Yong He Soy Milk King

Yong He Soy Milk King, or Yong He Soy Milk is an extremely famous restaurant in Taiwan that specializes in Taiwan styled breakfast.  The breakfast that it serves are the typical traditional items that people can also just grab on the go and eat while they walk to school or work.  The well known items includes soy milk, clay oven roll, and fried bread stick.  There would be crowd every morning where people want to get tasty breakfast as fast as possible before they start a brand new day.

Yon He Soy Milk King has multiple restaurants across the entire Taiwan.  We went to the one in Daan District because it has dine in area.  After we sat down, we ordered soy milk, clay oven roll, fried bread stick, Chinese omelet, and rice roll.  This seemed like a lot but it did not cost much. This would add up to be $275 NT, which translates to less than $10 USD.  It was considered as extremely cheap.

The food was served very quickly as most of the stuff were pre-made.  The soy milk was freshly made every day and we really loved the flavour of it.  The clay oven roll was warm and crunchy.  It did not have much taste but we really loved the texture of it when we chew on it.  The fried bread stick was the classic.  It was crunchy with a bit of saltiness to it made it really enjoyable.  People can also dip the fried bread stick in the hot soy milk to soften it and add more flavours to it.  The Chinese omelet was our favourite.  We loved the egg being added on top of the Chinese pancake.  Then dip it with sweet soy sauce made it even more tasty.  The rice roll was also a classic.  It has a quarter of fried bread stick in it long with sugar and peanuts.  The sticky rice also made the rice roll really sticky.

We really loved having breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk King.  It was one of the best breakfast we have had for a while.  We wish we could have this as breakfast everyday and will probably try to do so while we were still in Taiwan.

Lavender Forest Ice Cream

 

Lavender Forest Ice Cream is a specialty shop that is located in Fenqihu Old Street in Taiwan. The shop is small and it is located in the Fenqihu garage.  It sells soft serve ice cream with weird flavours such as Wasabi flavour and Sakura flavour.  It has drawn attention from the tourist due to its weird flavour offerings.  Many people come to Fenqihu just to have a taste of Wasabi flavoured ice cream and see what it is like.

Since we were visiting Fenqihu when we were in Taiwan, we were obviously not going to miss the opportunity to try Wasabi flavoured ice dream.  When we got into the garage, there were already a small group of people at the front of the shop checking out its weird offerings.  Several people were hesitating on trying out strange flavours but we were not backing down.  We purchased the ice cream using the automated kiosk to order.  We ordered a Wasabi ice cream and a Sakura ice cream.

When the ice cream was served, we thought that it looked more like frozen yogurt than the ice cream.  It did not look creaming at all.  We first had a taste of the Wasabi ice cream and it did indeed had a strong Wasabi kick to it.  It was not that spicy however but it did taste strange when combined with ice cold cream.  As for the Sakura ice cream, it did not have much flavour to it or we did not know how to describe the flavour.  The Sakura flavour was like the smell of the Sakura flower.  The flavour was very faint and barely noticing it.

Overall, it was an ice cream shop just to try something strange but it did not offer a good ice cream or good frozen yogurt.  We probably would not visit this place again since the ice cream was not cheap at all.

Xiaoshe Bento Shop

 

Xiaoshe Bento Shop is a well known restaurant located in Fenqihu Old Street in Taiwan.  This bento shop specializes in classic traditional Taiwan railway bento box food.  The restaurant is located at the center of the busy Fenqihu Old Street.  Its flashy red banner hanging off its roof made it rather obvious for tourists to spot it.  The restaurant has a large dining space and sometimes even opens up its second floor for the diners to enjoy the great view of Fenqihu from the top.

We got to Fenqihu around 1PM and it was extremely busy and crowded.  It was difficult to even walk through the street.  When we got to Xiaoshe Bento Shop, it was still busy with 80% of tables taken but we were able to secure a table at the balcony.  We ordered the classic pork rib railway bento as it is the most classic bento.

