Taipei pt.2

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Now that I have had some time to gather and jot down my thoughts here is a more revised entry about our time in Taipei.

Taipei has been amazing! I can't even begin to explain what a great few days we have had, but I'll do my best.

First up, the food. Omg! I found a few dishes that I fell in love with. Noodles, so many noodles. I am a sucker for them, in all forms and varieties. Better when you drown them in a delicious broth and add veggies and tender meat. I ate noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Stuffed buns, yum! Calvin and I found a great little bun stall at the end of the Linjiang St Market. The bun was delicately soft. The pork mixture inside was meat sent from the gods above. The men at the stall were slaying it. Huge lines all day everyday. We would visit them multiple times in one day. I believe our record was 4 times in 1 day. Jeez those buns were fantastic! I wish I could've compared them to the Michelin star restaurant, Din Tai Fung. Just to see which was better, cause honestly I don't know if they could've gotten any better.

Din Tai Rung is different then any other Michelin star restaurant we had been to. First off it's a chain and has a star, weird. But the food was consistent with a perfect 18 folds in all the dumplings. Skills. The service was fast and appeared hectic. There was little to no interacting with the servers, very impersonable. Not even a basic description of what the condiments on the table were. All the servers had ear pieces and mics. Were we being served by the secret service? Maybe Asian stars differ from the others? Not sure. On the table was a small clipboard, attached were a pen and paper menu. Reminded us of a sushi place, but a little more confusing. Did were circle the 5pc or 10pc? Then next to that was a blank box, for quantity perhaps? Now that I'm explaining this I think you were suppose to circle the 5 or 10 then write how many you wanted. As you are probably already thinking, we felt stupid.

When we sat at our table, we were presented with an English menu, hot tea, and fresh ginger shreds. We were here for the dumplings filled with soup, nothing else. This spot is known for them. Plus we had to save our appetite for the Shilin Market we would be doing that night.

After browsing the menu I decided that I wanted to start with the Spicy Pickled Cucumbers. So we circled it and wrote 1 in the box. Within seconds a server was at our table. She verified it with us then spoke into her mic as she walked away. This dish came out fast. And by fast I mean 45 seconds after we ordered it. Either their app cook was dead or these were prepped in the morning and just waiting to be drizzled with a chilli vinegar upon order. They appeared to be English cucumbers, bright in color, cut into thick uneven chunks. Some an inch high, others an inch and half, stacked into a pyramid, a lousy one. However the apperance, the flavors were delicious. Not that spicy, but a tad kick present. The cucumbers were slightly firm with a hint of pickling taste. I definitely would order them again. A simple but delightful dish.

Next up was the dumplings. We ordered 1 5pc Pork and Crab Roe, the other a 5pc Pork. The crab and pork were the first to come to the table. We couldn't taste much of the crab, instead a tiny touch of fishyness was there. After we finished those the pork dumplings came out. Tasted pretty similar to our first round, minus the fish. The delicate rice paper contained a ball of steaming meat and soup. Now you had to be careful when biting into it. The soup would shoot out like hot lava escaping a volcano. The dumplings had condiments that you could decide if you wanted to add or not. Rice vinegar and soy sauce. We put both on our spoons, set the dumpling on top, and careful took a small first bite. The spoon filled with the soup that was trapped inside the dumpling. Open up and let it ride was the second bite. I personally enjoyed the dumplings when they were accompanied by the vinegar and soy sauce. It added a lovely salty, but not overwhelming flavor to the rich pork. The vinegar helped offset the fatiness to the pork.

When they would bring out an item they would mark it off on the receipt that they set on the table. After we enjoyed our last bit of tea we decided to pay and carry out on our adventure. We sat at the table for roughly 10 minutes with cash out on that damn clipboard. Plenty of servers walking by, even looking down at the money but carrying on. With both of us being in the industry we started assuming we had to pay up front. And of course, when we started walking up to the front, hanging from the ceiling was a sign with a '$' symbol and an arrow pointing left. At that moment a server directed us to the counter, after we figured it out.

The ladies up front took our cash and gave us change. One thing that blew my mind was that they didn't have money drawers. Zero, none, zilch. The had a container with multiple slots that sat on the counter. Not a secured drawer. Which has led us to the conclusion that Taiwanese people are some of the nicest, most honest people we have had the pleasure of encountering.

Everyone is always willing to help you. Calvin and I stood at a corner, looking at a map, trying to figure out where the heck we were going. A local guy approached us and asked if he could help us. His English wasn't all that great but was still nice enough to offer his assistance. We told him we were looking for Elephant Mountain. He chuckled a little and pointed in the direction we had just came from and said "20 minutes". Great. Elephant Mountain was a hard hike, full of stairs. Not just any kind of stairs, but uneven stairs, some tall, some narrow. Talk about a perfect outdoor stairmaster. 😉 the view was worth it. You could see the Taipei 101 and all the smaller buildings around it. Breathtaking...literally.
The next day we took a trip to Maokong Mountain to check out the tea fields. It was a beautiful day, the air smelled of tea. We took a 15 minute gondola ride up the mountain and back down after hiking for an hour. On our way back, we shared a gondola with 4 Taiwanese women. I noticed that I had been biten by some mosquitos. Which of course led me to start itching them. A lady across from me took notice, pulled out an ointment from her bag, and offered it to me. Now I believe she didn't speak English so I said Xiè xiè, thank you in Mandarin, and accepted her offering. I don't know what that ointment was but damn did it work wonders! Probably won't be able to find that back in the states.
Later that day we were lost, again.... Trying to find a beef noodle restaurant that Taipei is known for. A little old lady approached us, after staring at us for a minute, asked to see our hand made map, and waved us to follow her. We walked up and down a block, still lost. The lady wentt up to a shop and asked for their help also. Next thing we know, we are a group of 5 walking up and down the street, listening to the others shout in Mandarin just trying to help out some foreigners. We never did find it, but it is a moment that I will never forget.

We have fallen in love with Taipei.

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