Taipei, Day 3 - Food Court at Q Square

My poor stomach. So much food being crammed into it! Just as I was starting to get hungry again today, it was time for dinner. Another meal, another decision! With so many options, it's not easy to pick!

While wandering around Taipei Main Station the other day, I noticed that it connected with a full-blown mall. I returned this evening with the intent to explore its food court. Located down in the basement, it is a beautiful, tastefully decorated space. Odd adjectives to use in conjunction with a food court, but apt!

I circled the food court twice before making a decision. The choices were primarily Asian: Japanese, Korean, Indian. But since I was in Taiwan, it was actually a no-brainer to try a local staple: fried pork chop. It came in a set, accompanied by a big bowl of minced pork rice, some side dishes, and a clear soup. It was a LOT of food, and all for 150 NTD ($5 USD)!

Wow, this was delicious. The pork chop was flavorful and crunchy and still juicy. The breading had the faintest whisper of five-spice powder. The minced pork had a gentle mild flavor, which let the pork chop be the star. The various accompanying vegetables all provided either a texture or flavor that excited the taste buds.

I managed to eat everything except half of the rice. I was so full that I forgot to get some dessert for later! Ha. Oh well.

Taipei, Day 3 - Din Tai Fung (and more shaved ice)

"What to eat in Taiwan?" was a question that I asked both friends and Google before arriving in Taipei. No matter who I asked, one restaurant name kept popping up: Din Tai Fung. They're apparently world-famous for their soup dumplings (小籠包), and have over a dozen locations throughout the world (including... Osaka :P). One location in Hong Kong even has its own Michelin Star!

As with all famous things though, there are its fans and there are its critics. I've always loved going to New York's Shanghai restaurants, and I haven't had a xiaolongbao in months. So I took advantage of my visit and decided to go to the original Din Tai Fung on Xinyi Road (there are four branches in Taipei city).

Conveniently located right off the Dong Men stop!

At 10:30 in the morning, there were already about a dozen groups waiting for tables. The wait was short though (about 10 minutes), and I got a menu to look at to contemplate my order. There was a large number of staff to handle all the customers, and they all seemed to be multi-lingual! They quickly switched to English with me, while addressing others in Japanese. Indeed, there seemed to be a large ratio of Japanese tourists there (we're ALL on Obon holiday, after all!).

Perusing menu as I wait.

The menu was quite large, but the stars are these five
types of soup dumplings. Look at the last one: $15 USD
for pork and truffle dumplings! $3 a dumpling!

While the xiaolongbao usually came in orders of 10, there was luckily an option for a half order. I waffled between getting the classic pork, or the pork with crab roe. What the heck; I decided to splurge on the crab roe... although over $1 a bao, it didn't come cheap! For a refreshing textural change, I also got an order of the spicy pickled cucumbers.

Crisp and lightly pickled cucumbers.

Amusingly, the waitress handed each guest instructions on how to eat soup dumplings. The how-to featured instructions written in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, English, and French! Ha... what happened to Spanish?

The back had the same information, but in its
Japanese and French translations.

The soup dumplings came out quickly. A cute little crab cutout indicated what type of dumpling was in the basket. I peeked over at my neighbors' basket (I was sharing a table with two other Japanese couples), and they had an adorable little chick in theirs! Time to eat!

The cloth lining ensured that every dumpling can be picked up
without sticking to the bamboo basket.

I do have to give my compliments on the wrapper. It seemed impossibly thin, yet retained a toothsome chewiness. The pork was sweet and fresh, obviously of high quality. There was a good quantity of crab roe, infusing the dumpling with a rich flavor.

Inside shot of juicy goodness

Was it tasty? Absolutely. Was it the best soup dumpling I've ever had? Hm. Probably not. For one, there was less 'soup' than I expected. Secondly, temperature has a huge effect on soup dumplings, and my preference is that they should be served scorchingly hot. Biting a small hole in the wrapper of a xialongbao to cool down the insides juuust enough to slurp it down is one of the small joys in life. These dumplings were hot, yet cool enough that I could just pop an entire one in my mouth if I had wanted.

Of course, these reasons are quite subjective. I still enjoyed the dumplings greatly, and managed to walk out for under $10 USD. As a fun experiment, I think I'm going to get soup dumplings again tomorrow morning... from the street vendor across the street from where I'm staying. Let's see and compare!

