So today's plan is to have a relaxing day. Three things to do. Watch Transformers 3, eat lunch and find a special place to eat dinner. Why is it so special? Because it's my one year anniversary of living here in Taipei! For those of you that have followed me since the beginning know that I arrived July 24, 2010. So today, Sunday, would an exact year to the day that I have lived in Taiwan. After a lazy morning, sleeping in and missing breakfast in trade for some TV time in bed, we headed out to Gongguan. Yuki had to do get a chore out of the way first. She had to go to the Gjun office, which is a Taiwanese computer training center. She's signing up for 3DS Max classes. All the classes are in Chinese, so that'll be very challenging. I applaud her for her enthusiasm and will. Moving on to lunch, we went to a small pizza place down a small alley (not even sure it has a street name). It's a very small joint as you can see from the pictures. Seating for about 10 people. The decor, …well they tried.
Fake bricks glued to the walls to make it look like an old style pizza place. But decor has nothing to do with the food. So continuing, we originally thought it used a ceramic oven, but a quick glance at the oven, we discovered it was only electric. They buried this giant electric toaster (taiwanese oven), behind a wall to make it look like it's a brick oven. Disappointing, but i'm willing to let that go because of the cheap price. Their menu consists of about 8 styles of pizza; vegetable, hawaiian, pesto chicken, mushroom, seafood, margarita…thats about all I can remember. Each pizza is about 10"s sliced six ways. All this for $100 NT. The taste conclusion, somewhere under so-so. The crust was thin, crispy and flavorless. I blame it on the lack of dough used and the electric oven. You just won't get the same flavor as a brick oven cooked with wood/coal. Even NY thin crust has more buttery, doughy flavor than this. The toppings, could use improvement. Not enough basil, not enough herbs and the tomato sauce...what tomato sauce!? The cheese wasn't bad though. I don't get that wonderful mozzarella flavor, but it was very hot and "cheesy". So overall, bad pizza. And being in Taiwan isn't an excuse because i've had decent pizza in Taiwan. But again, Taiwan's strong point is, it's CHEAP! $100NT ($20NT glass bottle coke) for a whole pizza isn't bad. If I visit again, I'll try the seafood. After filling our tummies, we headed over to the Gongguan movie theater. Student pricing, $300 for Transformers 3 3D. Although several of my friends have criticized it, I thought it was a decent movie. Tons of CG and long action scenes. Although the story may be cheesy or shallow for some people, I've been a fan of Transformers since youth, so I don't care. However I did miss Megan Fox. The relationship between Mikeala and Sam was built up over the first two movies, so it's a strong disappointment and sense of rejection over the new hot blonde replacement. In addition, her role in the film really isn't that powerful. At least Mikeala was smart, useful and independent. I've read that it was both the studio's fault as well as Megan Fox's fault for not returning for the third and final installment. In a nutshell, wiki said Megan Fox didn't realize filming a blockbuster film required hard work and long hours. What a prima donna. Anyways, if you want to watch two and a half hours of CG robots, CG action, gun-play and cool cars, then watch Transformers 3 in 3D. Otherwise save your money for the DVD. Moving on to dinner. I decided to splurge a little and eat at a All-You-Can-Eat grilled meat restaurant (吃到飽燒肉). It's in Gongguan and called 燒肉王子 (grilled meat prince if translated).
The damage came out to be just under $500 NT per piggy. But the quality of the meat was pretty good as well as a wide variety of cuts. They had beef, pork, chicken, lamb, seafood and vegetables. For drinks, unlimited Taiwan beer and juices and soda. For dessert, unlimited Meiji ice cream as well as Ice cream filled grilled mochi. The waiters/waitresses were very nice and helpful, often getting another bottle of coke for me or helping me grill the meats. They also taught me how to grill mochi and stuff it with ice cream. Overall it was a very belly busting, fun and positive experience. If there was one thing I had to complain about, is the height of the grill and the exhaust hood. The grill is placed on top of the table, instead of inside a cubby hole IN the table, making it high even for someone as tall as me. In addition, the exhaust hood is too low, which means banging my head. I may or may not have a return visit, not because of the restaurant, but because $500 is about the normal price for a AYCE DIY grill. So there are other places that may be better, for the same price. Well, this has probably been one of my longer entries into this 1 year old blog. So I end it with, Cheers (gan bei,乾杯) !! To another year of food hunting and exciting new discoveries in Taiwan!
