Left the apartment at around late morning.
1) Walked to 永和豆漿 - Yong He Dou Jiang; a popular Taiwanese breakfast stall, but it was too crowded and we were too famished to wait :( So we walked further up and saw 永和豆漿大王! No crowd at all... as the varieties are really limited but still, we decided to try it. We ordered too much fried doughsticks and its were so so oily! Blahh~ did not finish it nor dare to dip in the soy milk, as I'm afraid that it might ruin the delicious soy milk.
1) Walked to 永和豆漿 - Yong He Dou Jiang; a popular Taiwanese breakfast stall, but it was too crowded and we were too famished to wait :( So we walked further up and saw 永和豆漿大王! No crowd at all... as the varieties are really limited but still, we decided to try it. We ordered too much fried doughsticks and its were so so oily! Blahh~ did not finish it nor dare to dip in the soy milk, as I'm afraid that it might ruin the delicious soy milk.
Ordered:
豆漿 - Soybean milk. TWD 25
起司蛋餅 - Cheese egg crêpe. TWD 48
油条 X2 - Fried breadstick/ Chinese doughnut. TWD 50
薄燒油条 - Fried breadstick wrapped with egg crêpe. TWD 55 (Recommended by the staff)
油条 X2 - Fried breadstick/ Chinese doughnut. TWD 50
薄燒油条 - Fried breadstick wrapped with egg crêpe. TWD 55 (Recommended by the staff)
荷包蛋 - Fried egg. TWD 15
Total cost: TWD 185 (S$8.05)
Cheese egg crêpe
After a fulfilling oily breakfast, we headed to SOGO! Its a huge department store like SG's Tangs Plaza/ Ion Orchard.From XMD station, take Ban Nan line (Blue) to Zhong Xiao Fu Xing station (~8 minutes ride).
Did not purchase anything and left the department store within 30 minutes. Do note that there's actually 2 SOGO stores in this district. The one we went is Fu Xing store which is located right outside the station, another one is called Zhong Xiao store and its about 5-10 minutes walk away.
Click here for more info of SOGO.
There are a lot of fashion, cafes and barbecue/ hotpot shops in ZXFU area. Sourced about 5 cafes that I want to go but due to time constraint, only managed to go 1 out of 5 :(
2) Visiro Café & Smile Beauty. Address: 大安區敦化南路一段177巷14號, Taipei, Taiwan 105
Website: https://www.facebook.com/visirosmile/
Its a pretty long walk from ZXFX station (~ 20 minutes walk) OR take the train to Zhong Xiao Dun Hua station and follow Exit 8 (~ 5 minutes walk to the cafe).
A modern and sleek look of a cafe with interesting concept, that also promotes and sells oral hygiene products.
Leon's Hazelnut latte - recommended by the staff.
Cost: TWD 160 (S$6.95)
Mine. Lemon and Honey - recommended by the staff too!
Very soothing and refreshing.
Cost: TWD 150 (S$6.50)
Must try: EGG WAFFLE
Green tea & Azuki beans with green tea ice cream - recommended by the staff
Crispy crust and soft and chewy in the inside. The azuki beans and ice cream are home-made.
Not too sweet at all, freaking delicious!
Cost: TWD 240 (S$10.40)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/PEGCoffee
The nearest mrt is at Liuzhangli and a 5-7 minutes walk to the cafe. Although I am not a fan of coffee but I was so excited to visit this place, after googling and realised that there's such cafe! So impressed with the number of figurines, toys, paintings and posters that the owner owned. Each table has a figurine to take picture with!
Coffee machine that is filled with Onepiece ornaments.
I ordered Rose latte.
Beautiful latte art, taste really smooth and aromatic.
Cost: TWD 180 (S$7.80)
Leon's Mochacino.
A coffee lover himself but he doesn't like it.
But firstly, we filled up our tummy with the highly rated braised pork rice at:
4) Formosa Chang's Braised Pork rice - 鬍鬚張魯肉飯. Address: No. 533號, Yongji Rd, Nangang District, Taipei City, Taiwan 115
From ZXDH station, take to Houshanpi station (~7 minutes ride) and follow Exit 3.
Ordered the set meal: White raddish soup, braised pork rice x 2 and braised egg.
Cost: TWD 118 (S$5.13)
SO CHEAP!
I would like to say that....
this is really the BEST braised pork rice that I had eaten so far in Taiwan! If only I wasn't so full at that time :( Would have gobble up another 2 more bowls.
5) 五分埔 - Wu Fen Pu
About 10 minutes walk from Formosa Chang's shop. Although its a wholesale garment market with up to 1000 shops selling huge varieties of clothes, accessories, shoes, bags and etc, but I only got a top from there :( Might be due to the change of season as 70% are winter wears but the shoes/accessories/bags are not cheap either. So disappointed!
After that, we moved on to Rao He night market to fill up our tummies!
6) 饒河街觀光夜市 - Rao He Night Market
Best to cover Wu Fen Pu and Rao He night market the same day, as they are just 10 minutes apart in walking distance. Just follow the sign/map and crowd, its quite straight forward!
OR if you're skipping Wu Fen Pu, take Green Line to Songshan station and Exit 3. The night market is just across the street, about 3 minutes walk.
慈佑宮 - Ci You Temple; built by local residents during the Qing Dynasty era.
The first thing that will catch your attention, and to its left is Rao He night market!
The night market was buzzing with excitement. Look at the crowd!
Rao He night market is one of the oldest markets in Taipei. It is 600-metre long packed with lots of food, snacks, carnival games and quaint shops. A stretch of temporary stalls are set up in the middle of the road and shop houses are lined up at both sides of the road.
I would suggest to enter from the entrance next to CiYou temple, go one way down, reach the end and u-turn to explore the other section and Songshan station would be just across the street.