After my early lunch, I walked around Yong Kang Street (永康街) and browsed its cute little shops. I passed by this giant of a place:

While tempted, I suffered sticker shock at its prices (one of the mango ices was $6 USD!). Also, I wasn't particularly looking to have the snowy style shaved ice again. Luckily, I found a little hole-in-the-wall place serving the classic thing (after walking around for like an hour!), and got myself a dessert!

If I could, I would eat one EVERY DAY.

I don't know why I've been craving the red beans lately more than the fruity versions. This ice was huge, seriously about the size of my entire head. Yes, I ate it all. And at 70 NTD ($2.33 USD), a very reasonable price!

Taipei, Day 2 - Shilin Night Market

As the afternoon rain drenched the city in a hot sticky mess, I was happily taking a nap in my cute little room. I woke up refreshed, and the rain eventually tapered off to a small drizzle, just in time for my evening... erm... late afternoon activity: the famous Shilin Night Market (士林夜市). It's the most famous and largest night market in Taipei, filled with food vendors and knickknacks for sale. I'm ready to eat some more!

I'm still too stuffed to creatively assemble sentences together, so I'll just let the pictures tell the tale.

The view from Jiantan station (劍潭站)>. Hills!

Still drizzling rain. I got to the market very early (about
5pm), so it was not crowded at all. Some of the
vendors were still setting up for the night.

A vendor selling black pepper buns (胡椒餅). Each bun
is stuck inside the walls of each cooking drum, which
makes the outside crispy. Here he is carefully taking
out the buns one by one.

My own black pepper bun! The outside is slightly crunchy and the dough
is chewy... a delightful texture!

The insides of the bun, stuffed with moist chunks of pork and green
onions. This was delicious!

There are various low-tech games set up all along the market.

The latest in Taiwanese fashion!

A vendor selling oyster omelettes (蚵仔煎)

The smell of stinky tofu was EVERYWHERE.

Fried crab

<>大腸包小腸, or literally 'small sausage wrapped in big sausage'.
The 'big sausage' is actually made with sticky rice. It's grilled, cut in
half, then stuffed with a regular meat sausage.

What is this Taiwanese obsession with wrapping
food in itself? This one is literally 'small bun wrapped
in big bun'.

The vendor takes a thin pancake (kind of like a crepe), and puts one of
these fried pucks inside. It's then topped with your choice of topping
(can be savory or sweet). He then bangs the whole thing with a hammer,
smashing the fried puck, then wraps up the crepe.

I don't know if I love this. It's not particularly flavorful (I got sesame
flavor), but the textural contrast between the soft crepe and crunchy
smashed puck is interesting.

This still sells all sorts of seafood

My $1 cup of mango green tea. Yummmmmm.

Interesting sleep masks for sale

So many claw machine games, all filled with cute
figurines

Another vendor cooking oyster omelettes, I think

My own oyster omelette. I don't know why, but I've never had this
dish in New York. It's interesting; a sticky batter mixed with oysters
is fried up with an egg, and topped with a brown-ish gravy. The result
is texturally challenging: soft and slimy. I didn't love the omelette
itself, but the barely cooked oysters were juicy and delicious.

Walking around the market, I easily saw at least three different shaved ice places. I briefly considered a third paobing for the day.... but my groaning stomach begged for mercy. No more!! (At least for today)

Taipei, Day 2 - Longshan Temple, Ximending

So WHY weren't there any pictures of shaved ice in yesterday's post?? That's because I couldn't find a shaved ice place yesterday!!!

*sob*

Will my Taipei visit be devoid of shaved ice goodness? 

Anyway, I decided that I would split my day up into two segments. In the morning, I headed west to Longshan Temple (龍山寺). Wikipedia tells me that the original temple was built in 1738, and is still used heavily today by residents.

Pretty temple

Fountain inside temple grounds

I saw people taking slips of paper from this cabinet.
Is it their fortune?

After walking around for a while, I headed back to the subway. On the way there, I saw.... a dessert shop that sells shaved ice!! Shaved ice at 10:30 in the morning? Why not... I wasn't the only one buying some!

Oh YES.

Making a dent in the ice mountain. Oh believe me, I
ate it ALL.

