Day 1 in Taipei, Taiwan, Dec 2015

It has been 6 months since the last we were here.

And we are happy to be back in Taiwan!!!

The picture is the prepaid card for Taipei subways by the way.

Let’s go eat!

Straight from the airport, down the narrow backstreet of Taipei.

YuYu is leading the way.  She is a master of “Eat Till You Drop” tours in Taipei.

 

Fu Ba wang = 富覇王豬脚極品餐庁 =

 

It was Saturday at 12:00.  The place was packed with people.

There were 2 lines.  1 for eat-in, 1 for takeout.  It was a long line but the place was wheeling.  It was less than 10 minute wait.

 

Very decently priced for everyday meal.  About JPY500 for a meal.

 

This is a place for pork feet.

 

They were fighting a war in there.

 

Here it is.  Must have been cooked for hours.  It is elastic for the first bite, then it starts melting on your tongue.  The sauce looks like a strong flavor, but it’s really not.  Not so sweet, not so greasy, or not so salty.

A lot of people think pork feet is full of fat.  But it’s got less fat than the loin.  I mean, think about it.  Who would want to stock fat, your high power energy stock, at your feet?  You want cushions there in order to absorb shocks.  That is protein.  Plus, by being cooked for hours, it doesn’t have much fat left.

 

The other part of pork feet.

They are specific about pork feet.  This one is probably about the arch of the foot.  The last one is the toe.

There’s another one.  It’s thigh or shin.  It’s more meaty and more expensive.  It sells out right at the opening every day.

Just such a pleasure sucking on these bones.

 

The eggs were great too.

 

This deep-fired tofu was so silky and tasty.

 

Housemade bamboo shoots.

 

The pork base radish soup is excellent too.  Soup never fails in Taiwan.

 

 

summer tree sweet = 夏樹甜品 =

 

We moved over to Dihua market street to get some food supply.

This is a pretty shop for apricot kernel tofu and shaved ice.  We always stop by for a break.

Taiwan sweets are never too sweet.  Probably because western desserts are seasoned to go with tea or coffee.  Japanese sweets are seasoned to go with macha.  Taiwan sweets stand for itself.

Also, judging by how they season their foods, I think Taiwanese people look for subtle harmony in every single dish.  No single taste stands out.  We love it.

 

Apricot kernel tofu with red beans.  Tofu is not sweet.  The syrup and the red beans are made a little sweet.

 

She’s literally drooling.

 

Hot apricot kernel tofu with peanuts.

 

At one of the intersections of Dihua market street is a orange juice stand.  This juice is ridiculously delicious.  100% freshly squeezed orange juice mix of several kinds.

 

 

Shuangcheng Street Night Market = 雙城街夜市 =

We had a long business meeting in the late afternoon and we had dinner with our partners.

But that didn’t stop us from hanging out to our most favorite night market in Taipei.

 

We’ve been to most of major night markets in Taipei, but this is the only place we come back to.   In fact, we’ve never missed a visit when we come to Taipei.  We love the foods here.  This is a very small market.  It is one of the oldest night markets with over 30 years of history.

 

Our favorite is this one.

 

The apron says 阿富海鮮粥

They have all kinds of offals and seafood.  You can order them for either deep-fry, soup, stir-fry.  They looked fresh and well taken care of.

They speak a little Japanese.  I don’t know if they speak English.  You can just point things and let them cook in whatever ways.  It won’t be disappointing.  If you want to enjoy Taiwan night market, trust your intuitions and don’t ask what they are!

 

They also have fried rice, fried noodle, fried rice vermicelli.

 

Fried noodle.  So tasty.  Such gentle seasoning to host all the ingredients.

 

Some kind of liver and offals, stir-fried with ginger slices.  Feels fresh and very tasty.  I like the idea of ginger slices too.

 

Seafood fries.  Baby oysters, squid, and baby shrimps.  They are all delicious.

 

She is a noodle person and she just loves this noodle.  I’m a rice man but I think this is super delicious.

 

Another favorite is beef noodle right here.

But we were too full for the beef noodle.  We went for dumplings.

 

This is very garlicky but very good.  Such silky dough.

 

Around one of the dark corners is a very good Tofu dessert shop.  The lady is really not friendly but the tofu is great.

 

We sat in a near park and sip into the cup.  We tried their new egg tofu.  We didn’t think it was good as their normal tofu.

 

What we really like about this shop is the toppings.  Red beans, Kidney beans, and peanuts and others.  They are so nicely cooked and seasoned.  The lady has got the touch.

 

Now we think we’ve done enough for the first day…

 

It is out first visit to Taiwan in the winter.  We actually found it very pleasant to hang around night market in the winter.  It’s much less sweating and much easier to breathe.

 

 

Taipei, december 2015