#761 - Taiwan 2014 Day 4 - 阿宗麵線 / 50嵐 / 鬍鬚張魯肉飯 / Wufenpu (五分埔) / Raohe St. Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市)

Day 4 of Taiwan and there weren't many photos taken! Still I want to document what I did down here.

Woke up early in the morning and had breakfast at the famous 阿宗麵線!

It was just a few minutes walk away from our hotel.

 阿宗麵線 大碗 (NT$65)

Shared this w my LMZ and I added super lots of garlic. Damn shiokkkk!

It's different from our Singapore's oyster meesua and they use large intestines instead of oysters. I ate them!! I guess only in Taiwan can I stomach innards hahaha.

My brother was telling me he ate the large intestines thinking that Taiwan oysters have a different textures. His friend lied to him haha.

I would definitely eat this again!

阿宗麵線

台北市万华区峨眉街8-1号

Nearest Station: 西門, Ximen Station, Line 5 (Blue Line)

Spent the day shopping and exploring 西門町, finally, after staying at the area for a few days.

Le cousin wanted to get a moomin and we ended up at this soft toy cum cafe place where there were a lot of softtoys.

 Clearly I am bad at posing.

Was told to delete the photos soonafter because we didn't order anything. Heck.

波霸奶茶 (NT$45)

So cheap for a big cup! Love the pearls, they are the small kinds and the milk tea is nice too.

Did my research prior to the trip and many said KOI is under 50嵐? Okay I just headed to the 50嵐 website to verify and yes KOI is under them. They have a lot of outlets everywhere!

50嵐
台北市萬華區漢中街136號
Nearest Station: 西門, Ximen Station, Line 5 (Blue Line)

Wandered into this 不起眼 underground shop at the same building as our hotel and they sell a lot of random tops and I found 2 affordable flannel top/jacket in my favourite prints!!

Those are my flannel top/jacket in that basket and me in something I probably wouldn't wear back in Singapore. HAHAHA. Jacket doesn't match I know... and I have already sold the pants! Hahaha.

Who goes to Taiwan without having their 魯肉飯 right!! So we turned up at 鬍鬚張魯肉飯 on our fourth day in Taiwan.

Initially our plan was to have it on our first day when we touched down for dinner at 金峰魯肉飯 but we didn't have time due to delays! It was one of the highly raved 魯肉飯 in Taiwan and claimed to be better than 鬍鬚張魯肉飯! Oh well.

苦瓜排骨湯 (NT$75)

水耕A菜 (NT$45)

I have no idea what veggies this was, but they taste like 油菜.

老皮嫩肉 (NT$24)

The sauce was a little cold. :(

魯肉飯 (NT$35)

Oooh loveeeee it! So much fats and that is usually what I hate when I eat pork, but this bowl was so good??? The pork fats just melt in your mouth. Also, it was very savoury! I can eat up to 3 bowls of this!

 鬍鬚張魯肉飯

台北市永吉路533號

Nearest Station: 後山埤, Houshanpi Station, Line 5 (Blue Line)

Go out from Exit 1.

We spent the afternoon roaming Wufenpu (五分埔), a wholesale market known for their clothings. That place is like a maze. @.@ So many twists and turns. Most of the clothes were those suitable for the weather/season then, many long sleeves and thick wool items so we left the place empty-handed. The prices weren't that affordable too and most of the time you have to buy more than 2/3 pieces to enjoy the wholesale prices.

After wandering a bit there, we were somewhat "lost" and lucky the shop sellers there were friendly and guided us out!

Maybe I would go back there again, at a different season, that is. Also read online that the best time to go would be on Fridays or Saturdays and at timings of about 3-4pm because most blogs stated that the shops open at 1pm plus. Many only said to avoid Mondays because that day is for wholesales only! Ohhhh and to bring lots of cash because they don't accept credit cards.

Wufenpu (五分埔)

台北市信義區永吉路

Nearest Station: 後山埤, Houshanpi Station, Line 5 (Blue Line)

Go out from Exit 1.

Decided to head to Raohe St. Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市) after that. It was a walkable distance from 五分埔 actually.

