Danshui Fisherman's Wharf

Despite the dreary, rainy and grey day it was, my Aunt was intent on showing me the Danshui Fisherman's Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭). So far I've only been to the Danshui old streets and haven't ventured out to the Fisherman's Wharf. Probably due to laziness as usual. So I have to thank her for dragging me over. I appreciate it. You can get there via MRT+Bus. After taking the MRT all the way to the most northern station of Danshui (now called Tamsui), we exited and waited around for my Aunt's friend to show up. During our wait I discovered a small food stall selling Taiyaki. I go all crazy over Taiyaki. Not only are they small fish shaped cakes but it's filled with delicious custard or red bean. I've found them filled with other fillings before, but this place only offers the two. It reminds me of my favorite Taiyaki shop back in California called Sweet Breams. I miss the weekly off-the-wall flavor specials. The Danshui station shop does have a particularly unique fish mold. The fish come out even smaller, in these perfect bite-sized and slightly pudgy fishies. Cute enough I almost couldn't eat them...almost. It costs $100 for a school of 10. Afterwards we headed on the bus to the Fisherman's Wharf. Bus R23, R26, 836 all take you there. Upon arrival we went straight to the dim sum restaurant on the first floor of a large luxury hotel that when viewed upon from afar, looks like a cruise ship. Unfortunately we arrived a bit too late in the afternoon and they were closing up. It's one of my aunt's favorite dim sum places in Taipei. So moving on, we walked down to the boardwalk scenery area along the shore. The boardwalk which sits right above all the restaurants offer some great views. The boardwalk will take you to the end of the pier and to the famous Lover's bridge. In addition, the restaurants/cafes below offer the same great view but under shelter on a inhospitable weathered day like today. Most of them have a panoramic window on the back wall facing the water. During the evenings, they have live bands and much more of a festive atmosphere for young couples. NOt so much of that activity during a dreary weekday afternoon though. My Aunt recommend coming on a weekend day before sunset between 4-5pm, so you can watch the sunset and the lights of Bali (neighboring seaside town) light up across Tamsui river.

Dim Sum in Yonghe?

I often visit the Yonghe area because I have several friends that live there. However I always seem to come to the same dilemma. What is there to eat around here? There used to be a nice AYCE hot pot train restaurant next to the DingXi MRT station, but that has been replaced by a large stationary store and Thai Town. Besides thai food, cake shops and a few traditional fried rice/noodle places, there isn't much to offer. Until my girlfriend told me of a Dim Sum place very close to the station. She discovered it with some friends a few weeks back. It's called 大大茶樓. So made an afternoon of it and invited some friends over to join us. It's on the third floor of the building. Ironically, you need to use the elevator in the large stationary store I spoke about earlier. Note* Upon exiting, we discovered there is another private entrance next to the Starbucks. Anyways, upon entering the restaurant lobby, we were surprised by the design of the place. It was upscale and pretty. YongHe is sort of the ghetto of the Taipei area. It's not the cleanest or most well sorted part of Taipei. So it's a change to be in a relatively upscale restaurant in YongHe. My friend said she felt like she wasn't in YongHe anymore...and she lives in YongHe. The host (later we learned he was the general manager), greeted us and offered us seats and tea. All tables were full and we had to wait for about 10 minutes, so it seemed to be a popular place. After being seated we started ordering immediately. They push the food around on carts. I truly love this old style. It's slowly being fazed out as more and more Dim Sum restaurants are converting to ordering from a menu. But I love ordering my food seeing it. Not because there's a language barrier, but with food, a picture says a thousand words! Better yet when it's actually in front of you. Moving on to the food. The restaurant's selection seems to cover the most common of dim sum offerings that I'm used to. They are missing a few, but from what was available, it wasn't bad. They still stick a few Taiwanese menu items in there, but I won't devalue them for that. In the States, you'll still find egg rolls and fortune cookies on the menu at Dim Sum. It was a delightful experience and so far one of the best, if not the best, Dim Sum places i've been to in Taiwan. The price tag ended up being about $350 a person. Not too shabby. I wouldn't mind coming back here another fine weekend afternoon. Afterwards, a few of us headed over to the LeHua 樂華 night market (still partially open during the day) for some dessert at Yu's Almond Tofu. We tried something new. Their almond soft serve on a cone with almond crumbles. Deliciously awesome as usual. Highly recommended! And I end it here, so have a good weekend everyone!

