed it's very fine and divine.

For my daughter was a refreshing fruits tea.

The other drinks it seems to enjoy my boys was a iced cafe au lait as it’s rich and creamy! Overall, we like this place it’s always nice to discover new places and as it has what we need to take a break and be close in nature. If you want charm, atmosphere, amazing service and above all is the food. I recommended this place in Miaoli and is best tackled by car. Definitely we will back again for lunch meal after I recover in something that I might not able to spent time eating outside for a months.

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 The Lake House 勻淨湖
No 112 Shipin Li, Joulan Town Miaoli County
苗栗縣卓蘭鎮西坪里112號
Tel No: 04-25899900
Website:
http://www.lakehouse.tw/

Jane Xiang HK Style Restaurant 珍香港式飲茶

We have known Jane Xiang for more than 15 years now and they have been nothing but consistently and turned out to be good quality affordable Hon Kong Chinese food. It's been a while since we've eaten here though so we made plans to have dinner after Miaoli. The restaurant is full when we arrived even its almost past 8 p.m. when we got there. But we were lucky that one family just left a table so we were seated and taken care of right away. The menu features a variety of Chinese food and dim sum, there are so many different dishes to choose from. The interior is pretty much the same as it was nothing fancy but it's very nice, decent and traditional. Once we were done ordering after 15-20 minutes the food was served shortly.

The baked bbq pork pastry has always been one of the dim sum that I will order first. The crispy exterior had browned and glazed while the interior was simple sweet savory pork filling and did not disappoint.

The steamed prawn dumplings is another dim sum which I would not fail to order. They’re delicate, the succulent prawns contained by the thinly light moist skin and a burst of flavor on the inside.

Another dish that my husband he couldn’t refrain from ordering because he knows I'm a big fan of pork intestine was a deep fried pork intestine served with pineapple chunks and mustard sauce. The skin was crisp  that gives way to a more chewy experience after the first bite with nary a hint of salty and fragrant spice . However...I realized that the intestines were a little too oily and tasteless.

Having more to satisfied our pallate, we moves onto stir fry prawns with egg and scallion. This was so far the best egg and prawn we have had. The flavor was amazing! The egg it wasn't overcooked, the prawns was really fresh and perfect portion size as well!

Assorted meat grill platter a combination of roasted chicken, duck and pork with its fatty crispy skin it goes well with the pickle cabbage or bao chai they provide along with the sauce. The duck and chicken was exquisitely juicy were bursting with flavours.

Another favorite of us at this place is the rice hot pot in savory soy sauce top with cantonese sausages and vegetables was superb.

Our server she asked me to take a picture while mixing the rice. This dish is very tasty especially after mixing it with soy sauce. The best part of eating this dish is the rice on the bottom got very crispy when you have to scrape off the burnt rice that stuck unto the pot to get some mouthfuls of rice had that nice smokey flavour.

Next up, the seafood pan fried noodle it had ingredients such as squid, shrimp, roast pork meat, sea white cucumber I gues a bit of vegetables like bok choy. The noodle is quickly deep fried and placed at the bottom of the plate to be covered and everything was swimming in a thick and starchy soy sauce. The food is delicious, the restaurant is full throughout the opening time. So make a reservation before coming in this restuarant.

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Jane Xiang HK Style Restaurant 珍香港式飲茶
No 59, Nanda Road, Hsinchu City
新竹市南大路59號
Tel No: 03525 7266 

Papa Mio

Normally, we always re visited to dine in Cafe Grazie and Skylark for many years, my kids grown up dining in these restaurants and everything is always great! Until the main course it become a poorly average. We was looking for a great Italian food and we discovered this place during our recent visit to Tapas-1. Papa Mio is located in the Chunzhong Street beside National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung. The menu comprises a traditional Italian has country-style food cuisine. The decor of the restaurant provided by a small villa 2 storey building and patio which is filled with lush plants and flowers it looks more like a home inside.

We started simply enough with crusty bread and bread sticks a nice snack to start while we are waiting for our soups.

A nice blended pumpkin soup.

I love the texture of mushroom soup as there are some bits of chewy mushroom in it which was perfect.

Next up we ordered 2 salad for appetizer to shared was a prosciutto w/ creamy potato salad, tomato top with chopped arugula. The potato which also contributed a mellow richness against the salty lushness of the prosciutto.

Smoked salmon w/ a pile of mixed field vegetable salad, the smoke salmon was very fresh!

