Taipei - Taiwan

We finally arrived back to Taipei!
The first thing we did was have lunch at the Five Dime Driftwood Restaurant

An artsy kind of restaurant
Definitely different from any restaurant I've ever eaten at
 
A doughy dessert (?) and stir-fry chicken


Fried Mantou (which was really good) and a salted vegetable dish


Lunch is served

Then we went to Taipei 101 tower to walk around the mall with all the expensive brand name stores:

Taipei 101 Tower

We grabbed bubbletea at Chatime (one of the popular bubbletea places in Taiwan)
 

The bubbleteas here are different from the ones back in Canada, but we just decided to try their normal milk tea with pearls:

Really good! Milk tea just tastes so much better in Asia than in North America
Smooth and creamy with that fantastic tea flavour...yummy!

We were left on our own for dinner and with the recommendation of our tour guide, we went to the Core Pacific City Living Mall food court next to our hotel in Taipei for some really good Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

 
There were quite a few places to choose from, so we got something from each Taiwanese food shop.



Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
Super famous in Taiwan (I was a little surprised we didn't have it on our tour, but we finally got it on our last day!)

Yum! Lived up to its name - it was really good with huge chunks of beef, tasty broth and a little hint of spiciness.




Xiaolongbao
I love eating these steamed soup dumplings and these were pretty good (and they didn't come with the brand name price tag!). They didn't pass the sturdy stem test, but they had great flavour and they were super cheap compared to Din Tai Fung and King Ping Tea Restaurant.




Taiwanese Pork Chop with rice, tofu, beansprouts, bok choy and soup
The salt and pepper pork chop was really tasty by itself, but it was better paired with the rice and sauce. Every side dish was delicious and so tasty. I could definitely eat another serving of this!

I was really impressed by this food court! This was probably one of the better meals of our Taiwan trip. We got drinks for dessert:



Mixed Fruit juice, orange juice and watermelon juice
Our lazy way of getting our serving of fruit

The next morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the Golden Garden Hotel Buffet Breakfast before heading out to catch our flight

 I was pretty excited to see garlic toast (and a microwave oven to toast it!)


Eggplant, eggs, ham and choy
The eggplant was pretty good, but everything else was kinda forgettable.

When we finally got to the airport, I remembered that one of my friends' suggested that I try the Rose Tea Latte since Taiwan is the only place in the world that offers it (and apparently it's REALLY GOOD). So I grabbed a rose tea latte and a lemon tart while I was waiting for my flight:



The rose tea latte was really good! It didn't have an overwhelming rose aroma since it was mellowed out by the milk, but I still found it aromatic and gave me the impression that it was an elegant drink (probably cause it was so pricey and delicate tasting). The cake was okay - I liked the lime rinds 

Taichung (Taichung Night Market) - Taiwan

Next on the Taiwan Tour was the Sun Moon Lake area where we went on a boat cruise

View from the dock

Sun Moon Lake

Wen Wu Temple view of the lake

We had lunch nearby the Sun Moon Lake before heading to Taichung

The vegetable dish was...different. 

It had some kind of mayonnaise on top (definitely not how you normally cook it)

Rice, mushroom dish, chicken dish, fish in soy sauce and soup

Spicy vermicelli (it looked a little scary and it was pretty spicy)

Dinner was served at the Taichung Night Market (Fengjia Night Market)

 
This was definitely more what we expected from a night market in Taiwan!
Lots of options, delicious smelling food, line-ups and people

 
We saw a few stalls selling these massive chicken cutlets
We couldn't resist trying one since they looked so good (and they were so cheap NT$60 ~ $3 CAD)


They make it to order so when we got our chicken order - it was fresh from the fryer and grill with a sweet sauce drizzled over it. Absolutely amazing! It was pretty difficult eating something that hot with a skewer, but we managed since we were so hungry and it was so delicious. There was a little cartilage and some bones, but it just made it more authentic (at least we have comfort that it's real chicken meat)

After walking the whole night market area, we decided to go to another sit-down restaurant and have a more filling meal.



Ramen noodles with pork, corn, bamboo shoots, fake fish cake in a creamy broth


Pork Steak with spaghetti in a gravy sauce
The raw egg was a little random and the pork portion was huge.

We found another fruit stand on our way back to the bus
 
So we picked up some Asian pears, yellow watermelon, pear apples, papayas and of course the sweet mangoes

The following morning we had the breakfast buffet at the Hamilton Hotel

Pretty typical except for the weird fish cakes (which I mistook for chicken nuggets again - I guess these are popular in Taiwan) and the faux cinnamon roll (it wasn't cinnamon inside!)

Kaohsiung (Kaohsiung Night Market) - Taiwan

The storm started as we were heading into Kaoshiung and the shot I got on the bus made it seem like the pollution from the factories were creating the storm clouds.

When we arrived in Kaohsiung, we went to the night market

 

We walked around in the pouring rain, but since it was raining so hard - we ended up going to a sit-down stall and eating while waiting for the rain to stop

The place we ate at:
 


Pork balls and noodles soup with lots of cilantro


Chicken dumplings
They were really pink inside...but we didn't have any stomach problems the next day, so I assume they were fully cooked.


Shrimp and beef noodle soup

You also got a choice between noodles and vermicelli

This was actually pretty good - the broth was tasty and it was reasonably priced.

  
Five Spiced Tofu
This dish was really good! Although the garlic was kinda spicy.

When the rain cleared up, we grabbed some stuff as snacks for later on in the night (in case we got hungry):


 
Beef and Green Onion fried roll
It was really oily and not as crunchy as I would have liked
The beef was pretty good, but there wasn't enough sauce in the roll


Sugar Cane drinks

We had breakfast the next morning at the Citizen hotel.

Pretty simple really: beef, fried rice, vermicelli, eggs, daikon, sausages, Taiwanese beef stew and some peanuts - pretty tasty too!