mmm-yoso!!!

Taiwan - Taroko Gorge Part 1, Qingshui Cliff, Shakadang Trail, and Lunch at Taroko Village Hotel

We had a nice night of sleep after settling in at the Kindness Hotel. I had gone ahead and hired a driver to take us to and around Taroko National Park. But first came breakfast. And as I mentioned in my previous post on Hualien our hotel provided a breakfast buffet, which was quite varied and good.

Our driver arrived right on time. Though he didn't speak any English, the Missus enjoyed conversing with him in Mandarin. He was very friendly and, as we'd find out later quite thoughtful. The Taroko Gorge area is vast and we were only doing a day trip, just seeing the main sights and taking a couple of walks, so being English speaking wasn't necessary.

Hualien seemed quite spread out; based on where we were staying, which was in the area close to Hualien Station. The city is close to the ocean and we stopped for some photos (our driver really liked taking photos of us!) at Qixingtan Beach which was right past the airport.

There was no one in sight, so perhaps that's why the beach seemed vast and expansive?

I'm thinking that this was a Friday right after a major holiday week Qingming Jie (清明节 - "Tomb Sweeping Day"), so maybe that's why the place was deserted?

From here it was back onto the highway and eventually the the terrain changed dramatically. Rising up the side of mountains, it reminded me of the portion Kalanianaʻole Highway near Makapu'u back home. We made a first stop at a lookout. Man, was the view quite dramatic. This is the Qingshui Cliff area.

Beautiful rugged coast views on one side; imposing mountainside on the other.

From here we drove further up the coastline, the passing thru a tunnel, before parking at the Huide Rest Stop. From here, there an easy walk to the lookout. I actually saw the train tunnels below us as well took our walk.

We then headed off and into Taroko National Park proper. After driving thru a tunnel we arrived at a parking lot and a bridge. After a short conversation with our driver, the Missus told me this is the Shakadang Bridge and we headed down some stairs to the Shakadang Trail (also known as the Mysterious Valley Trail). It's more of a nice nature walk.

Once on the trail you get a nice view of the bridge.

The trail was nicely maintained and not very crowded when we visited. The Shakadang River is known for the crystal clear, emerald water that flows thru it.

I loved the jewel like marble boulders strewn along the riverside. The Missus took Her shoes off, sat, and soaked Her feet in the cool comforting water in front of this striking boulder.

About 1.5 kilometers down the trail there an actual snack shack-coffee stand! Yes indeed, this is Taiwan. It was interesting to see actual motorbikes and other vehicles using the trail!

After the snack stand we decided to head on back. When we got back to the car, we noticed our driver busy on his cell phone. We thought it was some kind of personal call, but would find out shortly what it was about. Our driver chatted with the Missus as we weaved our way to a large flat area with buildings and a hotel. This was Buluowan, the former sight of a village of the Truku people, the Indigenous inhabitants of the area. We found out that the reason our driver was on the phone was that in chatting with the Missus, he discovered we enjoyed food. So, he called the restaurant in the Taroko Village Hotel to make sure and reserve two of the lunches which featured a couple of traditional Truku dishes for us! Did I mention how much we loved Taiwan.

We led us to a table in the restaurant, so I did get many photos, but this is what lunch looked like.

 Of course we loved the tender, grassy-mild sweetness of the fern shoot.

The cuts of boar and boar sausage provided interesting contrasts in flavors; porky-mild sweetness, familiar flavors.

But, I really enjoyed the sticky rice cooked in bamboo. The rice attained an almost creamy texture, the slightly floral flavor heightened with a pleasant mild sweetness!

This was a fun meal. And we made sure to have our driver join us and pay for his lunch as well!

Taroko Village Hotel
972, Taiwan, Hualien County, Xiulin Township, 231-1號

After lunch we walked around the grounds of the Buluowan Upper Terrace.

Before being walked over to the next site on our agenda!

Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by!

