mmm-yoso!!!

Big Island - Koana Again (Mountain View), Big Island Candies (Hilo), and Village Burger (Kamuela)

After having an encore viewing of Halemaʻumaʻu the previous evening we were tempted to stop by again to check things out in the morning but decided to just keep the amazing visions of the previous night fresh in our memory instead and head on to our next stop of our trip. 

The Missus had enjoyed the Geisha pour-over from Koana the previous day and wanted to have it one more time so we stopped there for our morning coffee.

On this morning a young lady was working. She was very friendly and the Missus got Her coffee.

 I enjoyed sitting right outside the shop. The view of the plantation style houses reminded me of our trips to Honolua "small kid time" to see my grandparents.

I'm sure we'll stop by again whenever we're in the area.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

As we headed up thru Hilo, we decided to stop by another very familiar place, Big Island Candies. Waaay back when, a stop here was mandatory during our visits to Hilo.

It was right before Lunar New Year, so we made sure to get some goodies for my MIL.

And a bunch of omiyage as well.

And even "stuffs" that well....I'm still not quite sure about

Good lord, we bought so much that we got a free tote bag and a discount! Like I said before, when you visit "make sure to bring lots of money!"

Big Island Candies
585 Hinano St., 
Hilo, HI 96720

From here we headed up the Hamakua Coast, a drive we've made many times, past Honokaa, and finally into Waimea, which we call Kamuela. We were a bit early to check in at our accommodation, so we headed over to the Parker Ranch Center to get some lunch. 
If you've read our posts on the Big Island, you'll find that we really love revisiting favorites. And since we had enjoyed Village Burger so much the last time we were here we decided to grab lunch there.

 We had enjoyed the fact that everything from the pasture raised beef, to the brioche buns, to the mushrooms in the mushroom burger is local. The Missus had really enjoyed the mushroom burger the last time and of course, this being Parker Ranch territory, I needed to have that Big Island Beef Burger.

Of course, a decade has passed since we last visited, so we expected some changes. And yes, the burgers were smaller than what we'd had before.

Still, while there seemed to be a bit more "binder" in the Missus's Hamakua Mushroom Burger ($11), it was still full of earthy-umami goodness.

It used to be served on a sort of ciabatta type roll, but I think the yeasty-fluffy-mildly sweet brioche type roll does quite well to balance out the mushrooms. The Missus didn't order any mayo or mustard, which was a good choice as one could really enjoy the mushroom flavor.

I ordered my Burger ($11) Medium.

  This was cooked a bit past that, but the burger was so beefy! I requested just a touch of mustard, which combined with the wonderfully sweet and acidic tomato really helped to balance out the beefiness. The beef was a bit toothsome; but that's the deal with pasture raised beef made from cuts like chuck and brisket.

We both enjoyed this trip down burger-memory lane.

Village Burger
67-1185 Mamalahoa Hwy
Kamuela, HI 96743

We then took some time to explore Kamuela a bit and do some shopping.

And then we'd walk past a place.......

That would suddenly bring back memories from past visits.

And things just felt "right".

Thanks for stopping by!

Big Island - The Volcano Thursday Market, Revisiting Halemaʻumaʻu, and Dinner at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant (Again)

After lunch at Suisan we headed back to the Kilauea Lodge and took a short break. I also made late dinner reservations at the restaurant, this would allow us to spend more time revisiting Kilauea Caldera. We decided to head back out before sunset so we could easily find parking and relax and watch the "show". Before heading back there, I had one more stop in mind. It was Thursday and Volcano Village has a local food and crafts market at the Cooper Center. So, we headed there first.

It's a quaint little market and it seems that a lot of the folks there were locals as folks were having fun socializing.

Food and craft booths were set-up thru the community center.

It was a nice little stop.

Volcano Thursday Market (At Cooper Center)
19-4030 Wright Rd.
Volcano, HI 96785

We then headed back to the Kilauea Overlook and easily found parking adjacent to the lookout. There were folks just arriving to check out the "show".

