Taipei 2008 Day 4 (Around the World in 80 mins?!)

Day 4 in Taipei...It was time to see the world...Welcome to the Miniatures Museum Of Taiwan (MMOT)! As its tagline goes: "Big Wonder in a Small World", the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan was the first and only one of its kind in East Asia. One would be truly amazed at the exquisite art forms of historical European architecture, modern American homes, fantastical fairy-tale story worlds and well-known world sites & buildings. MMOT is located at B1, No.96, Jian Guo N.Road, Sec.1, Taipei. Entrance fee: NT180 (adult). Opening hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-6pm. (Got 10% discount for the ticket, thanks to the Youth Card =P)

MMOT is a must-visit for all! It was such a wonder to see all these miniature art forms and buildings. One can only imagine at the amount of effort, concentration, time and patience the artists spent to re-create reality in a smaller size. One would be left almost awestruck at the exquisteness of the mini-worlds being created. Words simply cannot describe how beautiful, how breath-taking and how delicate & charming these miniatures are...
Imagine a TV the size of a postage stamp that actually works, a chandelier with 40 bulbs; each the size of a grain of rice, magazines the size of your fingertip with print that you can flip to read and dainty pieces of desserts that look good enough to eat!
These artists are so competent and dexterous with their hands that they can even create a miniature within a miniature! Look carefully at the above picture and you will see three frames (just above the cute elephant table). Within each frame, lies another miniature setting! Simply exquisite!

After visiting the museum (almost reluctant to leave this magical & enchanting world, if not for growling stomachs), we headed to Wufenpu Wholesale 五分埔 (near Houshanpi MRT). Please avoid going there on Monday, as that's when they do stock-take. This place is well-known for its countless boutiques, selling fashionable clothings and accessories. The walkway's rather narrow, so be prepared to squeeze with other patrons as well as deal with motorbikes that keep weaving in and out through the small alleys to deliver goods. Seeing a big lorry parked in the middle of the road is a common sight as delivery personnel unload newly arrived goods, which are then despatched to the bikers for delivery. So you end up hearing the engines of the motorbikes (signaling you to give way) as well as the loud hip-hop music coming from the stores. Some good bargains can be found here as clothes can go for NT100 (~S$5), some dresses for NT290-NT490 (~S$15-25) and shoes for NT200 (~S$10). However, there's no fitting room so you can only gauge the measurement by putting it against your body or asking the shopowner's advice. As I looked around, I could only think of how crazy & excited some of my friends would be at finding these great bargains for clothes (heehee, right, Van & Jas?)

Now...on to my fave topic...food at the night market!!! It's a pity that my camera battery went flat, so couldn't take pictures of all the fantastic food at Raohe Night Market 饒河夜市, located near Songshan railway station, quite near to Wufenpu. Running 600m from the intersection of Bade Road Section 4 & Fuyuan Street to the Ciyou Temple on Bade Road, it offers a large variety of items, ranging from food & daily necessities to clothing & gadgets.
One of the famous must-try food is the Pepper Bun 胡椒餅.Courtesy of http://deciphergigi.wordpress.com/
Didn't really like the pepper bun though it's crispy and freshly made, found it to be too peppery (hahaha =P). Basically, it contains marinated minced meat with spring onions. Quite fragrant and there's a long queue at the stall. Price: NT45 Rating: 4/5 (for those who like minced meat bun)
Next, we tried medicinal spareribs soup 藥燉排骨. It's similar to Bak Kut Teh, but with a stronger chinese herbal taste as the spareribs are simmered with over 10 kinds of Chinese herbs. However the spareribs are really sparingly little with its meat.
Price: NT60 (pork) / NT70 (mutton). Rating: 4/5 (for the taste of the soup)
My personal favourite was the fried sotong 炸花枝. It was super crispy on the outside and moist & chewy on the inside, delicious! My mouth still waters as I think about it!
Price: NT50 (small) / NT100 (big) Rating: 5/5 (must try!)
Sotong balls (5 on a stick): NT20

