Goat Cheese Indulgence

Bet you're thinking this post is about NZ, right? Surprise! It's my very first post on Taiwan!! :D

We were at Hualien and decided to go to Qi Xing Tan (will be posting on our day there soon, but check here out if you wanna see some of our pics). Hailed a cab at Hualien Train Station to the beach, and the cab driver suggested we drop by the restaurant which specialises in goat cheese. Cool, huh?

The restaurant is 原野牧場 (apparently, Wilderness Ranch) and it is a striking pink structure along the coast, which is really hard to miss. Unfortunately it was raining, and I was huffing and puffing too much in my raincoat to take photos of the outer facade. I hate long sleeved anythings and especially raincoats, because they really cling wrap the skin. Yuckkkkk. Wanted to get out of it asap.

Here are some shots of the cosy place inside. There are huge windows around to allow patrons an excellent view of the vista, especially as the restaurant is elevated about two storeys above the road. For baby strollers, it might be a feat lugging it up the stairs. Thankfully, we had our handy baby backpack carrier - best thing we got for the trip. Hee.

See the hot pink shade of the wall behind the counter? That's the dominant colour of the entire restaurant - and kinda reminds me of my bedroom wall. As for the picture frames hanging on that wall - you're right! - they are illustrations of goats!

Plenty of tables for many many patrons. Suppose it is what a normal lunch time looks like, with around 5 other tables than ours. Good thing's the prompt service.

Heidi noticed one of the resident pets, a black chow chow! The dogs are so tame in Taiwan, that even the roadside canines aren't aggressive (don't provoke them, of course). So unlike our stray dogs back home which look super fierce and menancing!

Some other artwork around the eatery

As for the food (which the bff will undoubtedly be more interested in), we had a set meal each. Yums.

Ain't the wooden menu adorable? We loved it!

The placemat which I koped for Heidi to colour on the flight back, just in case. As you can guess, it's a map of the Qi Xing Tan coastline.

We started with a goat cheese chowder. ZX didn't like it much, but I enjoyed that it wasn't overly creamy and it tasted very soothing to the palate. Welcome change of the simple life.

Garlic bread, which Heidi chomped down lots. She = carb bin. She also loves rice, noodles, sweet potatoes, etc.

My lamb shank. It tasted even better than it looked! Can't believe Heidi didn't want any of it. I finished it all up! Including the veg on the side! (Had a bit of help from Heidi on the veg tho) Damn, getting hungry just looking at this.

ZX's salmon. We were betting that the fish he ordered was salmon, because I had watched a variety show the night before and the Taiwanese call it 鲑鱼 instead of 三文魚. Don't know how to pronounce the former though, just recognised the characters. Laughs.

To end our meal, we had a slice of decadent cheesecake (made from goat cheese). ZX discovered his newfound love for cheesecake on this trip and thoroughly enjoyed this. He wanted to nick mine as well! Of course not lohh. I am the queen of desserts, excuse me.

Heidi entertaining herself with the kiddo cutlery, and wondering where the food was!

The hot pink fences surrounding the restaurant are but a tip of the iceberg.

From a distance, you can catch a glimpse of a mini structure similar to the main restaurant. This shed houses their little herd of goats. It was quite hard to see any because they were all hiding in the shed, away from the rain. Nevertheless, ZX and Heidi came back baaaaaa-ing away.

As for loos, the ladies are located off the main dining area while the gents are nearer the side of the counter. The ladies was nicely decorated in the like of the restaurant, but there wasn't any baby changing area (not surprisingly). However, the nice service staff allowed us to change Heidi's diaper on one of the benches at the dining area where there weren't any patrons.

Yupp, so we totally loved the restaurant and the food :D