May 2: This day my grandma wanted to bring me to the Taipei train station, not to ride a train, but to browse the food options and the “gourmet” hall they installed there. We were going to finally return to the breakfast place across the street since they were closed the day before, but the neighbor across the floor dropped off some red bean-filled bing, so I had those for breakfast, and ended up eating both for some reason. Looking back, maybe I didn’t need to eat both… My grandma also gave me oat milk in a bowl, because drinking milk in a bowl with a soup spoon is very Chinese. (Don’t ask about the oat milk story, but if you want to, ask away).
We bussed to a stop in front of the train station, and first made a quick stop at the bank because my grandma needed to withdraw some cash. The bank had an interesting decor taste, namely very Minions forward for some reason…
We entered the station on the 1st floor/ground level, and there were a whole bunch of shops selling bentos, easily takeaway items like buns, and sweets and pastries shops. My grandma pointed out a booth selling Taiwan’s #1 and most famous bento brand, and said we should get some for the fun of it. We arrived around 10:30, and they were already sold out of half of ther selection, with mostly just the pork chop bentos left. I was very curious about the difference between the “traditional” one and the “standard one”, as they costed the same and looked the same in the picture except for the skinny fried fish in the traditional one. Regardless, my grandma just ordered two traditional ones, and we bought them to eat for dinner that night.
With nothing else much to do on the first floor, we headed up to the second floor where the gourmet hall was, and to browse at the selection for lunch. There was a ton of selection, and the floor was like a giant circle. It was also very international, with not just a Taiwanese section, but some cafes, some dessert options, a milk tea stand, an Burger King, a few Korean options, some Thai food, and a whole bunch of Japanese options. Some looked pretty appetizing, like the Japanese wagyu hot pot, but on one hand it was super hot, and on another, I didn’t come all the way to Taiwan to eat more Japanese food, as good as it looked. I circled the floor, and my grandma left the choice up to me, and so while I was thinking, my grandma bought a pair of nail clippers for a vendor, and I also tasted tested and bought some popcorn from a different booth (my grandma encouraged me to get some to take some home). The popcorn was pretty good though, and they had a whole bunch of flavors. I ended up buying their signature corn soup, the strawberry milk, and the tieguanyin flavor, and choosing the original as a bonus, since they were doing a promotion that if you bought three you got a bonus small pack.
Eventually, I settled on getting food from the “Taiwan Night Market” Food Court, which featured a wide array of quick eats and booths with Taiwan street food. My grandma joked that with that I wouldn’t need to go to an actual night market anymore, but even though these were very Taiwanese foods, I don’t think they were very night-market-food-y. Although there was a whole bunch of other good looking food, I figured I might as well get something Taiwanese, and I was eyeing some of the meal sets earlier. I forgot what the name of the place I got mine from, but it was the one advertising the oyster omelet pancake. I basically went with a set that had minced pork rice, Taiwanese porkchop, and a meatball soup, and added a single order of an oyster omelet.
All in all, it was pretty good, everything was nicely portioned, and I’m glad I got to check off minced pork rice on my Taiwan food checklist. I will say the sauce was a little sweet for my liking, and I kind of wish I got to go eat some more on my trip, but at least I got it once. The Taiwanese porkchop was perfectly fried, crispy, thin, tender and flavorful. The soup was light, but tasted very nostalgic, almost like what my mom makes at home, and the Chinese style meatballs really hit the spot. It was my first time having the oyster omelet, and as a shellfish fan, I quite liked the oysters and the crispy bits of the omelet. The sauce was a little thick and sweet, and went well with the overal dish. There were some starchy, squishy parts that might have been isolated batter parts, and I wasn’t a fan of that by itself.
After we were done with lunch, we headed to the basement underground area to get boba. My grandma wanted to take me to a place at 101 the day before, but ended up forgetting to, and I found that they have a branch near the station. I got boba from Tao Tao Tea, and you can read about it on my boba blog!
