As the final day of 2022 came to a close, we took a trip to Portugal. We found ourselves in the heart of Lisbon, looking to experience the local New Year’s Eve festivities. The city was alive with excitement and anticipation, as locals and visitors alike gathered to ring in the new year.

We started our evening at Rossio Square, where large crowds had already begun to gather. We meandered through the city streets, eating Pastéis de Natas, a sweet, flaky pastry is filled with a creamy, egg-based custard that is lightly dusted with cinnamon and powered sugar. I can still feel that crunch in my head when I think about it. The best one we had was from here

We also got to try Pastel de Bacalhau, a dish that combines the salty flavor of bacalhau with a crispy, flaky pastry crust. It is typically made with shredded salted cod, onions, and potatoes, and is often served as a snack or appetizer.

Along the walk, we encountered a café with a sign that probably would have gotten a lot of angry complaints where I live. Or maybe I’m just “woke”

The shop itself actually sells coffee beans and tea leaves in additional to other local souvenirs. Nothing wrong with that – it’s just the sign.

Lisbon was quite alive with twinkling lights and festive decorations. The streets and squares are lit up with colorful displays. In addition to the lights and fireworks, Lisbon during New Year’s Eve is also a time for celebration, with parties and events taking place all across the city.

To add onto the New Year’s festivities, the city set up stands where people could just buy a beer and drink it as they walked around. If people in North America were more responsible with their alcohol, this could work too

For dinner, we ate at a place serving paellas, both in the Portuguese and Spanish style (with port wine of course). Paella has a rich and savory flavor that is characterized by the seafood, meats, and vegetables that bring depth and richness to the dish. The perfectly cooked rice, which should be tender yet not mushy, adds a creamy texture to the dish.

As we waited, a gentleman working there chatted with us to help us pass the time as we waited. One thing we immediately noticed is that a lot of the restaurants in the area were purely there to serve tourists. The restaurant itself was run by Nepali immigrants (they couldn’t even tell us how to say “happy new year” in Portuguese). Still, the food was pretty good – there was even another couple who came back the next day.

Eventually we reached the Praça do Comércio. The crowds were so large it became impossible to actually get into the plaza. Not wanting to fight the crowd, we turned back. It was ripe for pickpockets to do their work. Instead we walked around the town looking for a good angle to see the New Year’s fireworks

The streets were filled with the sounds of music, and laughter, as revelers counted down to the new year. At midnight, the sky exploded with a dazzling display of lights and color, as the city celebrated the arrival of the new year. The sky lit up and and the air was filled with cheers and applause.

More photos of Portugal

Beef noodles: a soup noodle with big chunks of half fatty and half lean beef in a beef broth. One of the quintessential parts of Taiwanese food culture.

Hot pot: it’s the idea of taking a pot of boiling water or soup and cooking meat and vegetables in it. Pretty much anything goes here: any kind of meat, vegetable, mushroom, etc.

Stir fried morning glory: not a vegetable that’s common in Canada/USA, but can be found in Asian supermarkets. It looks and feels like green onion with a slightly thicker skin, but tastes like spinach and has a nice crunch.

Szechuan style spicy wontons: the wonton is very similar to other kinds of wontons (ground pork and shrimp in a dough wrapper). In this case, it’s got a spicy, yet savoury sauce that slightly numbs the tongue.

Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings): similar to a wonton as far as its filling goes (it can be pure pork, pure shrimp, or mixed) with a key difference in that it contains hot soup. They originated from Shanghai, but it’s made its way into mainstream Taiwanese cuisine.

Shaoxing drunken chicken: it’s essentially chicken that has been steamed and marinated in a brine of shaoxing wine and chicken broth.

Bubble tea: yet another famous part of Taiwanese cuisine. The original variant was a milk tea with tapioca pearls, but now it’s evolved and comes in many flavours, from any kind of tea to a fruit slushie, with either tapioca pearls or fruit jellies (or even ice cream!)

Grilled giant prawns: Prawns a pretty regular thing in a lot of places, but at the local Shilin nightmarket, they are fished out and cooked only when ordered – so they are guaranteed fresh. These prawns are also HUGE. The three in the photo were around half a pound in total.

