Taipei Trip Day 3

 Taipei Day 3

Today is the Yangming shan and food tour day

First a rant. I won't do the yangming shan tour again nor book a tour from "get your guide". I took this tour to fit the time before the food tour. But it was disappointing with both the service and the places that we went. 

I know there are better views on the mountain than the places that was in the tour. 

Also the guide is not professional and they send me a wrong meet up address. 

Also all the more interesting villas and buildings require pre book for viewing but the info was not shared. 

Is better and cheaper to take the local bus to the highest peak and hike down. Alternatively book a Viewing of the villas yourself and make your own way there. 

First stop is Xiao You Keng which is really a steaming sulphur pits. As Yang Ming Shan is a dead volcano, there's still activity producing lots of steam. We were lucky that the sun came out sufficient for us to see it but it's so windy and cold that we both escaped quickly. 

Xiao You Keng

The 2nd stop is the Shu Wu which should be the villa of Chiang Kia-Sek. But truly what we saw was an unimpressive exhibition in a hall that is disappointing. 

The 3rd stop is the Yang Ming Garden that still has some sakuras so we took some pictures before calling it a trip. 

Yang Ming Gong Yuan

The food tour in the PM on the other hand, is a very enjoyable one. 

Food tour with Garen at Yong Kang Street

Garen is very professional and gave us a lot of info on the agriculture and food knowledge of Taipei. She touch on the history and awkwardness of China and Taipei relationship and her own view of the situation. 

It also gave me an insight on how the situation evolved to this current awkwardness. 

It's not easy doing food tours for Taiwan as the QQ mochi texture is what they love. But that's a very challenging texture for Caucasians. Also sweet and salty is what Taiwanese love as well but again, not an easy flavor for non Chinese. 

But she tried to stick to the soul of Taiwan food and introduction of real Taiwan food to the clients which is admirable. It's a lot easier to sell fried chicken and beef noodles but she choose not to go that path. 

First stop is a famous scallion pancake that sells easily 2000 of those a day. The boss rented out an old shoe shop to a Vietnamese pho restaurant and cut a corner to sell the pancake. It's crispy on the outside and very soft and tender on the inside. 

Famous Chong You Bing

Then we tried this fruit freeze shop that has a yummy strawberry yoghurt and freeze dried strawberries and wet strawberries. Everything is grown in Taiwan and it's their way to ensure fruits can last

Freeze dried and fresh Taiwanese food store

Next one is a boba tea shop call 50 Lan which has the small boba options. I tried the boba the next day and it's still soft and chewy which is unusual. Garen mentioned they do it without chemicals so it stay soft and digestible. It's the 2nd oldest boba store in Taiwan but the first to reach fame

Boba tea with small boba made with natural ingredients

Next stop is Tainan food. It's the first time I tried it and it's interesting how sweet it is. It's due to sugar cane being a valuable crop during the older days and hence it's a luxury and comfort to put sugar in daily food by the locals. Tainan was one of the castle states in the olden times and the richest. 

Tainan food of shrimp meat balls, fried oysters and Taiwanese sausage with raw garlic

 

After dinner she cut up 2 fruits for us to try. Mi Zhao and Shui Ong. One of them is a plum and the other is a spongy fruit. She said that Taiwanese don't like sweet fruit for daily consumption like pineapple. So these are not too sweet and can be eaten every day when they are in season. 

Fresh fruits after dinner

There's also the craze of Japanese and Korean buying nougat crackers. She showed us a picture of folks carrying atalier blue shopping bags which has the crackers. And it sold out initially for 6 months in half an hour. Till they increase the capacity and have everyone queue in the park. 

The craziness of atelier

She also showed us a body shop that has ginger products made in Taiwan. Jiang xin bi xin. 

The funniest part of the street is the liquor store at the end of the street. Apparently Koreans flocked to Taipei to buy Kavala whiskey after it was shown in a Korean show. And the old grandpa suddenly find queues showing up at his store to buy the whiskey as he's famous for cheap booze =)

After that we are too full for more food so we cancelled the Ba Fang Potstickers. But she mentioned the store at DongMen is made fresh daily and recommended the spicy and corn flavors. Next time! 

Next is a dessert store and it's very nice too. The base is done with fruits and red dates instead of white sugar. And they have a nice place. I would go back there again as it's freshly made and not too sweet. 

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Great dessert