mmm-yoso!!!

Chiayi - Ah Hong Shi Turkey Rice

After our hefty breakfast in Taichung, we really didn't feel like lunch before or during our train to Chiayi. Our main reason for heading to Chiayi was to visit Alishan. I was somewhat confused as to why I wasn't able to get train tickets to Alishan ahead of time and even more confused as to why I wasn't able to get THSR (high speed rail) and even any train tickets when we left Chiayi. I ended up coming across something referring to Qingming Festival, which I mentioned to the Missus. Turns out that during the 15th day after the spring equinox families visit the tombs of their ancestors and proceed to clean the site and make offerings. In Taiwan, the whole week is taken off. Everyone is traveling, so transport is in high demand. What we ended up doing once arriving at Chiayi Station, was to head directly to the 7-11 where Alishan bus tickets were sold. We bought two tickets for the following morning.

We were staying at the Orange Hotel, which was kind of dated and noisy, but was centrally located and overlooked the Central Square. Of course, right after checking in the Missus needed to get Her tea fix.

Tea and boba drinks were priced ridiculously low; like 30 TWD ($1/US) at many places.

And just within a block of where we were staying were no less than six shops! The young lady at this shop was especially friendly and while chatting with the Missus even made a recommendation we'd go to later on during our stay.

We got used to having 2-3 of these a day. The Missus got really spoiled by this....to the point where She considered tea priced at 35 TWD ($1.10/US) to be too expensive! Ten cents more?!?!?

Once our thirst was quenched we decided to head out for a late lunch - early dinner. There was a specialty of Chiayi that I really wanted to try. So we headed on out. I had a list of places, but the first one was closed, probably due to the holiday. As we walked on over to another shop I had on my list we passed this temple.

All the temples we came across in Taiwan were fascinating, ornate, and beautiful. And all are important to the local community. This one is Chiayi Cheng Huang Temple, which was built in 1715. It is dedicated to the "City God", Cheng Huang. For more history, information, and wonderful stories about this temple, please check out this web page.

It seemed like every corner in every city or village was packed with places like this in Taiwan. History, culture, and lore abounds......

Sometimes I wish I knew the places we'd stumble across so I could do more research ahead of time, but you really can't dictate the future. I didn't know that our first choice of a restaurant would be closed and we'd head on to our second choice. Which featured quite a line!

There's a specific dish that I'd read about, for which Chiayi is famous; turkey rice, yes turkey rice. According to several sources, online and in print, and of course the ever popular Street Food series, turkey was brought in by the military following World War II (Shades of SPAM® in Hawaii). Due to post war hardships, turkeys being larger and cheaper to raise than chickens became popular in Central Taiwan. I'm sure there are several origin stories.

Anyway, there was a pretty long line when we arrived, but as we quickly learned in Taiwan, lines are a good thing and usually move pretty quickly. Within fifteen minutes we were stationed at the door of the restaurant; Ah Hong Shi. 

And before you knew it we were seated. Tables had dividers so a four top could be converted into a two top.

You are given a slip of paper and mark off what you want to order and hand it to the Server. The Missus's Chinese reading and writing skills sure came in handy during this trip. We placed our order and items started arriving in no time.

Of course the Missus got the Pidan with Tofu.

For some reason, I found that the century egg in Taiwan had a much stronger, almost cheesy flavor, and the ammonia like finish was more pronounced. That tofu was very "beany".

We enjoyed the Bittermelon.

This was very puckery and bitter. We enjoyed it.

The Bamboo Shoots were earthy with a mild nutty-sweetness.

Loved the crunchiness as well.

And then the dish I was waiting for, the Turkey Rice. The Missus, is not a fan of Turkey in the States as it is often bland, dry, really lacking in flavor, so She was not particularly excited about trying Chiayi Turkey Rice. This totally changed Her mind.

Topped with lovely fried shallots and pickled daikon (aka Takuan), the turkey was so tender, full of earthy, well.....turkeyness. Think about having moist and tender turkey with the flavor dialed up to 100 on a scale of one to ten. The perfectly cooked rice was saturated with the sauce of the turkey. Man, this was so good!

At the time of ordering, the Missus was still not sure about getting Turkey Rice and decided to cover our bets by ordering the Lu Rou Fan, the braised pork on rice.

Loved the varying texture of the pork; fatty belly, pieces of offal and such. The braising liquid was soy based, leaning on the saltier side of the spectrum. This was good, though we'd have better later on this trip.

For me; this was all about the Turkey Rice! And, ahem, "Rice-ly so".

Folks don't dally at places like this. You eat, take your bill, pay at the counter, and get the heck out of Dodge.

After all, look at who're waiting their turn!

Ah Hong Shi Turkey Rice
No. 108 Guanghua Rd.
East District, Chiayi City, Taiwan

 Chiayi Turkey Rice!

Taichung - Yizhong Night Market, Revisiting Miyahara (Twice), and Doing Some Shopping

This is a pretty long post, so I'm going to try to keep the verbiage to a minimum.