Hualien - A Cheng Goose Meat

One of the places the Missus really wanted to visit was Taroko National Park. It was nearest big city was Hualien, so I hired a driver for our visit to Taroko Gorge and we had a rather easy three hour train ride from Taipei. We stayed fairly close to the train station at the Kindness Hotel, which actually lived up to their name. The folks working were really nice. 

The city, at least for us, had a real small town feel, though it seemed to be rather sprawling. Once we checked in, we decided to head out in spite of the damp and drizzly weather to explore and get some dinner.

I had read that a must try in Hualien was goose. I had Mr Goose on my phone. Of course there were distractions along the way. On Jinfeng Street we passed this wonderful looking temple and decided to take a look.

From what I could gather, this is Dijun Temple.

It was something to see......

It was quite impressive, though there's not much in English on this temple. I'm in the process of trying to find a book or publication on these temples of Taiwan.

Along the way we passed a couple of food streets like this one, along Gongzheng Street.

Apparently, this baozi stand is quite well known.

We really wanted to try some roasted goose in Hualien, so we headed over to the very popular Mr Goose only to find it closed for the holiday. So, I had to find a plan B. We did enjoy shopping at this dried veggie/fruit shop.

While shopping, I found another possible goose restaurant so we headed on over.

Right next to the shop and the closed Mr Goose was this interesting looking church.

After "Googling around", I found that this is the Hualien Port Church.

From here, we pretty much headed back in the direction of the hotel.

Out on Jianguo Road was a place I saw as A Cheng Goose Meat on the map, though the English sign said "Happy Town Goose".

The place was empty when we arrived, but slowly filled during our meal.

The Missus placed our order and our "stuffs" started arriving.

The bamboo shoots were simple, but well seasoned, crunchy, and full of flavor.

The goose intestine with preserved vegetable was interesting. The goose intestine was very mild in flavor and quite crunchy.

The Missus had ordered the goose two ways; salted and smoked.

   The dish came with two sauces which we didn't need. I expected the goose to be gamier than duck, but it wasn't. It did have some nice gaminess, was super tender and moist, and nice and rich. The "smoked", which was more like roasted to me had a stronger flavor profile, though the salted version seemed more moist. Both versions were tender and I'd have this again in a minute!

We loved the veggies in Taiwan and here was just another example; the wonderful, tender, mildly sweet - chlorophyllic baby fern shoots. 

And the very "ong-choyish" stir fried yam leaves. So tender and grassy-nutty. Just simply seasoned and perfectly stir-fried.

When you have good ingredients, simple is probably the best.

We enjoyed our meal at A Cheng and like I wrote earlier, we'd return in a heartbeat!

A Cheng Goose Meat
No. 85 Jianguo Rd.
Hualien City, Taiwan

After dinner we strolled around a bit. 

Before heading back. The Kindness Hotel, like other places we stayed at on this trip has a buffet breakfast. But they also serve snacks and drinks during the day, and what we were told was a evening "snack", which was more like a full on buffet dinner. As you can imagine; it was quite popular with hotel guests.

Of course we'd already eaten; but the Missus couldn't resist getting a snack; Taiwanese shaved ice.

After which we took a ice stroll. It was kind of interesting. We hadn't seen too many bars and such in Taiwan; but the area around the hotel seemed to have quite a few bars. I'm thinking it might be all the hotels, thus tourists in the area?

We headed back to our room excited about our upcoming visit to the Taroko Gorge the next day.

With dreams of goose dancing in our dreams......

Bafang Dumpling (Mira Mesa)

Man did Bafang Dumpling generate lot of buzz when they opened at the end of December. Folks that I know who went talked about crazy lines and 30-40 waits for food. Funny thing, we thought about checking out Bafang during our trip to Taiwan, but things never worked out. We even had considered going to the City of Industry location, but ended up having not so great guotie and XLB at Jiou Chou Dumplings instead.