It was a wrong choice.

Perhaps it was a public holiday (New Year), the place was super crowded. We had to stop a few minutes before moving. It was that bad. D:

I didn't even get to eat the famous 福州世祖胡椒餅. :'(

骰子牛肉 (NT$

But we had these simple yet awesome beef cubes from 火焰骰子牛 in 玫瑰礦盐 flavour! Love it! The beef on its own is juicy.... and there wasn't a lot of tendon inside.

魷魚 (NT$

Then we had another yummy food too!

Squid in lemon and something flavour. I can't remember.

But the lemon gave it a zesty taste and went well together w the squid. Super nice!

十全大补湯 (NT$

We all had a bowl of hearty 藥才湯 to keep us warm too. Super rich and nice. Sorry my vocabulary is very limited hahaha.

So sad we didn't get to 逛 the place properly and try those best-sellers there. I saw a store 爆漿玉子燒 and the queue was like super duper long? Probably will take 30mins or so. My cousin and I were eyeing for it but our mums were the kind who hated to queue so no 爆漿玉子燒 for us. :'( It looked damn good lah!! We were saying, had we travelled alone, we'd have queued for it and headed back to the hotel late hahaha.

Raohe St. Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市)

台北市松山區饒河街

Nearest Station: 松山, Songshan Station, Line 3 (Green Line)

Ending this entry w my humble amount of loots for the day!

#760 - Taiwan 2014 Day 3 - 阜杭豆漿 / King Mango (芒果皇帝) / 燈籠滷味 / Shida Night Market (師大夜市) / 2015 New Year Countdown at Taipei 101 (台北101)

Day 3 in Taiwan had us waking up early and queuing at 阜杭豆漿!

It was highly recommended when I did my research on places to eat in Taiwan and therefore we couldn't miss it.

The queue was super long even though we reached quite early at about 8plus!

Took a video to prove my point lol. It stretched all the way to Level 2 where the eatery is!

The view along the way! 善導寺, train station here is named after it!

Being filial daughters, we queued while our mums sat at the seats available at the side. :D

Morning bloatedness and beady eyes. OTL

They even have a queue path! It really IS crazy.
I saw a few Singaporeans along the way but most of the people who queued were Taiwaneses. It must be really worth the hype uh!

When we entered the place, at the side, there was this glass panel and we could see the kitchen.

Like similar cooking style to naan?

Order and pay and wait for them to be put on the trays!

My advice is to get someone to queue and another to find seats while you are about to reach. This place is really packed.

We queued for like 1 and a half hour. :O

厚餅蛋夹油條 (NT$60) / 薄燒餅 (NT$22)

It's like any savoury 燒餅 you were expecting. Served hot so they were good. Doesn't look like it but they were really filling.

鹹豆漿 (NT$30)
This was one of their specialties, 豆浆 in the savoury version! Tasted like chawanmushi, I like! Best to eat when it's hot. :)

熱豆漿 (NT$25)
Their soya milk was rich in flavour and really warms the stomach!

Overall, I felt that the food was pretty decent but I don't think it's worth queuing 1 and a half hour for! I am unsure if it is because that day was a New Year's Eve which contributed to the super long queue but from what I recall reading from others' entries, they do have queues generally so come early! :)

 阜杭豆漿 (closed on Mondays)
台北市忠孝東路一段108號 (華山市場2F)
Nearest Station: 善導寺站, Shandao Temple Station, Line 5 (Blue Line)

Went to walk walk a little at 東門 area and then we stumbled upon this dessert place.

原创新鲜綜合水果冰 (NT$180)
We had this huge and awesome bowl of snow ice dessert w fruits! Super filling for 4 of us and they were really generous w the fruits. It was so good and the fruits were really sweet and fresh. We had it again the next day even though it was really cold.

King Mango (芒果皇帝)
台北市大安區永康街2巷2之1號
Nearest Station: 東門, Dongmen Station, Line 2 (Red Line)
Go out from Exit 5, head straight and turn right into 永康街 and walk a bit more. The place will be on your right.

