Taiwan Trip Day 4
August 3rd, 2007If I had to sum up my Taiwan experience in one word, it would have to be: delicious. Never before in my life have I been able to experience such good food day after day. Time spent eating is time definitely well spent.
My day started with a grand meal over at Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung is a restaurant famous for it’s dumplings. We ate there with Daphu’s family and her 小aunt. The restaurant was multiple floors tall, and quite occupied. The menu also had Japanese text next to the Chinese, prolly meaning that this was a restaurant frequented by Japanese tourists.
We were served varieties of xiaolongbao 小龍包 （steamed dumplings） among other things in bamboo baskets. More dishes kept coming one after the other, and for a while I thought they wouldn’t stop. (Not that I would have minded!) The end of our meal was greeted by a couple expensive looking desserts and quite a few stomach pats. Some of the xiaolongbao had hot soup on the inside, and I believe I enjoyed eating those the most. I’ve never had xiaolongbao of that sort before, so it was a unique delicious experience. I will come to this restaurant again someday.
I don’t know any specific names or anything, so I’ll just lump the food photos together for you to enjoy.
After that feast, Daphu’s family left, but her 小aunt stayed with us to show us around town. We walked through a large park, and stumbled upon a farmer’s market of sorts. A large paved area by the end of the park was lined with tents and stands selling assorted food products. I tried some fruit vinegar, which was supposed to be healthy. Bleh. I think I must’ve tried the tomato one, as it tasted very much like watered down ketchup with more of a zing. Since it’s drunk for health reasons, I’d prolly call it an angry V8. Wait, I meant angrier V8.
A little walk after the park, we entered the Jianguo Flower Market. The market is underneath an overpass and is quite long. It was definitely the largest flower market I’ve ever seen, carrying assorted plants to DIY gardening/potting tools. The market extended way past the eye can see, making you wonder if it was ever going to end.
The market did eventually come to a stop, and where it ended, the Jianguo Jade Market began. It also extended quite far, but much shorter than the flower market. As the name says, the market comprised of individual vendors selling jade jewelry and trinkets. The area was more densely packed than the flower market, perhaps to make up for it’s smaller area. The tables soon grew quite repetitive, as most people were selling the same item or similar derivations of. I don’t remember if we were underground or not, but it very much felt that way, and I was glad to see sunlight again at the end.
Daphu’s aunt then led us to a Buddhist sect heavily involved with public service and world aid. Their facility (also a store on ground level) was mostly underground, and quite impressive for its size. I would liked to have taken some pictures, but I was scared and missed out. We were given a tour of the group’s mission and their goals, with Daphu as the translator. After the lengthy tour, they brought us to a table and served us some interesting tea and treats. I accidentally ate the garnish. It was not tasty.
It felt good to sit after all our walking and standing, but we decided to leave shortly after finishing our tea. (I think we were about to be given another lengthy “tour” or something.) We stopped by a place for some cold drinks and to rest our feet. I bought some strawberry milk tea-ish drink. We were still quite satisfied from our morning feast, so we head to the Breeze Center for some Tonkatsu sandwiches.
Also picked up some expensive dorayaki. Tasty.
The Breeze Center is another shopping center/department store similar to Dayeh Takashimaya. We went down to the food court and ordered up some sandwiches. The tonkatsu were quite the yum.
Ahhh death stare!
After a brief and well deserved respite, our party head into an older area of Taipei. I forget the name of the area, (prolly ask Daphu later), but this was the old “hang out” area before Ximending was all developed. We passed by a peculiar temple along the way. The temple attendees definitely seemed to be dominated by younger females. Daphu’s aunt enlightened us, and told us that this particular temple was for fortune in romantic encounters. And no, I did not go in, if that’s what you were wondering.
We went to a store that sells oolong tea. Oolong 烏龍 is just another tea somewhere between green and black/red tea. Taiwan is known for it’s high quality oolong tea and I think it’s the most popular tea in Taiwan, followed by green. The tea man allowed us to try his oolong tea and taste the difference between the more expensive stuff and the cheaper tea leaves. We also had a nifty cup to smell the tea.
I’ve always been used to oolong tea being pretty bitter, but the highest quality leaves surprisingly barely have any bitterness. The subtle sweetness that kicks in at the end of oolong tea was still there too. 
The tea was had a very rich flavor and flowery aroma which lasted for several steepings. The lower quality leaves, have a more pronounced bitterness and the flavor quickly runs out with additional steepings. The tea man also told us that good tea leaves don’t need to be roasted. He told us that it was simply a marketing gimmick. Interesting. Also that tea that goes into bags are the leftover stuff - hah.
After enjoying a few cups of good and not-quite-as-expensive-but-still-pretty-good tea, Anju and Joe bought some tea and we left. We ended our day over at an all-you-can-eat nabe restaurant. Another day well spent.
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