After our late lunch at Taichung Rou Yuan we took the short walk back to our hotel and took a break. For dinner, we decided to visit another night market. We didn't feel like getting a cab to Fengxia Night Market, which is said to be the largest in Taiwan. Instead, we decided to take the 20-30 minute walk to the Yizhong Street Night Market instead.

Along the way we strolled thru Taichung Park, which has a large man-made lake.

Folks in Taiwan really know how to relax and seem to be very social.

As we crossed Jingwu Road onto Yizhong Street, things didn't look too busy.

But one block further down....well, man it was super packed.

It was just overwhelming to say the least.

Some of the lines were crazy. We walked from one end of the road to the other end.  Not only were the stands busy, but the shops that line the street with everything from food, to cosmetics, gifts, clothes, and knickknacks were as well. As we hit the far end of the street, things calmed down a bit, the crowd seemed a bit older and there was even some seating.....

From here we took a quick loop around the stands again and found our places.

This booth made Rou Jia Mo, which looked good. It wasn't the typical Shaanxi style rou jia mo like we had in Xi'an, but featured and light and almost flaky bread, not like the typical "baijimo" (flatbread). This was very tasty.

This booth was selling XLB like dumplings.

Which were being made on the spot.

You placed your order, was given a number. When your order was ready it was called out.

These were pretty darn good...so porky!

Because we'd had a huge breakfast and a late lunch; this was enough for us. Plus, even though this was a bit of fun; the crowds were getting to us.

We took a quieter, roundabout way back to where our hotel was located.

On the way back, we decided to drop by Miyahara again.

As I mentioned in that earlier post; Miyahara is owned by Dawncake whose main store we visited earlier. This place has all kinds of "stuffs" that you never knew you needed.

While this fanciful, "Harry Potterish" shop used to be an ophthalmology clinic, it's now known for all their stuffs and the ice cream served here is super popular. We loved this "punny" sign.

After all the walking we'd done, we slept quite soundly.

The next morning we woke refreshed.

And availed ourselves of the nice and huge buffet breakfast.

The variety was impressive.

Our train to Chiayi was not leaving until 120pm, so we packed and stored our luggage at the front desk and headed out to do some additional Pineapple Cake shopping for my MIL. On Ziyou Road we found several shops selling pineapple cake, after having tastes, two of them past muster and we bought some.

I thought that the Pineapple Cake from this shop was the best I tasted during our entire trip.

Of course, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and I've had my fill of Pineapple Cake so don't even ask me to taste any......

We saw a location of Ten Ren Tea and having visited the SF location many times were curious. We walked in and were greeted by the sweetest woman.

The Missus loved one of the Oolong Tea's and was told it's a limited crop and is only sold in this area and is not exported so the Missus got it.

While chatting with the woman, the Missus was constantly cracking up. Later She told me that the woman was dissing other tea producers, but doing it in the most "sweetest" way that She couldn't help but crack up!

We did a bit more exploring.

And took our required tea break.

And even headed back to Miyahara.....

Before heading back to the hotel, picking up our bags and making the short Taichung Station. We weren't catching the HSR, so we could leave from the station in the city.

The original Taichung Station has become a historical park and the structure along with the very modern station next to it makes quite the juxtaposition of buildings.

The old rails have been converted to sitting and dining areas....

And of course, there was yet another craft market going on!

Of course we had a train to catch and did not have much time to dally, so my wallet was left unscathed!

And soon enough we were off to our next stop! Chiayi!

Thanks for stopping by!

Taichung - Shen Ji New Village and Taichung Rou Yuan (台中肉員)

After completing our shopping at Dawncake we headed on back toward our accommodations. On the way back, I mentioned Shen Ji New Village to the Missus. Once the location of government dormitories; the area has been renovated into a what's called a "creative and cultural" center. And since there was shopping involved, well, the Missus was all for it!

This was a Sunday, so the place was bustling with various stands selling all manner of things.

In fact, the Missus ended up buying a dress from one of the vendors!

Shenji New Village
Lane 368, Minsheng Rd.
West District, Taichung City, Taiwan

From here, we decided to cab it back to the hotel and grab some lunch in the area. Of course, the Missus had a nice chat with our cabbie. When She mentioned wanting a light lunch, he recommended a place close to where we were staying that served Rou Yuan (aka Ba-wan). He dropped us off at the bustling shop.

We had quickly come to understand that lines are a good sign in Taiwan and in most places they move quickly. Actually, that line is for takeout.

The place basically serves three items; the Rou Yuan, a mung bean noodle soup, and fishball soup. 

The line to dine in was much shorter and we were seated at one of the communal tables promptly.

Though it seemed chaotic, there was a system in place. Luckily for us, we sat next to two really nice young men who quickly knew that we were "newbies" here. One of them spoke perfect English and he quickly flagged down one of the Servers carrying the bowls of rou yuan and voila.... we had our lunch!

