Train passing through Ch'ing-shui Cliffs (清水斷崖)

The food’s incredible, naturally. In the winter, nothing feels better than large hot bowls of noodles, served with geese, beef or other meats. There’s incredible natural landscapes, with towering mountains and coastlines that stretch out for miles. The people are warm and friendly. Welcome to Taiwan.

Taiwan's one of those places that I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of exploring. This time, we drove down the east coast to Hualien and Yilan. I think I made some comments about the traffic of Taiwan when I last visited in 2015 (where have all the time gone??), but I have to say, after my recent trip to Hanoi, traffic in Taiwan seemed perfectly orderly.

Another place that was simply stunning 七星潭 (qixingtan beach). It was drizzling when we reached, and everybody piled in to to the beachside cafe Wilderness Ranch to escape from the wet weather. Except for me. I was so taken by the view that I had to pull everybody out of the cafe for photography. Certainly, if you explore high-altitude regions, you can certainly see mountainous peaks surrounded by clouds. And if you go down to a coastal region at sea-level, you can see beaches. But to see them both in one setting like this is... pretty incredible. Hualien's landscape is quite unlike any others that I've seen. 

七星潭 (qixingtan beach). The iconic black sands perhaps more of a light grey when we visited.

At Wilderness Ranch, we managed to snag the best table in the house for our tea break, which gave us an unparalleled view of the beach. Much of the menu revolves around goat milk, which is ...interesting. I use goat cheese in my favourite cheesecake to lend a tangy edge to the dessert, but goat dairy is otherwise much too gamey for me. True enough, we didn't fancy the goat milk lattes much, but the goat milk ice cream was alright once you drizzle enough chocolate onto it. The kids didn't mind, at least. 

The main attraction in Hualien is Taroko Gorge National Park. Some parts were closed for maintenance when we went, which was a let-down, but trekking around in the cool air let me shake off the last of our jet-lag. Afterwards, we picked up some wild boar sausage from a street-side stall, which tasted pretty incredible.

We visited 港天宫 (Gang Tian Temple), which was elaborately crafted and more beautific than most palaces. There's no burning of incense here. Framed by cloud-shrouded mountains, it was perhaps the largest, and the most peaceful temple that I’ve been to. 

Dining in less-urban areas can be a little hit-or-miss, so the cuisine in Hualien was a surprise: it was pretty darn good. The star is naturally the street food, and we ate our fair share of 葱油饼 (scallion pancakes). The best versions are the ones where the dough were deep-fried with an egg, and brushed with a slightly spicy, unami sauce. We love the versions from Lao Pai along Fuxing Street: there are two options here, one sold by a yellow food truck (黄车炸蛋蔥油餅), and another by a light-blue food truck (老店炸蛋蔥油餅). Both are excellent, and we joined the queue every day while in Hualien in the drizzling rain.

The largest night market in Hualien is Dongdamen Hualien Night Market (東大門夜市), with three lanes of stalls hawking food, drinks and carnival games. My favourite stall is this mixology stand - the cocktails were on-point.  

Behind unassuming shopfronts lie hidden food gems. We snacked on great canelé from 181烘焙屋, enjoyed freshly made soft peanut mochi from Tzen-Chi Mochi Zhongshan Store (曾記麻糬 中山門市), and had a splendid cheesecake from 杜倫先生 (Mr Turon): it’s a light Japanese-style cheesecake with a layer of flan custard beneath. But best of all, we couldn’t get enough of 王记茶铺, a beautiful modern tea salon and eatery, and makes perhaps the best ever milk tea (emphasis on tea!) ever, and terrific honey butter fries.

As fun as Hualien had been, I was stoked when we reached Yilan, which was fun attractions for both the adults and the kids. At the top of my list is Kavalan, an award-winning whisky distillery making single-malts that are placed amongst the best in the world. We entered the premises too late to join the guided tours around the brewery, but we could at least walk around the facilities ourselves. (If you would like to visit, it’s recommended to book a tour online beforehand.) Afterwards, we reached the bar, where you can have a flight of their best flavours and make your purchases.

I thought that it was grand that Kavalan allows us to offset the cost of the whisky tasting from the purchases that we made at their store, but now I'm beginning to suspect that Kavalan might have had gotten the better end of the deal: I don't think I would have bought a bottle that was quite that expensive had I not sampled it alongside their entry-level bottles. I suspect this is a marketing ploy that aims to upsell visitors by ... showing them exactly how good their top-tiered whiskies can be. Hmm. Okay. That didn't come out the way I meant. But you get it. I definitely spent more here afterwards because of the tasting session. 

