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 the traditional met

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

Lunch at Arirang Folk Restaurant Any visit to Seoul easily turns into a food trip.  As soon as we checked into our hotel at the Seoul Plaza, we were prowling the streets checking out the various restaurants in the neighborhood. And as it happened, we chose Arirang Restaurant for our first meal in Seoul. That was a great pick because we had a very good lunch at Arirang. I ordered the Korean style seafood pancake and it looked and tasted like it spent just the right amount of time in the pan. My brother cleaned up his bibimbap hot pot. The japchae was a rich mix of sweet potato noodles, stir fried vegetables and shredded beef. The black cod boiled down in soy sauce was the amazing reveal.  It was both flavorful and moist. It was the very first time in my life that I really appreciated cod. And the service was commendable. Address: 23, Namdaemun-ro 7-gil, Jung-gu (behind the Westin Chosun Hotel) Bibimbap My favorite dish is bibimbap but I couldn't fin