But now it was nearing the end of January and the rain has left San Diego a soggy mess, Bafang opens at 10am, and it was Monday. Sounded like a good time to see if the place wasn't too crazy, so I drove on over with a plan B (turo turo) just in case. I needn't have worried. 

As the nice young lady opened the door telling me; "welcome, you're the first customer of the day".

Bafang is one of those fast-casual places, you order at the counter, pay, and are given a buzzer which will go off when your order is ready for pick up at the counter.

My coworker "CY" whose family is from Taiwan went to Bafang when they first opened (of course), I didn't want him to tell me what he thought of the food, so the only advice he gave me was "make sure to visit the sauce bar, it will come in handy".

Well, since I had ordered guotie and jiaozi black vinegar was a must. I also got the chili sauce and the garlic sauce.

Waiting for my order I had a little taste of each sauce, all of which I thought was terrible. The black vinegar tasted watered down, the garlic sauce had very little garlic flavor, at least to me and was overly sweet, and the chili sauce was quite weak as well. Before I had time to really wonder if this was an omen of what my meal was going to be like, the buzzer and bright lights went off.

One thing I did appreciate about Bafang was the ability to do half orders of pot stickers and dumplings, which meant I could try both without stuffing myself silly.

Because it is usually pan fried, I went for the guotie ($5.75 for 6) first.

Looking at the dumplings gave me pause. Look at the color; it's very "light", and as I thought, these hadn't been fried long enough and were hard and chewy, rather than crisp. The tops should be somewhat pliant with a slight pull to it. These were a bit on the brittle side. The filling was decently seasoned, but had too much napa cabbage for my taste.

Not very good.

One thing I really loved in Taiwan were the pork chops; like the Missus said, "In Taiwan you never met a pork chop you didn't like". So, of course I had to try the pork chop ($8).

These looked pretty good; but it was really chewy. While it had some five spice flavor to it; it needed more white pepper and salt. 

It wasn't particularly crisp either.

Looking at the jiaozi ($5.75 for 6), I shook my head. I really looked like it came out of a bag pulled from the freezer.

   This was pretty bad; the "skin" was hard and brittle. The filling seemed to be half cabbage, the pork mealy, dry, and was quite tasteless.

This wins the award for the worst jiaozi I've had in ages. I left shaking my head and thinking, "this is like college food court cuisine" and I'm probably not the target audience for this. Still, I needed to give the place another try. Another rainy Wednesday, meant another opportunity to not have to deal with crowds.

This time I went with the Niu Rou Mian (Beef noodle soup $16.75) and also the Spicy Fried Chicken ($8).

When I was summoned to the counter to pick my order up I was surprised at how large that bowl of NRM was! It took up an entire tray!

   So, I hunkered down and took a sip of the broth and shook my head. It was really thin, lacking in beefiness, with just a hint of metallic-anise tones. It was in need of more richness. At least it wasn't salty....but on second thought it could have used more sodium and white pepper.

The hunks of meat and daikon were huge. This meant the meat was on the drier and tougher side and lacking in flavor. The hunks of daikon had retained its flavor but were not cooked all the way thru.

The noodles were overcooked, mushy, and lacking in the springiness....in other words, instead of "QQ", this was more like "DoDo".....

Though if you're more into portion size, this might be the dish for you.

I was ready to be let down by the Spicy Fried Chicken ($8), but it ended up being the best item I had during my visits.

    I would skip the "chili sauce" which wasn't particularly spicy, just kinda oily.

The coating of the chicken was crunchy and there was enough white pepper and savory seasoning on this. Hallelujah!

The chicken was on the tougher side but was adequately moist.

Well, that made one-out-of-five here. This kinda makes me think there must be a huge difference between Bafang here and in Taiwan, right? I read that Bafang has almost a thousand locations in Taiwan. 

This sign made me laugh.