大大茶樓
新北市永和區永和路二段116號5樓
02-6637-5959
10am-10pm
http://www.dadatea.com.tw

Fragrant Harbour (HK)

Due to visa issues, I have to leave Taiwan. So I chose Hong Kong as it's one of the cheapest plane ticket available out of Taiwan. Also, instead of wasting a plane ticket to Hong Kong, I decided to stay for the weekend. After my trip, I now have a complete different impression of Hong Kong. Before living in asia, I often compared Hong Kong and Taipei to be about the same. They were both vey large cities with an active night life compared to the boring suburbs of California. Hong Kong is really completely different than Taipei in three main areas. HK has more money, larger density of high rises and is a real harbor city. It's more bustling, with a more active night life, better malls and is much more of an asian manhattan than Taipei is. The harbor is beautiful and life in Hong Kong really revolves around water. Humans naturally feel more comforted when near water, and I cannot deny I have the same feelings. It's human nature. Not to say Taipei doesn't have it's traits either. In contrast, Hong Kong reminds me more of western culture though. Less polite, more materialistic, and more complicated. And that's what makes Taipei so special, it's a growing city this still has roots in traditions, politeness, service and maintaining a simplistic life. But don't get me wrong, if given the chance, I'd still love to experience what it would be like to life in Hong Kong too. It should be easier to adapt too. Although they do not know Mandarin, people that understand and can speak fluent English is abundant and valued. Food wise, I love Yum Cha (飲茶)! To this day, I still have not found a good Yum Cha restaurant in Taipei. Outside of that though, HK still has a wider range of good foreign food. Because of the amount of international business HK does, the number of ex-pats are ever increasing and thus it's effect on the need for western markets and restaurants. Hong Kong also has such a unique history of a blend of western and eastern cultures. While Taiwan has a history with Japan (and a dash of dutch), Hong Kong has a rich history with the Portuguese and British. So visiting Macau's historic district, I got to see the colorful pastels and dramatic mix of Portuguese architecture in a sea of older chinese cement buildings. I also got to savor some of the famous pastéis de nata (egg tarts). You can have versions of these egg tarts in just about every china town around the world. I thought the crust was supposed to be light, crispy and flaky, but the ones in Macau, the one's i would consider the original, have a more chewy layer of crust. They are also slightly burnt, in comparison to the perfect yellow tart I would eat in the US. Although I have to say, 90% is still true to taste, I'm happy I got to enjoy it in the original form from Macau. Back to the island of Hong Kong, Yuki wanted to visit the many malls that litter the city blocks. I have to say that the malls in Hong Kong blow the one's in Taipei out of the water. I may be biased, because I've gotten used to the malls in Taipei, but no where in Taipei is there a mall with 29 stories of shopping. I'm speaking of The ONE in Tsim Sha Tsui district. It's 29 stories of all shopping! There's also Knutsford Terrace. Although not a mall, it's a shopping area with an adjacent small alley of restaurant bars. It's dark, loud, posh and bussling with rich hipsters drinking with friends after work. Other notable magnificent shopping malls are K11, 1881 Heritage and Elements. A note about Elements while we're on the topic. Through Elements, you can do early airport baggage check-in and discounted 2-person airport express tickets. $140 for two one-way tickets to the airport. The ride is about 25 minutes compared to the hour it took on the bus. The early check-in on my way back to Taipei also let me skip the airport lines and head straight to airport security, while letting me walk around Elements mall instead of duty free shops at the airport. Taipei needs to hurry up with it's direct train to the airport and attach a magnificent mall to it like Hong Kong has. It's such a genius idea! My good friend in Hong Kong, Howard, turned me on to this and I appreciate it! Meeting him was also the last thing on my to do list in Hong Kong. I guess I left the best for last. So I'll leave this segment with that. Thank you Howard and Farah! See you in Taipei!

P.S. If you take a trip to Macau from HK, bring your passport, expect a 1 hour boat ride and long lines at the customs entrance to Macau. We went on a busy day, so it took me about 3 hours to go from buying a ticket to actually entering Macau.


Portuguese Chicken from Restaurante Platao. Nice upscale restaurant in Macau's Historic District with prices ranging from $140-$300 HKD.
http://plataomacau.com/home.htm
Restaurante Platao‎ (九如坊葡國餐廳)
3 Travessa de S. Domingos
Se, Macau

Very common and famous Hong Kong waffle street food. There's also a belgian waffle folded with sweet peanut paste in the middle. Very Very tasty! A must during a HK visit!