Oyster pancake: a popular food at the night markets, it’s essentially an omelette (with added starch for thickness) with oysters inside, with a savoury sauce poured on top.

Popcorn chicken: can be summarized as Taiwan’s take on fried chicken. It’s got Chinese style seasonings such as five-spice, and Thai basil. It can be found at many street vendors and night markets.

Kaoliang wine: this wine is made from fermented sorghum. It’s got a nice strong kick, and not so much a wide flavour profile. This alcohol is a big export of the Taiwanese island of Kinmen

Three cup chicken: named after the three key ingredients for the sauce: rice wine, soy sauce, and sesame oil. The chicken is cooked in the skillet.

Mango shaved ice: mango chunks with mango ice cream on top of mango flavoured shaved ice. It tastes exactly like what one would imagine. The little purple and orange balls are made of taro and potato/sweet potato flour and are nice and chewy.

Of all the food I miss, I’d say it’s the beef noodles. That’s the one thing I have the strongest craving for and unfortunately for me, there aren’t any that I like where I live. To see other parts of my trip to Taipei, click here.

We got to try some Indonesian Roti. Each dish was like a dollar!! We watched the staff at the restaurant tossing and spinning the dough and everything. They have plain roti, roti with sausage, cheese, onions, or even dessert roti!

Getting around is pretty easy with the many taxis around or even a motorbike rental. I’ve read that there have been altercations between taxi drivers and Grab drivers, but I didn’t experience that while I was there, except for some areas clearly marked as not Grab friendly. There aren’t a lot of gas stations around, but a lot of stores fill up petrol in vodka bottles and sell them.

This section of the beach was part of a restaurant/bar/resort called Ku De Ta, and people could just sit back and enjoy a drink or two (cigars are on the menu too!) while enjoying the beach. Locals own the chairs on the beach and charge people to sit on them.

We couldn’t chill on this beach, but we did have a pool in our villa! Mike made an amazing video tour of the villa in his video below!

I spent my time in the pool learning how to swim (at this point, I didn’t even know how to float). I started off being super uncomfortable even leaning back to float, and was really frustrated at not being able to do basic actions on the water. I looked up YouTube videos on how to float and tread water and eventually figured it out! We basically stayed in the pool until we got hungry for dinner – this time to try local seafood. Mike, if you’re reading this, you missed out by not recording this part.

After the meal, we went back in the pool. I practiced some more, and when I got tired, I floated on my back and gazed at the stars.

I was disappointed to leave this amazing villa, but alas, all good things must come to an end. The next day, we took the plane and flew back home, where we resumed our regular lives.

For my photos of Bali, click here.

This is probably the most iconic area in Singapore – Marina Bay. Starting with the Merlion, we toured around the bay. I didn’t actually understand what a Merlion was until I saw the actual statue.

The placement of all the buildings and the water was so perfect for photos!! This area is a must-go.

There’s even a spot for an outdoor band to play.

And an outdoor street food market.

I ate my very first stingray. Another one off the list.

Another must-go destination in Singapore – The Supertrees! There is a whole grove of them and they constantly change colours. They’re powered by solar energy and capture rainwater for reuse.

In Chinatown, there is a famous Michelin 1-star place located in Chinatown called Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle. The lineup almost went out the door and it was next to impossible to find a seat.

The chicken was not dry at all, but rather juicy with all the flavours of the soy sauce, and every bite was tender.

The chili crab is also worth trying if you’re willing to splurge.

In Maxwell Centre, Tian Tian is the best place to go for Hainanese Chicken Rice. If this place existed where I live, I’d go there all the time.

There’s also Song Fa Bak Kut Teh. They serve a ribs cooked in a flavoured soup. The ribs are super tender and fall easily off the bone, and the soup is a complex soup with lots of strong spices (kind of savoury and peppery). The shop even sells their own flavouring powder so people can make the soup at home!

Chinatown is pretty much a place where tourists go and most of the street vendors are catering purely to tourists. But the food here, on the other hand, is terrific.

The Buddhist temple there looks incredible. Unlike the temples in Hong Kong, photography is allowed and look way cooler.