Because we bought the bentos and the popcorn, my grandma decided to taxi home by herself so I wouldn’t have to lug anything around while I went to Ximending. She wanted me to have some time to myself to explore and go hang out, and since the station is basically right next to the Ximending area, it would be convenient for me to just go right then, and a waste of time to go home with her and then back (since we live quite a bit away). I dropped her off at the taxi area, and then I headed off on my own solo adventures in the area. (my grandma got home safe, so it was all good)
My first stop was actually a donut shop. Now, there’s a ton of Mister Donuts in Taiwan, but I heard of this Taiwanese style fried donut that looked pretty good. I actually read about a more famous branch a bit further north on Facebook, and I found that there was another shop closer by, so I walked to this one.
A fresh, new batch came out just as I ordered, and they were tossed in a milk powder, which was the only flavor they had (despite having a menu that said they had multiple flavors). My donut was piping hot, and crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside, and the outside was slightly uneven so there was some big crunchy chunks which was nice for texture.
It was really hot out, so I walked to a 7/11 to finish my donut and my drink, chill inside, and bought a Pocari Sweat. After I was done, I walked over to Wang Tea, because I found they had a tea lab extension where you can drink good tea and eat tea snacks. I first went to their shop and bought some tea for my mom, and then got a drink for myself at the tea lab. Since it was super hot, and my mom picked out a Wenshan tea, I figured I’d try whatever she bought, so I got an iced Wenshan Pouchong Leavespresso. I was a bit full from earlier, so I didn’t get any snacks.
The tea was really good; it was light oolong, yet it had a very nice, strong aromatic flavor.
I chilled in the cafe for bit to use their wifi and ac, and charge my phone, before finally heading off to Ximending area proper. My first stop, which was on the North-ish side so I could work my way down, was the Animate! Yes, I found an Animate in Taiwan, and it’s no surprise to me that it’s in Ximending. It’s in the basement of some meeting building, and although only one floor, spatially it was pretty big and spread out (and might be bigger than my local Animate?). I did buy a few things Iiked…and then headed upstairs to check out the Animate Cafe on the first floor od the building. It turns out, it was more of an outdoor space with a small booth and some standing tables, and at the time was doing a collab with some pretty boy franchise I didn’t know. There were a few drinks and such on the menu, but since the brand didn’t matter too much to me, I left for my next destination: Snow King Ice Cream.
Snow King Ice Cream is pretty famous I think, for a few reasons: one of which is that I think it might be made the traditional Taiwan way (whatever that means), and another is that they have a ton of unique flavors. When I say unique, I mean unique, from the normal ones, to a bunch of fruity ones, to a bunch of floral and tea ones, and to savory ones, like chili and pork floss. I’m not about living life on the edge, and I’m just here to enjoy some ice cream on a hot day. I decided to eat in, and I ended up getting guava. I was really tempted by the Jasmine Tea and the Chrysanthemum since they’re also really unique flavors, but I decided to save it for another time (which means I have to go back!), and I wanted to make a point that I like guava, since my grandma falsely believes I don’t.
The ice cream was amazing, and I really think I ate it too fast, because it was gone before I knew it. Part of why I did was because it was melting and I wanted to eat it while it was still in cream form, but still…I also felt it had a unique texture! I’m not sure if it’s their ice cream, or if it’s because of the guava flavor, but regardless, it was creamy, let sort of light and fluffy at the same time, and didn’t feel creamy in a heavy way. It wasn’t icy at all, and the guava flavor felt very natural, almost tasting like I was eating a slightly sweetened, super soft, real guava.
After that, I walked around through most of the main Ximending streets, and did a bunch of window shopping. There were also a ton of snack-y food spots I really wanted to get, but I didn’t feel like I had room for big savory things, and made a mental note to come back for street food another time (this means I have to eventually come back…curses). After I felt like I saw most, and enough of the area, I made my way to a brownie shop I found called Mr. Brownie. They had ton of flavors, and I had a hard time picking, but I ended up going with the marshmallow, because it looked good, and the milk tea, because when in Taiwan, you have to get milk tea.
I didn’t end up eating them right away, and ended up saving them for later in the trip/ate them later. The marshmallow one was pretty good, was it was basically a super soft marshmallow on top of a brownie, and I’m not complaining about that. The brownie itself is a little soft, not too dense, not too rich, chocolatey, and a little cakey. The milk tea one was a little disappointing. I’m not sure if I was supposed to eat it right away for maximum flavor, but I really did not get any milk tea flavor from the icing (since I think all the flavors come from the icing/topping), and it was more generic icing-tasting with some chocolate chips. If I had known that I would have gone for a different flavor…the brownie itself was still good, but I specifically got it for the flavor, you know?