While waiting for the food, the crowd continued to stream through the street behind us and it was crazy to see this amount of people in such a small town.

We got the bento box after about 10 minutes.  The food was served in a white plastic box.  The box looks larger than the other bento boxes served in other restaurants.  The box included egg, cabbage, bamboo shoots, and corn as the side dish.  The white rice was served with flagrant bonito flakes on top of it.  The spotlight of this bento is the pork rib.  It was quite large and extremely tender with juice coming out of it.

Xiaoshe Bento Shop did not disappoint us.  We loved the port rib and also enjoyed the side dish.  The side dish was full of flavour and extremely fresh.  We would definitely visit it again in the future when we visit Taiwan.

Hinoki Village

 

Hinoki Village is a popular tourist attraction in Chiayi County, Taiwan.  It is a village made out of last few remaining Japanese heritage buildings that were built during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.  Many of these buildings were built from the giant cypress trees that were cut down in Taiwan.  This was the reason this place was named Hinoki as it meant cypress tree in Japanese.  The Hinoki Village is now being preserved as a heritage site showing the history of the Japanese occupation era of Taiwan and also sells many souvenirs made out of cypress trees.

We got to Hinoki Village around 10:30AM in the morning and there were already a lot of people.  All the buildings in the village were painted black and there was a giant cypress tree trunk at the entrance of the village.  These cypress trees had a very special scent to it that could lift the spirit of an individual.  It was also said that the scent could help to prevent mosquitos away from people.

At the center of the village, there was this gigantic cypress tree root beside a gift shop.  The root of the tree was 10 times larger than an adult and was quite impressive!  It was unbelievable to see a tree as large as this, but it was also sad to see such giant tree got cut down like this.  There was also a tree that were wrapped with red string for people to make wishes.  People could buy wooden pendants and write down their wishes on it and then hang it on the tree.

As we walked down the street of the village, we saw several more houses but there were all very similar.  There were also many Japanese anime characters built along side of the houses such as Totoro.  The streets within the village were paved and fenced on the side.  We felt that these streets and fences were all built in the recent years and did not represent the old heritage village.  By looking at the houses, the paint on the wall was also way too new and the roof top were definitely newly constructed.  This was a bit of a disappointment as we were hoping to see some real historical buildings that were left behind 100 years ago.

There were also way too many gift shops.  Essentially every single building in the village was a gift shop selling various items to the tourist.  There was no exhibition hall show casing the history of this village and providing tales of this village.  There was only few boards talking about what this village was for and how it was funded.  This was a bit unfortunate.

The Hinoki Village was a good place to visit as part of the rest stop of a long road trip.  About 30 minutes were enough for us to see everything here since we did not visit every single gift shop there.  Parking is a bit difficult to find here but many people simply asked the drivers to drop them off.

Alishan Turkey Rice

 

Alishan Turkey Rice is a restaurant known for its famous turkey rice.  It is located in Chiayi County, Taiwan.  Although it is far away from large metropolitan cities, it still gained popularity among the locals and people from all over Taiwan.  Not only it serves delicious turkey rice, it also offers various tasty side dishes for people to enjoy.

We got to Alishan Turkey Rice around 2PM.  It was not during the peak busy hour but there were still over 10 groups of people dining in the restaurant.  We obviously ordered the famous turkey rice.  We could choose the minced turkey rice or sliced turkey rice.  Both were good options but the sliced turkey rice came in a larger bowl.  We also ordered meat ball soup, marinated soft tofu, and stir fried cabbage.

The food was served quite quickly and it was served with a robot.  The robot rolled to our table with all the plates on top of it.  We took all the plates quickly before the robot ran back.  The marinated soft tofu was amazing.  The flavour had completely soaked into the tofu and it was not extremely soft where it might break when we try to use chopstick to grab a piece.  The tofu was soft and also sturdy enough that it did not break easily.  The stir fried cabbage was tasty as well and quite soft.  We loved it very much.  The meat ball soup came with 2 giant meat ball that were tender and juicy.  The soup itself was very clear and yet very tasty with soft sliced radish chunks in it.  Lastly, the turkey rice had a very strong sweet aroma to it.  The turkey meat was very soft and tasty and the saltiness was just right on the spot.