Next destination was Little India. It was amazing at how all of a sudden, the streets were no longer filled with Chinese Singaporeans, but rather Indian Singaporeans. Many shops sold fabric for saris, and jewelry.

This was my first time visiting a Hindu temple.

There’s also an Arab Quarter. It’s incredible how in one city there are so many visible ethnicities.

Sentosa is another great place to visit. It’s the home of many resorts, Universal Studios Singapore, and the aquarium. It’s also the most southern point of continental Asia! I always thought the Vancouver aquarium was pretty amazing, but the one in Singapore is SO much better.

This was the most impressive aquarium display I had ever seen. The picture doesn’t capture how absolutely massive this room was. The window itself has a thickness of 70cm!!

Singapore also has a world class zoo – except this one is open at night, just to show off nocturnal animals.

Gordon Ramsay recommends 328 Katong, for Singapore’s famous Laksa. The soup is slightly spicy and contains chili, coconut milk, and evaporated milk. THe fillings contain noodles, shrimp and mushrooms among other things. The other two dishes are Nasi Lemak, which is a rice dish with dried anchovies and a spicy sauce, while the other is Otah, which is a fish cake with spices inside (these two items were probably the only dishes I didn’t like).

Pretty much all the restaurants and places I went came from recommendations from friends who either grew up in Singapore or lived there. Thanks to them, I got a bit of a local’s perspective on the most awesome places to go!

Photo album: here

The weirdest part about boarding the plane: all the flight attendants just assumed I was Korean and spoke Korean to me, but changed to English for anyone that didn’t look Chinese/Japanese/Korean. I guess better to do that than to wrongly assume and speak English to actual Koreans. What’s cool about a Korean airline is that they serve Korean food like Bibimbap too. Oh, and they also asked me if I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 7. I guess that makes sense. Exploding plane… not good…

I arrived in Hanoi at night, and after a terrible night of jet lagged sleep, my adventure began.

Crossing the street on busy streets without traffic lights

Probably the biggest WTF moment I had was when I noticed that there are exactly zero traffic lights at intersections and there’s like a hundred people on mopeds crossing these intersections. People here are somehow magically able to weave through each other while crossing the intersection. People crossing the street just walk at a constant pace and just let the drivers drive around them.

The first time I crossed the street, it was like a giant leap of faith. As I’m crossing the street, I’m thinking “I wonder if this is what it feels like to know your life is about to end”. After I crossed, I thought, “Oh that wasn’t so bad”. But then there are like a dozen more intersections to cross before getting to the destination. After a while though, it definitely got easier.

There’s so many people here and the air pollution is epic

I thought I was used to large Asian cities (e.g. Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc.), but Hanoi is on a different level. The average population density of Hong Kong is about 6000 people/square km, but in Hanoi, it’s about 15000. For some reason though, it doesn’t seem like there are as many people walking around as in Hong Kong or Tokyo. Maybe it’s because they’re all driving their mopeds. It’s so crowded here that some people live in front of an unused railway track.

The streets are way less spacious too. People are always selling stuff on the side of the street, or people are parking their mopeds everywhere, so it makes it really hard to just walk in a straight line along the sidewalk. And as you’re walking, you’re constantly smelling exhaust.

Lots of cheap stuff

The street markets are often selling cheap knockoffs of things. People on the street were selling tons of North Face jackets. Apparently, they are made in Vietnam, but I have no idea whether or not the jackets here are real though, but they sure felt real. And they only cost $35 USD. I picked up two football jerseys for Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund for about $5 USD each. Dong Xuan market is another place selling tons of cheap stuff. Stores are tiny, but full of merchandise stacked up and the walkways are super narrow, but to our western standards, everything is super cheap. This is a city where a regular guy like me can walk into a Louis Vuitton store without being judged by all the people working there.

I almost bought this “Lepin” Millenium Falcon for $40 USD. The lady wouldn’t budge on her price =/.

On weekends, there’s a night market selling more cheap stuff.

They’ve got a really cool lake in the middle of the city

It was definitely the most scenic part of Hanoi that I went to.

On weekends afternoons and nights, everybody is going to Hoan Kiem Lake to hang out with their family and friends. At night, the lake lights up real good.