 The the outrageous price of NT$45....yes, I'm kidding, this equates to about $1.45/US we got a bowl with a large dumpling which was fried before entering the thick miasma of a sauce. The wrapper had a pleasant, somewhat glutinous chewiness. The sauce was thick, quite savory, with a hint of sweetness. The meatball was very tasty, though a bit on the tough and chewy side. The combination of flavors was excellent. And this was pretty filling.

The two young men eating next to us were great; the fellow who spoke English who coordinated delivery of our bowls also went up and got us napkins....I'd soon know to look for napkin dispensers on the walls of these type pf places. I regret not paying for their lunch!

Our "bill" was dropped on our table. And as is the "system" in Taiwan, you pay at the register; there's no tipping.

This was a fun and interesting meal at a Taichung business founded in 1933! After returning home and using Google to find the address I discovered this place has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmet designation! You gotta love those taxi drivers! They were making sure we stayed well fed!

Taichung Rou Yuan (台中肉員)
No. 529, Section 3, Fuxing Rd.
South District, Taichung City, Taiwan

We were loving our time in Taiwan!

Thanks for stopping by!

Taichung - Taichung Second Market, Taichung Sixth Market, and a Visit to Dawncake

For our stay in Taichung, I selected Le Meridian. The rooms were the most comfortable of all the places we stayed at in Taiwan.

And there was a vast and good breakfast buffet.

The variety was quite impressive. A nice variety of Western and Asian dishes.

You were provided with a card for your table. You left it on the "green" side for when you went exploring for food.....

And then flipped it to "red" when you were done to let the folks know they could clear your table.

We enjoyed our breakfasts here.

We enjoyed our time here.

Unlike the other places we'd be visiting, I hadn't made any plans for our full day here. We had one destination in mind for the day, we needed to get some pineapple cake from Dawncake for my MIL. And while Miyahara was owned by Dawncake, we decided to walk on over to the main store on Taiwan Boulevard.

During our walk it seemed like Taichung is a bit spread out and there was only 1 MRT line in the city at the time of our visit. So, we didn't do much except explore. Like in other cities in Taiwan we found an interesting contrast of the modern and stylish....

With the old.....

As the architecture seemed to change on every block on this portion of Taiwan Boulevard.

There were many alleyways winding their way around, with some of them specializing in electronic shops or hot pot and the like.....

There also seemed to be a large number of 24 hour arcades in the area.

One of the places the folks at the hotel and the Missus's Instagram searches recommended we visit was Taichung Second Market. While we weren't very hungry due to just finishing breakfast, we headed on over to have a look.

During the Japanese Colonial Period, this was known as Shintomichō, a high-end shopping area. 

Now it's known as a place to get "good grindz".........

And as we soon learned, lines are usually a good thing in Taiwan and they can move pretty fast, like at this Lu Rou Fan stand.

There's quite a variety of food available.

Along with the expected produce, seafood, and meat purveyors.

Taichung Second Market
No. 87, Section 2, Sanmin Rd.
Central District, Taichung City, Taiwan

We stopped for a short tea break.

Where the Missus noticed a super long line going down around the block. She went to investigate and I crossed the street to take a photo.

Apparently, this is a very popular place selling Castella Cake, named Banshin Castella Cake.

Yep, those lines......

All of this and it was just after 9 am!

We headed further up Taiwan Boulevard, to the rather modern Xitun District, full of office towers and high rises.

 We came across what looked like a hotel....it turned out to be the Splendor Hotel, with a bunch of vendors selling all sorts of plants and crafts. The Missus read one of the signs and noticed that the building is called "Park Lane" and on the third floor was something called "Taichung Sixth Market". Since it was still early and Dawncake didn't open until 10 we decided to check the place out.

We caught the elevator up to the third flood and arrived at what I'll call a very modern food hall/market of sorts. There were some food stands but they weren't open yet.

Like I mentioned earlier; we were struck by the contrasts of the old (Second Market) and the new.

While all the food stands were closed, we found this tea booth.

The young man working the stand was so kind and friendly. The Missus loves Her tea and he took the time out to explain the source and flavors of all the tea; which was from his family's farm in Alishan and told us to have a seat.

He proceeded to make us multiple samples of each! Telling us to take our time and enjoy.

It was such a nice experience and we bought a couple of bags of tea. 

We'll make sure to return if we're back in Taichung!

Taichung Sixth Market (in Park Lane by Splendor)
403 Jianxing Rd.
West District, Taichung City, Taiwan

By now it was after 10am and Dawncake was open.

The Missus's Mom enjoys pineapple cake, so we decided to pick some up on every stop during our trip. Dawncake is probably the best known brand from Taichung.

The shop is large and bright. We were given some samples and the Missus got Her Mom a box.

Meanwhile, I came across something I had seen the previous night at Miyahara.

And this time I just had to get it.

It's actually tea that is sold in what could pass as an album cover. So, the Missus got more tea and I got that wonderful album cover...because "I'm forever missing them....."

Dawncake
No. 512, Section 2, Taiwan Blvd.
West District, Taichung City, Taiwan

Happy Mother's Day!