Cafe e Nata Margaret's (egg tart)
G/F, 17A Rua Alm Costa Cabral R/C, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro
Macau

Taichung (台中)

Well, I'm writing this a little bit late. So most of the things I don't remember, but at least I have the photos the show for it. Perhaps they'll jog my memory. First things first, we headed out to a traditional market. I'm sure sure what the name is, but I remember Grace saying it was one of Taichung's most famous. Oh wait, maybe it was 向上市場. Anyways, we headed in for a bit of a late breakfast. So we just had a plate o'carbs. It was delicious especially with the orangey sauce you see on it. It was semi-spicey but I like spicy. It's a good thing that we shared that plate, because i didn't want the responsibility of finishing it all my self. After that, we heading into the market to a famous sushi place. Yes, normally I wouldn't trust a chinese owned Sushi restaurant in a traditional (and considered dirty) day market, but Grace said it was supposed to be really really good. Despite my preconception, it turned out to be excellent. The service was very kind and prompt. The sushi is pretty cheap. $100NT for four very thick slices of sashimi. It was just a quick snack, but wish we could have stayed longer and just satisfy my gluttonous desires! haha! Say HI to the smiling wasabi. After sashimi, we headed to the birthplace of pearl milk tea. Not that fancy of a place, but the decor reminds you of the traditional days. The pearl milk tea tastes very different than what you'd find at a local store. It has more of a fresh ground texture in the milk. They said they add red bean with is hand ground into a powder and mixed into the milk. It makes the ones I get at a local store taste more sweet and less-organic by comparison. In the early evening, we headed out to the famous 逢甲夜市 (Feng Chia night market). Grace introduced us to a famous fried chicken stand. We get this in Taipei too, but this one was different. It's apparently unique to the Taichung area because it's crispier and a little sweeter because of the glaze it has on it. It's awesome! If your ever in Taichung, I'd suggest getting this at the night market. It's far superior to the one's i've found in other cities or night markets. There's only one specific stand that's the best, but since I can't describe it well enough to direct anyone, any of the stands at this night market will have the same flavor. So just pick a stand and enjoy. It's called 碳烤雞排.

Shredded duck meat sandwich! A little dry and it could use a tasty sauce along with it. It's not like having peking duck in a quality restaurant, but still something I haven't seen at a night market before. Not bad over all! Cheap, so if your there, give it a try.

small sausage wrapped in a big sausage (大腸包小腸). The usual. you can get this in almost any night market all over Taiwan. But it's one of my favorite "go to" eats at the markets.

Cheese Potato! Again, I think you can pretty much get this at any of the night markets across Taiwan. But I never had the chance to try it out. Now that I have, it's pretty good! Can't argue with the great combination of warm gooey cheese and bacon bits with hot potato.

This! Awesome fried squid filled with flavorful rice and your choice of sauce. I chose honey mustard. I'm pretty sure you can get this in Taipei too, as I think i've seen pictures of this before, but I'm not sure. Anyways, Please try this if your in Taiwan and see this at a night market. It's soo delicious! It's ridiculously awesome and I want another one now!

Thai satay beef, chicken and lamb. Some night markets have this, some don't. It compares to the lamb shish kabobs at the 樂華 night market in Taipei.

曰曜天地 outlet mall

Oddly colorful Dim Sum cart. Almost like they're been painted or nuked. haha!

Look at the fat stripes on that salmon!

More cute signs from Taiwan. Watch out, don't pinch your fingers! it says.

San Francisco trip

For my school break I went back to the San Francisco bay area to finish some business and show Yuki around the bay area. It's a welcomed relief from Taiwanese food, back to the fattening delicious food of the bay. I introduced her to some real Cali fresh-mex, american pancakes, burmese food, the wine train, Krispy Kreme, Sichuan/Taiwanese at Spices, Indian food, Italian seafood, In&Out, Dim Sum, and filipino food. Showing her the sights of SF and being away from SF for so long, made me really realize how beautiful and victorian San Francisco architecture really is. Also how perfect the weather is. Despite some rain, the sky was always blue and cloudy and dramatic. Taiwanese skies are rarely ever like that. But despite missing having my own car, perfect weather, a variety of ethnic food and a victorian city, living in the bay area is just too troublesome and expensive. Parking tickets, insurance, smog, and the ridiculously expensive SF parking fees really miss the convenient, cheap and traffic-free subway system of Taipei. SF is definitely beautiful and has a lot to offer in it's own right, but it makes me appreciate Taipei's simplicity and comfort. I wish I had more time, but I have to leave some for next time Yuki and I have a chance to visit. Farewell SF!

Citystar 24hr HK style restaurant

Today, I went with Yuki to eat at the Citystar 24 hour Dim Sum near the ZhongXiao DunHua MRT station exit. I've had friends recommend this place, because it was the only 24hour Dim Sum place in Taiwan. Nobody said anything of the taste. Now I know why. It wasn't very authentic. Although it was very crowded. I think the taiwanese don't know what authentic HK dim sum is. Although they live so close to HK and the place tickets are so cheap, an american knows more about what dim sum should really be like. From what I hear, there really isn't any quality dim sum in Taipei. Maybe taiwanese don't know what good dim sum is or there isn't really a demand for quality dim sum or thats just how they like it. Either way i'll continue to search for quality Dim Sum in Taipei or just fly to Hong Kong...

No. 92號, Section 1, NánJīng East Road, Jhongshan District
Taipei City, Taiwan