Saturday, March 28, 2009 ?
Back from Taiwan and only got to write this recently. Here are a few of my observations:
Taiwan is kind of like Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong mashed together. The city is pretty awesome. The countryside reminds me especially of Malaysia.
The people are extremely civilized. one example of this was when some people were blocking this poor cyclist's way. He made no indication of being in a hurry, and just waited patiently for the people to clear the path.
Everything tastes better in Taiwan. Food standards are high; 民以食为天. I would like to just comment a little sadly that I put on 1 KG in Taiwan. I mean, I don't get how come people aren't all fat there. Taiyang bing is the bombage. So are Taiwanese sausages.So are pineapple tarts. They're a little diff from the kind you can get in SG. There is this other thing called "mochi" or "mua ji" which seems to be a HUGE thing in Taiwan. There must be dozens of ways to prepare that stuff.
Dog culture is big in Taiwan. Everywhere you go, you can see people carrying their tiny toy dogs or walking their golden retrievers.
It was basically an all shopping trip.. except I didn't do any shopping. No Sexy Diamond :(
On the first day, we(tour group, family and I) went to downtown Taipei. If I'm not wrong it's probably the nicest place in Taiwan. I saw some resturant being overcrowded with people, and people waiting in line to get in. Except, there wasn't a line. So many people were waiting until it formed something more like a huge circle. Must have been good,but weren't gonna wait around to get in. Instead, we found a small place which must not have had more than four people eating. STILL.. it was the best ru rou fan(braised pork rice) I've ever eaten.
On the second day, we went to ceramic street. As the name implies, there were a lot of ceramics. Nothing really special worth mentioning. After that, we headed to a hilly place which was supposedly famous for their bean based products. Awesome stuff. Afterwards, we went to a Hakka resturant. First time I ever ate Hakka food. We were then given a tour of a small museum of a lot of vintage shit, most of them older than your grandmother. My bro found one of those styrofoam planes, you know the kind you put together? I remember buying those when I was younger. Went to some place they sold wooden duckies. You get to paint your own ducky for a price. Pretty boring, but whatever. We went back to the Hakka place and got a firsthand experience making "tea" that Hakka people drink/drunk. Some mixture that consisted of green tea, almonds, sesame seeds and sugar. Powerful stuff. There were some pastries too, but I dunno what they were called. We then set off for Sun Moon Lake, which was a two hr drive. We went to some deserted resturant for dinner, of which we were the only patrons. Only then did I realize how efficient Taiwanese are at preparing food. About five minutes after we stepped foot in the place, all the food was on the table.
On the third day, we went on a boat and went around Sun Moon Lake. There was this hill. Something of interest is the tea egg there. I've lived in Shanghai for almost 10 years now, and tea egg is an everyday thing here. But at the hill, there was this small shop that sold 3000 eggs a day. At 10 NT per egg, they make 30000 NT a day, which is 1200 SGD.. crazy. After that we went to an old street just right by the side of Sun Moon Lake. Really lively place. I had this deep-fried mochi, which was really damn good. Dinner was the main attraction, really. The food set before us was fit for a Chinese wedding dinner, only WAY WAY better.
On the fourth day, I sat at the bottom of a mountain with my grandmother. So, I couldn't say what it was like, but according to the people that DID go up, it's frigging tiring to climb. Got on the bus and headed to Taichung. I noticed something there which I'm not sure about. There are these small glass booths, where not very modestly dressed women sit. They can't be hookers, right? I mean, I don't think there's any country where women go around prostituting in broad daylight. Anyways. There is an enormous amount of graffiti in Taichung. We got some Taiyang bing, which originated in Taichung. Also bought some pineapple tarts. After, we had dinner at some really fancy seafood place with probably cost a shitload to eat at, but some woman I dunno was treating us. :S
On the fifth day, we headed back to Taipei. We went to a memorial hall dedicated to General Chiang Kai Shek, which looked more like a shrine. Really huge building. I watched the changing of the guard, and I thought to myself, "This is damn extra....." They marched around in sync and twirled their guns a lot just to change guard. We went to Taipei 101, "A multi-level shopping mall which ajoins the tower houses hundreds of fashionable stores, restaurants and clubs." I didn't know this until now, but Wikipedia says the name Taipei 101 is because the building is 101 stories high. I did something pretty stupid, which was to eat Sergeant Chicken Rice in Taiwan. It wasn't bad, but eating Singaporean food on a Taiwanese tour trip is just dumb.
On the sixth day, we went to 阳明山. Only got half an hour to enjoy the scenery, so that was BS. We came to a small resturant on the mountain and had lunch there. It was fully packed, on a weekday. On a mountain. The food is that good.
On the seventh day, which was the last day, we went down to the harbor. Lots of old streets around the area. I had a 250 ml bottle diet coke, which also happens to be the best diet coke I've ever had. We headed for the airport and made our goodbyes to Taiwan.
Labels: food, nice, taiwan