After a great soup and salads, we moved onto the main meals. I ordered the potato gnocchi it tasted like cheeseballs. As a gnocchi lover, this example hit the spot, handmade gnocchi with a rich creamy sauce. The sprinkling of freshly grated parmigiano helped to smooth everything out.

My husband got his Fettuccine seafood in tomato sauce it looked so comforting and wonderful.

Piedmonte hand-made spinach ravioli it was an interesting texture mix and way of tasting. But to be honest I didn't like the taste maybe I'm not a fan of ravioli with spinach on it.

Fusilli with seafood and tomatoes sauce was a similar to fettuccine. I will give this dish a little credit as it was tasty but not memorable.

And margarita pizza to share. Great crust it was a solid healthy pizza.

One was striking me the most is the panzarotti a deep fried pizza dough stuffed with cheese and tomato sauce then sprinkle with caster powder sugar. The panzerotti was really delicious and their specialty were my favorite. In fact before we check out the restaurant , we take out another 2 panzarroti for night snack. I wish we could get them mailed and deliver to us here in Hsinchu. I recommend to try this little calzone if you are planning to visit Papa Mio.

Of course, random  drinks kept coming out too. After all we had to wash it down with hot coffee. They have a great assortment of coffee and tea selection. The cafe latte was frothy, creamy and aromatic. 

I had a cappuccino which not only looked pretty but tasted good too!

My son ordered the God father was a brownie with vanilla and strawberry ice cream and whipping, cream came in large portion compare to another desserts.

My tiramisu  it was light, creamy, and not too sweet taste to balance out the richness of the coffee, liqiour and mascaporne.

Very rich, indulgent and sinfully great of French creme brulee!

An adorable creme caramel custard or Spanish leche flan, which was amazingly. Overall; The service was both gracious and efficient, they kept our glasses filled and checked on us often to be sure that our table is clean. The food was really good better than Little Italy and definitely worthwhile to visit.

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Papa Mio
No. 24, Chunzhong St, Xi District, Taichung City
台中市存中街24號電話
Tel No: 04-2376-8434
Website:
http://www.papamio.com.tw/

Sea And Delicious Food 地中海景觀餐廳

A few minutes drive from our house in Hsinchu City. Nanliao is a Hsinchu fishing harbor although lacking good beaches, there's a handful of restaurants for you to pick and dine. All of restaurants here appeared similar to me, in term of price and ambience, just pick anyone pleasing you and the food with similar values and various cooking methods. Most of the restaurants beside the dock on the second floor at fish market were very agressive in attracting customers to dine-in at their place, I dont like that kind of approach. So we choose Sea And Delicious Food a restaurant which facing the waterfront and we were seated beside the window much more relaxing.

 

The place had quite a good crowd when we arrived. they had a comprehensive menu. As soon as we walked in past the many tanks filled with  fresh seafood. We are trying to choose fresh local catch  to find out  various fish and seafood.

After placing our order and first dishes, which arrived is the king prawns NT$250 each prawn. I love the way it cooked which was steamed. Underneath the prawns was a surprise of glass noodles absorbs all the yummy flavours drizzled down by the top layer of fresh water prawn.

Soon after, the grilled jack fish arrived in all its glory it was beautifully cooked, with a nicely seasoned crunch.

There’s just something about eating with your fingers that seems so enjoyable. These deep fried seafood roll it is served with ketchup sauce. The crust was very crisp and surprisingly light. This could easily be a great starter.

The stir fry oyster noodles which does not look very appetizing to me. However it was delicious with mild saltish flavour, my kids liked it! And almost nothing left on the plate.

A plate of asplenium lightly stir fried to taste the natural flavour of the fresh green plant and one of my favorite Hakka dish.

Surprisingly they also offer a stir fry pig intestines with ginger and vinegar and always my favorite dish and one of the best I ever tasted than the previous Hakka restaurants I visited in the past. It was delicious and I keep taking more and more of to supplement my rice. Overall: Comparing the price to the seafood restaurants in Yilan a little bit expensive. But I think it was pretty reasonable for such plentiful seafood meal. It seems like all the dishes that we have ordered above is excellent in taste and you will need to finish it. We definitely one of our list for seafood cravings in Hsinchu.