Spend a while at this place too. A pity I wasn't into skincare products then or I am sure I would have gotten a lot of anti-aging stuff haha.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at 東區 (if I recall correctly) and then headed to 師大夜市 which is known to have more affordable stuff to shop since it was near National Taiwan Normal University (台湾师范大学), where prices were catered to the students.

Chanced upon this place selling steaming hot buns and we had to get 1 each for ourselves. Bought two big buns to share which were not bad!

We thought that it would be obvious that we are at 師大夜市 like it's a specific place just like 士林市场 but we were wrong. We asked so many people for the directions and many didn't know! Some told us wherever we stood was 師大夜市 already!

That was really unexpected. I really expected some signs or something hahaha.

We walked awhile more and stumbled upon such junctions. I guess we really are at 師大夜市already hahaha. There weren't much to shop at there since it was considered "winter" season and most of the clothes were long sleeves which are not suitable for Singapore's weather. D:

Managed to get some safety shorts and socks at a cheap price though!

Spotted this 燈籠滷味 stall and there were quite a number of people there and thus we decided to have it for dinner.

Assorted 滷味

Chose many items to share w the LMZ including stuff I don't eat/never eat before like eg. 大肠 and 猪血. It was a little like kwap chye kind of feel to me w all the innards? Also added normal stuff like 豆干 and 豆腐皮... and 王子面. Omy I love 王子面, it's so springy and nice!

Okay, I also tried 大肠 after the last time I had it (which was a bad experience) and surprisingly I could swallow it and it tasted pleasant! Also, 猪血 is quite nice?? Like salty and doesn't have a strong Iron taste unlike liver. I love it. I can't believe I actually tried 2 stuff which I usually will just be disgusted at. This time I just 豁出去了. Hahaha.

Oh, and I remembered vividly after ordering this, when we settled down, I had this really bad tummyache where it sent cold chills down the spine and it was on the edge (lol tmi) and I had to rush to a nearby restaurant's toilet. #justsaying Lucky the toilet had toilet paper! There were no lights in the toilet lor, but no choice, it was really urgent lol.

I really like the food here even though it wasn't something I'd eat back in Singapore (innards are still disgusting to me plus 猪血 is banned in SG).

燈籠滷味
 台北市大安區師大路43號
Nearest Station: 台電大樓, Taipower Building Station, Line 3 (Green Line)

There were some popular food recommendations at 師大夜市 which are 生煎包 and 可麗餅 but it was a pity we didn't find them!

Shida Night Market (師大夜市)
台北市大安區龍泉街
Nearest Station: 台電大樓, Taipower Building Station, Line 3 (Green Line)

Thereafter, we headed to Taipei 101 area to walk a bit before finding a good spot to settle down and wait for the countdown to begin.

Blogging about 2015 New Year countdown 9 months late. #coollikethis

Slowly the crowd started to build up! Some even brought their rice cooker etc and set up their dinner there. (Y)

The night was getting deeper and it got colder as well. So glad we got 暖暖包 from 7-11 earlier on. You just shake it and it will heat up and keep you warm. The wind was quite strong and breathing through the nose kinda hurt after that so we were all in masks or had scarves wrapped around our faces.

Excited to count down in another country for the first time!
Plus eagering waiting for fireworks display! :)

So pretty! Stood up capturing this and ended up sitting down because my arms got sore. At one period in the video, I even asked my LMZ to support my arm hahaha.

Braving the cold was worth it! It was such a pretty sight. *.*
I cant never get sick of watching fireworks because no firework is the same!!

One of the items on my bucket list is to watch fireworks in Yokohama, Japan during their Fireworks Festivals. Their fireworks are out of the world!!

Is it too late to say Happy 2015??? HAHAHA. 9 months late to be exact! :X

Taipei 101 (台北101)
台北市信義路五段7號
Nearest Station: 台北101, Taipei 101 Station, Line 2 (Red Line) / 市政府, Taipei City Hall Station, Line 5 (Blue Line)
For Taipei 101 Station, go out from Exit 4/ For Taipei City Hall Station, go out from Exit 2 and walk for about 10 minutes.