Tai-I-Wan Trip! Day 2

Okay, the hotel room wasn't so bad. So people walk through the bathroom to enter the bed area. But at least the shower and toilet had frosted glass walls to cover the most important bits. And you can draw a curtain between the bathroom and the bed area when you take a shower. (Although, bad luck if you started showering without locking the front door first.) But all in all, Puri Hotel is a clean, affordable stay.

We didn't linger much in our hotel because there were just too much to see. We kicked off Day 2 with an early metro trip to Din Tai Fung at Taipei 101 (alight at World Trade Center Station). DTF is one of the most renowned Chinese restaurant and has won numerous international accolades. It has several outlets in Singapore, and can be found in many other territories like USA as well as Hong Kong (where 2 branches were awarded 1 Michelin star). It'll be a shame if we didn't visit Din Tai Fung in Taiwan, the country where it all began. Bring on the xiao long baos!

Because every man and his brother warned us the queue at Din Tai Fung, we got there almost an hour before the restaurant was due to open. Which we whiled away by wandering around Taipei 101 and taking lots of pictures, like every well-prepared tourist. When a crowd of Korean tourists joined the queue and started taking selfies, some of us even found the time to photo-bomb them. (Although, now that I think about it, it's impossible to surprise photobomb people taking a selfie...)

This is the start of the queue to Din Tai Fung, and we are so first.

DTF opened its doors 15 minutes to 11, and we were the first through its doors. Ha! Being early pays off, especially since most other tourists arrive by the busload. We were shown to our seats, and it was the grandest Din Tai Fung I ever saw. In the foyer, a couple of metal workers were engraving DTF chopsticks for sale.

We were first greeted by the server in Japanese, but she quickly switched to Chinese when we gave her a blank look. The waitress serving the table of Korean tourists next to us chattered fluently in English. Their command of Chinese, English and Japanese was quite impressive. We placed our order, and hurried off to watch the chefs at work.

My upper body can't be seen, probably because I was pressing my face up against the glass wall.

The Pork Xiao Long Bao (10 pieces/NT$200) was pretty good and hit the right notes. But to be honest, other restaurants in Singapore can be found serving Xiao Long Baos of similar quality. We also had the Crab Roe and Pork Xiao Long Bao (10 pieces/NT$350), which came with a small piece of dough in the shape of a crab.

(Do you know there's a correct way to eat xiao long baos? Me neither.)

I once had a great experience at Melbourne's New Shanghai, so it was high expectations that I ordered Shrimp and Pork Wontons with House Special Spicy Sauce (8 pieces/NT$160) here. It was bland and disappointing, with none of the burst of flavours I expected. It tasted really strange, like the cook has been overzealous with hand sanitizer before touching the wontons. It was the last dish that remained on our table long after every other dish was cleared, and we kept egging one another to have another wonton. I should have kept quiet and let everybody ~~eat it all up~~ enjoy it before telling them I though it tasted like hospital hand sanitizer. Hindsight is 20/20.

The dessert Xiao Long Baos were highly recommended by EJ, who has been here before. We ordered Steamed Red Bean Xiao Long Bao (5 pieces/NT80) and Steamed Taro Xiao Long Bao (5 pieces/NT85). Now these were really impressive, and we particularly loved the Taro ones. We should have listened to EJ, and ordered these straight from the start.

The service was friendly, and very, very fast. We were in and out in slightly over an hour, but it's ~~probably~~ definitely because we were playing Pass the Parcel with their chili wontons.

Din Tai Fung

Taipei 101

B1F, No 45, Shifu Rd, Xinyi Dist., Taipei, Taiwan

Post-lunch, we walked past Lugo Cafe and Waffles across Din Tai Fung. The comfy chairs look inviting and I spied coffee-making paraphernalia adorning the restaurant, so we entered.

Photo by EJ

I had their Cold Drip Coffee (NTD110), which had a strange aftertaste. "It tastes like how tar smells like," I complained to J, who was in mid-sip. J wrinkled her nose and nodded before quickly passing it back to me. I wussed out halfway and added creamer to smoothen out the coffee. I made a "Mmmmm" noise loudly, but no one was fooled and J declined my kind offer of another sip. I hear that as a historically tea-drinking country, coffee-culture isn't very established in Chinese cities. Coffee is viewed as a Westernised beverage and is drunk only here for special occasions. When I was travelling in Guangzhou a few years back, I walked past a few coffee chains serving plates of spaghetti or fried rice to their customers, but no coffee.

R had a coffee with frozen cream inside, and it tasted much richer and smoother than mine. They were also passing out samples of their newest savoury waffle, and we shared a plate. It was pretty delicious, and tasted like a slice of pizza. I picked off every last bit of the mushroom and cheese, but was too full for the waffle.

We still had a lot of ground to cover, and we headed off to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (Metro station by the same name. Take Exit 5).

The National Concert Hall, the National Theatre Hall and CKS Memorial Hall are all conveniently located on the same ground. It was a pretty spectacular view. I'm not narcissistic enough to believe that people come to this blog to see a thousand and one pictures of my face, so I'll just stick with the pictures of the scenery, which shouldn't evoke as much vomiting.

We wanted to see the hourly changing of the guard at CKS Memorial Hall. But as a multilingual sign near the front gate stated in English, the front gate was under renovation and there would be no further parades until all restoration is completed. We were about to leave when I kidded "that's just what the English portion say. If we read the Chinese words it probably says that the changing of the parade will be held at the Eastern gate. But please tell all English tourists there's none today. We already get too many tourists here." We had a good laugh, for a second. Then we hurried over to the sign and squinted at the traditional Chinese characters. No luck. They're really not going to have a parade. Damnit.

