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