This week, Senator Connelly is proud to spotlight Patel Brothers, an Indian grocery store chain that has recently opened a location in Naperville.
The grocery store, located at 1568 W. Ogden Avenue, is proud to bring the best ingredients from around the world. With a wide variety of authentic regional ingredients, Patel Brothers aims to connect people with the flavors of India by offering a full line of groceries including dry goods, frozen items and fresh produce.
Started in 1974, a pair of brothers and their families took on an opportunity after a small Indian grocery store was for sale on Devon Avenue in Chicago. After pooling together their savings, they were able to purchase the store, turning it into a nationally known grocery chain.
Patel Brothers has a total of 52 locations throughout the country. The Naperville store became the fourth location in Illinois.
“This is a great addition to the City of Naperville,” said Sen. Connelly. “It’s great to see new and different businesses come to the area contributing to a successful economy. I welcome Patel Brothers and am thrilled they have made Naperville one of their homes. It’s exciting that residents in Naperville are now able to enjoy the flavors of India right at home.”
Exploring our Taipei Neighbourhood is fun, there are many stalls and shops which are off the radars of Google. We stayed 3 nights at a HomeAway apartment next to 南京復興站 Nanjing Fuxing MRT Station.
..you know something is good, delicious, cool when you see a queue. And there are many such “treats” (pun intended) in the streets of Taipei (Taiwan too!)
Below Instagram (link) depicted our friendly Taiwanese friends. Through word of mouth recommendations, we string up an impromptu neighbourhood itinerary .
(Link to our HomeAway link). Our family got many requests, and she exceeded our expectations. More photos and details here and here.
Lydia will give you super detailed instructions to her apartment, and is very accommodating too. She was positive to our requests to drop our heavy luggage enroute to Keelung Ruifang, and also extended luggage storage after we checked out.
Beautifully decorated, we got a feeling of home away from away staying 3 nights here. Thank you Lydia, you made our Taipei stay so much more memorable 🙂
We would gladly recommend Lydia’s apartment to our friends. Do use promo code “HomeAwaySKBabies” and enjoy 8% off your booking (Valid until 31 Mar 2018)
This is a niche Night Market, 8 minutes walk from our apartment. Plenty of seafood and hawkers are super enthusiastic to secure our business.
We saw this stall which advertised Champion 滷肉飯 Lu Rou Fan. We would recommend #冇冇有麵攤 (rated 3.75/5) 古早 old-school menu too.
We also ordered beef noodles from next door. Most of the eateries (neighbourhood, not restaurants) would allow you to bring food to another stall.
The boss and staff are very friendly and recommended a massage centre 3 stalls away to sooth our tired legs.
A good massage experience always depend on the 師父 shifu’s (therapist) skills. Ours were chatty and really know where to press to release the tired knots.
Before they press the pain point, the female therapist would make Mrs laugh so the soreness (pain) is more bearable haha.
There are a few branches and depending on demand, the shifu sometimes need to cover a few area. Me and Mrs had an enjoyable massage and I would rate 足將軍 (4/5). The kids were happy indulging in mobile games in their room.
The 肉粽 Bak Chang was recommended by our massage therapist. If you mention traditional 肉粽, many folks would direct you to the famous stall.
Some will recommend the carrot soup and “面线 mee shua” too. We had extra servings of the delicious 肉粽 (salted egg and walnut fragrance) (rated 3.75/5)
Recommended by Google, their donuts received good reviews. Donuts are tasty but the cover charge per child and drinks were expensive (overshadowing the donuts). (average NTD 200 to 250 per pax)
Kids enjoy their economical rice. Cheap and yet delicious, the meat balls and chicken cutlets were fulfilling.
We first noticed the long queues, both white and blue collar workers. If in doubt, trust your instinct and follow the queues 🙂
The MRT is just downstairs of our apartment if we needed to venture further. Infact, we even transited from Nanjing Fuxing to Taipei Main enroute to Taoyuan airport terminal.
SOGO and parks around our HomeAway department. Although we stayed here for 3 nights, we did not have enough time to explore everything.
Besides finding new attractions, the amount of steps helped with my Marathon recovery too. I had just completed my Marathon a week before our Taiwan trip.
八方dumplings are delicious and cheap. I was hunting for snack and saw students lining up. Google revealed many 八方 branches in Taipei.
Hint : If you see students queuing up, it means the food is good and affordable (example Bubble tea)
We also packaged some fried rice and seafood soup from the 煮炒 (Zhi Char) stall next door. If you love to experience good local eats, most of the Zhi Char stalls would not disappoint. We would rate both stalls (3.5/5)
-Bikes (YouBike) are almost always neatly parked at allocated slots. When we walk on the streets, bike lanes are clearly demarcated and road users keep to their own lanes, minimising the chance of collision. Unlike Singapore, walking in Taipei is very safe, you need not worry about another speeding reckless escooter.
-(Below, Right picture). We witnessed a road work, and the forklift simply moved the cars away swiftly and efficiently. I am puzzled why the alarms were not triggered, this is a rare sight in Singapore.
–佳德鳳梨酥 Chia Te outlet is about 1.8km away from Nanjing Fuxing MRT station. We still prefer Chia Te’s crispy Sun cake (NTD 360 for 12 pieces).
–慶城海南雞飯 Ching Cheng Hainan Chicken Rice is highly recommended by our host (GPS 25.052921, 121.545550) , but we wanted to try something which is less common in Singapore :p
-Shopping Mall Urban One is just opposite and a very popular bakery downstairs (Brothers Hotel). We always miss this bakery due to its early closing time (first come first serve), and there is always a constant stream of customers!