We squeezed in a visit to Longshan Temple, a beautiful place of worship where both tourists and locals congregate. It's free to walk in and take pictures. Joss-sticks, which I got, do cost a small fee. There's a recommended route to walk around the temple when offering prayers (which I didn't notice until on my way out). The diagram is located near the door.

Longshan Temple

No. 211, Guangzhou Street, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 10853

(closest metro: Longshan Temple Station)

+886 2 2302 5162

Just a short distance away is Bo Pi Liao Old Street (剝皮寮), a collection of buildings that are restored in the Qing Dynasty style, and became renowned from a movie that was filmed on this location.

Bo Pi Liao Old Street

Ln. 173, Kangding Rd., Wanhua Dist.,Taipei City 108, Taiwan
(closest metro: Longshan Temple Station)

Before my trip, Miss XS told me to buy a "polka-dotted pink umbrella, or purple or red is fine too. Or Hello Kitty is fine. If they have strawberries instead of polka dots, it's fine as well. Or watermelon. No pineapples. Because they're ugly." My head was spinning by the end of her instructions.Well, we were walking along Longshan Temple Station when I came across a stall selling umbrellas. J was looking for an umbrella strong enough to withstand Melbourne's crazy wind, and so she asked for a typhoon-resistant one. Not wanting to lose out, I echoed J, only to be told cheerfully by the store-owner that "don't even talk about a typhoon, [for that price], the umbrella will probably break once you bring it out of this building." Hehe.

Because we are just kick-ass at touring, we had plenty of time to head over to Tamsui, a sea-side district named after the Tamsui River. We were told there is a bridge there perfect for viewing the sunset over the Taiwan Strait.

The sky was overcast, which made it difficult to get a good picture of the sunset, and so we didn't stick around for long.

E did manage to snap this beautiful picture.

There were plenty of stores selling hot food at Tamsui, and we already did our research on which stalls to eat from. We heard the BBQ Cuttefish along the rows of stores at Tamsui, for example, is a must-try. If only I applied the same enthusiasm to my studies...

XXL Fried Chicken Cutlet. A must-try of Taiwan

Sweet potato fries from XXL Fried Chicken

Tamsui also has a Night Market near the train station, which we went over to instead.

I found the 青蛙下蛋 (frog laying eggs) drink which everybody online raved about. It's actually a chain of stores that can easily be found in Night Markets. The mix of grass-jelly, soya bean and tapioca pearls was refreshing, but I wasn't sure what the hype is all about. I got through half a cup before deciding I didn't want to waste my stomach space on this. Well, I'm glad I didn't act too hastily and throw it away, because I ended up drinking every last sip, and probably spent an inordinate amount of time sucking out the last drop in the corner of the cup. But that's only because...

Charcoal-grilled Stinky Tofu

I had my first 臭豆腐, or Stinky (fermented) tofu. People warned me about the smell, and told me I'll either really love it or hate it. There's no middle ground. Well, I thought it smelled okay, and I felt invincible. Until I took a bite. And another. Then it doesn't taste very nice, and I suddenly realised I hate it. Huh. I ended up throwing it away, because nobody else could stand it either. Shame.

Tamsui Bridge

From Tamsui Station, take bus 紅26 (Red 26), 836, or 857 towards Fisherman's Wharf.

From Tamsui Night Market, we made good time to Shilin Night market. We wandered around before finally asking for directions at a 7-Eleven. The friendly sales-person even drew us a map.

7-Eleven on the bottom left, Shilin night market marked with an X on the right.

Now, this is everything I dreamt of in a Taiwanese Night Market.

I started off my street snacks with 麻糍 (muah chee), a steamed chewy thing that's covered with a mixture of crushed peanut and sugar. It's my childhood snack, and the version here was covered in very fine peanut powder. After inhaling a cloud of peanut powder down into my lungs, I think I prefer my childhood version, which was made with chunky pieces of nuts, which had more texture and mouth-feel. And less likely to lead to emphysema

We also had some amazing beef. It's TWD100/box, and is especially delicious with garlic. The meat was cooked by a flame-torch wielding storekeeper. Don't play play.

I also found something I saw on the internet, and really wanted to try: 炸鮮奶, or fried fresh milk.

1 stick for TWD20, 3 for TWD50

I think it's frozen condensed milk shaped into cubes, then fried with batter. It's delicious, but I can only eat so much deep-fried and grilled snacks in a day. The four of us shared a stick.

Shilin is good not just for food. There's a section just for clothes, and I hit the jackpot at LA King. I walked in, and found a coat I liked immediately. There is an amazing male staff there. As I tried on the coat, he studied the rest of my clothes, and after a minute, insisted on changing first my pants (to a off-white skinny jeans), then my t-shirt (to a checkered shirt), my shoes, and finally coordinated the entire look to a black belt that he trotted out. He got all the sizes perfectly right without asking .He even demonstrated different ways to wear the coat, as well as the way to fold a shirt sleeve (just twice). Whatever his salary is, he isn't being paid enough for his work.

As we talked among ourselves, he helpfully informed us he doesn't know English at all, (though I was pretty sure we overheard him speaking fluently in English just as we walked in...) It's was great to shop with friends who help you to bargain, although as it turned out, LA King has a strict no-bargaining policy, and instead makes up for it by giving freebies such as belts, wallets, socks, umbrellas, and even a selfie stick.

Okay, can I just say here that I love Taiwan already?

Many of these photos here are courtesy of EJ Yeo, R Wang and J Lee.