il Giardino Romantico

杭州小籠包店算是小有名氣。記得第一次來，是天仙媽帶著泰國來的遊客一同來品嘗。當時還沒開始吃豬肉，因此並沒有嘗到這裡有名的小籠包的真正滋味。不過天仙媽畢竟也是聽人家推薦，才會帶著遊客來這兒品嘗。天仙心裡想：應該還不錯吧！之後因為懷孕初期食慾不振，看到平常愛吃的雞肉就覺得反胃，然後又加上書上都說海鮮多吃北鼻容易過敏，因此就漸漸地開始吃豬肉。於是，這天有事來到附近，與朋友相約在這兒，終於可以好好品嘗小籠湯包了！

This is no Din Tai Fung, but I reckon it's still pretty famous. The first time I was here with my mum and some Thai friends. My mum heard about the place from her friends. At that time, I still didn't eat pork, so I didn't know what their xiaolongbao tasted like. After I found out about the baby, I started to lose interest in my favourite food - chicken. The books said that too much seafood might cause allergies, so I had to start eating pork for a balanced diet. So I had an errand to run in the neighbourhood, and asked my friend to join me this time, to finally get the chance to taste some yummy xiaolongbao.

前一晚跟姊妹們閒聊真的很開心。其實當時很希望可以聊一整晚，不過由於當時已經知道肚子裡有北鼻了，加上我雖然很想但是身體已經很疲憊了。所以無奈只好早早就寢。經過了一晚好眠，隔天早上起來就要來準備"迎戰"了！大家都知道，新人在婚宴中根本就吃不到東西的（尤其是新娘）。所以這天的早餐比任何一天的早餐都來的重要呢！簡單梳洗過後我們就到了樓下，來瞧瞧早餐有些啥東西吧！

Well, it had been a fantastic night with my girlfriends, chatting away. I really wished that we pull off an all nighter, but at this point, I already knew about the little life growing inside me. Plus, even if I wanted to, I was physically incapable. I needed sleep! Anyway, after a good night's rest, now it was time to prepare for the big day. To start the day, we headed downstairs to see what the hotel had to offer for breakfast. It is known to all of us that the bride does not get a chance to eat anything during the reception. Therefore, this breakfast was even more important than the usual breakfasts!

Traditionally, there are two receptions to every wedding - one which the bride's family would host, and the other the groom's family would host. Initially we planned to simplify things and just have one big recpetion. But after a few disagreements between me and the parents, we decided to take the advice of one of our elders, and hold two receptions instead. Surprisingly, my parents were thrilled to be able to make the major decisions and deal with all the trifles, which we had thought would be better if we handled everything... Anyhow, there came another problem! My other half and I had so many mutual friends that it was difficult to decide who should come to which reception. In the end, we decided to leave the bride's reception exclusively to my parents' guests, and that all of our guests would go to the groom's reception instead. 

Thus this blog post is about the experience of holding the bride's reception at Hotel National. A room was given complimentary to the banquet the next day. I had also booked an extra room for my bridesmaids-to-be, since they had kindly agreed to come and help out (and also for support, what would I do without them!)

The rest of the article will be in Chinese (Traditional) only, but you can still enjoy the pictures of the rooms and get a feel of how comfy the accomodation is. 

來到清邁不可不吃的就是這道出了泰北以後就很難吃到道地口味的咖哩麵（khao soi ข้าวซอย）！Khao soi（又稱泰北金麵）真的是一道泰北的特色菜。有朋友曾經告訴我，他在曼谷吃過，但味道跟清邁的完全不一樣。而這道khao soi也是你在台灣不可能吃的到的泰北菜。

Khao soi is something that you will not find once you leave Northern Thailand. It is a signature dish of Northern Thailand. A friend once told me that he had tried khao soi in Bangkok, and it did not taste the same at all. This is also a dish that you will not find in any of the Thai restaurants in the streets of Taipei!