Since Mr. Brownie was right behind the Red Brick House, I walked around the area to do some sightseeing outside and window shopping inside. There were a few bars next to Mr. Brownie, and I believe they were all gay bars (from research, as well as all the rainbows and muscular men posters), as this is a popular Queer area. Obviously, I think it’s more bustling at night, but as I don’t drink, it was cool just to see the outside without much people during the day. I also noticed a ton of rainbows in general around the area, which was also cool. Oh yea, and there was a Hello Kitty themed 7/11 right across from the Animate! I originally thought it was a Sanrio store, but then I went in, and other than the decorations, it was just a normal 7/11. Go Figure.
Walking a bit further south, my next stop was to check out Ribansho Tea House, which is supposed to be a Japanese-style Tea House, and located in this park which had a bell tower thing on a hill, and some document archive building on the other side. It was a cool park, and the tea house itself had come nice chil vibes, but I think they were closing soon, so I didn’t stay. Plus, I had another stop…which was ice cream part two. Yes, I literally just had ice cream, and earlier in the day I was highly debating with myself which one to go to, because they were both famous Taiwanese ice cream shops. I figured I might not have the chance to be here that much, so I just went, oh well, two scoops of ice cream in one day can’t hurt. And off I went to Yong Fu Ice Cream.
So I arrived, and at first, I just asked for a passion fruit flavor, since if I was going to be here, I figured I’d get the most tropical fruity one. I’m not sure if it was written elsewhere or if it’s because I can’t read that much, but the lady said I had to pick three. That wasn’t a problem because it greatly opened up my flavor choices, so I went with an additional strawberry, and egg vanilla.
The texture was a little different than Snow King’s, but if I had to describe it, this place was also creamy, but light and airy on the inside at the same time. The egg (vanilla) flavor had a very light, but apparent vanilla taste, and the main flavor was more of a pastry egg cream taste. The passion fruit flavor was a little on the lighter side, but it was refreshing. The strawberry I felt was very good, almost sorbet tasting, yet still had an ice cream-esque texture. They had no indoor seating, so I sat and ate my ice cream on a bench outside the shop, and though this one didn’t melt as fast, it was gone too soon because the scoops were so small. Oh, and my one guava ice cream scoop was 120 NTD, but these three tiny scoops were 50!
It was nearing 6, and it would take me a while to get home, so I decided to head home for the day and bus home. My grandma picked up some stinky tofu from a shop near the house since she heard I ate it, and also some mian xian, at my request. Oh yea, and I also had some of the train bento from earlier.
Everything was pretty good, just how I like it. I also had some of the Chia Te chocolate, and that was nice, just a solid block of chocolate with some cocoa powder.
May 3: My grandma wanted to take me to a veggie market to buy some fruit, and to also take me around to see a Taiwanese produce market in person. I was interested, and so we went to one a bit further away from her house because that one was a bigger with more selection. My dad also connected me with my second cousin, and since I wanted to experience a night market, he was going to take me to Raohe night market that night too.
But first, breakfast. My grandma bought a sandwich, and the neighbor dropped off some bao-things again. I say that, because they have a bao appearance, but they’re not really baos. The outside is made of a starchy rice, kind of like mochi, with the green one having some kind of grass mixed in. I ended up only eating the two grass ones because they seemed more unique (and were also smaller so I could eat both), with one being savory with marinated root vegetable filling, and the other sweet with red bean, and I had it with some soy milk. This time, real soy milk.
After sitting at home for a bit after breakfast, we bussed over to the area where the produce market was located. As we were heading over to the market, we stopped by a branch of Dong Bei Da Bing, which is a chain of stores that sells various bing. My grandma suggetsed I buy some to bring home to eat, so we bought a few chopped up giant bings, and a kind of knock-off scallion pancake, but huge. There’s actually a branch closer to our place, but my grandma doesn’t think the ones they make are that good, and recommended this branch instead.
