It's been almost a week since I'm back from TW but I think I should really get around to getting this post up or the desire to do so will fade away just like it did for our BKK trip last year.

Sab and I decided on an impromptu trip just one week before our departure date because we will both probably be starting work next year and it will get more difficult to sync our schedules then. And also because I initially promised to bring her to HK Disneyland at year-end but scrapped the idea because the exchange rate is really bad. Imagine our joy and excitement when we booked this trip just days before! The excitement did not even have time to sink in before we found ourselves en route to the airport to the land of awesome street food and milk tea!

The flight was so damn uncomfortable and as usual, I did not manage to sleep on the plane. But I did grab some shuteye at Sab's place prior to departure. But I somehow survived on that hour or so of sleep for the whole of Day 1. We obtained our data sim card at one of the telecom stations (approx $12 for 5 days of unlimited data). Then we randomly hopped onto one of the buses at the terminal after asking some questions and not fully understanding what the conductor had said. Luckily enough, the driver explained to all the puzzled passengers that were heading to Ximen station to alight and transfer to another bus. The bus was just leaving the airport and that was when I caught my first Farfetch'd! Sab only has a sighting but it appeared on my screen so I was so apologetic to her and kept reassuring her that we would definitely catch others over the next few days. It was still too early to check in so we put down our luggage at the hotel and went to roam about Ximending.

 

It was drizzling quite abit so we had to lug our luggage to the hotel which is 5mins away from the station. I have no idea why Sab was wearing my jacket though. 

This beef cubes thing was so damn good that I think we ordered it at least once everyday. By the second day, we were ordering NTD200 (SGD8) portions instead of the primary NTD100 option, because there really just wasn't enough to go around. We had it in rose salt flavour for the first day and after that, we simply got spiced salt for the other times.   

Our hotel was pretty close to A-zhong Mian Xian so we headed there first. It was still good, but I feel that the standard has really deteriorated throughout the years. And there are no oysters anymore, only the pig intestines. You just have to purchase their bottled chilli sauce and add it to any mianxian that you make and it will taste 90% the same as A-zhong's! We went back to the hotel to check in and nua a little before heading to Shilin Night Market. Honestly, the place was really badly organised and had too many alleys so I'm not sure if we managed to finish walking all the stalls. Moreover, the place mostly had game stalls and only some souvenir stalls. Wouldn't recommend it anymore. Seems like the place has changed quite abit since the last time I was there. However, we chanced upon this cake shop that we initially wanted to visit but it was at Danshui so we decided to forgo it. But lucky us found a branch right here at Shilin and oh my god the cake was heavenly.

Coming from someone that detests cake and probably has it only like twice per year, it is really sooooooo damn good! And for about $3 for an entire block of cake, it's so worth it. It comes in two flavours- original and cheese. We got the original and couldn't even finish half even after having it for breakfast the next morning too. The weather was chilly and the cake was freshly baked. The smell, taste and texture of it comes together to give it a very homely feel of old school vibes. I'm not kidding when I say that I can have one slice of this cake every morning. And I don't usually eat cake even. And although the guy dishing out the heavenly cake was wearing a face mask, Sab and I both agreed that he is really good looking. I don't give compliments easily so ladies, trust my taste and just shang ba. It's somewhere in Shilin so just walk around. Good things must put in effort one. Other than that, Shilin was pretty boring. We didn't even find the famous massive chicken cutlet that the place was famous for. Maybe we just weren't looking hard enough.

The queue for this fried potato stick thingy was really long so we went to get a queue number as well. But it turned out pretty meh only. Really doesn't justify the 10min wait. There was this Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang stall that sells sausages wrapped in glutinous rice right opposite this stall. That stall had at least 10 people in queue so we didn't bother queuing. Must make a mental note to try these highly acclaimed stalls next time.

Day 2 - We went to Wufenpu. The place was pretty meh and we managed to finish walking the entire place. I got myself a blue ombre(?) pullover and Sab got a pink top. Funnily enough, I bought five tops throughout the entire trip and they are all pullovers. I'm thankful that my tolerance to heat has improved quite a bit. Other than that, the items at Wufenpu were really pricey and some require you to buy a minimum amount of items. We then headed to Raohe night market when the sky got darker. And of course we can never resist fried quail eggs, a delicacy we had so much of in Bangkok as well. Come to think of it, I must have eaten at least 50 quail embryos and I actually feel a little bad inside.  