In my mind it didn't stand for Bafang Dumplings; I would use another word that starts with "B". But of course, that's just me. In all honesty, because Bafang opens at 10, I was hoping this would be a good place to add to my rotation, but as it is now, it's going to be a while before I return, if ever.

I'm hoping your visits to Bafang were better than mine; please tell me about them.

You can read Soo's post on Bafang here!

Bafang Dumplings
9690 Reagan Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Daily 10am - 10pm

Taipei - Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Fan Tuan Ba (飯糰霸), and Another Pork Chop

After dinner at Din Tai Fung we strolled around the Xinyi area a bit before heading back to the hotel. As we headed further down Xinyi Road we came upon Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park and the imposing Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

We walked up the 89 stairs, which represents Chiang Kai-shek's age at the time of his death.

A statue of Chiang Kai-shek resides in the hall.

And from the hall you can get a nice view of Liberty Square. With the National Concert Hall on one side.

And the National Theatre on the other.

We took a quick peek in the hall, before the doors started closing at 6pm.

We then made our way back to the hotel and had a nice night of sleep.

Our train the next morning wasn't leaving until 1145, staying right across the street from Taipei Main Station had its benefits as we could go out and explore a bit more. Also, we'd be returning Sky 19 Hotel so they were kind enough to store our excess luggage.

While walking close to the 2/28 Peace Memorial Park, which I posted on earlier, we came across this tiny coffee shop.

And we got our caffeine fix for the morning.

壹咖啡
No. 76 Huaining St.
Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100

Right around the corner from the hotel, the Missus stopped and exclaimed "oooohh, fan tuan"! Which cracked me up....you see, when Sammy would get a bit chubby, we'd call him "fan tuan", basically "glutinous rice ball".

But this place really made fan tuan. We thought it would be nice to have one on our three hour train ride. Of course there was a line.

But lines in Taiwan move fast and the two guys making fan tuan were super fast....no wasted motion here.

The version the Missus got had a soy sauce egg, crisp nicely sour pickled veggies, and crunchy egg roll wrappers, in a nice, tight toothsome rice ball.

It was quite filling. Well, I finally got a fan tuan!

Fan Tuan Ba (飯糰霸)
No. 2號 Xuchang St.
Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100

And since I needed my pork chop fix, we got a Train Bento at the station as well!

Man was I enjoying Taiwan!

Next stop, Hualien!

Taipei - Din Tai Fung, the Original Location (Xinyi Road)

We were a bit sad to be leaving Chiayi. We'd had such a fun time, wonderful people....and that turkey rice! But it was time to move on. We made good time on our return to Taipei. I picked interesting accommodation in Taipei. Since we had upcoming travel and staying in the vicinity of Taipei Main Station would be beneficial; I elected to stay at Sky 19 Hotel as it was right along an exit of Taipei Main Station....we really never figured the Main Station out, but the locale was great. The "hotel" was actually located on a single floor (the 19th of course) of a high rise. It was actually a great location for us. We were staying in Taipei for 1 night before heading to our next destination, then returning two nights later. 

So, here we were back in Taipei when the question arose, "what's for dinner"? Actually, we had kinda planned things out. We had always wanted to dine at the original location of Din Tai Fung and this was our opportunity. So, we walked to Xinyi, and got to the original DTF on Xinyi Road.

And of course, this being Taiwan, there was a line. Which in this case is a good thing!

We checked in and provided our cell phone number; we'd be called when there was a table available and went for a walk.

After a bit we returned and even though we hadn't been called, when the Missus asked, we were told that there was a table available.

As with all the locations of DTF I've been to; you can watch dumplings being made.

This shop has multiple floors and we were seated on the third floor.

The service was very efficient and professional, without being "stuffy". You are provided with a order sheet which you fill out and hand to the Server.

There is actually an "instruction card" on each table with directions, in 3 languages no less, on how to devour your XLB.

In the blink of an eye, a little dish of soy sauce-vinegar and ginger is provided. The Missus also requested some black vinegar which was provided as well.

