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I don't know what is the name of this restaurant but I do know it is in a fish farm in Yilan City, Taiwan, which is the location of my 2nd meal stop in Taiwan.

Ya, I'm horrible at food blogging. Anyway, here are some photos to substitute the missing words, pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

Shrimp salad to start. The salad dressing is sweet with a hint of lemon, maybe.


I was told this is 香鱼, a quick search on Google reveal that this is called Sweetfish or Ayu in English. This fish was fried and then cook with some Chinese herb, a very interestingly flavored yet delicious dish. Sweetfish comes with all set lunches here, it's their pride product.


Some juicy and tender pork ribs as the main course.


A meal is not complete without dessert - red bean soup with glutinous rice balls plus a cup of super black coffee(no picture of coffee, too eager to start eating).


To top it all off, this is the view from the restaurant. This little park is maintained by the restaurant/fish farm owner. They sure knows how to create a great atmosphere to go with the good food. Serenity now!


The not so pretty fish farm in front of the restaurant. This is what greets us when we approach the restaurant. Who would have thought they have great food with a great view at the back. Sweetfish(香鱼) is the primary product here, most of them are destined for Japan once it's readied.


A little food souvenir(that will end up in my stomach) before we leave Yilan City - Yilan Cookies(or biscuits for those living in England).

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My mom and I stayed in Taipei for a few days to visit my god parents on our way to Malaysia last January. Unfortunately Faye couldn't join us in Taipei due to the "minor incident" we had in Los Angeles, so I promised her I will document all the food I had there so she could enjoy it, visually, at least.

The first meal I had in Taiwan was breakfast. I'm all for local food, mostly because it's authentic and it's usually good. I have no idea what it is call in English, some call it "sesame seed cake and fried bread stick", Google translate it as "deep-fried dough sticks shaobing". For all I care, it's call 烧饼油条 and it is GOOOOOD!

This thing is light, crunchy, flaky, most of all it's delicious! Pair it up with some warm soybean milk...*speechless*... And I thought the fried bread stick and soybean milk in Houston was quite good, man, was I wrong! This is da best 烧饼油条 I have ever tasted, EVER!

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What do you think of my new blog layout? You like?

I've been thinking of changing my blog layout for a while, procrastinate, procrastinate, same old story. All I need is a little nudge to get the momentum going. And the little nudge I need came from Cheryl's Think Tank, a blogger friend, when she decided to change her blog layout a week ago. So, here it is!

CSS code is like alien language to me! Took me hours to modified this template to my liking, some tinkering is still needed. I'm just too damn picky sometime!

Anyway, here are a few tips I learned(the hard way) if you decide to change your blog layout.
- Backup all your blog post and comments: Dashboard -> Setting -> Basic -> Blog Tools - Export Blog.
- Create a new private "Test Blog" to test your layout so you don't have to test it on your working blog, believe me, this will help you eliminate a lot of hassle and headache.
- You can even import your old blog post and comments into your test blog to see how well it works.

Have fun!

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Yee, my sister-in-law, was home alone last weekend while we were having fun with our friends in Austin. And this amazingly delicious mini blueberry cheesecakes were in the oven when we got home. I think we should leave her home alone more often...

This thing is so light and creamy with just the right amount of sweetness, it was heavenly!!! That's it, I'm leaving Yee home alone again soon, very soon!

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Dam, the Hoover Dam. Yup, we visited the Hoover Dam, which is about 30 miles from Las Vegas. It's a electric-power generating station that provides power to some part of Arizona and California.

This was the world largest electric-power generating station when it was completed in 1935. Today, this is only the 35th largest - man, I couldn't imagine how is the largest dam going to look like.

No, we didn't take the DamnDam tour - mom and Faye weren't interested, might be too technical, or so they say.

That's Colorado River at the bottom of Hoover Dam which is also the state line between Arizona and Nevada. Notice the new bypass bridge under construction which is intended to reduce the traffic congestion at the dam.


I wonder if someone has run down that slope before.


That's the power station at the bottom of the dam, 700 feet down!


Lake Mead - the lake behind the dam.

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Almost forgot to post the photos I took in Las Vegas. Las Vegas was the last stop of our San Francisco trip, after we checked out Grand Canyon of course. This is actually before our unforgettable Los Angeles trip(I know I know, I should have posted it chronologically but hey, me is me, major procrastinator and sometime forgetful...).

It's my 3rd time to Las Vegas and it's the most interesting one. Mostly because we all have a great time there, well, minus some minor forgettable details.

One cool thing is that mom experience her first live Broadway show, Mama Mia, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. And she loves it! She was impressed by the performance and live band, so cool!

One not so cool thing is the 4 hour wait for the buffet at Bellagio. You see, it was Thanksgiving day when we went for the buffet. We even arrived early(at 4pm), you know, anticipating a line. Well, to call it a line is an understatement, it's so far out we can't even see the end and it zig-zag too! Still, we chose to stay since it's going to be crowded everywhere else anyway and friends told me this is the best buffet in Vegas. So Faye and I take turn to stand in line while mom just walk around the casinos and wait. The buffet was good, a lot of good foods and they have the biggest selection of foods I have ever seen but the experience would have been so much better if we can minus the wait. Now you know, so never ever go for the buffet in Vegas during the Thanksgiving holiday, seriously!

Eiffel Tower - The imitation outside of Paris Las Vegas.


Here's another view of the Eiffel Tower at night. This is actually a hand held shot at ISO800, f/4, 1/15s, I love Image Stabilizer!


The MGM Grand - Grand?


This is where we stayed, the Luxor Hotel. Not a fancy hotel but I have always admired its architectural and structural detail - it's an engineering marvel(or probably nightmare for those who works on it, I'm guessing the first word out of the engineer's mouth when he/she sees this project is "Holy sh*t!").


A closer look at the Sphinx.


Inside the Luxor - we realized a funny fact on the way back to the hotel, mom and Faye met another group of Asian tourist who happened to stay in the Luxor Hotel as well. One of them actually brought out the fact that the Luxor is essentially a coffin, yet we're so happy to stay in it. Opppsss..."Tai Gut Lai Si"!


No description needed for this shot, pretty obvious where this is, right?

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