We really loved the food at Alishan Turkey Rice!  If this restaurant was not too far and difficult for tourists to access, we would loved to dine here every day when we were in Taiwan!

Mercuries Noodle House

 

Mercuries Noodle House is a popular noodle restaurant that specializes in Beef Noodle Soup in Taiwan.  It is also known as the San Shang Qiao Fu in Chinese.  This popular Beef Noodle Soup restaurant chain has been in Taiwan for over 30+ year and is still a popular place for people to enjoy beef noodle soup.  Although Mercuries Noodle House is not as famous as it used to be due to all the competition in the industry, it is still our all time favourite place to go for lunch when we visit Taiwan.

Mercuries Noodle House is a chain restaurant and has multiple locations in Taipei and quite easy to find.  Its orange logo is its signature to welcome the guests to come in.  We went to the Mercuries Noodle House restaurant located in Daan District and it is just beside the subway station exit.  We got there around 4PM, which was already past the peak hour.  There were only 2 other groups of people dining in there.  We ordered large bowls of beef noodle soup, a side dish of bean curd, a side dish of streamed vegetable, and a side dish of pig ears.

The side dishes were served very quickly as they were already made in the kitchen.  The bean curd with the sweet soy sauce on top was a blast.  We loved the texture and the taste of it.  The streamed vegetable had ground beef sauce on top of it.  The sauce made it very juicy with amazing sweet and salty flavours to it.  The pig ears had special texture to it.  We were not a big fan but wanted to give it a try.  It was very chewy and definitely could be delicious to many people but not really our type of food.

Finally, the beef noodle soup came in a large black bowl.  The soup looked dark with soy sauce with amazing aroma to it.  We went to the counter to grab a plate full of pickled vegetable.  This pickled vegetable was crunchy and added a lot of flavours to the beef noodle soup.  We added as much as we could since we loved it so much.  The beef chunks in the soup was also very tender and juicy.  The noodle was thick and chewy, and we loved it.

Overall, Mercuries Noodle House offered amazing beef noodle soup and we would definitely go to Mercuries Noodle House every time we visit Taiwan.

Khantoke Thai

 

Khantoke Thai is a restaurant specializes in Thai cuisine as its name suggests.  It is located at the heart of Downtown Hillsboro Main Street.  At the store front of the restaurant, there are many figuring showing the Thai cultural wagons and Thai traditional outfits.  The restaurant also has a very cozy vibe where the decoration of the restaurant is mainly constructed out of bamboo.

We got the new flyer from Khantoke Thai few weeks ago and their colourful flyer is full of delicious meal.  It intrigued us to try out the food at Khantoke Thai.  We got to Khantoke Thai around 5:30PM on a Friday evening.  There were only 2 groups of customers at the restaurant and there was only a single server.  We ordered a Roti with Yellow Curry and a Pineapple Fried Rice for takeout.  While we waited for our order, we took a walk outside.  While we took a stroll outside, there were many other restaurants and also a food cart place.  It was a very competitive region for restaurants to survive.  After 20 minutes, we went back to Khantoke Thai and got all orders.  When we took our to go order around 6:00PM, there were still only 2 tables of customers.

We were really excited about the Roti, but when we opened the box we were disappointed.  The roti was very thin and seemed to be a frozen food product instead of handmade Roti.  We were not pleased.  The yellow curry had a really good taste and full of coconut flavour.  The Pineapple Fried Rice filled the whole box, but was a bit too salty and quite greasy.  We didn't like it much either and disappointed with this as well.

Overall, we were disappointed with Khantoke Thai.  The food offering did not meet our standard and it could explain why there weren't many customers at the restaurant.  Hopefully it will improve its food quality in the future.