Soon enough our dishes started arriving. We had really been enjoying the veggies in Taiwan; it's usually perfectly blanched and simply flavored. I've always loved Warabi/Pohole back home in Hawaii, so when I saw stir fried Bird's Nest Fern on the menu, I just had to have some.

For me, when it comes to fern shoots and such, it's mostly about the texture and these did not disappoint. So tender; a mild sweetness, lightly seasoned with soy and a bit of garlic. Man, this was so good. From this point on, I'd make sure to order this if I saw it on a menu.

Speaking of having to order something......well, like the Missus said regarding my fondness of a certain cut of swine in Taiwan, "you didn't meet a pork chop you didn't like." And the version here was no different.

Nicely seasoned; just enough soy-five spice-white pepper, with a mild sweetness. A slight crispness, nice pork flavors. Yes, the streak continued.

And then our first XLB arrived, the version with Green Squash and Shrimp.

First thing I noticed was how delicate the wrappers were; quite light. The filling had a mild "crunch" to it courtesy of the shrimp, along with a slight briney-sweetness from said crustacean. Just on its own, it tasted a bit lacking in the sodium department; but that's what the soy-vinegar-ginger condiment was for.

The wrappers for the Spicy Pork and Vegetable won tons were equally as delicate and light.

They've really got a handle on creating a pork filling here; it's very tender, just perfect amount of flavoring to add a touch of savory and sweetness, which highlights the oinkiness of the filling. That spicy sauce was a bit too mild for us...probably because we're used to Sichuan ma-la. Still, this was quite good.

Then the pièce de résistance arrived; the Pork Xiao Long Bao and I've got to say, in my opinion, the "DTF reputation" is totally earned.

   

I thought the wrapper looked a bit thick; but it was soft and delicate. The filling had a wonderful pork flavor and was quite tender. The dumplings were very "juicy", the soup wonderfully flavored. These were easily the equal of the amazing Guan Tang Baozi in terms of wrapper and seasoning, but possibly a step above in refinement. It's certainly the best XLB I've had to date.

Last up was the Crab Roe and Pork XLB.

Same wonderful wrapper, tender filling, perhaps a bit on the sweeter side, and less "juicy".

In the end, the food was wonderful, though we'd definitely go with the "OG" pork XLB all the way. The Service was efficient, and we had a memorable meal. I'm sure we'll be hitting up DTF whenever we're in Taipei in the future.

Din Tai Fung Xinyi Restaurant
No. 194號 Xinyi Rd.
Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106

After dinner we wandered around the area a bit; then took a nice leisurely walk back to the hotel. We'd be heading to Hualien the next day; but not before exploring a bit more.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chiayi - A Lou Shi Turkey Rice (阿樓師火雞肉飯), Wenhua Road Night Market (Again), and River Bird Coffee Roaster (江鳥咖啡- 嘉義吳鳳北路店)

After returning from Alishan we had some snacks at the 7-11. I was quite shocked to see draft beer "pulls" in the store....you can get draft beer at a 7-11!

We returned to the hotel, took a short nap, then headed out for an early dinner. The Missus was really in Her element in Taiwan. She would chat up folks and get recommendations. We were so taken by the Turkey Rice that we wanted to have that again. The young lady at the Tea Shop right at the corner recommended a Turkey Rice shop named "A Lou Shi". She told us it opens at 4pm, so we headed on out and wouldn't you know, we found the place!

And there was quite a line! Since this is Taiwan, the line was a good thing! It moves so quickly.

Check out who was waiting for some Turkey Rice right in front of us!

One quick look at the counter and you knew what they specialized in.

The place was in continuous movement of folks ordering, eating, then vacating.....

We really enjoyed the stir fried veggies in Taiwan, so of course we ordered all of it!

All the greens were prepped the same way, blanched, then sauced, then minced garlic were added.

The ong choi was crunchy, there was a light sauce which heightened the flavor. The garlic added a nice pungency.