But perhaps the best thing that we found was Jim and Dad Brewing Company (吉姆老爹啤酒工场), a craft beer brewery that is just a few minutes down the road from Kavalan. We made an impromptu stop here, and entered a few minutes shy of their closing time. Not wanting to impose, we hastily bought a dozen bottles and left. It was only after dinner and when we were back at our Airbnb and opened the bottles, had we realised that it was some of the very best beers that we've had. Cue a heavy googling session, and we found that the brewery was started by 2013 Taiwan Brew Beer contest winner Jim Sung after his win. We returned another day for lunch and to try the rest of their brews (how could we not?). After all the light mass-produced beer that we had from convenience stores, Jim and Dad's brews packed a heavy flavourful punch, especially the Double IPA. We liked all their flavours: from the summer mosaic (the 2013 winner) to their stout. Even their creative seasonal offerings were terrific: we had a 10% bourbon beer (!!!), a delightful passionfruit IPA, even a 红茶 (red tea) flavoured beer. It is now my favourite beer company.    

Not a lot of people are talking about 羅東CANDY民宿-親子溜滑梯民宿 Hotel, which is a shame because it is without a doubt, the most fun hotel room that we’d been to. We booked it for the kids, but I gotta say, even the adults love it. The pictures above are of our hotel room. We had Disney-themed rooms with a private kiddy slide, a ball-pit and swing, and plenty of toys to keep the children occupied for hours. 

The hotel lobby. What hotel would want you to remove your shoes even before you step into the lobby? The best kind, as it turns out.

And again for the kids (sigh), we went into Lucky Art Crayon Factory. We thought that it would be a tour on how crayons are made, and not the 4 station kiddy art-and-craft session that the entire place turned out to be. The kids did enjoy themselves, but the name seemed a little like false advertising. 

Although, the hydraulic press to make our own Christmas-themed crayon was mildly interesting. 

On the bright side, we went across the street for lunch at 番割田甕缸雞, and incidentally found the best roast chicken in Taiwan. We heard about Taiwan’s braised geese, but who knew that the humble roast chicken is also the region’s specialty? They are roasted over charcoal in giant outdoor ovens, and these ones here are the best. The meat is so tender, it falls away from the bones. There's no need for knives or kitchen scissors - you just put on the pair of gloves and pull the chicken apart. And trust me, you'll need the thick clothed gloves under the disposable gloves. The chicken are served freshly roasted: it was steaming as I pulled the chicken into pieces.

  

One last stop for the kids was to Zhang Mei Ama Farm. We took selfies with alpacas, petted goats, chewed on by sheep and got mildly harassed by baby kangaroos.

While I in turn harassed the capybaras by trying to balance oranges on its head. This is an animal that hangs with crocodiles with complete zen. Here, it looked annoyed with me. It walked off soon after.

Jiaoxi is a town in Yilan, and is home to Taiwan’s hot springs. We went to Jiaoxi Hot Spring (礁溪溫泉), where we found that their Light and Lantern Festival had ended a month earlier in November, but we could still walk around and soak our feet in the communal hot spring. The air was chilly, it was getting late at night and we hadn't had dinner. But once we rolled up our pants and set our feet into the hot spring, none of us wanted to leave. It's quite remarkable how after the feet warmed up, the rest of the body felt warm too.  

Jiaoxi was our last night in Yilan, before we headed for Taipei. We splurged for a hotel that came with a private onsen in each room, with hot spring water piped in, where we continued our onsen experience. 

When we got to Taipei, I revisited some of my old favourites. Jian Hong Beef Noodles is as good as ever, and, given that our airbnb is just a street away and that the store is open 24/7, I certainly had my fill of their beef noodles and tofu-century-egg cold dish over our days in Taipei. And ditto for 阿宗麵線 Ah Chung Rice Noodles, which was 10 minutes away in Ximending. But returning to Taipei also gave me a chance to try some of the other things that I had missed the last time around. We had an absurd amount of fantastic 滷肉飯 (lǔ ròu fàn, minced pork rice) everywhere we went. And we had heavenly deep-fried pork cutlets from 金園排骨 (Jin Yuan Pork Chop, King Pork Wan Nian Store), which was worth the 45 minutes wait in the cold. But the best meal of all was the braised geese from A Cheng Goose (阿城鵝肉), where each slice of goose meat is delightfully juicy, salty and infused with the scent of charcoal smoke.