 

 

The place only had two lanes so it was pretty easy to walk. Walk up one lane and eat all the food, then walk back the other lane and eat somemore. This was our favourite night market so we ended up visiting it again on the last day. There was this pepper bun stall that had snaking queues on the two days we went, but apparently we didn't want to waste time so we didn't queue for them.

Apparently Sab was obsessed with brown sugar milk tea throughout our entire trip and we chanced upon this stall that has brown sugar pearls. But it turned out pretty meh, although we must say that the pearls in TW are really fresh and chewy, a phenomenon rarely found in Singapore, especially from those Kois and Gongchas that probably cut down on preparation time and produce substandard pearls. 

Can I just express my pure adoration of sweet potato balls? I think I had this every single day because they were just so good! Sab dislikes the taste of WW2 food so she detested it. I had this in cheese, which came with cheese powder on the top, and it was amazingggggggg!

This is Sab's favourite street food throughout our entire trip. Coming from someone that doesn't even like milk, which explains her lower centre of gravity (see what I did there?), she could not get enough of this. Prudent her went for just one stick the first time round and got addicted so we ended up buying three more sticks. 

Day 3 saw us visit the Taipei Zoo! We were initially skeptical of the standard of the zoo in comparison with Singapore's because the entrance fee is just NTD60, which is barely even $3. Our fears were proven right because although the place was pretty huge, each exhibit only had one animal and we could clearly see that they were lonely and distressed. One of the lemurs that we saw was pacing up and down the window pane, completely oblivious to visitors. And the animals all looked so sad. It was starting to drizzle so we bought ponchos! We hopped on the tram, which was only NTD5 per pax, which was about $0.20. I have no idea how they make money over there. 

We found Harambe!

The prairie dog was really cute and fat that he(?) reminded us on Curious when he was munching on that green plant/vegetable. Sadly, it seemed like he was the only one in there so he must have been really lonely.  :(

We headed over to Tonghua/Linjiang might market after that but it was really small. I don't think we managed to eat much there either.



We had this milk tea snow ice which was really good too!

Day 4: We had no plans for this day, other than Shida at night. So we had KFC at Ximending for lunch and decided to head over to Taipei 101 and see if we can find our way up the tower. The entrance ticket to enter the observatory was NTD600 or approx $24 so we decided not to head up. We were rather aimless so we decided to head over to SOGO to see if there was anything to do there.

This matcha ice cream is really good and can be found near the KFC in ximending.

It was pure madness at SOGO because I think they were having a 15% storewide sale. The ladies' departments were chock full of people and promoters so we had to escape the building to even breathe. Then we headed to Shida night market when the sky started to get dark, but it was so disappointing. The government had changed the layout of the place and it was so hard to even find food there. The stores were also pretty meh and the prices were quite expensive, probably because the shops were permanent and not makeshift. We decided to leave and pay Raohe another visit before we returned to SG.

 

I really liked this cheese potato thing with ham and bacon inside, but Sab said the cheese tasted like cheap cheese. I finished it nonetheless, being the eternal glutton that I am. 

Oh my, this coffin bread is simply amazing. We had it in kimchi pork flavour and were expecting it to be just another average street food. Oh boy, how mistaken we were. I could have ordered another of this and finished it all by myself. And mind you, I was already super full at that point of time. Of course, we had grilled mushrooms too, which are always Sab's go-to food. 

This was our very first bowl of braised beef noodles. I felt that the broth was really good, especially when it was raining. And the beef was so abundant! For just $6, I think that it's super worth it. And because I am forbidden to have beef at home, the beef dishes in Taiwan totally fed my cravings. 

Tripping with Sab always gives me the longing feeling whenever I return to SG. I am really bad at map reading so her directional sense really saved the day for us on several occasions. And the slow pace of the trip really accorded us time to relax and take things slowly, without the mentality that we were wasting precious time because we haven't ticked things off our itinerary. I'm really looking forward to our next trip with her family to HK in December! To a million more trips with you, my love 💗.