The shop was small and homey, obviously catering to tourists. The proprietress was quite a marvel, speaking to two Japanese tourists fluently. The shop also sold sweet dessert soups and Taiwanese versions of mochi (they call it 'muachee', or 麻薯). My delicious ice came at a cost of only 55 NTD, or $1.83 USD.

Not even 11am, and I was already feeling very accomplished! My next destination was only one subway stop away, at Ximen. Ximending (西門町) is a trendy young neighborhood with lots of shops. It was actually quite quiet when I got there; many of the shops weren't open that early. But I found it nice to walk around without the crowds.

Entering the Ximending neighborhood

The famous Red House

Aw, this place is called "Ah Mo's Risotto". Ah Mo is the dog!

The neighborhood featured some street art. I think
this one says, "everyone is hungry!"

Walking around, I saw a pretty famous noodle shop. Naturally, it already had a crowd in front of it... so of course I had to stop and get myself some food!

Ah Chong Mee Sua. There were dozens of people milling around out front,
all eating a bowl of noodles.

My very own bowl! The noodles were quite soft, and suspended in a
thick fish broth. While some mee sua shops put oysters in the soup,
this place has intestines. I thought it was very yummy! This was a small
bowl, and cost 50 NTD ($1.67 USD)

I found the bowl of noodles pretty filling, and wasn't planning on eating any more. But as I continued to walk, I saw this place:

More shaved ice!

Hm. Two shaved ices before noon? I couldn't resist! This place featured a special snowy ice (雪花冰), which I had not tried before. So to make up for yesterday's deficit, I sat down for another icy bowl.

I got the mango/strawberry combo

The texture of the ice was VERY different

So how was it? Eh.... I have to say that I prefer the old fashioned type of ice more. This snowy ice is shaved in layers, from a block that looks like frozen milk. The result is definitely very smooth, and instantly melts on your tongue. It reminded me a lot of ice cream, which... is not what I'm looking for when I want shaved ice. So I'm glad to have tried it, but at 120 NTD ($4 USD, which makes it the most expensive thing I've eaten in Taiwan so far!), I would rather get two ices from the first place.

At this point, I'm VERY full, and the storm clouds were rolling in. I waddled my way back to the train station and made it back to my room before the rain started. My plan was to hit up the Shilin Night Market, which didn't open until 4pm. Which meant that I could safely fall into a food-coma nap. Yay vacation!

Next post... Shilin Night Market!

Taipei, Day 1

Taipei's reputation as a city of food is not undeserved. I feel as if I'm always smelling something tasty, no matter where I am. The sheer number of shopfronts is already amazing; add street carts to that, and it is a culinary delight. The Taipei Main Station doesn't just boast a single food court... there are FOUR, separated by cuisine (there's one dedicated to just curry, for example!). In some ways, I am struck by indecision... so much food, and my stomach is so small! I already lament the fact that there is no way I can possibly eat everything I want within the confines of this visit.

I started off the morning in grand breakfast style: a slice of turnip cake, a sticky rice roll, and some fresh soymilk.

Food in picture is larger than it appears. The cup of soy milk isn't in a
measley 12oz container... it must have been at least 20oz.

Wow. I was impressed; the food was simple but absolutely delicious. The rice roll was stuffed with pork floss, pickled vegetables, and bits of 油條... a seemingly odd assortment, but it was actually quite good. The star though was the soy milk. It was so smooth, with no chalky-raw-bean taste that can often happen with fresh soy milk. It will be difficult to force myself to try something new tomorrow morning!

My hunger sated, I wandered around central Taipei. The Taipei Main station itself is huge, a sprawling labyrinth of shops interspersed with train platforms. A few neighboring metro stations are actually interconnected with the main station, forming a giant network.

The main room of Taipei Main Station

I eventually made my way to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial for a little sightseeing. The complex was impressively big, a beautiful tribute to a national leader.

Look how tiny the tourists look!

I made it to the top! The two buildings on the right and left are the
National Theater and the National Concert Hall.

A peaceful park surrounds the memorial grounds.

This evening, I planned on walking to the nearby Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市). It was theoretically located about 20 minutes away from where I was staying... very manageable. However, one wrong turn and I ended up far far in a totally different direction. So my night market adventures will have to wait until tomorrow evening. But I don't feel too bad though; I had some yummy noodles (醡醬麵) for dinner instead.

Taiwan is delicious!