Taichung - Dinner at Wow Cool (瓦庫燒肉)

As I mentioned in my previous post on Taipei, I hadn't realized that we'd be in Taiwan during a five day holiday weekend. So, the only rail transport I could get to our next destination, Taichung was the High Speed Rail that left at 546pm. It only took an hour to arrive at the Taichung HSR station, which was quite far from our accommodation located across from the regular train station in Taichung. On a positive note, taxi fare in Taiwan is very inexpensive by US standards and getting a cab to our hotel was a breeze.

It was dark when we arrived and we check in and headed on out. Right around the corner from the hotel is the famous Miyahara building, which is owned by Dawn Cake, a well known pineapple cake producer. 

The structure was once a large ophthalmology clinic owned by Miyahara Takeo during the Japanese colonial period. It has now been nicely restored with an interior that flaunts a Harry Potterish theme. The ice cream stand in the building is very popular. There was something that instantly caught our eye, which we'd end up getting at Dawn Cake's main location when we visited the next day.

Of course, there was the question of "what's for dinner"? It seemed that many of the places around the hotel except for hot pot places were closed. And, at least for us, it was just too hot and muggy to even considered hot pot. So, we went decided to go for a recommendation from the taxi driver that drove us from the National Palace Museum the day before. During his conversation with the Missus he mentioned that his grand daughter lived in Taichung and also told the Missus her favorite restaurant. He also said there was one item there that once you tried there "would be no turning back" to another version again!

So, we set out looking for the place, weaving down various streets and alleyways.

Folks at the hotel didn't seem to know about this place. Neither did several folks we came across at various businesses. Until one older gentleman pointed the way. Turns out the English name of the place is "Wow Cool"?!?

And it's basically Yakiniku.

We quickly ordered some liquid refreshment.

While the Missus perused the menu. There were quite a few groups of younger folks eating piles of pork, beef, and seafood. We just can't put all that stuff away like that anymore and decided on the Wagyu cuts.

And a good amount of veggies....which were of good quality and tasty.

   The Missus really loved the yamaimo and the meat was buttery, beefy, and so tender.

But what was so delish as to make us not be able to "turn back" once we tried it?

Well, it was the chicken stock provided for each table for free!

And my goodness, it was delici-yoso! 

So full of "fowl flavor", rich, with an wonderful "tongue feel".

Who'd have thought. You walk into a yakiniku joint, only to find that the chicken broth would have you "never turning back"!

This was an interesting start to our visit to Taichung.

Wow Cool
No. 16 Minquan Rd, Central District
Taichung City, Taiwan 400

Taipei - The National Palace Museum and Lunch at Dian Shui Lou

Our next destination in Taiwan was to be Taichung. Usually, I'd arrange for transportation and time our arrival to close to check in time at our destination. This time though, there was a little problem. Apparently, there a holiday Qingming Jie (清明节 - "Tomb Sweeping Day") which is big deal in Taiwan. Traditionally, during this period  families visit the gravesites of their ancestors and clean (thus the "sweeping") the sites and present offerings. This was a Saturday and the start of a 5 day holiday weekend where it seems everyone travels. Well, I had a heck of a time arranging transportation and in the end we'd juggle the HSR (High Speed Rail), TRA (Standard Rail), and Private Car hire to get us to our destinations. There were no HSR nor TRA tickets available during regular hours. I finally managed to get us a high speed rail ticket form Taipei to Taichung that left at 545 pm. And our hotel was nice enough to hold our luggage.

So, this gave us more time to explore Taipei. We really wanted to visit the National Palace Museum. There was one item we really wanted to see, the Jadeite Cabbage, dating from the Qing Dynasty, it is probably the most popular item in the museum. In fact, folks I know from Taiwan have called it the "Mona Lisa" of Taiwan!

Initially, the Missus wanted to walk the 5 1/2 miles to the museum! But I was kinda bushed from the 12 miles plus we'd walked the previous day and taxis were so reasonable in Taiwan, so I talked Her into getting a cab. Which turned out to be fun. The Missus got some good dining tips from our drivers and some input on the place we had lined up for lunch!

We arrived and paid admission, then headed to where the main treasure(s) of the museum are, only to find that the Jadeite Cabbage was on loan! Oh well, at least got to see this.

Can you guess what it is?

It's called the "Meat Shaped Stone" aka the "Dongpo Rou". Sure does look like it, yeah? Here's the version we had in Hangzhou....

Man, do the Taiwanese have a thing about food or what? So, while we missed the "Mona Lisa" of Taiwan, I' dubbed the "Dong Po Rou" the "Venus de Milo of Taiwan"!

All kidding aside, the collection here was amazing.

We were especially impressed with all the jade carvings and vessels. Some were so tiny and of course in keeping with the food theme, see the "eggplant" snuff bottles?

The carvings and designs were so intricate.

There's quite a bit too see here, but we enjoyed the ceramics and jade collection the best.

 Of course, in typical fashion, when there's just too much to see, like when visiting the Louvre, we called it after about 3 hours.

I think the next time we visit, we might arrange for a private or small group tour to get the most out of our visit. After all, we gotta see that Jadeite Cabbage right?

