TravelswithCharie

Jiufen Jiufen was once called the Golden City. It was a gold mining town in the 1890s. When gold mining declined, so did the town. Jiufen was rediscovered in 1989 when a movie, A City of Sadness, was filmed here. A 2001 Japanese animé film, Spirited Away, captivated Japanese audiences for its locale which resembles Jiufen.  Japanese tourists came and cemented Jiufen’s place as one of the top attractions of Taiwan.  Yin Yang Sea in the distance Jiufen Old Street Old Street is a long, narrow street that slopes uphill. It can be quite crowded because this is a tourist destination. I was there in late January and it was raining. Despite the lousy weather, the street was packed. At the very end of this street is a view of the houses spilling down the mountain.  A tea shop Artisanal Taiwan Boba  Bubble tea or boba was invented in Taiwan in the eighties. Hence the popularity of this drink. If you buy your boba at this store, you can rest assured the ingredients are made in ...

Trëndafili Mistik or Mystic Rose is one of the most beautiful restaurants I’ve visited recently. To get there you have to enter the Kulë-Vain-Tale nature reserve (there’s an entrance fee) and drive a few miles into the park before arriving at the restaurant. It is right beside a lagoon with a view of the mountains in the distance. It can’t get any sweeter than this. We were there in early May and it was warm outside. We sat at the outdoor terrace and this was our view. This is the entrance to the wood and stone house on the premises. This is the living room with photos of famous people who came to dine at the restaurant including the former U.S. Ambassador to Albania. There’s a dining room upstairs. These photos are of Diella Loshi who started serving food in her own house in the early days.  You can’t go wrong ordering fish or seafood as these are their specialties and served fresh. My grilled sea bass was moist and tender. Make sure to ask how large the fish is because you may no...

Local delicacies for snacking Gadong Night Market is my preferred market in Bandar Seri Begawan. It has the most selection of dishes, fruits and snacks compared to the night market across from our hotel. And it’s clean, spacious and there are tables for those who wish to dine onsite. There’s also plenty of parking nearby. We stopped at this stall to pick up grilled fish for dinner. They also sell rice so we had a complete, delicious dinner. A whole fish (depending on the type of fish and size) costs us $5.00 Brunei dollars (BND) or USD$3.68 (exchange rate as of this writing). These are local dishes with vegetarian selections. Notice the signs that say mee goreng, mee kwai teow or mee hoon goreng. These are noodle dishes. The difference is in the type of noodle that’s used. Notice these dishes cost BND$1.00. In the photo above are dried fish, dried tiny shrimps and dried anchovies. Local fruits include jackfruit, ihau, rambutan (red skin) and mango. But if you are missing hot dogs, you ...

Boodle fight Far away from California and longing to celebrate Thanksgiving, I decided to invite a few close friends and family to my Thanksgiving luncheon. I had never had a boodle fight meal and had wanted to experience it so I decided to have a boodle fight on the beach at Bitoy's. It was so nice of them to accommodate my group with less than 24 hours’ notice before the event. And the result was everything I could have hoped for. I had reserved for 10 people and this is how much food we got.  It sure was a table of plenty. We had oysters, shrimp, milkfish, chicken, eggplant, okra, fried banana, green mango, tomatoes, shrimp paste and rice. I had also brought with me the alimasag (baby crab) we bought at the beach in Ivisan the day before. Guests brought several kinds of dessert including guinataan* , brazo de Mercedes and various kinds of Philippine kakanin (delicacies) . Needless to say, we lingered over lunch and slowly savored what was on the table before us. ...

    Eataly Milan Smeraldo

    Markthal