Hello! I am continuing my travelogue on my family's trip to Taiwan last month. Here're the links to the previous 3 entries if you haven't yet read them!
Taiwan Trip Day 1 Taichung - Chun Shui Tang Teahouse, Fengchia 台湾，台中，春水堂，逢甲夜市
Taiwan Trip Day 2 Taichung - Sun Moon Lake 台湾，台中，日月潭
Taiwan Trip Day 3: Taichung to Taipei, Beitou Museum, Dan Shui 台中到台湾，北投温泉博物馆，淡水老街
Day 4 was yet another rainy day, sadly! The drizzle was definitely more bearable than the previous day's heavy rain though.
People travel by scooters quite a lot in Taiwan! I think that's partly why the metro's not very crowded most of the time.
We popped into a bakery near Minquan. W Metro Station 民权西路捷运站 for our breakfast:
Garlic bread was soooooooooooo tender it was like biting into a pilllowy cloud
Our first destination of the day:
Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂! Take the metro on the Songshan-Xindian (green) line to the C.K.S Station.
QTpies
We reached just in time to catch the changing of guards ceremony!
Which basically involved many visitors recording with their smartphones.
Papa included LOL.
Han and I were... not being very serious about the whole thing hahahaha
Han: "Haha you see everyone here taking photo of that then we taking selfie here"
Small eyes courtesy of Papa Ng
When the guards finally remained stationary in their positions, I was able to get closer to the bronze statue of Mr. Chiang and read the accompanying words on the wall! Gosh it was quite difficult because of how small the font is and the script is rather cursive. I remember it all being very patriotic and democratic.
Han took this and changed his Whatsapp group chat's icon to it hahahahahah. Acutely observing the guard, I noticed that he didn't blink or move at all when there was a crowd around him! Only when the crowd dispersed and there wasn't direct attention on him did he relax his grip a bit. That's quite a feat... I fidget quite a bit so I don't think I'd ever manage that haha.
Mommy is so pretty! (:
Wandered down to the the other floors of the complex... If you approach the memorial hall from its front, you'd easily mistake that it only has stairs leading up to the 4th floor where the change of guards takes place! The entrances to the memorial hall are on each side of the building if you stand facing the statue.
On the first floor, we stepped into the exhibition hall:
I'm not very familiar with Chinese or Taiwanese history, so I was asking Mommy about who Chiang Kai-shek was... He ruled Mainland China after Sun Yat-sen, but there was a rift betwen his political party (Nationalists) and the opposing one (Communists), which led to a fight that Chiang's party lost. The
description on his Wikipedia page goes "Chiang's government and army retreated to Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted people critical of his rule in a period known as the 'White Terror'"'. Whereas on this map it simply goes "From Mainland to Taiwan". Some would think of it as an escape. It's so interesting how words can be manipulated to subtly display your perspective, no?
Chiang and his mother ; Chiang and his family
Chiang and his wife!
Perhaps his penchant for leaving developed early... I kid. In another information panel it showed that Chiang continued on to another school, a military school this time!
Grams and me!!
The president's ride. Pretty sweet, huh
AESTHETICS BRUH (I don't know what this means I just always hear Han say it hhahaha)
It was such a gloomy day again with the rain! But we braved on ahead to our second destination:
Longshan Temple (龍山寺). There's a Metro stop called Longshan Temple on the Bannan Line (blue)!
Longshan Temple
Address: No. 211, Guangzhou Street, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 10853
Visitors hrs: 0600 – 2200
Granny very enthusiastically (am I spelling this right) shuffling her way past the crowds around from hall to hall and getting her prayers in hehe
The main god in Longshan Si is
Guan-Yin 观音 (here in this photo!), whom my family prays to. It's all very confusing for me because I don't even know the differences between a 庙 and a 寺; apparently it has to do with whether there's a 神 in the temple or not. I also don't really know the origins of the Buddha and bodhisattvas but all I know is I always feel very calm when I pray to Guan-Yin. I feel a sense of closeness and I guess that's what religion really is to me.
IT WAS LUNCH TIME! And this my friends, is where I get really excited because this place was the one place that literally pleased all 6 of us and our dining experience there was such a delight!
We headed, on the same line, down to 府中 Fu Zhong Station to
Tasty 西堤牛排! It's a recommendation by my mom's friend so we didn't really know what food to expect besides duh, steak. There's a bit of European influence to the restaurant, and they only have a set menu option! Yup, no ala carte options.
For some categories, the dish is fixed, like the appetiser, which is fixed at Seafood with Curried Yogurt Sauce, but for others, like Salads, you can choose amongst 4 choices. In total there are
6 courses with a Sawa (a direct translation from the word "sour", I figure anyway!! It's a sour drink meant to clear the palate between courses) and another drink (iced tea, milk tea, coffee, etc.).
