I always lost some weight whenever I visited Taiwan. Maybe the weather was not right too hot in summer or the food was not suitable for me.

Luckily, my friend from France introduced a nice guy, Aven to me as my tour guide in Taipei this time. Aven promised to make me put on some kilos when he showed me around.

The first impression on Aven, he is a tall, chivalrous and courteous gentleman; he is a businessman with years of experience in fashion industry. We met around noon time. He drove his car to pick me up. In the car, he passed me a book and asked me about what my best interests in travelling were. Architect, buildings, food, nature, historical and cultural?

Mhm… My answer was: anything I might only get for now but not anymore later on or in the near future. That’s what I have been looking for in every trip!

We stopped by at the Starbucks in YangMingShan, sat down for a cup of coffee. Then Aven used the serviette and drew a draft of simple map of Taipei and briefed me about history of Taiwan.

He drew like that. He said first batch of Taiwanese were living in Da Dao Cheng. That’s why you would to get see some old historical architect and buildings. They have been preserved well.  Then people started to shift to the east.  You see Taipei 101 is on the east part of Taipei.

Then we got in his car and drove to a restaurant surrounded by mountains and greeneries. Cool breeze caressed on my cheeks. Feel so relaxed, cooling to be around here.

Walking into the restaurant, you could see the rainbow buns photo in front of the counter. We took a seat and I was catching few shots. Aven started to take a glance on menu. It seems like he has been a regular but hadn’t visited for quite a while. He said farm chicken was really nice. He went through the menu with me. I said I trusted his gourmet tongue. He said something hard to be missed here was their deep fried river shrimps! Let’s make the order.

Tada!

Here they come!

All the dishes served in pretty short time. Maybe we came at the right time. 

I love the steamed farm chicken; it tasted originally without much seasoning or spice on it. The shining, oily, yellowish chicken skin made me drooled. You could taste the freshness of the farm chicken and meat was tender and smelled great.

One dish gave me a stunning taste was the deep fried river shrimps. Aven highly recommended this as a MUST when we glanced through the menu. He said when you crunched them, the smell of fragrance and the taste of slight salt and pepper was so pleasing and you wanted for more! It goes along so well with a beer! The bamboo shoots and veggie dishes were not bad.

And the signature rainbow buns~ This dish would attract kids more with its colourful appearance! Let’s have a close-up!

It is better to have a meal here with a group of friends. It will be easier to try different dishes. Burrp! Two of us were trying to finish the whole table of food. Aven still ordered another plate of Chinese-styled dessert! =_=III