Folks even brought beach chairs! We chatted with a few folks and they were all locals; some driving all the way from Kona!

Several folks brought offerings for Madame Pele.

We just stood and watched Halemaʻumaʻu doing its thing.

As the sun slowly set the bright red colors became the star of the show.

You could even make out the spatter cone!

We just loved this! We stood our eyes fixated on the crater, just as amazed as we were the night before. Heck, if we stayed another night, we would have returned again!

As it was, we felt blessed to have been able to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience twice!

More folks started arriving and the parking lots were closed. It was time to head back for dinner.

We just wanted to take things easy on this evening and had made dinner reservations at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant again.

The staff here are wonderful, so warm and friendly.

This time we started with the Coconut Brie which came with the bread made inhouse.

 The coconut crust was a bit too sweet for us. There were also spots where the coconut was burnt, adding a rather unpleasant bitterness to the dish.

We enjoyed the bread.

The Missus had the same main as previous night, Crispy Tofu.

Again, we thought the star of the dish was the cauliflower and mushrooms.

This time around, I kind of went against my better judgement and got the Seafood Risotto.

The risotto was the standard par cooked version and some of the arborio rice was under cooked and hard in the center, it was also on the salty side. The Kaua'i Shrimp was outstanding, sweet and briny, cooked perfectly. The mussels were overcooked and dry; but the clams were nice and tender.

Overall, based on our dinner the previous night, we got what we expected. Of dishes, made better by the fantastic staff.

Kilauea Lodge Restaurant
19-3948 Old Volcano Road
Volcano Village, HI 96785

And most of all, we got to witness the glory of Madame Pele and nature!

Big Island - Koana and Mountain View Bakery (Mountain View), Chain of Craters Road, and Suisan (Hilo)

We had a wonderful first day and evening on the Big Island. Man, it's hard to believe that it had been a decade since we last visited.

And since we were staying in Volcano Village, we wanted to resurrect an old tradition we had. But first, the Missus wanted a nice cup o' joe. I had done a bit of research and found a place in Mountain View, about a 15 minute drive from Volcano Village that just seemed perfect for the "coffee snob" in the family. A place named Koana.

This specialty coffee shop only did pour over....like I said, this place would be perfect for the Missus, right?

The bright, rustic space was quite welcoming.

As was the owner; who kindly took time to explain everything they had for the day. 

In addition to the local coffees the place sold....

There were other local kine stuffs as well.

The Missus immediately homed in on the Paradise Coffee Kona Geisha Champagne Natural. The owner of Koana, Brian, told us that this coffee won the 2022 Hawaiian Coffee Association competition. Oh-kay.....

While we waited for our coffee we took a quick look around...the place has a real "old time" feel to it and reminds me of Honolua, way back in the 60's and 70's.

Meanwhile, I felt a bit peckish, so I walked on over to Mountain View Bakery. Man, the last time I was here was back in 90's, before I met the Missus.

This place is famous for their Stone Cookies and has been around since 1936! It's got a real old time, small town feel to it.

I got a taro mochi donut and a Spam Musubi. Breakfast of champions!

The mochi donut is made from glutinous rice and has a bit of a chew to it. It wasn't overly sweet. I liked it, but the Missus did not.

My musubi was perfect!

    The Missus loved Her coffee and wanted to buy a bag. So, we went in and took a look around and could not find the coffee. So we asked Brian who told us he had two bags left behind the counter. He sold us one. It was $95! The Missus just absolutely loved this coffee.

Thus is life in the mmm-yoso household. The Missus gets Her $95 Kona Geisha coffee and I get a......Spam Musubi! Sounds like a fair deal, right?

We also bought some other stuffs as well.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

Mountain Vewi Bakery
18-1319 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

From here we headed back into Volcanoes National Park and proceeded to do what has become sort a tradition for us; a drive down Chain of Craters Road.

It's something we've done on every visit to the Big Island since we got married years ago.

It all seems familiar, and yet, different on every visit.

It's a reminder of how amazing this "Blue Marble" we live on is. We make stops along the way. At familiar places, like the Hōlei Sea Arch.