It was time to head off to lunch. During our walk the previous day, we passed a location of Dian Shui Lou, a restaurant that specializes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang style dishes and also serves Xiao Long Bao. According to the Missus, the poster outside the restaurant indicated that DSL had beaten DTF for best XLB in Taiwan! So, we decided to head off there for lunch.

In the basement of the museum is info desk and the friendly folks there will call taxis for you. When the woman asked where we were headed, the Missus replied "Dian Shui Lou, Huaining Street." The friendly woman told the Missus that her family often goes there for celebration dinners! 

A cab was called for us and we were given the Taxi's number, clearly visible on the vehicle, and instructed where to wait.

Our Taxi Driver this time around was super chatty and was quite enthusiastic about food. In fact, he made a recommendation for Taichung, his daughter lives there, and for a place we'd visit later in the trip. He said he preferred DTF over DSL though.

The restaurant wasn't very busy when we arrived, though it filled up quickly thereafter. I believe folks with reservations were guided upstairs. The decor is quite upscale.

Of course, after seeing "Venus de Milo" we had to order the Dong Po Rou.

 The fat on this was quite velvety, but the meat kind of dry. The flavor was a lot milder, lacking in the sweet-soy, ginger, and slightly pungent tones I'd used to in this dish. It also had a bit too much of a greasy mouthfeel for us as well.

We also ordered the Crab Meat Rice with Egg Yolk.

Lovely looking dish, but the rice seemed to have the texture close to congee which we didn't care for. Not much "crabiness" to this as well. The egg yolk added a touch of velvetiness.

We also ordered the combination Xiao Long Bao. Which in retrospect might have been a mistake.

It's because our favorite was the traditional pork version. First off, the wrappers were too doughy for us, second, some of the dumplings, especially the versions with basil and the shrimp and gourd were really bland. Of course, there was the "19 folds make it better thing"......but as far as we're concerned, you can have 30 folds....if there's a lack of flavor and "soup" and the texture is not to your liking it doesn't really matter, does it? I could go on in detail about each flavor, i.e. the shrimp and gourd didn't have enough "soup" and was really bland, etc......but I won't. I'll only say this wasn't as bad as what we've had here in San Diego. Still, we weren't particularly impressed.

Our favorite dish of the meal was the Bittermelon with Salted Egg.

Nice puckery-astringent taste with the savory-salty flavor of preserved egg. This was quite interesting and satisfying.

We also ordered the Chou Doufu here.

But while being nicely fried; crisp exterior, creamy interior, this was not especially savory and funky.

As a whole this meal was our biggest disappointment of the trip. Still, in terms of damage, at least from the US point of view; at $60 this wasn't too bad.

Dian Shui Lou (Huaning)
No.64 Huaining St
Zhongzheng District, Taipei 100 Taiwan 

And we got to see what I call the "Venus de Milo" of  Taiwan.....

Taipei - 2/28 Peace Memorial Park and Ningxia Night Market

After lunch at Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles we decided to slowly make our way back to the hotel for a break before heading out in the evening.

But first, we would stop at one of the hundred of tea/boba shops for some light refreshment.

We ended up making 2-4 "tea stops" everyday....these places are so inexpensive....our drinks would usually be 30-35NT$ - think $1 -$1.15! We stopped at so may places that I just couldn't keep up with documenting them.

We made several stops on the way back.

This one is the Taiwan Provincial City God Temple.

This temple is dedicated to the "City God", Chénghuángshén (城隍神).

This was quite a busy and colorful temple. This page has more info if you're interested.

There was one last stop for us. A few blocks away was a large and pleasant park, where the National Museum resides. On this day, there was a group of students looking to take what seemed to be school yearbook photos?

The park was lush, green, and quite pleasant, especially with temps hitting the 80's with the equivalent humidity.

It was fun watching folks enjoying their lunches; or in the case of this pooch trying to get a squirrel to play with it.

This park was established in 1908 by the Japanese; the first European style park in Taiwan. It was then renamed Taipei New Park when the KMT took over. The current name is in recognition of what is called the 2-28 Incident. Which is detailed on this sign (click to enlarge)

Event which led to Taiwan being under Martial Law for 38 years.

Hard to imagine all of this taking place in such a peaceful green area.

We got back to our room and took a nice nap in airconditioned luxury.

For dinner, well, we thought it would be a nice night to finally go to a night market. After doing a good amount of research, we decided on Ningxia Night Market. I know many folks recommend Shilin Night Market, but after doing some reading, it seemed that night market has many more tourists. We'd have our choice validated by several cab drivers during our stay. The best quote was "Shilin is the place where tourist and young people go to spend money on things they don't need. Ningxia has better food and less crowds." 

We decided to walk the mile and half to and from the market.

When we arrived, except for a couple of stands, things weren't too busy. Things would start picking up a few minutes later.

Ningxia Market stretches along a single street, lining both sides of the avenue. There are also restaurants on the street as well with any choices.

We decided to walk the length of the market before making our choices.