We boarded a gondola to Maokong on a day trip, and came through the mountain range in a glass-floored cabin that gave us a view of the tea plantations along the way. In the village, we had Tieguanyin ice cream, oolong latte and tea roasted eggs.

 

We visited the mountain towns of Jiufen and Shifen again, and in the pouring rain, we sought out shelter in a tea salon A-Mei Tea House. We snacked and sipped tea in the winter chill. It felt like a scene out of Spirited Away. 

We also went to some of the shopping districts along Ximending and Wufenpu Shopping District, and had street food along Raohe Night Market (I found the only stinky tofu that I actually liked here!) Little routines, such as dropping in every Family Mart or 7-11 we see to snack on beer and tea eggs, made the entire trip a joy, even if we had slightly hazy memories afterwards. It was a carefree, joyous family trip. And before we knew it, it was over. Taiwan - it's been a pleasure as always.

Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam

It’s winter, but Hanoi hasn’t gotten the memo. The weather’s mild enough to put on jeans if you want to, but even that’s not strictly essential. And you wouldn’t need, say, a cardigan or a jacket.

What you do need is gumption and nerves of steel in order to thread your way through the city amongst the cars, vans and scooters that come in every direction, traffic lights and pedestrians be damned. Hanoi’s busy as ever; We saw a few accidents during our visit. We stayed in the Old Quarter on our first night, which sounds peaceful but is in fact not. It’s incredibly chaotic, with swatches of frantic motorbikes and hectic delivery trucks running through the district as soon as day breaks. But if it sounded like Hanoi should smell of exhaust and dirt, it doesn’t either. There’s a florist on near-every street. We can smell the fragrance of the flowers several storefronts away. They’re a welcome sight, but I’ve got to ask: who’s buying all these flowers? 

Cafe Dinh, Hanoi

Bai Tu Long Bay, in dusk

We also visited Mua Cave, where after about 20 minutes of intense steep climbing, we reached the scenic lookout point, with the fields and town laid out beyond us.

Bún Chà - our favourite Vietnamese food. It’s grilled chicken and vermicelli served in an addictively fragrant broth with the obligatory deep-fried spring rolls. Tuvêt Bún Chà 34 and Bún Chả Hàng Quạt are our favourite places.

In a cramped alleyway, the cooks of Bún Chả Hàng Quạt were grilling meat patties over white-hot charcoal. This humble setup served me one of the best food of my life.

 

Phö ranks up there along my favourite foods, and the northern regions make the Phö broth lighter than the ones that I’m used to. This one is from Phö 10 Ly Qude Su.

A bowl of Chè is the traditional Vietnamese dessert - it’s a glutinous sticky concoction drizzled with coconut milk and ice. Our favourite dessert place was from a small place called Little Bowls. The sweetness level was more muted, and the other flavours came through better. We had both the caramel mixed bowl, a bowl of soft flan with coconut ice cream which really was not sweet, and prompted us to also order traditional mixed bowl. It was so good, we went back for one last fix on our second last day.

Little Bowls

Chả Cá. it’s one of those dishes that I’ve not heard of before coming, but it’s now one of my favourite dishes in Vietnam. It’s fried fish that is then pan-fried with lots of greens and served with vermicelli. It’s incredibly delicious, and Chả Cá Thăng Long is a multi-storied restaurant that is hugely popular with the locals, and serves only this dish.

The grandest meal we had was at Senté, a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant that incorporates lotus into all their dishes.

We had minced snail patties rolled in piper lolot leaves and then grilled, to be served with fresh lotus leaves (a play on the traditional dish, where the snail meat was packed in rice paper rolls). My favourite was with their take on Xôi Yến, the local version of glutinous rice. Here, it’s tender beef short ribs with black rice baked in lotus leaves, and served with onsen tamago quail eggs.

Unagi black rice sushi, with grilled lotus root. My friend didn't like it, which left more for me. I thought this dish was just swell.

The best drink I’ve had in Hanoi was found here: coconut and lotus water served in a grilled coconut.

Lotus Seed Ice Cream, Crème Brûlée with lotus purée and silk tofu in lotus juice.