We then moved on to the veggie market, which sold a bunch of fruit and vegetables, but also a ton of ready-made food, and clothes. We bought a mango, a dragon fruit, a guava, and a couple varieties of wax apple. My grandma also spotted a stand selling pig feet, and knowing that I like pig feet, bought a couple for me to eat. We also bought the remaining tofu from the lady, and she gave us some sauce and veggies for free. I never ended up eating the tofu or veggies though…When we were coming back around, I requested some mi fen (stir fried rice noodles) from this one stall that looked pretty cool, and my grandma got their chow mein.
Apparently, there used to be a shop around the area that sells cha siu bao, and my grandma looked everywhere and asked a bunch of people since she couldn’t remember the exact location. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it, and one person eventually told us that the shop wasn’t in business anymore. We had a giant haul from the food we bought, and so we bussed back home to eat lunch, aka the stuff we just bought.
All in all, it was pretty productive, and balanced I think, with carbs and veg in the mi fen, and proten from the pig feet. I haven’t had mi fen in such a long time, and my mom used to buy it pretty frequently back home. It had such a nostalgic taste, and this place’s was slightly soggy, but not dry or wet. I thoroughly enjoyed the pig feet, since I chose pieces that were more meaty with just a bit of chewy collagen on the outside. It wasn’t tough, but some pieces were more tender than others.
As a post lunch snack, my grandma washed and cut up some of the wax apple we just bought. As a side note, growing up, my mom always called it wax pear in English, and so that’s what I’ve always said too, but I looked it up, and apparently according to wikipedia, common names include wax apple, and other apple variations, but no wax pear, but that’s just common names, right…? Now I’m in a dilemma.
I had a whole afternoon left to myself before I would meet my cousin at Raohe at 6, so I decided to just bus to the Gongguan area since it’s relatively close to my place. Gongguan has a bit of shopping, is close to this area I want to visit, and of course, a bunch of good food. My first stop, was this wheel cake place (er, I think that’s the English name?) that sells baked, filled pastries. One of their filling possibilities, is boba! As a collector of boba, I obviously must go get one…
I stopped by a convenience store to try to throw my trash away, and there i found my one true love…Apple Sidra. It’s my favorite soft drink ever, and I tried looking for it previously, but I finaly found it, so I had to get it while I was here. When I was done with my intermision/side quest, I moved on to my next stop, shaved ice! Korea, Japan, and Taiwan all have their own variations and takes on shaved ice, and Taiwan’s just hits a bit different. It’s a bit more truly shaved as opposed to Japan’s and Korea’s more snowy texture, and I found a shop in Gongguan that seems pretty popular: Mr. Chef Snow. They had quite a few different flavors on their menu, a bunch of fruity, some tea inspired, and some yogurty. What caught my eye was their popular Taiwan boba milk tea one…and I was hooked.
Oh my gosh it was so good, and perfect for a hot day. You can read about my wheel cake and shaved ice here.
To walk off all the snacks I just consumed, I made my way over to Treasure Hill Artist Village, which is supposed to be some artist collective of a bunch of old houses that supposedly house artist and/or their art. Some are open to enter and to look at art, and just look at the vibes of the area. I found this place on the internet as a potential place to hang out and burn off food, since I’m really here to eat food first, and sightsee second.
Overall, it was, ok? If you like walking, climbing stairs, looking at old houses, interpretive abstract artwork, historical vibes, and cool scenery of the area, then this is right for you. I’m not sure what I expected, but I thought it’d be cooler, and hoped it was more artistic, and more, well, artsy, but this whole thing is not for me. Good way to kill some time though.
I still had a little time when I left the Artist Village before I needed to head over to Raohe, and though I should be saving stomach space, there was a snack I really wanted to get: my first scallion pancake of the trip. Specifically, from this stall that supposedly was on a Michelin list. I think when I went they just opened their cart, so there was only a couple of people around. I just went for the basic with no sauces, and got 30 out of the wallet because the menu said so, only for the lady to say it’s 35 and appologize. That’s fine, but maybe they should fix their sign…
I just got one for myself, and it was a pretty big size, and came out freshly pressed off the grill, and super hot. Man, I missed food like this. It was super flaky, could be a bit crispier (but I just like crispy things), and was a solid, good green onion pancake.
I finished off my snack, and entered this random food market hall. It was kind of like an indoor produce market with a bunch of cheap food stalls and some clothing shops on the second floor. I had just enough time to head to another brownie shop I found, this time, a little classy looking. I think I found Coco Brownie on Google Maps, and it looked good, so I walked in to have a look.