Of course, there’s the food

A while ago, there was a story about Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain eating dinner in Hanoi. Since that happened, the restaurant they went to, Bún chả Hương Liên, became famous and tons of people went there to eat the “Obama Special” – Bún chả and spring rolls. A local guide we met later in the trip told us that this restaurant is overrated, but I thought it was good. Thanks Obama!

There was also this barbecue place. There’s a giant selection of meats with different cuts and you pick which ones you want and it all gets cooked on a giant barbecue platter. Aside from the usual beef, chicken, pork, they had an entire frog. Looking back, I should have ordered it. Frog is definitely up there on my list of delicious exotic meats. If I knew Vietnamese, I would have asked them if they had dog meat because I would have ordered that for sure. We ended up picking up a few things that looked good, but had no idea what they were. One of them tasted like beef and was kind of chewy and reminded me of beef intestines that I ate in Osaka.

At one point in the trip, we got a volunteer tour guide to take us around the city to eat stuff. We help them practice their English and pay for their food, and they show us around – it’s a pretty cool idea. Our guide took us to try some fried eel in a salad and some eel soup.

Our guide also took us to eat this Vietnamese version of a steamed rice roll. Not as good as the kind I eat at Dim Sum.

Everybody knows Pho. It’s a lot different than the ones I eat in Vancouver and not very comparable. The ones I ate in Hanoi were generally plainer and was less savoury. It also costs about $2.50 USD. Some people prefer this taste over the kind we get in the western world, but I would disagree.

By far the best meal of the whole trip was at “The Hung Snake Restaurant“. Yep, I got to eat an entire snake – a bamboo snake. A guy came with a sack with a snake inside. He took it out and let me hold onto it to “play” with it before eating. Sure, okay, playing with a snake is great and all, but that thing was frickin poisonous and the entire time, I was just kind of freaked out and hoped that thing didn’t bite me.

The next thing you know, the guy takes out a platter with scissors and knives like in a surgery and cuts open the snake. As it bleeds to death, he drains its blood into a glass, THEN takes out its beating heart and puts it into another glass. FINALLY, he cuts out part of the stomach and drains its stomach bile into another glass. He hands me the glass with the still beating heart and tells me to eat it. It was exactly what I came here for and it was amazing. I only wish I had chewed the heart before swallowing it instead of swallowing it whole like he told me to.

The blood and bile were mixed with some sort of alcohol and I drank those too. My friend on the other hand, could not bear to watch the snake get murdered like that and barely ate any of it when the food actually came. More for me :). All sorts of snake bits were used with different cooking styles: grilled meat, deep fried bones, deep fried skin, snake tail boiled into a soup, sauteed meat, spring rolls, steamed meat, the stomach, etc. Everything was GREAT. A++, would eat again – the king cobra next time.

In addition to snake, I also wanted to try cat meat. I asked the staff at our hostel and he told me that he knew that people did eat that sort of stuff, but wasn’t able to tell me where. Too bad. I also missed out on this silkworm omelette that they only serve in the mornings. Everywhere I saw a cat or a dog, I’d wonder if people would kidnap them and cook them =/

As usual, I drank the local beer. The Beer Corner is a popular place. It was weird to see a kid who looked about 12 pour my beer. Apparently that’s allowed around here.

Their way of life can be very simple

Just some kids playing Tug of War.

Let’s cut some hair on the side of the street.

Unique history and culture

This is a country where for so much of their history, they were conquered by someone: China, France, Japan, etc. The French left behind some of their architecture too.

Since Vietnam is a communist country, of course there has to be a statue of Lenin.

There was also an influence from Confucianism here. Enough for there to be a Confucian temple, which is also the site of the Imperial Academy, the first national university of Vietnam.

How fitting that when we were there, there were groups of students posing for pictures for graduation.

They’re really proud about going up against their enemies and winning

From going to museums there, they are really happy about finally having their own country back again. There were so many exhibits about their triumphs against the colonialists, against the Japanese, and eventually against the Americans. They even claim that the Americans fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident as an excuse to fight in Vietnam. That could very well have been true, but everything just seemed super biased. During the war, the North Vietnamese shot down a B-52, which they proudly display.