You can check out the full menu here:
Tasty's website
The first course! 風味海鮮 / Seafood with Curried Yogurt Sauce
蘿美+美生菜沙拉 /Romaine + Lettuce Salad
Crunchy romaine
時鮮水果沙拉 / Fruit Salad
焗烤蘑菇+方塊麵包 / Baked Mushrooms with Garlic and Cheese + Squared Toasts
The toast was the highlight of this dish. After having tasted bread in Taiwan, I must say that they definitely can compete with bakeries in Paris. This was lightly buttered on the outside and soft & fluffy on the inside!
Daddy happily jumped up to snap a photo for us, but our waitress offered to help us take one!
Our waitress was reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally very attentive, so very cheery and helpful. The mark of a good wait staff is, for the duration of that particular meal, displaying that your one and only desire is for your patrons to be enjoying themselves and their food. No for reals, you have to do it with absolute sincerity and yearning, and our waitress really did! Actually, I'm kidding... Personally for me, as long as the wait staff isn't rude and not tipping food on me, I'm pretty satisfied already but our waitress really made me feel like she wanted me to have a carefree and enjoyable meal at Tasty. *tears of joy*
杏鮑菇南瓜濃湯 / Pumpkin Soup with King Oyster Mushroom
蔬菜培根巧達濃湯 / Vegetable Chowder with Bacon
My mom and I shared one meal because.... we wouldn't be able to finish so much food by ourselves. Initially I was a bit reluctant to do this because, y'knw in some restaurants they're kind of snobby about people sharing meals?? Well our server totally didn't display any of that and even offered empty plates for us to share!
Kor the happiest he was during our entire trip. Besides being high on cheap beer on numerous occasions hahahahahaha. I told my mom "I like Kor better when he's high" HAHAHAHAHAHA #siblingproblems
香煎雙鴨佐紅酒醬 / Pan-Fried Duck Breast with Red Wine Sause
Granny's choice because she doesn't eat beef! There's also the choice of fish, pork and chicken thou.
The duck was so tender with such a crisp skin!
原塊牛排 (美) / Roasted Steak (original flavour, there's another with garlic sauce!)
Kor got the beef stew instead of the steak and this had absolutely the melt-in-your-mouth kind of tenderness!
So very juicy
IT WAS ALL SO YUMMY!!!
Then it was on to dessert...
布蕾奶凍捲 / Crème Brulée and Panna Cotta Roll
Kor got this
法式乳酪蛋糕 / Cheese Cake
Han got this. I didn't particularly like this because the base was a chocolate sponge! Whatever happened to digestive biscuits or buttery biscuit crumbs haha
While momsy and I shared a Chocolate Tart with a scoop of Vanilla! I really liked that the chocolate wasn't very sweet and the tart base had a bite to it.
Rounding everything off with my beloved milk tea!!!!!!!!
(the third photo in the second row is the passionfruit sawa drink!)
This entire meal costs one person
NT$518 with 10% service charge. That's approximately S$25! It's so worth it to have your meal at Tasty! They have many outlets so do give it a go if you're in Taiwan. The one that we were at was the 板橋中山店 (Address: 新北市板橋區中山路一段6號2樓). Just note that they have siesta periods so do check for each outlet what their opening hours are. (:
We then went on to our third destination of the day:
Xi Men Ding (西門町)
Address: 台北市峨嵋街8號之1
Opening Hrs: 11:00 to 22:30 (Mon – Thu); 11:00 to 23:00 (Fri – Sun)
Was very tickled when I saw this sign... Why do they use the word "yield"! It made think of knights in armour on horses. Sparring matches.
The rain was really relentless again so our time at Xi Men Ding wasn't at all ideal... I think Taiwan is best experienced in sunny weather because many of their places of interest and shopping streets are located in areas without shelter!
Managed to get 阿宗面线 Ah Zong Mee Sua, which actually, was perfect to consume in the chilly weather!
It was really shiok to slurp up the hot and savoury soup and thin noodles in the cold 'cos it warms you right up.
The Google Maps app does list the popular locations, like Ah Zong, but when I looked for
康德美 Cosmed, I was sent to one OUT of Xi Men Ding when there was one right smack in XMD:
Sobs I made my parents and granny travel such a long way in the rain )':
Managed to get some face masks thou!
My Beauty Diary 我的美麗日記 is sold in Singapore but because of the frequent sales and promotions that Cosmed (which is a drugstore like Watsons or Guardian) has, it's cheaper to buy it there! Cosmed was having buy 2 get 1 free promotions for My Beauty Diary at NT$549.
Sexy Look (also available in Singapore hahahah) specialises in, as you can probably tell, black masks! They cost NT$299 for two boxes.
My Scheming Mask 我的心机 - I know, what a name - is also a Taiwanese brand! That cost NT$299 for two boxes as well.