Shopping at the night market was great! (haha, at least for me, the bargain queen). Singapore has its S$1 shops (or S$1.99 shops in the past) and Japan has its 100yen shops...while Taiwan has its NT10 (~S$0.50) shops! Wow!
Also found 2 pairs of sandals at NT85/pair!!! (Saw one of the designs at the Taipei Underground Mall for NT200 a pair...good thing I didn't buy it then =P). The NT85 shoe shop's just besides another shoe shop which sells shoes for NT93 =)
Alas! It was time to head back ( only walked half of the night market) and we headed to Songshan Railway Station to take a train back to Taipei Main Station for NT18. Yet, we found another great bargain, just outside the ticketing counter as there was a lady selling bags for NT199! All kinds of shapes & sizes...yours truly couldn't resist and ended up getting 4 bags =)
Most definitely wanna visit Raohe Night Market again!

Taipei 2008 Day 3 (A bit of history & great-tasting food)

It was time to do a little sight-seeing as well as continue on our food tour and shopping. Lin Family Mansion & Garden came rather highly recommended and so we decided to view this historical site as well as head for lunch at 油库口蚵仔面线 (Youkangkuo oyster mee sua) as it was near the area and was deemed a must-try, even by the locals.That's our hotel and there's even a water dispenser in the hotel room! Cool! This saves time and money as there's no need to boil water or buy bottled water. However, as we were not too used to the taste of the water, we still bought bottled water =P
Had waffles with caramel that morning and it was nice, hot & fragrant...yummy!

Lin Family Mansion & Garden's located 9 Ximen Street, Banciao City, Taipei County. It opens Tuesday-Friday from 9am to 5pm. Stop at Fuzhong Station Exit 3, walk towards Wuchang Street (there's quite a lot of shops here as well as street stalls) and then turn into Ximen Street. "The garden was built during 1888 to 1893. Classified as a second degree historic site, the well-kept compound exhibits characteristics of gardens and residences of Ching (Qing) Dynasty. The whole structure fully presents the beauty of traditional Chinese architecture." *
Price of adult ticket: NT100. (There's a special discount for the Youth Card, so we got the ticket at NT40 instead.) Youkangkuo oyster mee sua's located at No.44 Wenhua Road, Sec.1,Alley 188.
Stop at Xinpu Station Exit 2 and walk straight down, about 10 mins.
There's always a long queue at this famous stall and it's definitely worth the wait. A generous serving of mee sua and oysters (think there's at least 6-8 oysters!), the dish had us drooling and quickly tucking in. Place your order with the lady at the counter and she will hand you these tags ---->
Then there will be servers walking around carrying bowls of mee sua and looking at the tags on the table, serving you accordingly. There's also a sausage lady, who carries a samll basket filled with freshly grilled sausages and hands your stated quantity to you. Then she asks "要大蒜吗?" (Garlic for you?) I thought she was going to offer me some fried garlic/garlic sauce for the sausage and as yours truly likes garlic, I said yes. Then she reached into her basket & threw some raw garlic (still in its skin) unto the table. Hahaha...I actually looked at it in shock & was stunned for a few seconds. Apparently, over there, they eat the sausage with raw garlic. Being adventurous, I decided to follow the locals & it tastes....real nice & fragrant! The garlic actually enhances the taste of the sausage & adds a bit of spiciness to it, superb! The sausage's real tasty!用炭火烤的香腸, 加上新嫩的豬肉與淡淡的高梁酒香, 再配上生大蒜, 好吃!!!
Oyster Mee Sua NT35 Rating: 4/5
Grilled Sausage NT 20 Rating: 5/5 (must try!)