Hoffman Farm

 

Hoffman Farm is a popular U-Pick farm near Portland.  It is located at South Beaverton and less than 30 minutes away from Portland.  It gets extremely busy during the berry picking season due to the farm being close to the large city and also offers large variety of berries for people to pick.  It also has a large playground for kids to enjoy as well.

We got to Hoffman Farm around 9:30AM in the morning and there were already a lot of people.  Most people here are mostly looking for blueberry and strawberries.  When we got to the entrance, we could choose to use a bucket or use cardboard box.  Since we have small kid with us, we chose the bucket as it was easier to carry with.

Hoffman Farm also offered train ride to go around the farm.  The train ticket was $5 per person and it could take you all the way to the backside of the farm and people could get back on to the train after done picking the berries.

As we walked through the farm, the blueberries were the ones we encountered.  There were rows and rows of blueberries and most were ripe.  As we continued down the path, we also saw raspberry and blackberry.  There were also marionberries.  The strawberries were all the way at the back and that was where most people were.

There were rows and rows of strawberries at the farm and there were plenty of space of large amount of people to share.  It was more work to pick strawberries since we had to bend down to pick them.  The strawberries were quite sweet.  Some strawberries were quite large too.  We just had to have patience to look for the big juicy ones.

As we finished picking the berries, we headed back to the store to weight our berries.  The cost of the berry is only $2.50 per pound.  It was quite cheap and there was no entrance fee collected.  We were thinking that people could just come in and take a walk around the farm.  We were hoping to see some baked goods at the farm store but did not find anything interesting.

Overall, it was a great experience at Hoffman Farm.  The fact that it was so close to the city just made it so convenient for people to visit.  We definitely would visit Hoffman Farm again to pick up more fresh berries.

Two Hands Fresh Corn Dogs

 

Two Hands Fresh Corn Dogs is a restaurant specialized in corn dogs.  The corn dogs offered here is Korean styled corn dogs that different from the original American corn dogs.  The Korean styled corn dogs adds different sauce and crispiness to it.  The Two Hands Fresh Corn Dogs at Hillsboro was going to close down permanently and thus we wanted to try it out or else we won't have any opportunity in the future.

We got to Two Hands Fresh Corn Dogs at 4:30PM on its closing day.  When we got there and realized that the restaurant would close at 5PM on its last day.  We were lucky to get here early.  We ordered a Crispy Rice Corn Dog and a Dirty Fries.  When we ordered the corn dog, we could choose different fillings such as all beef hotdog, half hotdog and half cheese, plant based hot dog, or all cheese.

The food did not take long to be ready.  Both the corn dog and the fries were placed in nice little cardboard boxes.  First, the corn dog was really crispy with the rice around it.  It had honey mustard and ketchup drizzled on the top.  Then it had sugar coating around it, which made it sweet taste.  The corn flour coating around it was not very thick and also tasted sweet.  The Dirty Fries was essentially fried tots.  Then there were other seasonings placed on top of it which made it a little spicy and sweet.

The food at Two Hands Fresh Corn Dogs were mediocre and we found it to be a bit too sweet.  For people who enjoys heavy taste would definitely like these corn dogs.  But if you are more into tasting the natural flavour of the food, then it is not the right kind of food.  We were still glad to have tried this on its very last day!

Cannon Beach 2026

 

Cannon Beach is popular sandy beach near Portland, Oregon.  It is about an hour West of Portland and it is a small charming town with beautiful sandy beach.  It is famous for its Haystack rock standing in the ocean.  Many Oregonian visit Cannon Beach during the weekend to relax and enjoy the sunshine on the beach.  People also often set up bonfires along the beach at night to get some smores.

We took the Friday off and headed to Cannon Beach for a nice 2 night stay there.  We have never stayed at Cannon Beach previously since it was so closed to Portland.  There were many options to stay overnight but we chose Hallmark Resort and SPA since it is close to the Haystack Rock.