They all looked so good, and I had a hard time picking, and since I still had two at home at the time, I decided to only get one. Eventually, I settled on the Jasmine Tea flavored one, since it seemed they were doing a campaign for it, and that sounded unique. Again, I didn’t eat it until later, but as a brownie, it was pretty good, and just a bit denser compared to Mr. Brownie. However, I couldn’t really taste the Jasmine flavor, and if you didn’t tell me it was supposed to have it, I wouldn’t be able to tell.
At this point, I finally hopped on the MRT, and rode to Songshan, which was a direct go on the green line. Since I was there a bit early, I checked out the bigger Songshan station to scope out the shops, and went to go see the outskirts of the Wufenpu shopping district. I’ve been window shopping clothes quite a bit on this trip, and I have to say that I’ve been a fan of a few things I’ve seen, but I keep thinking to myself “Do I really need them…?”. I didn’t see much of a point to attempting to do more browsing at that point, and just decided to wander the area.
My cousin actually messaged me that he also got there early, so I met up with him. Then we entered the night market through the main entrance, and just did some casual chatting while wandering from one end to the other. Partially because I didn’t come on a super empty stomach (he also mentioned he wasn’t super hungry either), partially because there was just an overwhelming array of foods to choose from, and partially because we just met up and it was a bit early, we took our time looking at the selection. At one point he asked me if I was thirsty, and though I had my apple sidra on me, I did spy a wintermelon tea stand early on, and wanted to get some at least once on my trip. I got a “large”, but the cup seemed not so large…I also did some research, and apparently the most famous thing at Raohe is the Fuzhou black pepper buns, which also got a Michelin recommendation at some point. There was a bit of a line, but it moved pretty quickly with how fast they were churning out buns. My cousin also suggested trying out Taiwanese takoyaki, since apparently it’s different than normal Japanese takoyaki, and towards the end of the night, also recommended a pork blood stick.
The wntermelon tea was amazing, and refreshing, and a pretty classic tasting sweetened wintermelon tea. I was pretty satisfied with that. The pepper bun was super hot since it just came out of the oven, plus it was very crispy, which I loved. The inside was just a bit soft from the bread, and true to its name, the inside was very peppery. I’m not a huge pepper or spice person, but the pepper was doable, though the heat from the fresh bun didn’t exactly help. I did like that there was plenty of juicy meat inside though. I asked my cousin his thoughts as a Taiwan local, and he said it was pretty normal for a pepper bun, albeit a bit overpriced in his opinion. By American standards though (with the conversion), it’s a pretty good deal. Funnily enough, there was a tiny cart next to this one also selling pepper buns, except without the line.
The takoyaki was an interesting experience. When I first asked him how exactly it’s different, he said the mayo was sweeter. After my first bite, I noticed taste-wise it mostly was the same, but the outside was crispier, and the inside was less wet than my previous experiences. I told my cousin if that was just how it is or if it was just still stall, and he said that’s pretty consistent with Taiwanese takoyaki. I was pleasantly surprised, because I like crispy things, and one of the things I never liked about my previous takoyaki experiences is how mushy and “undercooked” the inside was. Go figure.
As for the pork blood, I liked the small stick I had previously at the hot pot place, so I was down when he said that he liked it. I did not expect the vendor to dunk it in a bunch of peanut powder at the end, and even my cousin said that the amount of peanut was a little excessive. If there was no peanut, I would have enjoyed it a lot more and probably would have eaten more, but I am not a peanut person, so I just slowly took bites while trying to focus on the inside flavor. That part was good, but not the outisde. Taiwan likes peanuts way too much…
It wasn’t that late, and we were both down to hang out. Since we found that we both like anime, and I already went to Ximending, my cousin brought me to this department store called Syntrend, to do some anime merch window shopping. I think I”ve actually been here before but just didn’t know the name of the place, and it was pretty cool, as an enjoyer of that type of thing.
May 4: This was my Jiufen day! When looking up things to do in Taiwan, one thing that kept popping up was a visit to Jiufen, kind of an aesthetic mountain town with old street vendors, tea houses, and small paths lined with lanterns. It’s particularly famous for bearing resemblance to the town in Ghibli’s Spirited Away, and I say that, because apparently Miyazaki claimed that he took no inspiration from Jiufen whatsoever. Regardless, it’s now a popular tourist destination, and my cousin even said he was 120% sure I could use Japanese there if my Chinese failed me.