Then on our way out, we saw a lady selling pancakes. The aroma of pancakes drew us towards her stall to check out the fragrant mini pancakes that had people queueing up as well. Known as 二姐红豆餅, the lady has been selling pancakes for a long time and the fillings (in 3 flavours: red bean/custard/cheese) are all hand-made, at least for the red bean & custard =P.
Price: 2 pieces for NT15 (super value for money)

Rating: 5/5 (must try!) Hot,crispy pancake & generous filling

It was time to do a little shopping and work out those calories taken for lunch. So, off we went to Zhongxiao Dunhua and Zhongxiao Fuxing area, where there's a long underground shopping mall, large department stores (SOGO) and many stalls along the roads. Please head to Zhongxiao Dunhua East Metro Mall. There's ladies shoes selling for NT150 per pair! (approx. S$7.50)
Dinner was to be enjoyed at The Sweet Dynasty (Tang Chao) 糖朝. This richly-decorated restaurant serves up traditional Hong Kong-styled desserts as well as some great-tasting dishes. In fact, we went there to try the food rather than the desserts. And it was absolutely delicious! The sauteed prawns with walnuts had fresh springy prawns topped with sweet, crispy walnuts that added fragrance and crunch to the dish while the stir-fried turnip cake with XO sauce had chunky pieces of turnip cake covered richly in the aromatic XO sauce and fried mini shrimps & spring onions. Chef's recommendation was their Crispy Chicken, which is an absolute must-try as a whole chicken is cooked and then fried by slowly pouring scoop after scoop of hot,boiling oil over the chicken instead of putting the whole chicken into a big pot of oil to be fried. This way, the skin of the chicken would be extra crispy and yet retain the succulence of the chicken meat. Normal deep-fried chicken would taste dry and hard but Tang Chao's Crispy Chicken was juicy, crisp and flavourful. Simply scrumptious!
Just for laughs! What we discovered in Tang Chao's menu:
Fired Tumip Pudding with X.O sauce??? ;)

*http://www.taiwan.com.au/Envtra/North/Taipei/report02.html

Taipei 2008 Day 2 (Food, food & more food)

Staying near Taipei Main Station had great advantages as it's basically connected to all kinds of transport, be it the buses, MRT, railway and even THSR (Taiwan High Speed Rail, similar to Japan's Shinkansen). As the places we plan to visit are highly accessible by the MRT, that was to be our main mode of transport. We needed to get the Easy Card (similar to Singapore's Ezlink Card), that would be more economical than buying a single trip ticket.
By the way, Taiwan's single trip tickets looks just like a coin (plastic coin, though). One would tap the coin on the reader when going in and then inserts the coin into a slot when exiting the station.
Cost of Easy Card: NT500 (NT100 refundable deposit)

One can return the Easy Card to the ticket counter, of which NT100 would be refunded as well as any excess value left in the card. However, there's a NT20 forfeit for returning the card.

Breakfast was taken at the hotel's coffee place (just next door). 3 different sets to be chosen: Set A: Toast & Hard-boiled Egg, Set B: Waffles, Set C: Burger (in the form of Hotdog Buns).

Day 2 was to be a day of feasting as we travelled to different areas to savour their famous delicacies. First up on the list was the ever-famous Ding Tai Fung 鼎泰豐. The most dish would undoubtedly be their Xiao Long Bao (皮薄餡鮮美的小籠包). Each xiaolongbao is specially prepared with skill and precision. The outer flour skin has a standard weight of 5 gm, and is stuffed with 16gm of filling. Eighteen folds are then used to seal each bun. The buns are served with thin slices of ginger and a dipping sauce, usually vinegar. As one uses a pair of chopsticks to gently lift up one xiaolongbao unto a spoon, bites off the top of the dumpling to sip the soup filling and then pops the whole dumpling into the mouth, the fragrance of the soup together with the tasty meat filling fills the mouth with a delightful burst of flavours. Absolutely gratifying! We tried the dessert variety of the xiaolongbao, opting for the taro (yam) version. The taro filling was fragrant and thick and subtly sweet, which is good because it's light enough for one to take a second piece, without being overpowered by a sickly sweet yam filling. The drunken chicken was light-tasting with a tinge of chinese wine, that enhanced the flavour of the chicken, though the price was a tad high. Highly recommend everyone to try the xiaolongbao, that's really delectable and value for money. (By the way, we got a xiaolongbao handphone attachment as a gift upon presenting the Youth Card.)