We got to Cannon Beach around 3PM in the afternoon.  Unfortunately it was quite windy and raining a little bit in the sky.  So we didn't spend as much time as we would have liked on the beach.  Instead, we visited the stores in the village to checkout new stuff there.  It was great to get out of the city life and have a stroll in the village to relax.

The weather on the second day was much better.  It was still cloudy but the sun has came out.  We went down to the beach around the sunset golden hour.  It was still windy and many people were flying kite up high in the sky.  The setting sun behind the Haystack Rock was beautiful.  We also flew the drone up in the sky to see the ocean waves from the above.  It was definitely a different perspective on viewing the ocean.

We were unable to take some Milkyway photos due to the cloudy sky at night unfortunately.  But we would definitely come back and visit again to do that!

Pig N Pancake

 

Pig N Pancake is a restaurant that specializes in breakfast and brunch menu items.  There are many locations throughout the cities along the Oregon coast.  It usually opens at 7AM in the morning and closes a 3PM in the afternoon.  The restaurant often has a gift shop at the entrance selling Oregon coast related souvenirs.

On the second day where we were at Cannon Beach, we decided to go for brunch and went to Pig N Pancake location at Cannon Beach.  The parking lot was small but not many cars were there and there were plenty of street parking spaces available.  As we entered the restaurant, there were only 2 servers handling all the guests and we had to wait for a bit to get our takeout order placed.

We ordered a Sausage Omelet, a Western Omelet, and a Strawberry Crepe.  The food was ready rather quickly and they gave us a huge cup filled full with fresh whip creme for the crepe.  The sausage Omelet was our favourite.  We loved the large amount of sausage mixed in the omelet and was very tasty.  The Western Omelet was more like a veggie option.  It was filled with tomato, onion, and pepper.  It was good, but not as tasty as the Sausage Omelet.  We also got the sourdough pancake as the side with the omelet.  The pancake was amazing but we didn't think we could tell the difference compared to regular pancake.  The Strawberry Crepe was great.  There were 3 pieces of crepe in the dish.  The sweetness of the crepe was not too heavy and the fresh whip creme really helped to balance out the taste.

Overall we enjoyed the brunch at Pig N Pancake!  There were many other omelet options that we definitely want to try next time!

Short Sand Beach

 

Short Sand Beach is about 1.5 hours of drive time from Portland.  It is a popular beach for surfers as the beach is at an enclosed cove and thus the wind is not as strong.  The beach is only 15 minutes south of another popular beach, Cannon Beach.  Short Sand Beach require people to do a short hike from the parking lot but the hiking trail is quite easy and very family friendly.

We got to Short Sand Beach around 10AM in the morning and the parking lot was nearly full.  Since it is a very popular beach, we recommend to arrive early to get a parking space.  Since Short Sand Beach is part of Oswald West State Park, there is a $10 day use fee required.

The trail was quite easy.  It was very wide and very flat.  From the parking lot to the beach, the trail was mostly going downwards towards the beach.  Near the end of the trail, there were few obstacles where we had to cross large tree logs but these were not showstopper issues.

When we got to the beach, it was at a cove and really beautiful.  It was during the low tide and we could go along the cliff side to look at all the tide pools.  There were also many surfers along the beach side getting ready to surf the ocean.  There were also people getting the wood log ready to set up some bonfire on the beach.

Overall, the Short Sand Beach was a beautiful beach that is really accessible and very family friendly.  We did not get to spend as much time here as we wanted, but we would definitely come back again and spend the whole day here.

Rowena Plateau

 

Rowena Plateau is a popular wildflower viewing location in Oregon.  It is about 1.5 hours East of Portland along the Columbia Gorge.  It is right across from Tom McCall Point trail.  Rowena Plateau trail is rather flag and suitable for anyone to hike.  People can also choose how far they want to go as the wildflower can be seen at the start of the trail.  It is one of the most popular hiking trail for wildflower enthusiasts.

