Lin Family - Aunt Heidi and Uncle Lin gave us shelter throughout the whole trip! And food of course! Most of the time, Uncle Lin whips up his signature hot pot. I know we've had many different hot pots during our visit in Taiwan, but this one you can taste "love". We love our hot pot dinner with some "fried foods" and Taiwan beer while uncle sips on his "Johnny Walker"... Good times!
Taiwanese loves fried food... My wife is from Kentucky and she said, "Taiwanese must've been frying food long before Colonel Sanders!" Well, why? I think it's the Taiwanese popcorn chicken... maybe its the fried sweet potatoes!
To make a really good spicy hot pot soup base... you need pork intestines and duck blood!
More photos in this slideshow!
Yeh Family - Aunt Anita and Uncle Yeh love me! what can I say... I am a lovable person! Well, they knew that Beth and I are in town... so they invited us over for a home cooked lunch! Uncle Yeh is a great cook, he can cook seafood like no other. We ate so much we could barely walk...
The family of crabs :)
I can go for one of these now... mmmm sooo good! Uncle Yeh's seafood porridge has shrimp, crab meat, oysters, fish, and clams
More photos from Yeh Family in the slideshow below
This temple is one of the most popular temples for the civilians to come and pray. Most of the people pray for health, money, lottery numbers and more money. When you walk in to the gate of the temple you will smell the burning incense from the faithful believers.
Body parts and cages? well, this madness didn't happen inside the temple...
When we were done visiting the temple we noticed that there's a small alley market next to the temple. We decided to check it out. We thought there might be some street food... well, there's definitely "food"... uncooked "food"... It's more like a butcher alley!!! Chickens in cages... body parts from chickens, pigs and cows... Last time I saw a live chicken getting butchered was in college... oh college days...
Not free range chickens
Black chicken, white chicken, yellow chicken... you name it!
Charlotte's Web? aw Babe...
Check out more photos from the slideshow below... this is bananas!
When people travel in Taiwan they certainly take advantage of their most convenient public transportation - Taipei MRT (Merto Rail). In most of the metro stations, you will find this sushi joint located by the entrance. Each sushi is wrapped individually in plastic, allowing the customers to create their own platter of sushi! on-the-go!
each piece of sushi is priced at 10NT - 15NT (30 - 50 cents)
and yes they are very fresh!
I'm looking at you Los Angeles, make this happen soon!
There is NO way anyone can come visit Taiwan without getting their fix of Ding Tai Fung. We did. My aunt was able to get us pass the long waiting line into a VIP like treatment! The minute we sat down, got our Taiwan beers, we know what is going to be served!
Peek into the kitchen and you know these guys are your new best friend!
Small Steam Buns (xiaolongbao) is the signature dish!
Jealous?
Shrimp Shao Mei
If you've been to the Ding Tai Fung in Arcadia, you know that they don't have any attractive servers... and they can be quite rude at times... here in the original restaurant... there are plenty! And they served well! The "original" deserves a 5 star award for the great service all around the restaurant. If you need to use the restroom keep an eye out for a nice cleaning lady that constantly cleans the area. American branches must learn to improve on the service for sure.
more Taiwan beer please!
I took so many photos of the food! More from Din Tai Fung!
Madwu, my second cousin, owns a vegetarian restaurant called 水雲居 "Floating Cloud Castle" located in 草屯 (Caotun) 南投縣南投市中興新村向上路249號. If you think vegetarian food is blend and boring... you are WRONG! Haven't you read my post on vegetarian sashimi? Here at 水雲居 you will only be served with organic ingredients and all are made fresh in the kitchen! Every time a dish is presented to our table, we couldn't help but gasp! Wow, this looks amazing!
House salad with mixed berry dressing
Deep fried oyster mushroom will make you forget that they don't serve chicken
Yes this is the best cheese dish we've had Taiwan! Baked vegetable pasta.
So far so good right? Well, guess what, Madwu is also currently involved in the coffee bean import/export business... He roasts his own beans and brews his own coffee in his restaurant! Next time when we visit his family again, we will definitely stay longer! hah besides he's got a deep passion in photography! I am so glad to reunite with him during this trip :)
Lotus leaf rice. I have to feature this... This is one of the best sticky rice dishes in Taiwan
A little note to Madwu: Thank you so much for your hospitality! When your family decided to visit Los Angeles, We will make sure you have the best time ever!!! Thanks Again!