There’s even a bit of a B-52 in the water where it crashed. The buidings in the back are also super narrow, which was because buildings were taxed on their width (not sure if this is still the case though).

They also like to point out all the terrible things that their French conquerors did to them at the Prison Museum.

The body of Ho Chi Minh is preserved and displayed in the mausoleum. When we were there though, his body had been transported to Russia for some work, and so it wasn’t on display.

At their military museum, they went on about how they fought a war against American imperialism and showed off the weapons they used. And of course, every time I see a tank, I think “cuz baby you’re a firreeeworkkkkk” and drinking margaritas.

I think that sums up the visit to Hanoi real good!

Link to photo album: here

As usual, food was the goal. Miso-Katsu, a kind of Japanese schnitzel with with miso sauce, is a specialty of Nagoya. Yabaton was the name of the restaurant and it is one of the most famous places in Nagoya for Miso-Katsu.

Nagoya also has the largest planetarium in the world at the Nagoya City Science Museum. And they have palm trees! We went to the planetarium show too, and they showed us how various constellations and planets looked in space, but unforunately, all the explanations were in Japanese. Still, it is worth a visit for those who enjoy stargazing.

Some crazy stuff they were able to do with bubbles too.

And I found the dome and helix fossils. I just need to go to the lab in Cinnarbar Island… Now I am wondering if the museum people put those two fossils together on purpose.

I wanted to walk inside this tornado so badly.

Another specialty of Nagoya is Hitsumabushi, which is grilled eel on rice. Probably many non-Asians may think that this is weird to eat, but regardless it is very very good, but expensive. According to the local culture, there is a “standard” way to eat this. First is to eat a quarter of it as is. Second, is to add various spices like green onion, and wasabi to it and eat another quarter. Third is to mix it with the given broth and eat another quarter of it. Lastly, it is to eat the last quarter with the favoured method of the three.

In the downtown district of Sakae, I saw a Ferris wheel attached to the side of the building. I should get one for my house too.

Not sure if this is a thing in Nagoya, but someone had the great idea of mixing melon in their spaghetti batter. Step 1: Make spaghetti with melon batter. Step 2: Add whipped cream. Step 3: ???. Step 4: Profit! Apparently, the kiwi one was better, according to a friend.

Another speciality of Nagoya is Tebasaki, Nagoya-style fried chicken wings. I believe it is deep fried with a coating of sweet soy sauce. It tasted okay, I guess.

Not exactly a specialty of Nagoya, but this is raspberry Kit Kat. It is not good. Don’t try it.

As expected, epic food often makes appearances in my travelling

Links to photo albums:

• Nagoya
• Nagoya City Science Museum

Hakata Style Ramen

The soup in this ramen is made from boiling bones at high temperature, which transfers the pork fat, meat, and flavours into the soup. The noodle is also thinner and straighter than the typical style of ramen. We went to a ramen shop called Ichiran (一蘭), which is a well known chain of ramen shops. Each person sat at a booth regardless or whether they were a party or not.

Motsunabe

It is essentially a type of hot pot with a specific type of ingredients. In this case, our hot pot had pieces of pork/beef organs (probably intestines) cooked in the soup with chives, and various veggies.

Beef Heart and Horse Sashimi

I don’t think this is a food local to Fukuoka, but it is still different enough to be worth mentioning. Despite being beef heart, I thought it tasted like beef. The taste didn’t change just because the meat was from the cow’s heart. As for the horse sashimi, hose meat definitely isn’t as flavourful as beef, and is a bit chewy. After trying so many kinds of meat from different animals, it is clear to me why beef is the popular choice.

Pokemon Center Fukuoka

Not really related to food, but I came across this while walking around the mall inside the train station. Lots and lots of Pokemon plushies. In the picture, there are even Pikachu’s wearing Japan’s 2014 World Cup jersey!

Link to album here: here

Being in a different country, it’s pretty much a necessity to try out the local cuisine. However, since I’m not rich enough to try really unique and high quality German food all the time, I’ve kind of failed in this regard. Luckily for me though, I get to try different types of German from the cafeteria at work. But then again, it’s not quite the same thing, but I’ll try my best. And since the German food I’ve been eating comes from the cafeteria, I didn’t think it seemed appropriate at the time for me to take pictures, so the pictures I won’t be from me, but from Wikipedia (the best source for all knowledge).

