The 5 days 4 nights trip was indeed quite fruitful (or packed). We visited most of the night markets for street food, many many local restaurants, as well as some very good creative markets that Taiwan is famous for.
We bought the Cathay Pacific Holiday Package from its website. Since we are always more inclined to choosing CX everytime, booking its holiday package makes sense to us.
Day 1: Arrived at Taipei at around 4 something in the afternoon. Visited Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) for dinner.
Day 2: Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產), Ximending (西門町), 桃源街老王記牛肉麵, Shi-dai Night Market (師大夜市).
Day 3: Kao Chi Xiaolongbao (高記小籠包), Song Shan Cultural Park (松山文創園區), Raohe Night Market (饒河夜市), Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市), Taipei 101.
Day 4: Maji Maji Creative Market (MAJI MAJI集食行樂), Expo Park (圓山花博公園), Yongkang Street (永康街), 度小月, 天津蔥抓餅, 大來小館, etc.
Day 5: Caught the 2pm flight for HKG
As you can see, the 5-day (indeed just 4-day) schedule was really packed. But that's me! I like spending every minute doing something and keeping myself busy and all occupied. That's just my style I guess. Maybe it is a bit too over for some. But as long as that is something that keeps me happy, I will keep doing it regardless of what others say.
Day 1
Shilin Night Market (士林夜市)
Address: Betweet Dadong Road, Danan Road, Wenlin Road and Jihua Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Online Ratings: Tripadvisor (4/5); Google (4.1/5)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★★☆☆; Service: n/a; Price: ★★★★☆; Variety: ★★★★★
Shilin Night Market is the largest (and most touristy) night markets in Taipei. It is around 5 minutes walk from Shilin train station. The market itself is very organized with a good mix of food stalls and boutiques selling different kinds of stuff. But since it is so popular among the tourists that I thought it is already losing the special charm that a local market has. But anyhow, the market offers some of the most famous food in Taipei that you don't want to miss.
The picture below features the famous Black Pepper Bun (胡椒餅) in the market. The stall is really popular that there is always a queue outside. Black pepper bun is a very traditional and local kind of pastry in Taiwan. Should I relate it to barbeque pork bun (cha siu bao) in Hong Kong?
Day 2
Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產)
Address: 18, Alley 2, Ln 410, Minzu E Rd, Taipei, Taiwan
Online Ratings: Tripadvisor (4.5/5); Foursquare (8.9/10)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★★★☆ Service: ★★★☆☆ Price: ★★★☆☆; Variety: ★★★★★
Ever since I knew of the Addiction Aquatic Development in Taipei, I had always imagined myself being there savoring the unlimited supply of fresh sashimi and seafood crazily.
The variety of fresh seafood there is impressive. Nonetheless, the place is so popular that one could barely walk freely without crashing with another person. In terms of price, it is not especially cheap. Actually, the price is comparable to that in Hong Kong (but maybe for a better quality). And besides serving seafood and sashimi, there is also an outdoor area where you can have a decent barbeque with quality food choices.
We had a relaxing stroll around the Ximending area after our crazily filling lunch at Addiction Aquatic Development (costed us a fortune). Ximending is like Mongkok in Hong Kong. It is very local and popular among the youngsters. You can find lots of stalls selling bubble tea and fried chicken there.
Not too long after the seafood feast, we headed to this famous Taiwanese beef noodles around the area. This restaurant is indeed recommended by my Taiwanese colleague. So we decided to believe in the taste of a local and visited there for good.
桃源街老王記牛肉麵
Address: 桃源街11巷9號, 台北市, 100, 臺灣
Online Ratings: Google (3.8/5); Foursquare (7.3/10)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★★★☆ Service: ★★★☆☆ Price: ★★★★★; Variety: ★★☆☆☆
The restaurant is quite difficult to be found as it is located in a small alley. The restaurant does not even have a name sign! And what is more tricky is that there is another beef noodles restaurant just opposite to this authentic one. I guess a good portion of customers visiting the copy cat restaurant actually think that they are eating at the real one!
The restaurant is very simple with just a few big tables inside. There are only 5-6 choices of dishes on the menu. And we saw this cute doggie when we left the restaurant.