My first choice was a Scallion Pancake with Salted Egg Yolk.

This was crisp, fairly light, the eggy flavor coming thru quite distinctly.

Of course, once the Missus saw...well, more liked smelled the "fragrances" from this booth Her mind was made up.

The chou doufu was still being fried up, so we were guided to the table behind the booth.

Soon enough, the Missus's stinky tofu was delivered. Man, the smell was quite potent, though nothing like what we had in China.

And in terms of chou doufu, this was "all bark and no bite". It was crisp and smelled the part, but was very mild in flavor. I guess the Missus's rule for me still goes "if you can eat it; it isn't stinky enough!"

As we walked back down the street we saw this stand.

These looked good so we ordered some. After ordering, the mushrooms were refried to heat and crisp up.

Crisp and earthy enoki and two types of oyster mushrooms.

  We'd enjoyed the vibe at the Ningxi Night Market, though I think the Missus had gotten Her share of fried food and really wouldn't order much for the rest of the trip!

We also enjoyed the walk back which took us thru some other neighborhoods in the Datong where places seemed open a lot later than where we were staying. There seems to be more younger people and boutiques and other shops the Missus enjoyed.

I was kind of bushed when we got back to the hotel. I guess I was a bit our of shape and not used to putting in the mileage like we do in, say Paris?

Obviously, I slept well. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Taipei - Exploring Wanhua and Lunch at Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles

We decided to spend our first morning in Taipei exploring the historic Wanhua District, which includes the Ximending Pedestrian area.

We walked past Taipei Main Station, then took a left at the North Gate (Cheng'en Gate).

 One of five city gates in the city, it is the only one of the gates that still maintains its Qing-era appearance. 

As we walked down Yanping Road we quickly noticed that many shops, including coffee houses don't open until at least 11am in the area. It was interesting to see folks doing prep and cleaning work along the way.

We then headed to the Ximending area, called the Ximending Youth Shopping District, and often described as the Harajuku of Taipei. There's some interesting funkiness and fashion in the area. We passed an street that was totally given to tattoo and body piercing shops.

Though it wasn't very crowded; we believed that 9am was too early for the young and hip to be about; especially on a weekday (this was a Friday). Though we did see quite a few "influencers" along the way.

They were easy to identify; Taiwan seemed quite casual in dress and these folks dressed up quite a bit. They also seemed to have a small entourage with them and acted like they "owned" whatever area they were in. It really seemed that it was "all about them". We'd try to avoid them at all costs during our trip.

We decided to head on over to Longshan Temple and passed quite a few red brick buildings. These are said to be Qing-era structures.

We saw a sign that said "Bopilao Historical Block", so we decided to follow the sign, which lead us to a street lined with red brick and wooden buildings that have obviously been restored.

This is Bopilao Historical Block.

You can read more about it here.

We enjoyed checking out these historical buildings. The street was amazingly quiet.

Most of the buildings were closed, but we found one that was open and had some interesting history and photos of businesses that used to occupy the street.

The quiet was soon interrupted by the sound of chatter outside the building. We found Taiwan to be pretty quiet, at least in terms of folks talking. It was definitely more like Japan/France than China on that note. 

Well, guess what? A group of influencers and their entourage had taken over the street. 

There were actually eight of them in total. It was time to head on out.

 Longshan Temple was only about a block away. 

We hadn't really read up on religion in Taiwan and were surprised to see how religious people were here!

There's an interesting combination of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism called Chinese Folk Religion that is the most practiced in Taiwan.

The most popular hall seemed to be for the deity of Love and Marriage.

There's a park across from the temple, but it seemed occupied by homeless folk, which seemed, at least to us, quite a rarity in the city. I later found out that the area near here used to be the "red light district" of the city.

From here, we decided to head to our lunch destination. It was still a bit early so we stopped at a couple of other temples along the way.

This is Qingshan Temple.

Qingshui Temple. You can read about the "Nose Dropping Divine Progenitor".

 

Our last stop before lunch was at a square with this red brick building.

This is Nishi Honganji Square, once the site of the largest Japanese Buddhist Temple in Taiwan. A fire in 1975 destroyed the temple, leaving the Shuxin Hall and the Bell Tower.

We had decided to get some Niu Rou Mian for lunch. I looked at my "list" of places close by and we chose one. Of course finding it; even with Google Maps was interesting. By now, the Missus came to realize that folks in Taiwan were quite helpful and She asked a gentleman at one of the businesses close to where Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles was located. He quickly pointed into the doorway of the large building we were standing at and told the Missus it was downstairs in the basement. Apparently, the Wan Nian Building is a popular shopping mall and in the basement is a maze of eating establishments. We just did a circle until we found our destination.

Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles.

It was just about 1045, the place opens at 1030 and there was just one other party in the place when we arrived.

A table was pointed out and we sat. From our dinner the previous night, we knew to check off what we wanted from the ordering pad. Another wrinkle here was that there were side dishes in the fridge; you just head on over and pick out what you want.

This is what we chose.