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Sea And Delicious Food 地中海景觀餐廳
No. 241 Nanliao Street Hsinchu City
新竹市北區南寮街241號
Tel No: 03-5368688
Website:
http://www.035368688.com.tw/

Rick's Classic American Hamburger

I have not been in any american burger restaurant for almost more than year. But when I am craving something for burger. We went to Mos Burger to get a little bit healthier and freshly made burger. I hate to even have to write this, I didn't want to give an awful reviews especially to such a fast food but this restaurant was worth a visit and the service was good too.

Located onto busy and bustling road know as Guangfu Road. Rick's Classic American Hamburger was a pleasant surprise. The decor was Americana in style very simple, bright, clean and has a retro atmosphere. It offers burgers, hot dogs, steak, fries, shakes name a few and they also have a few side dishes.

Our waitress quickly came up speak english very well so the language barrier will not be a problem for foreign customers then took our orders. We got a vegetables salad  which is an item off their special meal menu including drinks and fries with ice cream for classic american grill.

My chilli cheese burger with fries was arrived. It was just so meaty and rich with strong, intense flavors coming from the fresh chopped onion and caramelized chili sauce. The patties were obviously homemade and it was a bit oily. That's ok since once in while having a bit greasy meal on my palate, I still enjoyed it and absolutely delish.

Up next is the double cheese burger for my princess and comes with a melted cheese, pickles, onions, tomatoes, lettuce. 

Bbq short ribs a chargrilled marinated short ribs is tender, juicy and jam packed with flavour and served with coleslaw, a side of fries.

The marinated rib eye steak is definitely more tender and tasty as well. We were served a chocolate and vanilla ice to end of the meal. Before we leave the restaurant, the lady owner stopping for a chat and had a moment. Feeling curious if we are a visitors in Taiwan. We quickly response, we live just a few blocks away from here. The owner is an American married to a Taiwanese women so both locals and foreigners are welcome here. For those who wants a very authentic American food this is a great place for burger cravings. Their burgers were delicious is one of the best in Hsinchu so far. Yes, it's a bit greasy and your heart may stop once or while, but you walk out of there with a smile on your face. I'm definitely be back again to try the rocket chili dog.

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Rick's Classic American Burger
No.736 Sec 2 Guangfu Road, Hsinchu
新竹市光復路二段736號
Tel No: 035714519
Website:
http://izzyizer.wix.com/ricks-cah
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Longji Hong Kong Restaurant

This place channels a simple wooden panelling and ceiling simply bolted in place to transform a modern interior setting. Even with its casual dining atmosphere still seems like a fast food to me than a Hong Kong cafe and restaurant. The menu features a variety of Cantonese food and the speciality is roasted meat. We have heard much about as one of the most renowned Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong, London,  etc and etc . Since dim sum is one my favorite Cantonese dishes. I am constantly on the lookout for the best dim sum but I'm very disappointed no any dim sum on their menu.

After placing our order the food came so quickly. My husband wanted some soup and he had a herbal chicken soup loaded with red dried goji berries and mushrooms.

We also ordered 3 delectable roasted meat was a chicken, duck, pork and served with two dipping sauces. Though they are served a little fat and oily but one of my favorite dish on that day.

We got 2 filler item  was mixed BBQ stir fry noodles and stir fry rice with shrimps; The stir fry noodles loaded with bbq meat with spam and some vegetables. The noodles itself was excellent because each noodles were still slightly crispy and nice caramelization of  lean bbq pork. We appreciated it was actually a pretty large portion .

The stir fry rice with shrimps it was also quite nice, we enjoyed that as well.

The stewed eggplant with minced pork and shrimps in claypot was crappy. I always preferred the Taiwanese Hakka style eggplant with basil and fresh minced pork.

Then we were served a fried turnip cake with x.o sauce for free and there was not a good fry either, so they were missing those deliciously crisp and textural contrast which made it very bland.

I intend to eat healthy so I ordered hot fungus sweet soup for the finale. I'm disappointed when came out. Basically it was horrible and smell like acacia tree. I only eat a 2 spoonfuls, I just don’t like it. This one is supposedly good for cleansing the inner body. You can probably get a better tasting in other Chinese restaurants, this one is probably the worst one.The service is fast, the food was great but it doesn't astound menu and some was horrible. We definitely not to intend to go back again. The good thing is....This eatery shares a parking lot for free with other eateries within the corner.

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Longji 龍記香港茶餐廳

 No 137. Lane 28, 1st floor Yanji Street, Taipei

台北市大安區延吉街137巷28號1樓

Tel No: 02-27111500
Website:
http://www.longjihk.com.tw/