On the way back to Taipei from Shifen, we stopped at Keelung to explore the Miaokou Night Market. We were not disappointed by the food choices. Here’s the mung bean shaved ice from one of the supposedly famous stands at this night market:

I can see why they’re famous, look at how many famous people have eaten here. Excellent syrup to ice ratios:

We were disappointed by how quickly one of the braised meat rice stands sold out! We had to go to the one next to it, and had this instead, which really wasn’t bad:

\

Clearly, that wouldn’t be enough food for both of us. We kept walking and found the best bun with freshly grilled pork:

What really caught our attention at first was the huge slabs of pork, cooking on the grill, but we ended up getting the bun because it was just too much meat to carry around. The buns were crisply toasted to just the right amount, and so fluffy.

Overall, the food here was better than at Shilin.

That’s it for this trip (finally, you might want to say). If you want to read from the beginning again, here’s the whole trip:

DAY 1 – HIKE IN HONG KONG
DAY 2 – TAIPO AND CAUSEWAY BAY
DAY 3 – SHUM SUI PO AND MONG KOK
DAY 4 – YONG HE AND BEITOU
DAY 5 – SHILIN
DAY 6 – TAIPEI
DAY 6 - ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN AND IN PARADISE
DAY 7 – COFFEE IN TAIPEI
DAY 8 – SHIFEN

Shifen waterfall is just one of many that can be found around Taiwan. We only made it to this waterfall on this trip, but I’m sure we’ll be back to visit the other parts of Taiwan. It takes a bit of work to figure out which trains to take, because there was a transfer on our trip, and it was a 2 hour ride in a packed train (we left Taipei around 11AM), so we were famished by the time we arrived. The first thing we did was get a bite to eat from the vendors that line the railroad tracks at Shifen. Here’s a pancake with chives and I think there was egg:



Pork in steamed bun (must must must have this), from a stall right next to the station:



Please keep in mind that this location is a tourist trap. Notice the dots in the image above, those dots are not a dirty spot on your monitor., These are paper lanterns that were released into the sky by Shifen visitors, who write their hopes and dreams on the paper lantern. The lanterns fly up over the river, then land in the river when the fire making them rise up is extinguished. I didn’t like this concept, too environmentally damaging. There were a few scavengers on the river shore, picking up the dead hopes and dreams lanterns. One even landed right on the train station platform, still in flames, but it didn’t cause much damage because an attendant came by to fix it.

Beautiful waterfall, good food, busy atmosphere, I will not be back to this spot in Taiwan.

Here are more photos of the train routes:

I only had coffee twice on this trip, and both times, it was a bit more expensive than Vancouver, but just as good. First coffee shop we went to was Woolloomooloo:



Decent food, friendly service, and newspapers from around the world, lined up on the wall for customers to read. I would come back, if I were homesick, because the food and coffee were very similar to what’s served in Vancouver.



The 2nd place was Rufous Coffee Roasters:


I had high expectations for this place, mainly because I usually expect coffee roasters to really know their stuff and have amazing brew. The photo above was taken in their outdoors seating area, where they had planted cute little succulents and tropicals along their fence. It was pretty much perfect coffee, from the latte art to the amount of caffeine actually extracted into that little cup. H had the pour over, and a sip of that could pull you through 24 hours of no sleep. The server greets as the door opens, helps to find you a seat and then gives you a basket for your belongings. Beware that the place was quite small with limited seating and dim lighting, and the bathroom is a bit tricky because there’s a step to get inside.


Back to present day, it’s December, which means 2 things...

1. Time to start Christmas shopping. FYI, I want all the things from Everlane.
2. Time to start birthday present shopping. My birthday is in a month, and again, I want all the things from Everlane.

To end the 2nd day in Taipei, I ran up the steps of the Elephant Mountain trail, and made it just in time to see the sun setting. It was amazing, but at the same time it wasn’t, because there were 100+ people on that trail, trying to get the best photo, and mosquitoes were eating me alive. This should be expected on a beautiful day with clear skies.

The “hike” and photos took me about 1 hour. I was ready to eat by then, and on the menu, was buffet at INPARADISE. Here’s a compilation of the various food options available:

It’s been a busy week, and I wish I could say time flew by, but… come on 2017, just end already! I’m ready for the changes that 2018 will bring!

Here’s our 2nd meal of braised meat on rice for this trip:



We ordered an egg to go with it this time, because the meat juices and the perfectly marinated egg with the runny egg yolk go so well together. This place had just 1 lady running the show. Here’s her shop sign:



Come by here, in the Dongmen Market, if you’re in the neighborhood. It’s got a very hole in the wall feel.

Then, we went for a post breakfast snack of xiao long bao at Su Hang, as recommended by a Taiwanese coworker:



There was a short wait to get a table, during which we watched the xiao long bao’s get wrapped up and steamed. Overall, the service was good enough, but the food was just OK, didn’t really stand out. Then again, we came here half full already.

Finally, we walked over to my coffee shop:



I gotta work on the presentation a bit, there’s no latte art!



Just kidding, it’s not my coffee shop. It’s a coffee shop chain called Louisa Coffee that seems to be quite popular in Taipei.

What would the world be like if we were brave enough to believe in our own ability? Like my ability to eat everything.

We visited the Shilin night market for dinner on that first day, right after Beitou, and we were greeted by vendors on both sides. Their tactic is to assume you have already agreed to get something from their stall, and they aggressively ask whether you want one or two, small or large… Here’s one of the first braised meat rice dishes that we had from a quieter shop, tucked away at the back of the Shilin night market:



Then, we found the famous fried chicken stall, that actually had a huge line up, so they had no need for a pushy sales person at their stall. Note that the sign says 70NT, which comes to just under $3 CAD:



We also went into the covered market place, which had a food court at the bottom floor, where lots of seafood was lying around, waiting to be eaten. Here’s an egg oyster omelet that they serve with sauce: 

I did a bit of shopping here too. We were exhausted.

PS – Weekends are too short. I’m still scrambling to finish these blog posts about Asia.

There were only a handful of meals we’d have in this city, and we had TWO here at Yong He 永和豆漿大王:

Here’s their order menu. Many options!


Here are their happy workers:


If I died, and somebody wanted to bring me back to life, they just need to bring me some of Yong He’s hot salted soy milk with egg. It’s just the right amount of salty, with soft liquidy egg (I’m sure it’s cooked and safe to eat though, because we didn’t get sick). They put a bit of the Chinese donut in it so there’s something to chew. I could eat it forever. This is one of the things I’d come back to Taipei for.

Then, we went to Beitou to go for a relaxing dip in sulphurous hot spring water, because both of us were feeling the hours of walking. Dropping in at around 1PM at the Grand View Resort, we were able to get a last minute appointment for a private room, which looked like this:



Super relaxing. They have really good wooden buckets here to pour water on your back or what not. We were relaxed and to keep walking after the 90 minute soak.