Bratwurst

Pretty much everyone who lives in a western country knows what bratwurst is. In short, it’s a German-style sausage. It’s different from North American sausages in the fact that a whole lot better. I haven’t got a clue at the differences in the what parts of the cow/pig they use, but it tastes damn good. I eat bratwurst pretty much every morning.

Kaiserschmarrn

Simply speaking, Kaiserschmarrn is pretty much a German/Austrian pancake. People in Austria eat it for dessert. When it comes to food, I rarely ask what it is made of. I just eat it, so I’m going to have to quote Wikipedia on this one to find out what it’s made of.

Kaiserschmarrn is a light, caramelized pancake made from a sweet batter with flour, eggs, sugar, salt, and milk, baked in butter.

Wikipedia said it’s a dessert, but I ate this as my main meal. Personal taste I guess.

Maultaschen

Maultasche are a Swabian food, which is like ravioli. It’s got pasta on the outside and meat on the inside. Wiki says its got different kinds of meat, spinach, bread crumbs, and onions with flavoring from various herbs and spices. It wasn’t super delicious (but still good), and doesn’t look super delicious, but it’s worth a try just to get a taste of Swabian culture.

Spaetzle

Also a Swabian specialty food, Spaetzle is a type of noodle. I was explicitly told by a colleague of mine not to call this pasta. Apparently Swabians like to make a distinction between Spaetzle and pasta. To go with the Spaetzle, I had lentils and sausages. It tasted okay I guess (if you’re Swabian and reading this, don’t hate me). It’s not one of my favorites, but for those who want to eat Swabian food, this is something to try.

Semmelknoedel

A southern German and Austrian specialty food, semmelknoedel is made of mostly bread. That probably doesn’t make the food sound delicious, but when I ate it, i thought it was good. It’s not super fancy or anything, just something unique that people in Germany eat.

There is way more German food that I ate since I’ve been here, but unfortunately most of the time I eat the food, I have no idea what it is or that I can’t remember the name. Oh how inconvenient it is to not be able to read/speak German. As I try more and more different kinds of food, I’ll be sure to post more.

Yesterday, I decided to give this a try.  I scooped two cups of rice into a bowl and then filled it with some water  to wash it.  After draining the water, I transferred the rice into the rice cooker pot.  At that moment, I realized that I could have just used that container to begin with.  I filled the container up to the line that said “2”, since I only used two cups of rice.  I plugged the rice cooker in and set it to cook.  It was that simple.  The rice I cooked would be for my lunch for the next day.

While cooking this rice, I helped my roommates cook lasagna.  There were three of us, so we delegated different tasks to each person.  My job was to cook the ground beef on the frying pan.  The last time I did this was in the cooking class in Middle School.  I took the spatula and broke apart the big clump of ground beef.  As I did that, my roommates would add peppers, and onions to the mix.  I then moved the bits around to cook the red parts of the meat.  Even I know that red is bad for ground beef.  I cooked it until all the beef turned dark brown.

While I cooked the ground beef, one of my roommates prepared the sauce.  All he did was pour some pasta sauce into a pot, fill it with water, and heat it up.  He also added some spices, but I don’t remember what.  Another roommate cut up some veggies to put into the frying pan with the ground beef.

Once the beef and the sauce was prepared, they poured some of the sauce onto a lasagna pan, then added a layer of lasagna pasta.  I grated some cheese for it too.  Grating the cheese proved to be more difficult than it should have been since the cheese was just taken out of the freezer, which meant that little chunks would break off while I was grating it.  They would prepare layers using a combination of the sauce, pasta, cheese, and veggies.  Once they filled the  pan to the top, they put it in the oven for about half an hour.

They said, “this is how you make homemade lasagna.”  Once it was done, we ate it and it was pretty good.  I guess this has taught me that cooking stuff like this isn’t that hard.  I’ll also need to get used to it, since I’ll probably be cooking for myself regularly once I move out.