Next, we went on to try Kao Chi 高記. Decided to try this restaurant that came highly recommended by a food blogger. We ordered panfried bun 上海生煎包, Shrimp Siew Mai, Crab Roe Xiaolongbao and Prawn Chee Cheong Fun. Alas, the Xiaolongbao pale in comparison to Ding Tai Fung. The more expensive crab roe xiaolongbao that we ordered had a queer fishy taste and we strained to swallow it. The skin of the panfried bun was a tad too thick for our liking and the shrimp siew mai was quite forgettable. The prawn changfen (chee cheong fun) was the only item that was easy to swallow. Yet, it could have been that we were probably too full to savour the food as we had proceeded straight to Kao Chi from Ding Tai Fung. Still, the taste of the food was rather disappointing. (Good thing we got a 10% discount from Kao Chi upon presenting the Youth Card).

Dessert time! We proceeded to Ice Monster 冰館 for some Taiwan Ice-Kachang/Shaved Ice. Ordered the Fresh Fruits Mix as the Jumbo Mango Ice was not available (think it's because they don't have enough mangoes) and surprisingly it came with free mango jelly! (NT10 off any Ice with the Youth Card). The mangoes tasted sweet though the strawberries and kiwi were a little sour. Great for hot weather.
Another dessert that I would highly recommend would be Yu's Almond Tofu (somewhat similar to beancurd) but more fragrant because it's made from almonds. The tofu's super soft and just slides down your throat. It's very light and refreshing. Ordered the mixed combo as well, you can choose to have it hot or chilled and for the mixed combo, one can choose 4 different ingredients (from a variety of beans and fenyuan) to match your almond tofu. Delicious!

Ximending was our next stop. It's a well-known shopping area for young people in Taipei as clothes more fashionable and suited for young people, consisting of Japanese and Korean designs as well as American Hip-Hop. However, our aim in Ximending was to try Ah Chung Mee Sua 阿宗面线. There's always a crowd queueing up at this famous mee sua stall. They serve only 大肠面线, NT40 for a small bowl, NT55 for a big bowl and the unique part about this stall is that customers would have to stand around to eat their mee sua as there's no tables and chairs available. So, when you see a big group of people standing around with bowls in their hands and busy chomping down noodles, you can be sure that they're eating Ah Chung Mee Sua. As commented on the net: 在西门町，“站着吃面线”是一种特色。点完菜、加好料之后，个个有样学样地“端着面线、跑到外头”（店里“没有座位”），“或站或蹲”地狼吞虎咽起来——场面“很是壮观”。味道嘛，“细细”的面、“糊糊”的汤、“干净”的大肠，“很特殊”但还“够不上惊艳”。只能说阿宗的“群聚效应”用得实在是妙。

As night falls, various parts of Taipei come alive and bustle with activity. Yes, Taipei's famous for their night markets (similar to Singapore's pasar malam). A well-known location would have to be Shilin Night Market. A must-try would be the super big chicken cutlet 豪大大鸡排. 比脸还大的一整块,“一律不切”, this super big chicken cutlet is meant to be eaten in one big piece, so as to retain its flavour and juiciness. Just one would probably be enough to feed 2 or 3 persons. (Yes! it's really big!). However, the oyster omelette that we tried was quite a let-down as it tasted very starchy (too much flour and too little eggs and oysters), definitely prefer the Singaporean and Malaysian version more. Shilin Night Market is divided into 2 areas: food and shopping. One part of the market's where one gets to try all kinds of food while the other part has lots of stalls selling clothes, shoes, bags, accessories etc. Stop at Jiantan MRT Station Exit 1 to get to the night market.