I also bought lip liners from Etude House because I had run out and I don't foresee myself heading to Korea anytime soon hahahahaha.
Huimin had asked if I could buy coffee beans so I searched for
蜂大咖啡... Whilst walking toward it, a store selling 黄梨稣 pineapple biscuits caught my granny's attention so my family ducked into the store, then I spotted Fong Da Coffee across the street! Hurriedly crossing the road with heavy bags of skincare products, I just stepped into the store. Huimin was whatsapping me the flavour she wanted and I was sort of distractedly talking to the store owner about what their popular coffee beans was, 'cos I wanted to get a bag for my family as well. Happy with my two bags of coffee, I turned to the counter to pay for my purchases, but to my dismay I saw the words
南美咖啡 behind the owner......... ;_;
I had stepped into the wrong store!!!! How is this even possible...... I had seen the right store while across the street, but... SOMETIMES I REALLY V BLUR LA. I texted Huimin immediately and she laughed at me, but honestly the stores were just next to each other:
Sigh! But my mom said we could just give the other packet of coffee beans away to my paternal granny and so we did! I bought the right coffee beans for Minzx but have yet to pass them to her
Do you watch Taiwanese variety shows? If you do, you might know the people below!
They're Taiwanese personalities... My brothers had split from us and were waiting for us near the MRT station when they said there was a commotion. They were filming a show! The twins 郭彥均 and 郭彥甫 have such good complexions!!!
My dad is an avid watcher of Taiwanese variety shows so he recorded a snippet of them like any fangirl would hahahahahaha.
It was close to evening but we had had a long day so Granny, Momsy and Kor went back to our hotel (which is Hotel Sunroute Taipei 台北灿路都大饭店 - read the previous Day 3's entry for its location!) first. I was still raring to go (since my desire to shop had been fueled by the discovery of false eyelashes hahahaha) so Daddy and Han went with me to our next stop:
Shi Da Night Market 師大夜市
Address: Lane 44, Taishun Street, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Take Songshan-Xindian (Green) Line to Taipower Building Station - Ask for directions from the metro staff! It's about a 5 min walk away. It's something like turn right upon exiting Exit 3 then right again and just walk all the way straight.
Drinking my second favourite drink, papaya milk!!!!!!!! :D
I really like Shi Da. It's like the
Haji Lane of Taipei hahahaha. Except they sell papaya milk and da chang bao xiao chang there. Also, my brothers really didn't like XMD because it was extremely crowded, but besides that, the clothing and apparel there just didn't appeal to their fashion styles... At Shi Da, there're noticeably fewer people around - it's much easier to walk around leisurely and check out stuff you like. If you're like me and your brain goes into paralysis when there're too many people around, Shi Da's a lot less
stressful. I managed to get a long sleeved chiffon blouse! To be honest thou, Taiwanese fashion isn't really my cuppa teaaaaaaaa. At least, what was being sold at night markets wasn't. Well because it was quite chilly the time we were there, most girls were wearing jumpers, turtlenecks, coats and jackets, so it was difficult to tell what kind of clothes they'd wear in the summer. Before my trip there I had researched a bit on Taiwanese local labels and they looked pretty interesting... Shall remember those for future trips and also when I haz moolah ;D
We wandered around for a bit and found this menswear store that caught Han's attention..
Papa was interested in this sweater which was going at NT1000 at a 1-for-1 promotion! Sadly he didn't like the colours available in his size but because it was a change of season the sales dude cut the price down to NT$400 (~S$17.60) if we'd just take one, and if you've noticed, I've now changed the use of pronoun to be the inclusive WE because... I TOOK THE AVAILABLE SIZE!!!! Muahahahahah
The grey one is so SLOUCHY AND COMFY I LOVE ITTTTTTTTT!!!!!! At S$17.60 too, whoop! I am in love with it. Thank you Daddy for getting it for me!!!! (:
The stuff at Shi Da's less mass-produced and a tad more hipster than those apparel sold at XMD or Shilin... There were tons of glasses, necklaces, bags accessories and such! I highly recommend going to Shi Da (:
Went back to Formosa Chang on Minquan W Road to have dinner (sorry no pics, we were famished!) and whilst there, I got the news through email that I didn't get the internship I applied for. *sadface*
SADFACE. I AM DEVASTATED I AM CRUSHED
Watched Spongebob for a bit - in Chinese! Spongebob is called 海绵宝宝 - to cheer myself up but it didn't work. *SADFACE*
In any case, it was an exceptional day! Especially the trips to Tasty and Shi Da, such brilliant atmosphere at both places.
Await my 5th day entry, we head to Jiu Fen next! :D
Love,
Pamela
Labels: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Longshan Temple, Shi Da Night Market, Taipei, Taiwan, Tasty Steak 西堤牛排, the ng family, Travel Entries, traveling, Xi Men Ding