Each one of these dishes is 40 NT$ ($1.30/US).

Man, this stuff was so good.

The cabbage was crunchy, yet nicely sour. We had quickly noticed that what we were eating here in Taiwan wasn't overly salty and this meal was no exception!

The Jellied Pork had a nice crunch and toothsomeness.

The young man whisked away the tofu and pidan and soon returned it to the table with a thick soy sauce drizzled on it.

Loved the beany tofu, the soy sauce had a nice umami, with a light sweetness. The Missus loved the pidan.

Based on the previous night's dinner, we also ordered some jiaozi, this time the pork and chive version.

My goodness! This was one of the best versions we've ever had. The wrappers were so tender, with a perfect "chew" to them. The filling had a nice, balanced pungent porkiness to it and was so tender and juicy. This resets the bar for what we now expect in restaurants.

And then it was the Niu Rou Mian.

So, first the good. The knife cut noodles are probably some of the best I've had, al dente, but tender, a wonderful texture. I now have a reference point for what the Taiwanese call "QQ". The beef is wonderfully tender and deeply flavored. Were this fell short for us was the broth. While it wasn't overly salty and the richness and tongue feel was excellent, it was kind of weak in the beefiness.

And since this place is a Michelin Bib Gourmet restaurant, we expected more.

Still, we loved the jiaozi and side dishes and the price for our lunch came out at 430 NT$, think $14/US...... Geez, it's really hard to complain, right?

Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles (in the Wan Nian Building)
108 Xining Rd.
Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan

Taipei - We Arrive and 93 Tomato Beef Noodle

Our flight to Taipei was about a half hour late. Getting thru customs in Taoyuan Airport was amazingly efficient and since we only had carry-on luggage to deal with, finding the Airport MRT station was also quite easy, as was getting and loading up EasyCards, Taiwan's travel smartcard. Our Airport MRT train left on time and we arrived at Taipei Main Station in around 40 minutes. Now here's where it got interesting.......dealing with Taipei Main Station was crazy. All the floors, all the different lines; the MRT/Metro/HSR/TRA all leave from various tracks at Taipei Main Station. Even with the Missus being fluent in Mandarin it was a beast. We deal and have dealt with train/metro travel quite a bit, heck we even survived Shinjuku Station which claims to be the busiest in the world. But man, trying to find the MRT Blue Line to our hotel, well it just had us flummoxed. Maybe we're out of practice? 

Anyway, our hotel was just one stop over on the Blue Line, so we decided to take a cab. Which turned out to be great in several ways; first we discovered Cab Fare in Taiwan is very reasonable with a start at 85 NT ($2.60/US) and 5 NT every 200 meters or so. Cab fare to our hotel ended up being 95 NT, think $3.11. Second, we got our first taste of how friendly cab drivers (as a whole) were in Taiwan. They loved conversations. In fact, the Missus would make it a habit to get dining recommendations from Taxi Drivers during our stay in Taiwan.

We got to our hotel and checked in at around 830pm. The staff at the Resonance Hotel were very professional and accommodating. After freshening up, we decided to head on out to grab something light for dinner. This is when we noticed that many businesses seem to close fairly early. It was 845 and most restaurants in the area were closed. We also noticed that there seemed to be either a 7-11 or Family Mart on every corner. Even more than Japan!

After walking up and down a couple of streets, we settled on this place.

Which specialized in Tomato Beef Noodle Soup! The menu is posted on the wall, you are given a paper to check off your selections. The interior and dining is simple.

We ordered the Beef Tomato Soup and some jiaozi. The Missus had a view into the kitchen and quickly told me; "they are making the jiaozi to order!" And then, "he's cutting the noodles to order as well!" We'd find that this is the norm here in Taiwan.

Our Pork and Cabbage Jiaozi arrived hot to the table.

The Missus walked over to the condiment table and poured us some black vinegar. This jiaozi was very good, fluffy, tender wrappers, tender and nicely seasoned pork filling. Better than anything in San Diego...in fact, just about as good as anything in the SGV!

Then our noodle soup arrived.

 Man, the beef was so tender and beefy! The knife cut noodles were a bit thick for my taste, but the texture was very nice, good pull, not doughy or overly chewy. The broth was light on the beefiness and edged on being too sweet. We would have liked a bit more tangy-tomato flavor as well. Still this was quite enjoyable.

And then came my favorite item of the meal, the Fried Pork Chop.

Crisp, yet tender, we loved the porkiness. We'd come to enjoy the pork in Taiwan, it's definitely not "the other white meat here". In fact, the Missus would make fun of me after I enjoyed each pork chop saying; "Taiwan, the land where Kirk never found a pork chop he didn't like!" Which was true. This version was smothered in black and white pepper and we liked the sinus clearing effect of it.

This ended up being a nice, random first meal in Taiwan. And heck, it was just over nine bucks! 

93 Tomato Beef Noodle (93刀削麵館)
No. 3-2, Qingdao E Rd.
Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan

We had a nice night of sleep. I woke a bit early, had some tea and just looked out at our view of Taipei.