And there's another tradition we have or at least had, which I mentioned in my post from all those years ago:

" We always drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road, park, it used to be that you'd park just a couple of yards from the flow, but now you walk about a half mile or so. I always take a photo of the Missus at the point where the lava is covering the road.

When we look back at the older photos, we've noticed that the flow has moved and even though things might seem the same when the picture is taken; looking at the photos all lined up reveals that nature never stays still. For us, this is a nice timeline of sorts....the Missus on the lava flow, moving, maybe at an imperceptible speed, but nevertheless, still slowly moving."

Well, with time comes change. What used to be this:

In 2012, is now this in 2023. Though it's chained off.

Of course soon enough the question of "what's for lunch" came up. Well, the Missus had Her heart set on Suisan, which has long been a favorite of Hers. We'd arrived in Hilo on a day when Suisan was closed. So off we went on an hours drive into Hilo!

    We were interested to see what effect the "time of Covid" had on Suisan and it was soon evident. Gone are the tables out front. You wait in line in front of the shop, there's a limit to the amount of folks they let into a shop at any one time.

Gone are the cold cases and the selection of poke is much smaller now.

We got a poke bowl with the Ahi Hawaiian and Shoyu Ahi ($15.50), a quarter pound Ahi Mango Habanero, and even went and tried the Scallop Lemon Shoyu and the Butter Garlic Prawns. We took our stuffs to the former location of the restaurant outside Suisan which is now closed and went for it.

 In terms of fish quality the ahi in the Ahi Limu and the Mango Habanero was excellent, tender and almost buttery. Some of the pieces in the Shoyu Ahi had "sugi" that made it chewy. I wish there was more limu in the Ahi Hawaiian, though the flavoring for all three poke was spot on, not too salty, but well prepped and seasoned. The Mango Habanero was a nice surprise, fruity spice, perfect salt, without being too sweet.

As for the "pupus", well, the Butter Garlic Prawns were really tough, not much garlic flavor.

The Lemon Shoyu Scallops were also really chewy and there was an amount of "grit" in it that we didn't enjoy.

Still, that poke did "hit the spot". We'd return one more time before leaving the Big Island; though we'd stay with just poke on that visit.

Suisan Company Limited
93 Lihiwai St
Hilo, HI 96720

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

Toulouse - Les P'tits Fayots

After a nice day of checking out the Markets and doing some exploring, we decided to do a bit more walking before dinner.

We also decided to drop by a couple of places I had on my "list" to try and make dinner reservations for upcoming nights. Many of the restaurants I had on my list didn't do online reservations and required a phone call. Unfortunately, my French is beyond hideous, so we decided to try and appear in person to make reservations. Unfortunately, since this was a weekend, it was big time fail. 

On this night though, we had dinner reservations. It was quite a blessing in disguise. I mentioned in an earlier post, that I had tried to get a private tour with Elyse Riven who heads up Toulouse Guided Walks and is often a guest on one of my favorite podcasts, Join Us in France. Unfortunately, Elyse was I believe out of the country at the time, so we downloaded her VoiceMap audio tour. Elyse was kind enough to make some recommendations for dinner and also for visiting Albi, which is where we were headed the following day. 

One of the places she recommended and was on my "list" was Les P'tits Fayots, a nice little restaurant that does small, shareable plates. And they did online reservations!

The location is on a side street, the restaurant quite discreet.

The Missus enjoyed the fact that veggies were well represented on the menu and also enjoyed the wine selection. The service was very warm and friendly. Toulouse is a lot ore laid back than Paris!

The first item up was the Pomme de Terre Confit & Hareng Fume. Wonderfully earthy potatoes confit which was paired nicely with the savory smoked herring.

The mustard creme added a bit of punch and along with the starchiness of the potatoes helped handle the umami-heavy herring.

Next up; the Sable Emmenthal Noisette.

Basically Emmenthal and hazelnut biscuits; this was quite an interesting combination. The celery cream was interesting; we actually enjoyed the greens and herbs the best, nice texture and a touch of bitterness.

