Kavalan Whisky Distillery

So while we were traveling around Yilan, Taiwan, my dad's driver suggested that we go checkout the Kavalan Distillery. Apparently the company that owns Kavalan also owns Mr. Brown coffee.

Kavalan's most popular product is a Single Malt Whisky. Future-brother-in-law taught me about the differences between single malt and blended whiskies. Single malt is apparently only made with one type of grain. Because of that, quality control is much more difficult since different barrels end up with different qualities which can effect taste. Blended whiskies are made with multiple grains, and mixing them will produce a more consistent flavor. This style is used in popular brands, such as Johnnie Walker (my personal favorite). Of the many whiskies, I've currently tried Johnnie Walker's Black, Double Black, Blue, and Platinum Labels, as well as Chivas Regal (the lower end) and Kavalan!

Unfortunately, most of the pictures are on Seastar's camera. I'll see if I can grab some from her later. Instead here is some of the pictures I managed to take.

 

This was the reception hall of some rooms where they showed films for the official tours. We decided to skip them to eat lunch.

  

Kavalan provided free Whisky tastings. I enjoyed it. You can see my camera bag and the charm my grandma gave me. We broke away from the parental units to get a sip. My mom absolutely hates the idea of us drinking at all. We're all of age and responsible, Ma!

  

Mr. Brown Coffee served lunch on the property. They also served whisky coffee (which, if I'm not mistaken, is referred to as Irish-coffee, but since this whisky is made in Taiwan, I don't think I can call it that). This is some yummy chocolate cake my mom and I shared.

  

Cool pictures of the progression of whisky after aging.

  

The grid goes by age and by additives.

  

Some whisky barrels in the main lobby

 

Outside the Distillery. 

I also took pics of the aging room, but it was so dark, so the pictures turned out like crap. The viewing area smelled so strongly of whisky. In fact, just outside the touring area, it smelled super strong of alcohol. It was an interesting experience.

King Car Kavalan Whisky Distillery:
No.326, Sec.2, Yuanshan Rd. Yuansha, Yi-lan, Taiwan
KavalanWhisky.com

Famonn Coffee (and I'm back from Korea!)

Sorry for the long delay. It's my first day of rest since coming back from Korea (visiting Icecream) and Blion's visit to Taiwan. (Blion is my bfffl, best f**in' friend for life, ala Pineapple Express. I make jokes that I'll be an old maid, living in his guestroom, and creep out his future children as creepy auntie supernoob.) It was a rather low key day, and I was eager to blog again. So I'll start off lightly. 

I really miss the taste of coffee, and I was really craving sweets. I hadn't really had much coffee in Asia since usually coffee is rather western, and I normally avoid western stuff to get as much Asian food as I can. Since I wasn't doing much today, I decided to try a coffee shop I often spotted while getting Taiwanese breakfast. I was unmotivated to leave the apartment at first, but eventually somebody motivated me to do it. 

I absolutely love the color scheme. This blue and mint are my absolute favorite colors at the moment. 

The shop lady was super nice, and caught on very quickly that Chinese wasn't my first language, so she tried her best to speak in English to me.

The inside is adorably decorated.

Cute trinkets and macarons in the shop

I ordered a lovely mango roll cake and a mocha blended beverage. The store's color scheme totally matched my new purse from Korea :D. 

The mango cake was soooo good. It was a soft, textured sponge. It was perfectly spongey and didn't fall apart after little handling. It was dense enough to be a good weight, but not so dense that it left you feeling heavy after eating the whole thing. The mousse was also divine. Usually I hate some mousse(s?) as the processed sugar taste usually leaves me gagging after particularly heavy sweets, but this one totally didn't do that. 

The mocha blended drink was great. Usually I try to avoid these kinds of drinks, as it isn't really the proper way to enjoy an espresso drink/any coffee at all. However, this had a great balance of taste and sweetness (though the coffee was really light in this drink). Whenever I finish a Starbucks frappuccino, there is usually a thick layer of milk fat, shame, and regret left on my tongue. It discourages me from purchasing it often (thankfully). This drink totally doesn't do that! The best part was the whip cream. At most places, the whip cream doesn't stand up for very long, as it is often reduced in fat or filled with fillers, but this one was dense and delicious. They added either liqueur or flavoring that made this whip cream extra delicious. Again, the nasty processed sugar aftermath/regret didn't happen with this delicious drink. 

Unfortunately, the shop lacked dedicated, free wifi, so after reading a chapter of Sherlock Holmes on my phone, I left in search of something else to occupy my mind. 

More to come!

Famonn Coffee

台北市中山區錦州街419號1樓d

Taipei, Taiwan JingZhou St. No. 419 1st floor. 

If Famonn Coffee has a website, please tell me so that I may post it here!

How to Eat Abroad (Singapore Part 2)

So after Gardens by the Bay (posts can be read here and here), we went to go eat lunch at a nearby food court. New cousin suggested that we have shrimp noodles. 

Here are some of the noodles we tried, along with a clear broth chicken soup. The local beer was tiger beer, and my sister tried a cutely themed apple juice in a can. I had an entire fresh coconut to myself.

These were some of the chicken wings that I ordered to taste. They were salty and yummmy.

A lot of the booths had satay, so we ordered chicken and beef satay. The little white cake next to it looked like rice, but it tasted like something that was softer and more flavorful. We also ate kaya toast, which was bread with the crusts cut off filled with a coconut custard jam. At new cousin's house we ate Popiah, which I am unwilling to post pictures of since it was quite intimate. 

The luxurious view from the women's bathroom at the food court.