Next day, the weather was kind enough for us to get on the tour boat! We finally got our opportunity to explore the famous Sun Moon Lake! well, I thought the history of the lake was pretty cool and interesting... but the scenery (that day) was not even half as cool as Taroko Gorge... well, I am going to have to come visit again in the Spring or Summer to give it a second chance... as long as we don't have to stay in the Honeymoon Inn again.
Beth and I both agreed that the best we got out of this trip to the Sun Moon Lake was a couple of rad handmade postcards we got from the Owl Factory and the best tea eggs we've ever had! It's called "阿婆茶葉蛋" aka "Granny's Tea Eggs". The eggs started with a true story about this lady who's been selling her special tea eggs for over 40 years by the lake, and everyone told us that we must give it a try. Also our tour guide told us the secret of Granny's Tea Eggs = assam(red) tea + shiitake mushroom broth + secret spices + slowly cooked for 7+ hours! I bought 4 :) and ate 3.
After we left the lake, we met up with my uncle Madwu Chang (we've not seen each other in about 20 years or so and since he's only 34 I should just call him my second cousin. ha)... I remember when I was a kid... He's like a big brother I've never had :) great dude! Madwu picked us up from the bus station after a long, cold, wet bus ride... and took us out to lunch! Well, after a long, cold, wet bus ride... nothing is better than a nice bowl of HOT POT !!!!!!!!!!! (I love this country)
The Chang side of my family are devoted Buddhists and most of the Changs are vegetarians :) we got the opportunity to try a special vegetarian hot pot with milk broth! Trust me, this bowl of hot pot was one of the best hot pots I've ever had... I mean I don't even like milk!
Madwu loves film photography, and so does Beth. So Madwu's mom (my great aunt) suggested that we should check out this giant Buddhist temple... She said that this temple has some of the biggest buddhist statues in the country! Beth love taking photos of big, giant Buddhas hahah! You can see some of the photos in the slideshow below :)
Last part of the trilogy contains fabulous vegetarian cuisine from Madwu's own restaurant "水雲居" or "Shuiyun Home"
Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR) was FAST... like 189mph fast!!! normally it would take people 4 hrs to get to Taichung, HSR was only 45 minutes... not even enough time for me to finish my nap :)
When we got to the famous Sun Moon Lake (wiki it if you're not sure what it is) It was nice and clear! great day for photos! Tourists everywhere, people taking pictures and getting ready to get on the tour boat! What a treat!
We walked around the little town by the harbor and found a restaurant that serves Aboriginal cuisines. We ordered minced pork rice (their version was called Old School Rice)... which was an eye catcher for me... must eat the old school rice, right? ha. And surely we both inhaled the rice within minutes.
The boar meat noodle soup was a nice treat as well :) yum yum! not too shabby for my first 'boar" experience... its like dining with John Locke.
After lunch we decided to hop on the boat that tours around the lake... sounds great right? well, the minute we handed our boat ticket to the tour guide... the fog rolled into the harbor... i mean... its like Stephen King fog... we looked at each other and literately had the "FML" look on our face... this is #$%@!!! and then it started to rain !!! again... #$%@!!!
Well, the plan of touring around the lake failed, so we met up with our friend Jim Beam and checked in to this Honeymoon Inn that my aunt had reserved for us :) this hotel was very "purple" and the front desk lady was totally Twilight Zoned out...
I don't think it's healthy for me to write any more about this disastrous day... For sure the photos will do the justice... Let's just hope that tomorrow will be a better day... I hope...
This might look like a typical serving of noodles... But this spicy peanut sauce noodles was the best tasting noodles after a wet trip up the Yangmingshan National Park! we will get to the food in a bit...
"Holy Crap it's cold here!!!" That was the first thing we said when we got off the bus... We were totally under dressed for this trip up the Yangmingshan National Park. It was wet, cold, rainy, foggy and windy... this was NOT what it looked like in the Taiwan Travel Handbook... FML...
There were five other tourists from Malaysia and one hiker on the National Park tour bus, I guess we were the only people that didn't check the weather report before leaving the house, ha. Our first stop was Erzihping Trail... Everyone got off the bus, totally clueless... Where should we start?
The only person that actually seems to know where to go and where to start the hike was the one hiker that was on the bus with us... This man was awesome! He acted as our tour guide and allowed us to hike around the park with him! To entertain us, he sang and taught us how to dance like the aborigines!