Sucrine & Ouef Mollet. You know the Missus and eggs right?

The Missus loved the runny soft boiled egg and even the creamy Mornay Sauce, which was very balanced in terms of butteriness and cheesiness. She also loved the sucrine, a lettuce that seemed like baby romaine, it tastes so clean and the shaved Parmesan and mild sauce added so much savory notes to the dish.

The last dish was actually our favorite. The Langoustine Boullion.

The Langoustine was so tender, sweet, and oceany. And that broth was seasoned perfectly, with just enough salt to highlite the touches of sea faring flavors. Bread with this......

We really enjoyed our meal. It was our favorite of our stay in Toulouse. We loved the service and the food!

Les P'tits Fayots
8 Rue de l'Esquile
31000 Toulouse, France

Toulouse - Marché Victor Hugo, Marché des Carmes, and Musée de l'Histoire de la Médecine

**** No restaurant in this one; just a couple of markets and some exploring!

We put in a bit of mileage of the "footmobile" variety during our first full day in Toulouse. 

First thing in the morning we headed off to the huge Marché Covert Victor Hugo.

A market has existed in this spot since 1827 when it was named Place du Marché-au-Bois. The square was renamed Place Victor Hugo in 1886 and in 1892 the renovation to a covered market was completed. 

I was told there are over 200 stalls in the market, including several restaurants on the first (second floor in US) floor, which we'd revisit later on during our trip.

As you can imagine, there are fromageries, boucheries, numerous produce stands, and so forth. You can easily identify the more popular vendors here.

While not super crowded, it was busy enough at 8am on a Friday morning.

Marché Victor Hugo
Place Victor Hugo
31000 Toulouse, France

There are also many shops and restaurants surrounding the market, but because it as fairly early in the morning most were closed. We'd return here later in the day.

As you can tell, it was a overcast and drizzly day. Not serious rain mind you; but just enough to wet the streets and irritate you!

We headed south doing the "lèche-vitrine" ("window licking" - window shopping) thing along the way. And before you knew it, we were at Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse. So we popped on in for a quick look.

There has supposedly been a church on these grounds since the 3rd Century. The first Cathedral was constructed here around 1078 AD.

We stopped for a coffee break before heading west. There was a museum I was interested in that was across the Garonne River. But since we were in the area, we decided to stop in at another covered market, the Marché Couvert des Carmes.

A smaller market that wasn't quite as bustling as Marche Victor Hugo.

Marché des Carmes
Place des Carmes
31000 Toulouse, France

We crossed the river on the Pont Neuf.

And found the tiny, Musée de l'Histoire de la Médecine. We had already visited the Musée de l'Histoire de la Médecine in Paris, so we thought it might be fun to check out this one.

Like I mentioned above; the museum is tiny, but there are some interesting exhibits.

The most interesting was the collection of death masks and skin afflictions.

Musée de l'Histoire de la Médecine
2 rue Viguerie Hotel Dieu-St Jacques
31300, Toulouse France

So, of course after viewing all of this, we needed to grab some lunch. So, we headed back to Place du Capitole and the Christmas Market (this was in late November) and grabbed some sandwiches and tartine.

Before heading back to our room to freshen up.

For some reason, we weren't particularly tired and the Missus wanted to check out a chocolate shop so we headed back to Place Victor Hugo. We first stopped at this shop.

Did you know that the flower of Toulouse is the Violet? In fact, Toulouse is known as the "City of Violets". And while it wasn't really the right season; you could still find violet products in some stores.

And the Missus got what She was looking for here. Some tea. We'd end up making "Le Goûter" a routine while spending two weeks in Paris later during this trip.

Cafés J. Bacquié
5 Place Victor Hugo
31000 Toulouse, France

We also stopped by this chocolate shop.

They sold pieces by weight here. The Missus enjoyed the confections here a lot and we'd end up returning to buy a lot before leaving Toulouse. I'll post on it later.

This post is getting rather long; so I think I'll stop here. 

Thanks for stopping by!

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