The lettuce had what tasted like oyster sauce on it, along with the garlic.

The yam leaves had a texture like spinach, without the "gooeyess", but also had a nice mild sweetness along with the chlorophyllic flavor.

All were quickly blanched so the flavors weren't leached and there was some crispness to things.

And of course, we loved the bamboo shoots.

Crunchy, with a earthy-nuttiness and a hint of sweetness.

This place served Turkey Rice two ways. Sliced and a version more braised.

   The rice was perfect, but the sauce was greasier and milder in poultry flavor than what we'd had earlier and the turkey meat was more chewy/tough as well. 

Overall, we preferred A Hong Shi.

A Lou Shi (阿樓師火雞肉飯)
No. 102 Wufeng North Rd.
East District, Chiayi City, Taiwan

Still, check out the line as we left!

We had to walk thru Wenhua Road Night Market on the way back to the hotel.

And the Missus decided to stop at this charming looking stand for some Douhua - beancurd pudding.

Which She enjoyed.

And of course there was a "show" going on at the Central Plaza that evening as well.......

There's always something happening here I guess!

In an earlier post, I mentioned having problems getting train tickets because of the Qingming Festival (i.e. Tomb Sweeping week). Well, in order to get back to Taipei, I ended up hiring a driver, which in terms of US prices is quite inexpensive. In fact, after doing this car hire, I went ahead and did the same for other "excursions" during our trip. One good thing about having your own driver is that you have greater control of your schedule. So, I timed things so we'd be getting to our hotel in Taipei right at check-in time. This meant that we wouldn't leave Chiayi until after 12.

So, after grabbing a snack at the Hotel, we checked out and stored our bags and decided to take a walk around Chiayi.

There was a kind of rusticness to Chiayi, making it quite different from Taipei and Taichung. Businesses dotted the landscape all along Wenhua and Wufeng Road.

On Wufeng Road we came along this shop and decided to get our caffeine fix.

It turned out to be quite the hipster coffee shop.

The young lady working was so nice and sweet, while also being a bada$$ barista!

She made the Missus's pour over and I got my cold brew.

And she gave us some "treats" to have with our coffee.

River Bird Coffee Roaster (江鳥咖啡- 嘉義吳鳳北路店)
No. 132 Wufeng North Rd.
East District, Chiayi City, Taiwan

After our nice caffeine stop, we decided to stroll on back to the hotel. We stopped to do some shopping (and sampling) along the way.

Right at the center of the city is a fountain that dates back to the Qing Dynasty when Chiayi was the center of the sugar industry. The fountain stands where the city wall stood during the Qing Dyansty. But there's something else that catches your eye.

Yes, it's a baseball player; specifically a pitcher. This is known as the "Kano" statue. The statue is of the late Wu Ming-Chieh, star player of the Kano Baseball Team, the team from Chiayi was chosen to represent "Formosa" in the Japanese High School Baseball Championship in 1931 and against all odds made it to the final, losing in the championship game. Wu Ming-Chieh was the pitcher on that team. It is said that the success of the Kano Team encouraged Taiwanese to play the sport and now baseball is considered to be the national sport of Taiwan. An award winning movie was made about the team in 2014. And this is a wonderful article if you'd like to have more info! Everyone loves an underdog story!

We walked back to the hotel and in a few minutes our driver arrived and we were headed back to Taipei.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chiayi - The Wenhua Road Night Market and Alishan National Scenic Area

**** Not much food in this one....though I did love that Pepper Bun!

I thought I'd give you a break on all my Paris/France posts and head on back to Taiwan......

After checking into our hotel and having lunch at Ah Hong Shi Turkey Rice, we relaxed for a bit. We were staying right off Wenhua Road, right across the Central Plaza. Wenhua Road Night Market is but one block away and we weren't very hungry after our lunch, so it was a natural pick for grabbing a light dinner and getting in a nice stroll.