After the dancing lessons, he instructed us to follow the trail back to the bus stop... and he said, "I'm going to stay behind and enjoy my daily lunch in the mountains... I'm 81 years old, and this is what i do everyday... I love hiking this mountain." Now that was quite an awesome experience... We felt so grateful and honored to meet this interesting man.
All of us, including the five Malaysian tourists decided to skip the rest of the Yangmingshan tour due to the weather conditions... bummer! Beth and I were so wet, cold and HUNGRY! So we hurried off the mountains and found a wonton restaurant, Thank Jeebus!!! That meal was a life saver!!! (sorry about the heavy exclamation marks... but man was that meal awesome!) We ordered the spicy peanut sauce noodles, wonton soup, fish ball soup, some side dishes and Taiwan Beer! Such a great way to end our journey to the Yangmingshan National Park, even though we didn't get to see the rest of the park... but with the singing hiker and great food... it was well worth it!!!
快炒 street quick stir-fry is a type of street restaurant you can find anywhere here in Taiwan. The layout of the restaurant is very simple, white walls, small tables and stools. Once you order your food they start cooking for you... stir-fry style! This type of restaurant is really cheap and fast! So if you don't feel like cooking at home or you are on our way home from work... you can easily swing by one of these quick stir-fry restaurants for a quick bite!
So, what do they have on the menu? ... everything. Seafood, red meat, white meat, vegetables, rice, noodles and more seafood! If you want, have a bottle or two of Taiwan Beer while yer at it!
Finally... introducing the biggest and the most popular night market in Taiwan!!! 士林夜市 Shilin Night Market! This is the market where you can eat all you want, shop all you want and play all you want without burning a hole in your pocket! Today I'm not gonna talk about shopping... I'm gonna talk about food. Duh!
When you first walk in to the entrance of the market you will smell "stinky tofu". Stinky tofu is a traditional Taiwanese street food that smells like dirty socks but according to Beth... it still taste like dirty socks (takes another sip of her beer to wash down the taste). But me... I love it! I can't really explain why I love stinky tofu like the rest of the locals... but when I smell it I want to eat it!
So what is "big sausage wraps little sausage"? Think of a hot dog... but instead of a bun... you get sticky rice sausage and instead of a hot dog you get Taiwanese sausage. Then the cook splits the rice sausage like a hot dog bun... placed the meat sausage in it and served it with onion, awesome sauce and love! mmmm I can eat another one now...
Oyster omelet is also a must eat in Shilin Night Market. That with "awesome sauce" brings back memories of my childhood :) BTW you must be wondering what "awesome sauce" is... well, don't ask... cuz i have NO idea! but if the sauce is delicious... its awesome sauce!
I mean, there are just way too many things to talk about when it comes to Shilin Night Market!!! My advice is... get yo butt over to Taiwan and experience it yo-self! Like Beth would say... too bad there's no scratch n sniff.
Check out the slideshow below and you'll see more photos from the market :) enjoy and feel free to drool on your keyboard heheh. This is a good one!
I've never been to a hot spring bath...so my awesome Aunt Heidy took Friday off to take us to the hot springs resort in Beitou... Beitou is a famous natural hot spring location in the world, and it used to be a Japanese community so the whole neighborhood looks like a little Japanese village. This resort is gorgeous! Beth and I got an outdoor private room with our own pool of hot spring :)
After the bath... we joined my aunt and had a nice warm afternoon tea lunch with her! Well, we got seafood hot pot (shabu shabu) and sesame chicken soup (the broth is made of sesame oil, ginger and rice wine)... It was the perfect meal after a relaxing bath in the hot springs!
淡水 Tamsui is a city north of Taipei. They are famous for fish balls! They even have a fish ball museum! Before I get to the fish balls... let me introduce my American friends this little popsicle looking thing called 豬血糕 (Pork blood cake).
This is one of my childhood favorites, a true Taiwanese street cuisine! It is a made of pork blood and sticky rice... covered with awesome sauce and peanut powder and love!
Now... back to the fish balls!!! Fish balls in Tamsui is famous and delicious! Every fish ball is stuffed with a small amount of pork, just enough to make the fish ball juicy and chewy at the same time! Beth said, "This is the best fish ball I've EVER had!"
If you want to try the best fish ball ever... I suggest you visit Tamsui, Taiwan!