Originally, we were going to hike Mosier Plateau but decided to go to Rowena Plateau instead.  When we got there, it was already 10AM in the morning and the parking lot was full.  Many cars chose to park along side the road.  We were lucky to find a proper parking spot when a couple finished early and left.

As we entered Rowena Plateau area, we could see the yellow and purple wildflowers along side the trail.  It was a beautiful scene and we could also see Columbia River on the far side as well.  The trail led all the way down the plateau towards Columbia River.  It was extremely easy to hike along the trail.

While we were there, we also saw several couples taking engagement photos and use the wildflowers as the background.  Since the weather was not hot with overcast in the sky, it was the perfect weather to take photos.

Later on we also went back to Rowena Crest just to look down towards the highway.  It was always amazing to see all the cars running along side Columbia River.

Rowena Plateau is always a great place for wildflower viewing.  Definitely worth a visit!

BBQ Chicken

 

BBQ Chicken specializes in Korean style fried chicken.  It offers 10+ flavors and can choose between regular, boneless, and chicken wings.  Each order comes with 8 pieces of chicken and can choose 1 flavor for every 8 pieces of chicken.  Compared to Buffalo Wild Wings, BBQ Chicken did not offer customers to choose multiple flavors per fried chicken order.  BBQ Chicken also offer Korean Fusion food such as Kimchi Pasta, Kimchi Fried Rice, and other soup dishes.

We got to BBQ Chicken around noon and there was literally no one in the restaurant.  The restaurant was quite large but lacks customers around this time.  We ordered an 8 pieces Golden Original chicken wings, a Kimchi Fried Rice, and a Odeng Kimchi Soup.

While we were waiting for our food, there was actually a lot of take out orders.  Most people ordered take out instead of dine in.

Our food took a more than 15 minutes to be ready.  Not sure if it was due to large amount of take out orders.  The Golde Original fried chicken is just like the classic fried chicken.  It was quite hot and fresh with a lot of juice.  However, we would say Jolibee offers better fried chicken than this at a cheap price.  The Kimchi Fried Rice came with an egg on the top.  We actually enjoyed the fried rice.  It had a lot of kimchi flavor but not so spicy at the same time.  We had mixed feedback on the Odeng Kimchi Soup.  It had great flavor that was both spicy and sweet.  We like the flavor of the soup.  However, there was a lot of mixed veggies and fish cakes in the soup.  The mixed veggies in the soup seemed random and did not taste good at all.

Overall, the experience at BBQ Chicken did not meet our expectation.  We had Korean Fried Chicken at other places and it was good.  But the recommended Golden Original Fried Chicken was just like the fried chicken at other places and not as good as Jolibee.  We would not recommend getting Golden Original Fried Chicken here but can try other flavors.

Good Catch Cafe

 

Good Catch Cafe is a restaurant specialized in Cantonese cafe food.  This includes dishes that mixed Western and Chinese cultural food together.  Good Catch Cafe has multiple locations and had outstanding reviews from people who have dined there.  While we were visiting Toronto this holiday season, we wanted to give this a try.

We went to the Good Catch Cafe restaurant at Fairview Mall.  The mall has definitely changed a lot with a lot more people than 5 years ago.  Good Catch Cafe is located right across from T&T supermarket.  We got there around 4:30PM before the dinner rush hour and got a table immediately.  There was a QR code on the table and we could scan it and order directly from the web page.

We ordered a baked chicken steak with spaghetti and it comes from Cantonese milk tea included.  The food came really quickly within 10 minutes and it looks delicious.  The chicken steak was precut into smaller strips and knife was not required.  The baked tomato sauce was very aromatic and had a faint sweet taste to it.  We really enjoyed this meal that mixed Western and Chinese cuisines together.

This meal cost $17 Canadian plus tax.  It was a great value considering that it included a large milk tea drink.  There were several other dishes we would like to try and thus we would definitely come a revisit again in the future.