  And even though it seemed pretty busy along the whole 500 meter route, there was a laid back vibe to things. And so, we actually enjoyed this night market more than the Yizhong and Ningxia Night Markets. Of course Taipei and Taichung are the first and third most populous cities in Taiwan at 7.8 and 1 million, while the entire population of Chiayi County is 260,000. The city just seemed quite laid back and we could take our time to notice people....and their pooches!

It seems like folks really like to take their dogs around in dog strollers in Taiwan!

We did get to take our time visiting various stands.

And ended up getting some baozi; sorry the photos of that didn't come out.

And our favorite item of the night from this stand.

   The woman working was quite a good salesperson. She saw the Missus and I walk up and immediately started conversing with the Missus. And apparently this tactic worked as we got a Hujiao Bing - a pepper bun. 

I found that I really enjoyed Hujiao Bing, a juicy meatball laced with scallions, a the flavor of white pepper dancing on your tastebuds....

This was one of my favorite items on the trip....until we came across an even better version in Taipei.

As night set in, we headed back to our hotel.

As I mentioned earlier; our hotel overlooked the Central Plaza. The hotel was a bit dated and kind of noisy, but it was interesting to watch the happenings at the plaza from our window. On this evening there was some kind of talent/music show going on.

The next morning we woke and headed on over to Chiayi Station where I grabbed something quick from the 7-11, before we boarded the bus to Alishan.

And we were dropped off right in front of the main gate to the area.

And very popular......

We found Alishan quite easy to navigate, with wooden walkways, easy trails, a pleasant experience for all.

There are actually four villages within the confines of Alishan.

As you walk within the park, you'll come across amazing trees. An example would be the "three generation tree". Where one tree grew upon another, each serving as a base for the next generation, a symbol for all who some here.

All the trees are known and have names.

It's quite impressive.

  There were very nice wooden paths and bridges making Alishan a very easy visit. Perhaps too easy for the Missus as She was getting kinda bored with the whole place. Whereas I enjoyed the view and the trees. Oh the stories they could tell!

We eventually found our way down to where the Alishan Railway Station was. This would have been our transportation here had all our planning worked out; but of course I didn't know anything about the Qingming Festival at the time.

From here we headed off.

This is the Tree Spirit Pagoda.

The relations between Japan and Taiwan are quite complicated and I won't really get into that because there's much I do not understand. What we did see in Alishan was the Tree Spirit Pagoda. Which the sign describes.

There are amazingly old Red Cypress trees, many of which have interesting shapes. This is called the Elephant Trunk Tree.

This is the Xianglin Arch Bridge.

Beyond which there was this wall, which was busy with people.

They were all interested in this flower.

The Missus tried to figure out the significance of this flower and asked several folks, but couldn't get a clear answer. Perhaps one of our "FOYs" can clarify for us!

From here, it was a close walk to Alishan Shouzen Temple.

And there was one thing I wanted to see. I had read that in every April....we were here in the beginning of April, moths will roost on the statue of the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven, whose birthday is the 21st of April. We were here during the first week of April and guess what?

My goodness, do you see the moth? Whoa.....

At this point...well, the Missus needed some tea, with aiyu.

From here we walked back to the main village making a atop at a tea shop.....Alishan tea is quite famous a renowned and the Missus wanted to sample some.

And She ended buying  some tea.

Before heading back to Chiayi....

It wasn't quite noon when we headed back, so we'd have time to grab some lunch.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris - Cimetière des Chiens and Chez Ajia

One of the great things about spending 2 whole weeks in Paris is that it gives us time to do a bit more exploring outside of the center of the city. We'd always been fascinated by cemeteries and had already visited Pere Lachaise twice on previous trips. On that subject, did you know that the oldest pet cemetery in Europe (it's often claimed to be the oldest in the world) Cimetière des Chiens, established in 1899, is located in the suburbs of Paris, right across the Seine from the 10th Arrondissement in Asnières-sur-Seine? I took a look at this web page, saw a familiar name, and convinced the Missus it would worth a morning visit.