Taipei 2008 - Day 1 (Unexpected surprises & So-so food)

Yes! It's time to blog about this trip to Taipei, that was nothing short of enjoyable and exciting.
Basically, we decided to travel around Taipei only, opting for a very relaxed itinerary (it's free and easy mah...) and the main focus of the trip would have to be shopping and eating!!!
Of course, Taiwan consists of other nice places to visit such as Taichung, Hualien, Taitung, Kaohsiung etc. But as mentioned, Taipei would be the main focus here (haha, because that's the only place we explored! hee =P)

Service onboard a Singapore airlines' plane was good as the flight attendants were attentive and polite. A small menu was given to every customer, describing the selection of food and drinks available. Opted for the international selection: Pasta with chicken. Taste was so-so and rather bland. The movie selection was good as it included hits like 'The Dark Knight', 'Mamma Mia', 'Wall-E' and many others. Spent my time watching 'Wanted' starring the quirkily cute James McAvoy and foxy Angeline Jolie as well as 'Wall-E'.
Arrived in Taipei about 4.55pm (Taipei time is the same as Singapore, so no worries about jet-lag there) and had to sign up for the Youth Card at the tourist information counter located right in front of the arrival gate, which is free and entitles anyone 30 and under special discounts at various hotels, restaurants and places of interest. A pity that the Card's only valid till Dec 2008. For exchange rates, we realised that the rates were better at the money exchange counter at the arrival hall of Taoyuan Airport, S$1 to NT21.75. However, we had changed our money in Singapore at the low rate of NT21.3 (beating my chest in regret & trauma). Nevertheless, I will survive (with the heartache of losing out on a good deal).

After taking various brochures at the tourist counter, we headed right to take the 國光客運 Bus 61 to Taipei Main Station.
Cost: NT125 Time taken: 50 minutes

Upon arrival at Taipei Main Station, we proceeded to find our hotel- Miyi Hotel (chosen because of its prime location at Taipei Main Station), which is located near Shin Kong Life Tower 新光人壽保險摩天大樓 (but people would probably identify it as Shin Kong Mitsukoshi 新光三越 as the building housed a department store by that name, which is well-known in Taipei.)

Unknown to us, an unexpected shock awaits us at the hotel.
My cousin had booked a room at NT1980 for 2 pax, plus NT500 for an additional bed, which would add up to NT2480 per night. Apparently, the hotel staff had mistaken our arrival time and thought that we would be arriving between 12-1pm instead of 6-7pm (which, by the way, was the actual arrival time) and had given our room to another guest (who, ironically was the one who made an actual mistake as he had given the wrong dates to the hotel, saying that he would arrive on 26 Nov when he actually meant 26 Oct instead). Imagine our shock and chagrin! So, there we were, tired from the flight & carrying large luggages and having the unforseen stress of wondering where we would be spending the night (while my aunt's face's getting darker by the minute).
Nonetheless, I believed that God's in control and all things work together for good. In the end, they gave us a room at the rate of NT1880, without charging us for the extra bed. So...that means we got a discount! Yeah! We will be staying at this hotel room at the rate of NT1880 for 2 nights before moving to our original room for the next 5 nights (and surprise! we got a discounted rate of NT2300 instead of the original NT2480 per night. Haha! Great savings...for shopping later *rubbing hands in glee*) God is good! So, things worked out fine in the end, as the blur guest got a room to stay while we got our room at a discount =)

Hungry from the settling of accomodation, we proceeded to the shops nearby, in search of food to satisfy our rumbling tummys. Then we came across...

The food wasn't fantastic as seen by the rating given, but we were hungry so we still gobbled it all down. The beef tendon was tender though and the soup stock was quite fragrant but taste-wise, it wasn't impressive enough to be memorable. My clam & winter melon noodles soup tasted bland but it was healthier than the beef noodles =P
Walked around the area a bit before heading back to the hotel for a good night's rest.