We decided to head on out and do some exploring. Walking out of the hotel straightened us out! We had left San Diego with temps in the 50's to 60's. Here in Taipei highs were in the 80's with some humidity to match.

We headed out on Zhongxiao East Road, one of the main thoroughfares in the city. 

With the sounds, the smells (is that chou doufu I smell?), the lively, yet mellow vibe hitting us. We were so happy to finally be here and couldn't wait to do some exploring!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hanoi & Cambodia: First we had to get there - Dumplings, A Lee's Pit Stop, EVA Airlines, Taiwan International Airport, Hello Kitty, and other stuff.......

We had been planning a trip to Hanoi and Cambodia since we had returned from Peru in September of last year. By the time we hit US soil, the Missus was already pondering our next trip. Over the next 7 months, with the help of "Beach", we slowly saw our plans come to fruition. On the day of our departure, the Missus decided that Jiaozi was our good luck talisman.....on our trip to Peru, Her Mom made us Jiaozi before we left, and since everything had turned out so well, why mess with a good thing? So there we were, running to Ranch 99 Market shopping for the fixins for some dumplings. The Missus, who had unofficially retired from Jiaozi making rolled out the dough, I did the filling, the Missus formed the dumplings, of which I boiled half of the dumplings, and fried the other half.

After a busy morning of Jiaozi making the Missus promptly "re-retired".

"What about tradition, and good luck?"
"We'll have to come up with another tradition, good luck is over-rated!"

These were pretty darn good; the chives at the market looked horrible, so we settled for shrimp, Chinese celery, and scallions.

We had packed light.....I mean very light for our 15 day trip. I'm definitely not a "backpacker" like Miss Oishii-eats, and I'm several decades(and probably an entire universe) removed from even remotely thinking of backpacking, but the thought of running through so many locales made the thought of traveling light quite attractive.

For a self-proclaimed "soft American", I think I did pretty good....plus, still-damp T-shirts washed in the bathroom sink felt pretty good in the heat and humidity of Siem Reap.

We turned da' Boyz over to our house sitter, and headed up to LAX. About an hour into our drive the Missus got hungry, and we made a short detour...

Yep, Lee's Sandwiches....cheap, and relatively fast. After getting to the airport, getting through security, and making our way to the our gate, we had our sandwiches.

I still have the same opinion about Lee's, the baguette is too dry, doughy, and the crust too hard, lacking crackle, but for $2.50, this 10 inch Cured Pork(Ba-chi), and Pate will fill you up.

The Missus enjoyed the flavor of the Bi(shredded pork), but it was dry as heck....She chugged down a whole bottle of H2O. I also noticed, that just like in movie theaters, smells carry really far in airports.....so if you happened to be on the same flight as us....yes, that was me....'ol Banh Mi breath.

Lee's Sandwiches(They're everywhere.....)
9261 Bolsa Avenue
Westminster, CA 92683

Beach had made our flight arrangements....suggesting that we fly EVA Airways, with Elite Class seats. Boy was that great advice......with the extra leg room I was able to catch 2 or 3 20 minute naps(I'm usually unable to sleep at all on flights). And the Missus liked all the "stuff", like slippers:

And other "stuff"....

I swear, the Missus would have sold Manhattan for a handful of trinkets.....the selection of movies and shows on the "video on demand" touch screens kept us entertained.

 

The food was an interesting mix of Asian and Western.....each meal had 1 Western type entree(i.e. chicken with pasta), and one Taiwanese-Chinese entree, like the Seafood Rice Porridge:

There were several "snacks" on the way to Taipei....I saw a Guy put away 3 servings of instant noodles! I wonder what his MSG level was????

14 hours later.....we were in Taipei. Here's the flight crew......

The airport in Taipei is interesting......and quite quirky. Here's the huge Hello Kitty/Sanrio area.

In addition to the Sanrio store, there's a children's area, and a television to keep the youngsters hypnotized occupied.

But the most interesting feature of this Pepto-Bismol Pink area is.......the gate....yes, this is the Hello Kitty Gate!

We did notice a large number of males....especially young men, refused to sit in the Hello Kitty area, and sat near the automated walkways...and as far as possible in some cases. I'll have another post on this gate later on.....

With a 4 hour hour layover in Taipei, hunger pangs eventually set in....and we were drawn in by this sign:

It was a pseudo food court, made up to resemble a collection of street food stands...

Yes, we were suckered in.......and ordered a few items. Starting with the Pig's Feet with Rice:

This was the best dish overall....mostly rice, but the sauce was well flavored, as was the 2 pieces of pork.

The Pork and Mushroom Soup

More like a potage...the broth tasted okay....but the pieces of pork were inedible....

A pork steamed bun.....which was an interesting thing, the Missus broke it open, sniffed it, and said, "don't eat this....."

 

All sucked down with "Coke Light".....it's kinda funny, I haven't had anything with saccharin in a while, so the difference in flavor was very pronounced. This turned out to be one of the more expensive meals on our trip $14 US.

Soon enough we were on our way to Hanoi..........