Six months before we came, the Michelin guide published their first-ever recommendations for the country, awarding several restaurants in Hanoi the coveted Michelin stars. We had lunch at Tầm Vị on our last day, which specialises in traditional Vietnamese fare. It may not bold, or transformative, or whatever else online commenters think a Michelin star should represent, but I like it: it’s simply Vietnamese traditional cooking done well.

Tầm Vị

The traditional version of snail meat patty, wrapped in rice paper rolls together with lettuce and vermicelli

Cau Go was a recommended restaurant in the Old Quarter. It’s cunningly hidden, but eventually we found that taking the lift located in the middle of a Cantonese restaurant Fu Rong Hua would bring you to Cau Go on the sixth floor. The restaurant’s full of old-world charm, and overlooks Hoàn Kiếm Lake. My favourite dish here is the lotus root and pig ears salad, which was well-crafted - the crunch of the toasted peanut, and fresh vegetables and the sweet unami sauce. We also really like the grilled squids: the squid was served above a small charcoal stove, and the meat is delicate and not at all rubbery. There was a spicy mint sauce with a lot of kick. We will skip the hotpot the next time around, which was decent but not particularly noteworthy.

And the restaurant with the best presentation? Look no further than Bếp Prime, and order their Flambe Chicken. 

We remained well-caffeinated throughout our trip: we start every day with a cup of Vietnamese coffee (cà phê), and continued drinking until well into the afternoon. The local specialty is the egg coffee, which was created in response to the wartime shortage of fresh milk and condensed milk. The egg is sweetened and then beaten until well-frothed, and tastes like a dessert. We tried the original version at Cafe Giang, and also the heavily spiced version at Loading T Cafe, where the coffee beans are roasted with cinnamon sticks, and each cup had a hint of nutmeg. Perfect for Christmas, if it hadn't only been so hot.

 

Loading T Cafe - both their hot and their iced coffee were excellent. The egg portion of their hot coffee is silkier, and the coffee is more cinnamon forward and with a hint of nutmeg. The iced one is foamier but perfect for this warm winter. Your choice.

 

My favourite coffee shop is the Hidden Gem Coffee, not only was their egg coffee terrific, they also have a wonderfully-crafted concoction called salted coffee with an addictive mildly-salted savoury foam.

One morning, we also sat down at a coffee shop next to the railway track, and boy, that was an experience. Both of the warmth of the Vietnamese grandma running the store, and the exhilaration/fear of having a train barrel thisclose towards you at full force. I stepped back involuntarily. 

Our hotel manager recommended Kem Trang Tien, an ice cream shop that is popular with the locals. Both the pink guava stick ice cream and the green bean ice cream were pretty delicious. The storefront is gigantic, with a capital G. It looks like a Parisian boulevard, entirely indoors, with mini streets. Patrons on motorbikes drive into the store, park their bikes next to an empty table, and purchase ice cream.

Can you spot the rows of parked bikes on the right side of the picture?

We took in a few local attractions over our stay. I’d been to the mausoleum before, and my friends weren’t keen on going, so we gave it a miss. We did go to Hoa Lo, which translates to fiery furnace. It was a prison first used to house political prisoners, and during the Vietnam war, housed American POWs, earning itself the nickname ‘Hotel Hanoi’. (The site has photo-documentation of its rather gory past, and our hotel manager was rather taken aback when he first heard that we wanted to go to it. We concurred afterwards - it is a local attraction, but perhaps isn’t the most conventional tourist thing to do.) We walked around the West Lake, and then the French Quarter and the Old Quarter. The traditional water puppet show... wasn’t half-bad. This is a small auditorium and music and singing was live. Was it also because we had been walking around the entire day and I was glad to be sitting down? Absolutely. We walked by Maison Marou, a bean-to-bar chocolatier in the area, and 1 month later, as I'm digging into their chocolate bars and daubing their cacao spread onto bread, I'm reminded how terrific chocolate products can be produced from all over the world.

Street carts hawking fruits are a common sight on the roads of Hanoi.

Over the week, I fell in love with the cuisine all over again. The wonderfully fresh coffee. The Bún Chà in the mornings and the Chả Cá late at night. The abundance of greens with every meal. Our tailored clothes from Văn Hùng Tailor (even though they took a month instead of the 3 days which is the standard of Bangkok's Alex Fashion or Paul's Fashion. But the quality was undeniable.) Hanoi, it’s been an absolutely incredible trip.