Taipei 2012

After my first lovely visit to Taipei 2 years ago, I knew I had to return. With a trip to Japan out of the question (hopefully to be fulfilled next year), I chose Taipei for a repeat trip.

5 Feb 2012

East Dragon Hotel

The hourly rate room.

Our final room

The goodness that is mee sua with pig's intestines

Ay Chung

A Sunday Flea Market at The Red House

The Sad Sad New Shihlin Market

Before

After

mmmSteak. They also serve chicken, but I've never tried it

Obvious picture opportunity

There was this other food stall selling soups made with different pigs innards, it looked really good (and it was full when we walked by), so we made a note to come back and try it another day.

Hot-Star. Best...Chicken...Ever...

5 Man operation, churning out hundreds of fried chicken breasts a day. Another 2 guys outside giving out plastic bags (one bag, one chicken)

Many chickens died to provide for the needs of the hungry

5 spice powder, salt and pepper and chilli powder (optional) complete the dish.

And the final product.

Meat in tube form.

More meat in tube form (and rice in tube form too... the white ones are glutinous rice 'sausages')

Since Hot Star only serves chicken breast, the rest of the chicken must go somewhere.

HTC in Taipei is like Apple in Singapore.

Cannabis in Taipei is like Cannabis...err... nowhere else.

There were many museums, though we did not visit any this trip. I would have liked to have visited this one.

6 Feb 2012

The goodness that is meat buns

The 'Lovers' bridge at Danshui

Closed...WTH

Unidentifiable meat in unidentifiable soup. still delicious

The shark meat ball stuffed with cabbage and radish

It was slowly braised in oil, not deep fried

We bought most of our snacks from this stall

mmmmbraised pork

There was this one stall selling this amazing whitefish and onion pancake. It was wonderful

Freshly made sausages from freshly slaughtered pig. I would have loved to have bought some if I had a kitchen to prepare them

The freshly fried cuttlefish that the BH bought. Whole cuttlesfish, NOT cuttlefish cake

The whitefish and onion pancake.

Caged Angry Bird

Yup, it says 'Fishball Museum'

We were much too full, or I would have wanted to buy some of these. Boiled Squid...

3 pools, the big pool was 45-47deg, the middle one was 23deg, and the one on the right was 40-42deg

If, no When, I return to Taipei, I would like to stay here for a night and partake in the hotspring.

I love the braised meat on rice in Taipei. So simple, yet so delicious, and it cost the same as a normal bowl of white rice in Singapore

Pig Liver Soup with Sesame Oil

Pig Heart Soup. My Fave...

Thanks to poor translation, we went to ChiangkaiShek Memorial to see the lantern display (which was actually at the SunYetSen Memorial)

7 Feb 2012

The Entrance to Taroko Gorge

Every face on each lion statue is unique

Many picturesque views along the way. Pity it was drizzling, but at least the weather was nice and cold

The old road and the new road. The old road was so narrow, I can't imagine how the tour buses could have gone up. As it were, the tour buses narrowly scraped each other when they passed.

Looks like a bear?

There was some really nice battered crab and squid on sale (which we bought for dinner)

Xiao Long Bao (which turned out to be entirely different from anything we've ever had)

After dinner, I explored the streets and chanced upon this sporting goods store that sold this. Sadly, they didn't have boots or gloves.

These are all minitures. There was this shop opposite the hotel that was selling them. Hand-made, amazing stuff.