Shi-dai Night Market (師大夜市)
Address: Shida Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Online Ratings: Tripadviser (4/5); Foursquare (8.6/10)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★★☆☆ Service: n/a Price: ★★★★☆; Variety: ★★★☆☆
Day 3
Kao Chi Xiaolongbao (高記小籠包)
Address: No.1 Yongkang Street, Taipei, Taiwan
Online Ratings: Tripadviser (4/5); Google (4.2/5)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★★☆☆ Service: ★★★☆☆ Price: ★★★☆☆; Variety: ★★★☆☆
Xiaolongbaos are something you can't miss if you are visiting Taiwan. Following the recommendation of my Taiwanese colleague, we visited Kao Chi (instead of the more famous Ding Tai Fung) for the juicy little baos. Frankly speaking, we found it no different from other more ordinary choices. But it was still a good experience to try this restaurant out.
Song Shan Cultural Park (松山文創園區)
Address: No.133 Guangfu South Road, Taipei, Taiwan
The Song Shan Cultural Park is very large that I think one can spend a whole day there without being able to cover everything. The Park hosts different exhibitions regularly and houses many creative boutiques and displays of artworks of local artists. There is also a super big Eslite in the Park which excited me.
Address: North end of Kee Lung Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Online Ratings: Tripadvisor (4/5); Foursquare (8.2/10)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★★★☆; Service: n/a; Price: ★★★★☆; Variety: ★★★★☆
Raohe Night Market is more of a food street to me, and it has a great variety. I had the best Bak Kut Teh ever there. The stall is called 陳董藥燉排骨. Remember not to mix it up with the other ones! We also had some very good stinky tofu in the market.
Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市)
Address: Ningxia Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Online Ratings: Tripadvisor (4/5); Google (4.1/5)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★☆☆☆; Service: n/a; Price: ★★★★☆; Variety: ★★★☆☆
Compared to Roche Night Market, Ningxia is a smaller market. It also has less food variety and more local stores selling non-branded household items or more mature clothing (which you can immediately tell those are made in China). But the market is still very popular among the local and it was also a good visit.
Day 4
On day 4, under the strong request of my boyfriend, we went to Addiction Aquatic Development again. But this time, we tried some different dishes and items.
Address: 104台灣台北市中山區玉門街1號
We later went to Maji Maji Creative Market and the Expo Park (圓山花博公園), hoping to look for more interesting and creative stores. And we were not disappointed.
Taipei's Yongkang Street (永康街) is famous for its long list of popular restaurants located there, including 度小月, 天津蔥抓餅, 大來小館, etc.
大來小館
Address: 106台灣台北市大安區永康街7巷2號
Online Ratings: Facebook (3/5); Google (3.3/5)
My Ratings: Taste: ★★★★☆; Service: ★★☆☆☆; Price: ★★★☆☆; Variety: ★★★★☆
Surprisingly, 大來小館's online ratings are not typically good. But to me, I find it quite a decent local Taiwanese restaurant with a good variety. But strictly speaking, the service there was really so-so as compared to the usual friendly customer service in Taiwan. One more thing to note is that 滷肉飯 is their signature dish.
天津蔥抓餅
Address: 106台灣台北市大安區永康街7巷2號
Online Ratings: Google (3.8/5)
This is another famous stall located at Yongkang Street. There is always a long line outside the small shop. Although being very popular, I found its taste very ordinary only.
Address: 106台灣台北市大安區忠孝東路四段216巷8弄12號
Online Ratings: Facebook (4/5)
I really like 度小月 this name, which means "to live and endure the difficult times". What an elegant name, isn't it? 擔仔麵 is their signature dish. And surprisingly, it also had the best pig intestine ever!
I struggle a lot about whether to write a post in Chinese or English every time when I want to start a new one. In Chinese, I can describe my feelings and events more vividly and with more details. But in English, I can type more quickly, and perhaps greater in length due to the efficiency. Sometimes there are just so many thoughts flowing freely in your mind that you want to translate them into words as soon as possible before they are lost. So English is much more better in this perspective.
And by the way, I have begun learning Spanish few months ago. Hopefully sometimes in the future, I can also write a complete entry in Spanish too! That will definitely be a great achievement and milestone! Let's set it as one of my targets perhaps?
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