燒肉王子
台北市中正區羅斯福路四段142號
No. 142, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Zhongzheng District
Taipei City, Taiwan 100
It's a huge gorge filled with rocks, marble, waterfalls, forests and crystal clear blue rivers. From the Hualian train station they have a convenient bus that takes you directly to the many sights in Taroko gorge. It's not free and a little expensive (between 50-100 NT per ride depending on where you want to go) and was very confusing to us to find the right bus. There were not only several other buses at the train station to confuse us, but there is also a free shuttle bus to Taroko gorge, however that one has limited stops. I couldn't help anyone with this in the future, as we just asked our way into the right bus. Anyhow, some of the major stops in the gorge are: Shakadang Trail(砂卡噹步道), Tunnel of Nine Turns (九曲洞 Jiuqü Dong), Eternal Spring Shrine (長春祠 Changchun), Swallow Grotto (燕子口), Jinheng Park (靳珩公園), The Bridge of the Kind Mother (慈母橋), Tiansiang (天祥), Jhueilu Precipice (錐麓斷崖), Lioufang Bridge (流芳橋), Hill of Yu the Great (大禹嶺), Buluowan (布洛灣). We went to Shakadang trail and Swallow Grotto. Two different sceneries. Swallow Grotto has a wonderful panoramic view of marble rock faces leading down to muddy rapids snaking down the valley. This is viewed from the roadside cliff platforms that's carved into and through the mountain. Shakadang trail was a long 7.5 km path with an great view of a crystal clear blue river winding it's way through a rock valley. The pedestrian trail is the longest and winds through the rock ledges cut along the mountain face with some forest paths at the end of the trail.
Lunch was also enjoyable on this trail as there was a small rest-stop along the trail owned by what I assume are aboriginals. There we had some salty black mountain pork (鹹豬肉) and aboriginal vegetables on a small makeshift riverside table. Get your hiking shoes on, because this is a must place to visit if you've never seen it before. We were fully exhausted getting back on the last bus to the train station. So after getting back into town and checking in to our hotel, we cleaned up and headed out to 自強夜市 and 南濱夜市 night market. 自強夜市 has more food and would be my recommended market if asked.
Although the other market in town, 南濱夜市, has more games and less food, it is oceanside. Unfortunately we got to the oceanside market too late to see how the view was. But I suspect it would have been a nice place to be to see the sun set. Therefore we didn't stay long, because 自強夜市 is where the food is at. Walking through the 自強夜市 night market, the majority of the food stalls were very similar to what you can find in Taipei. However they do have three BBQ shish-kabob stands (第一家烤肉串) that had very long lines. We later learned that they are so popular that when you order, they give you a keyring with a number on it. You can come pick up your order when the LED sign outside displays your number. Two hours later, our order was finally ready! Two hours! There is also two very popular fruit drink stands. Get ready to stand in a long line. Lastly, there's a grilled oyster restaurant right at the front of the market.
They serve grilled oysters, clams, jumbo shrimp and other various seafood. They have beer in the back which you can serve yourself. The tables are old school desks and the interior resembles a straw hut with christmas lights and other paraphernalia hanging all over the place. Guess what...more long lines. However I think this one was well worth it. This is definitely something I haven't seen at any other market. We waited about 30 minutes in line and another 30 minutes inside. The prices are a bit expensive, but it's excellent grilled seafood in a uniquely and vibrantly decorated dining area right at the front of the night market. If you're not up for the waiting, there is also a notable brick oven pizzeria in the night market and a hong kong porridge stand right behind it. They both did not have a line, but was still packed with customers. Thus ended our day with more relaxing coastal motorcycle riding and hot springing to look forward to.