勞動節這天（是的！天仙是很會拖稿的）因為難得老公也放假，於是就選了離我們比較遠的地方用餐。聽長輩說，牛的營養價值其實比豬肉還要高。一心想要餵北鼻高營養價值食物的我，於是就想要開始練習吃牛肉。只是如果一開始就讓我吃一大片牛排，我恐怕沒辦法適應。畢竟都過了這麼多年沒碰一口牛肉，突然間要我嗑完一份牛排真的有點勉強呢。後來逛逛食記發現這間非吃到飽的燒烤店。雖然離我們遠了點，不過看完之後真的想來吃吃看。

Seeing it was Labour's Day, and that we both had the day off, we chose to dine at a place that was quite a distance from our comfort zone. I heard from others that beef offered more nutrition than pork did, so I wanted to try and learn to have beef in my diet again, for the baby. It was difficult! It had been so many years since I last tasted a bite of beef. I couldn't really start with a massive portion of steak, so after seeing this place from a blog article, I decided that this kind of barbeque would be the right place to start. It was not the kind of all-you-can-eat place, where you'd feel obliged to fill your tummy up to 120%! I thought it was a good choice to begin my beef diet. 

 

*This article is in Chinese (Traditional) only.



當初因為2013年10月底安排要跟當時還是男友的老公赴泰國。而重要的任務就是參加摯友的婚禮。天仙爸擔心我們去了他的地盤，遇到那邊的長輩們不知該如何交代我身邊的男伴是誰，因此建議我們赴泰國前先完成簡單的交換戒指訂婚儀式。這樣一來就可直接以"未婚夫"的身分介紹身邊的男伴。因此早在這個時候，天仙就開始尋找適合自己的婚紗工作室。

日前在探訪食記的時候發現這間。一知道是泰國人開的，心裡就想說：應該很道地吧！於是有次回台中就找了個機會來一探究竟。

I discovered this place while browsing through food blogs. Apparently, the owners are Thais! I thought: this could be it! Real, authentic Thai food! 

As it is almost Dragon Boat Festival, this post is a review of two types of rice dumplings that can be found in Nanmen Market. There are many kinds of rice dumplings, but no matter how much ingredient they try to stuff into the dumpling, I only fancy one kind - Huzhou rice dumplings, which has simply a chunk of meat (sometimes yolk). Another type of rice dumpling introduced here is one with red bean paste as its stuffing. Both of these were quite good! But be forewarned that as the festival comes closeer, it'll take a longer wait in line to get what you want! 

隨著端午節快到了，天仙難得有篇應景的食記。雖然說是在辦公室用手機拍的，不過因為真的很好吃，所以還是分享一下囉！

這幾年來，到處都可見各種店家發明各種不同口味的粽子。可惜無論是南北粽，或是五星級飯店出的頂級食材肉粽，天仙一律都不感興趣！不管裡面加了多麼高級的食材，天仙只想吃從小吃到大的「媽媽口味肉粽」。不過因為包粽子費工，天仙媽還要上班，很早就跟天仙說明沒辦法包。於是就有請姑姑代勞。不過比肉粽更費工夫的，就是豆沙粽了！姑姑不想這麼累，我們也捨不得她這麼累。於是就講好，豆沙粽就吃外面買的（反正豆沙粽不會有多少變化），而肉粽就享受姑姑的手藝就好！

 

據說這是一個美麗的誤會。這天我們依照約定來到所謂的「阿美飯店」，等到指定地點的友人到來，他才說他好像誤會了！其實他原本想約的是隔壁間的！不過因為當天我們來的早，我們看見了這兩間似乎是姊妹店。有些菜是從這兒端出去到那兒。又有些菜是從那兒端到這兒。其實我們也沒來過，也不知道差異。但覺得應該坐哪裡都一樣吧！

Apparently, this was the result of a misunderstanding. We arrived at the place, and when my friend who picked the place arrived, he told us that he had wanted us to meet at the place next door. However, since we arrived early, I observed that these two shops seemed to be the same place after all. Plates were coming to and fro each place. Since we had not been here before, I didn't know the difference. I thought it didn't make any difference. 

 

曾經有朋友跟我這樣說：這個世界這麼亂，打死我也不生小孩。

當時我不太能理解他這樣的想法，但也只能尊重。年初知道自己懷孕沒多久後遇上太陽花事件。不只是台灣不和平，泰國、韓國、越南甚至世界各地都有傳出各種令人擔憂的負面新聞。有時候我會刻意避開，寧願看東Ｘ無聊的比價新聞，也不願看到任何關於死亡、叛亂、戰爭等影響情緒的新聞。太陽花學運我可以不發表意見，因為服貿我至今沒搞懂來龍去脈，其實是不便發表意見。但21號晚上，當我跟大家一樣，若無其事地坐上板南線，打開手機滑幾下才發現驚人的事件竟然就發生在我上捷運沒多久！此時，全民都有資格發表自己的言論了！