Here's a first world problem: my memory is fading faster than I can blog. Oh the tragic signs of age.
Thank god photos, dates on photos and the iPhone which bring it all back.
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Clockwise from top left: 228 Peace memorial; cute flock of sparrows near the park lawn;
jumping shot by sculptured trees; finding talent in Taipei |
We started the day with a stroll to 2-28 Peace Memorial Park. This park commemorates the massacre on 28th Feb 1947 where in excess of 10000 civilians lost their lives. It's a worthwhile place to visit if your living in the area, for its beautiful Chinese gardens, pagodas and natural scenery admist the concrete jungle.
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| Taiwanese bento buffet |
From there, we continued the walk to Central station, passing by many feasting opportunities: including the Taiwanese bento buffet (omg look at all the choices!!!) and these giant shao bing for only 50NT$ (2$AUD)
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All that walking made us tired. Then suddenly around the corner we saw a huge queue of people for Tim Ho Wan. Yes, the Taipei branch of the michelin starred yum cha place! The queue was far too long so we had to settle for take away. The 'Char-siu Polo Bao' was amazing! Everything you imagine it to be, with the sweet crunchy crust covering a thin fluffy asian bun, packed with delicious saucy Cha Siu. Rumor goes that one of these franchises will open in Sydney soon. I am there!
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| Char-sui Po lo Bao @ Tim Ho Wan |
Dazzling Cafe
I read a lot of reviews about this place before my trip to Taipei, and was ever so keen to try it! We actually stumbled upon this branch as we were browsing endless shops at Taipei Main Station. While looking for Q Square Mall, I saw the little lady logo and let out a squeal of excitement! Then we all knew what was for lunch!
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| Hazelnut chocolate honey toast: NT$ 290 |
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| Strawberry and Ice Cream waffle NT$ 230 (plus additional mochi) |
I can actually not believe we monstered both of these. But its so good!! I was a huge skeptic, thinking "how good can fried bread be?". Well it can be very very good. My favourite would be the mochi addition to the waffles. It added a lovely Q^_- bite to the crunchy exterior.
Some other food adventures alone the way:
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| It's custard in an egg! |
People were buying dozens of these - all I could think was the cholesterol....
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| Some random wedding in the middle of main station. Weird eh? |
After almost a whole day of exploring, we finally made our way to the National Palace Museum. The sun had set by then but it was nevertheless beautiful! And you know what the National Palace Museum is near....
Shilin Night Market
The term night market is almost synonymous with Shilin. We did our research and knew this could be a tourist trap but we had to come! The world capital of night market street food!
Stop 1. This is basically a GIANT croquette (the size of a big spud), cut open, dumped with toppings and laddled with cheese sauce. It's a play on the jacket pocket concept but leveled up because its mashed potato coated in bread crumbs and deep fried. It looked super exciting but it wasn't our thing. Ms Strawberry and I swear there was a... stinkiness to the cheese sauce.
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| Fried milk |
Stop 2. Fried milk. What is fried milk? Its like a really fluffy, milky donut. Pretty good :). We got some Frog egg drink to wash it down (no, it actually has nothing to do with frogs all eggs, its just a lemon drink with jelly).
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| Oyster omlette 蚵仔煎 $NT 50 & Meat ball soup 貢丸湯 @ 大头龙
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Stop 3. We heard this place had the best O Wa Jian thus we HAD to give it another shot. There was even a cute poster of "zhuan jiao yu dao ai" to remind its customers to eat here! hehe. It was actually quite enjoyable, we finished the whole thing this time. The waiter insisted we order more than jst 1 o wa jian though, so we also got some beef/pork ball soup. It was pretty average.
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| Meat ball soup $NT 30 |
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| Guan Cai Ban (Coffin shaped bread ) 棺材板 ~`$NT 100 |
Stop 4. I'm a little pathetic, because by this stage I was already full. But I really wanted to eat this!! Basically its a thick slice of toast, deep fried, then half cut open, filled with whatever filling you want, then sealed back up. The filling is made of a mix of mince, seafood and vegetables cooked in gravy. OMG yumminesss!!!!!
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| Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang (Little sausage wrapped in big sausage) 大腸包小腸 |
Stop 5. Wahhh this was so delicious too!! Taiwanese sausages are so awesome. We had to have this one for breakfast as we were stuffed. I'm definitely having this again on a return trip.
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| Delicious, juicy wax apples |
Last but not least, it was time for fruit. The fruit stands in Taiwan came as a surprise to us. Forget apples and bananas. No, here your average fruit stands sells star fruit, durian, guava, custard apples and this curious red fruit (which we fell in love with). We spent half our trip trying to work out what it was called and finally discovered its called "wax apples".
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