Some Hippo statues that were placed around the perimeter of the food court

Later on that day Seastar, Future-Brother-In-Law, and I visited the famous raffles hotel. Seastar had found it on trip advisor. There were lots of little shops and eateries within the walls. 

After seeing this hallway, it totally reminded me of British colonial India, and New Cousin told me I was right. The Raffles Hotel had been built when Singapore was still a colony. Its architecture and decorations were reminiscent of the times, and was kept well preserved after Singapore became its own state. 

After seeing some nearby sights, we decided to hop onto their subway system to get back to our hotel and check out the rest of Orchard Road. 

We were headed towards Dhoby Ghaut. It was hard for me to pronounce some of the words, but I was so thankful that everything was in English. 

No Durians are allowed on the trains. Minty explained that the Taipei subway system was inspired by Singapore's, and as a result is also very clean. Taipei similarly bans durians, eating, and smoking, but must also include the banning of betel nuts. 

My Ticket

Seastar and Future-Brother-In-Law boarding the train. 

                 

Inside the very clean train. Future-Brother-In-Law was very impressed by the welding on the hand rails, as he explained that to weld something so smooth required a very high level of craftsmanship. 

A random building on Orchard road.

More to come!!

Gardens By The Bay Singapore (Part 2 Electric Boogaloo)

So Picasa wouldn't upload all the pics for some reason (and failed to post most of the pictures after publishing this blog!!!), so here's part II of my pictures from Gardens By The Bay. Part I can be found here.

Quote new cousin: "That flower is really symmetrical"

Blurry

Me posing in an attempt to be funny. My favorite math/science teacher in 6th grade posed similarly for yearbook pictures. That year we had to pose seductively against a fake tree. I copied his hilarious pose of looking out from behind the tree.

Seastar posing with palm trees

Pink

Yellow and Pink

Another Angle

Seastar and I have a joke when we're trying to be obnoxious where we fluff imaginary bobbed hair.

I have no idea what they're called.

Southeast Asia is known for Kingfisher birds. This sculputre was so cute, poking its head out of the foliage.

More flowers.

I got really excited for this chair because it totally reminded me of the throne from Game of Thrones

Seastar and Future-Brother-In-Law

Dad

A rose.

Seastar and Future-Brother-In-Law, with his and her bikes. They're doing the debutante slouch, a very famous modeling pose.

Lilies and daisies.

Hahaha, my dad riding a lion (I am the Lion, here me roar!)

Another shot outside the dome.

Unfortunately, because of uncontrolled fires in neighboring countries, Singapore is currently in a haze, so the park is closed. They even posted an adorable picture about it, since the park is closed until the air quality improves.

Gardens By The Bay: 18 Marina Gardens Drive Singapore 018953.  Tel:+65 6420 6848

http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg

Read Part 1 here. 

How To Eat Abroad (Taiwan Part 1)

          So I have a lot of food posts, since all I really do is eat. I can't get all of this amazing food in San Diego!!! Since the food posts outnumber the sight seeing posts, I'll have to post them more often.

          My dad is a rather paranoid man, so he refused to let me go out on my own without a cell phone. So after nearly three weeks of just going to the office and eating nearby the office's dorm and office, my father insisting on giving me his back up sim card and phone (which took weeks and weeks to unlock), I was finally free! I contacted my friend, Minty, whom I'd met at my small, partial family reunion organized by my uncle. He had invited his friends and one of them brought their daughter to sit at the 'kids' table (though we're all adults now... it's probably better to refer to it as the 3rd generation table). She heard I was staying in Taiwan a few months and offered to take me out. She met me at the nearest MRT station.

(Foreigner hatersss!!) Haha, this ad purposely uses a foreigner to display that you cannot bring food on to their subway system.

Minty brought me to a lovely German cafe called Flugel. It was really close to the Taipower building and the Taipower building MRT station. They're most famous for their warm and cold cakes, as well as a wide selection of teas and wines.

Look at how quaint this shop is! Hi, Minty!!

Cool looking table. I'd love to study at a place like this in San Diego.

This was Minty's cake. It was warmed and it tasted like a really good traditional coffee cake.

I forgot the name of my cake, but it had a yogurt based top with lots of mangoes. The whole thing in combination was really tasty. I really enjoyed this!! Minty says her favorite flavor of this cake has berries in it. She said that berries were rare in Taiwan, so she preferred that flavor. From my perspective, mangoes are rare in america, so I opted for the mango flavor. I intend to try the berry one next time ^___^

My pot of earl grey tea in a completely see through tea pot! I loved it. It totally reminded me of this dim sum place I frequented as a child. All of the teapots looked like this except it could serve way more people.

Information for Flugel can be found at the end of the post :D.

8% Ice

Minty then took me to a gelato place called 8% Ice. We were so full, so we struggled to finish our gelatos, but they had a lot of unique flavors! Minty said her favorite was the matcha flavor, so I got that one.

Here's Minty with the mango flavor and my matcha flavored gelato. It wasn't mind numbingly sweet, which I sometimes dislike about American sweets, and I could really taste the authentic frothiness from the matcha.

 

Some cool chairs in the gelato shop.

The Cafe was called FLÜGEL
http://fluegel2008.blogspot.tw/
台北市 羅斯福路三段269巷21號1樓, Taiwan
+0928-080-973

The Gelato place was called 8% Ice. 冰淇淋專門店
https://www.facebook.com/8.percent.ice
台北市大安區永康街13巷6號1樓, Taipei, Taiwan 10651
+0223956583

Happy Dining!!