So, there we were catching the metro after our morning croissant and coffee, ending up at the Mairie de Clichy metro station and then taking the 20 minute walk, crossing the Seine, and ending up at these gates.

Talk about a rather grand entrance! We arrived at just past the opening time of 10am, paid our €3.50 entrance fee and walked on in.

Right at the entrance is a statue of the famous rescue dog Barry (who is actually in the Natural History Museum of Bern).

The inscription on the plaque reads:

"He saved the lives of forty people. He was killed by the forty-first"

Though according to several sources Barry was retired to Bern, Switzerland to live out the rest of his years.

Lest you think it's just pooches interred here.....

There's even a cat mausoleum in the cemetery.

Some of the graves date back to when the cemetery was established. This one goes back to 1900!

This one is for the two pooches of a Princess.

And this one is for the one and only Rin Tin Tin....yes that Rin Tin Tin.

Still, it was the other tombstones that caught our attention. There were several folks in the cemetery tending graves of their beloved.

You can tell they were loved.

They give so much to us........

I know we still talk about Sammy and Frankie everyday. 

Sometimes when we travel, we're rushing from place to place, from event to event. Having some time to just stroll and think about how lucky we are and how blessed we are does one good and puts things into perspective.

Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques
4 Pont de Clichy
92600 Asnières-sur-Seine, France

We crossed the Seine and headed on back to out apartment. After a short break, we decided to head on out to do some "lèche-vitrine" ("window licking") the French term for window shopping. This took us down to the area around Rue de Rivoli. When it came time for lunch; the Missus, knowing we had dinner reservations at a Brasserie was craving some Asian food. I had an interesting place on my "list" named Chez Ajia, run by a husband and wife team, she is the chef and hails from Taiwan and her husband who is French runs the front of house.

We arrived just past 1pm and easily found a table. We found out that the nice gentleman taking our order is one of the owners; he was really friendly, spoke perfect English, and turned out to be quite entertaining; more on that later. The restaurant is what I would call "coffeehouse - cozy". What was interesting is that you are given a device with three buttons on it, like we have at many Korean restaurants here; to call for service or your check. The menu was full of basic Taiwanese "standards".

The Missus is always up for eggs, so we started with a basic Basil Omelette (10€).

This was like something you'd make at home, it could have used more salty - savory tones, the eggs were adequately fluffy.

We ordered the "Loh Bih" (16€) which had some of favorite side dishes.

The eggs were very tasty and the bean curd skin knots were nicely marinated. The pig ears were not seasoned enough and the smoked tofu and seaweed tasted like it came out of a package from 99 Ranch Market.

Meanwhile, the owner, I believe his name is Geoffrey came on over and started chatting with us. And frankly, this was the most memorable part of the meal. He asked us where we were from and we said San Diego...he then asked us where in San Diego and we said "Bay Park". He knew exactly where it was! You see, he spent a year in college at SDSU! And then for some reason we mentioned Hacienda Heights and Rowland Heights. And he said he spent almost year nearby when going to the University. He asked us where about and we mentioned being near Colima Road at HK Plaza. He then said something that made us totally crack up - "so, you could smell the chou doufu then....." Yes, I guess the "scent of Shau Mei" extends all the way to Paris!

The last item of the meal was our favorite, the Guo Bao (11€).

The bao was on the gummy side; but the pork belly was nicely balanced in flavor, just enough sweet to even out the soy sauce, the meat was very tender with a nice savory porkiness to it. 

It was a good way to end an interesting meal.

Yes, our first two meals back in Paris was Sichuan and now Taiwanese. Heck, we were spending two weeks here, why not eat like we live here, right?

Chez Ajia
4 Rue du Roi de Sicile
75004 Paris, France

Thanks for stopping by!

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!