First stall that you will see with lots of people queuing for it.
福州世祖胡椒饼 - Fu Zhou Black Pepper Buns
Cost: TWD 50
Smelly tofu again!
Oyster omelette
Leon's abaloneeee.
After that, we took the train back to XMD station, back to our BNB and rested for the day.
Here are some of the places that I wanted to visit in ZXFU area (If you did try, please let me know if they're really good!) :
1) 瞞著爹 丼飯店. Address: 台北市八德路二段346巷9弄17號
Sells mostly chirashi don.
2) 和茗甘味處 - Myowa cafe. Address: 台北市大安區金華街221號1樓
Green tea or matcha desserts
3) Coffee Alley. Address: 台北市大安區敦化南路一段187巷42號2樓
Western style. A pretty highly rated cafe in Taipei, must try their waffles.
4) 大腕燒肉專門店 - Da-Wan Yakiniku restaurant. Address: 台北市敦化南路一段177巷22號1樓
Said to be the best Japanese BBQ in Taiwan and even Japan.
Said to be the best Japanese BBQ in Taiwan and even Japan.
DAY SIX(30th Oct 2015)
Leon and I overslept ~.~ Quickly bought some buns at a shop before our apartment and quickly rushed to XMD station to meet the fam. Then, we took to Taipei main station and walked towards Taipei railway station (TRA).
Things got pretty complicated from here~ wanted to purchase the ticket to Rui Fang station and that we need to take Pingxi line (from what I read) but there were specific timings: 9.15am/ 10.15am/ 12pm. By the time we were there, the timing was around 10plus and the station was so so crowded! Couldn't find any ticket booth, asked the staff and realised that we can pay by easy card, so we just tapped in and followed the crowd and up to the platform. So many people going in and out of both sides of the trains and we don't even know which train to take as different timings have different train destinations. Thankfully, Sheena went up and asked the train staff but sadly, up till now, I still don't understand how the system works hahaha! Just ask the staffs when you're there, easy peasssssy!
Straight away walked to look for Shi Fen waterfall and I must say, it was a pretty long walk. Complaints on the way but it was enjoyable, get to feel the cool breeze and see the scenery! Roughly 30 minutes walk to the entrance?
Thought that we were reaching but... still have hike up to the waterfall~ Oh boy~
Another 15 minutes walk~
Got to see Leon's favourite pet. Lots of them.... and they are really huge.
Flight of stairs to climb and climbing is another thing. So tiring and humid here!
And we made it!!!
Walked back to Shi Fen old street, in search of food! We were so famished.
Settled for lunch at one random stall.
And of course, its a must to light up sky lanterns! Writing our wishes on it and sending it off to the skies for good luck or your wish to come true (hopefully).
After letting go of the lantern, we quickly rushed to take the 2:40 train but we did not make it and had to wait for another hour. The train timings are very on time so must sure to reach back the station earlier! Here's the timing from Shifen back to Rui Fang:
Leon and I went to walk around and took more pictures!
From Rui Fang station, we followed the sign towards Jiu Fen and Jin Gua Shi. We decided to visit Jiu Fen old street only.
Follow the picture above to take bus up to Jiu Fen, quite straight forward. You will see this Police station prior reaching the bus stop. Take bus number 788, 1062 or 856 and it will take you to the peak of Jiu Fen. Roughly 15 minutes ride.
Once we stepped out of the bus, it started pouring heavily. #sibeisuay
Took shelter at the bus stop for few minutes, hoping that it will become smaller but nope, it did not! Luckily I wore a rainproof jacket and brought an umbrella. Although we shared an umbrella but poor Leon was still drenched badly :(
By the time we reached there (~ 4pm), most of the stalls were closed. Sad that due to the heavy rain, we could not enjoy the beautiful scenery or see where's the filming spot (Miyazaki's Spirited Away movie) in Jiu Fen. Sigh~ Hope to visit again and taste more famous food!
Our first food pit stop at 九份老街 - Jiu Fen Old street:
1) *Forgotten the shop's name* Located at the first stall on the right of the entrance.
This is so good! Especially to fight off the cold. We ordered the ones with taro balls, sweet potato balls, pearls and traditional bean curd in hot ginger soup. Love the chewiness and softness of the glutinous balls!
Heard that 阿珠雪在燒 - A-zhu peanut ice cream roll is the famous one but we supported this cute old couple instead! Hehe! On top of the popiah skin, lies a layer of freshly grated candied peanuts topped off with 2 scoops of ice cream. Very interesting in flavour and texture!
Forever buying grilled mushrooms everywhere we went haha!
We ordered the combo yu yuan, which consists sweet potato balls, taro balls in red bean and sweet potato soup.
Cost: TWD 40 (S$ 1.75)
K, Bye.
Initially, we wanted to head to Keelung night market but it was still raining heavily, weather was pretty chilled and feeling so restless. Thus, we decided to head back to XMD and roam around there. We had our dinner at a Japanese restaurant in XMD then went in search for the famous...
7) 阿宗麵線 - Ah Zhong Mee Sua. Address: 台北市峨嵋街8號之1
Definitely nicer than SG's!
Then we headed back to our apartment and rested for the night. What a tiring yet fulfilling day!- Accommodations in Taiwan (HERE) - Tai Chung, Cing Jing & Tai Pei
- Jetting off to Taiwan Part One (HERE) - Tai Chung One day tour & Feng Jia Night Market
- Jetting off to Taiwan Part Two (HERE) - Nan Tou Half day tour, Cing Jing & Tai Pei
- Jetting off to Taiwan Part Four (HERE) - Tam Sui, Shihlin Night Market & Pin Tian Mu Chang
K, Bye.
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