For breakfast, my grandma resteamed the white mochi baos the neighbor dropped off yesterday. I think there was supposed to be one savory and one sweet one like the grass ones, but they both ended up savory with a similar filling to the savory grass one. I’m not sure if I got lucky with the grass one, or if it was because the flavors developed or something, but as I kept eating, the filling became incredibly peppery, and too much so for me to handle. I couldn’t finish, so my grandma gave me a piece of the big bing we bought previously.
I wanted to leave early, so I could get there earlier, finish whatever I needed to do, and be able to leave earlier in case for other stuff to do later. Google Maps recommended me to bus to Songshan, and then get on the Jiufen bus from there. This was why I previously scouted out the area in Songhan station…I planned to get a Starbucks drink sometime on this trip to see menu differences and potentially get something exclusive, and I figured a morning drink sounded pretty good.
I think there was this peach apple campaign happening, because that’s what they’ve been advertising at all of the Starbuck’s I’ve popped into. It sounds like a good combination, and one of the featured drinks is an iced peach apple oolong tea.
I got a grande, and it was super good! Both the peach and apple were prevalent, and I think I should have stirred it a bit more at first because I got quite a bit of pure fruit syrup at the beginning, but otherwise, it went super well along with the oolong tea. Taiwan does Oolong tea very well, and the quality of the tea even in a Starbucks did not disappoint.
Then I got on my bus to Jiufen for an hour! My bus stop was kind of in the middle of the road up the mountain, and because I didn’t particularly care about hiking or anything, I just followed the crowd and found the entrance to Jiufen Old Street. I’m pretty sure this part is the most touristy area, because it’s where the all the main famous food and souvenir shops are, nd starts this winding small path with lanterns downhill. It’s mostly one straight path, until a bit further in where there are some branches, some ending with a place to see scenic views, and some with stairs going up or down. For now, I decided to just follow the path and go in order of my food checklist on the path while browsing the area.
My first stop? An ice cream filled cream puff pastry thing, which was pretty close to the entrance. This shop sold quite a variety of pastries, but what I was going for was their ice cream sandwich situation. As a chocolate lover, I went with chocolate. Their ice cream flavor selection was pretty basic.
It was pretty solid, especially hitting the spot on a hot day. The ice cream was very reminiscent of like a classic scoop of Baskin Robbins back home, and the pastry was thin, a bit crispy, and super flaky. A great start to the food day…
I passed by quite a few small sit-down restaurants which looked quite good, but since I had a bunch of small street food planned, I held back, and saving the possibility if I had the room later when I was about to leave. Anyway, my next stop was a freshly grilled Taiwanese sausage.
It was really good, had a crisp outer layer, and a really juicy and sweet meaty inside. I’m glad I was able to check this off my list of Taiwanese food to eat this trip.
There’s quite a few stalls selling tea (catering towards all the tourists probably), and some were giving free samples. I will not say no to free samples, even if it’s just tea, and I ended up stopping by one stall, sampling each of the three she had, and chatting with the lady. I have no idea why I decided to sample 3 different cups of hot tea on a hot day, and I wished the free samples had a cold brew available. The lady was nice enough to take my trash though, and I was very grateful for being able to throw my trash away.
My next stop along the Old Street was this mochi place most famous for their grass mochi. I only wanted to just sample it, so I got one, but I was also very tempted by their taro mochi, which had real taro chunks mixed in. My logic was that the grass mochi was their famous item, so I was only here for that, but looking back, I kind of wish I got to try their taro one too…it wouldn’t have been that much more…
I don’t know if this is a bad thing, but it mostly tasted like a very chewy Taiwanese style-mochi, and I didn’t get a grassy taste at all. I was thinking it was probably the same, if not similar to the grass mochi the neighbor gave my grandma, who warned me that I might not like the grass taste. I ended up not tasting anything weird or grassy that time, and this time was the same. Is my palate just too Chinese? I mean, I like mochi, so it was still good, but I felt like I was missing out somehow…
A few stops down the street was the famous Grandma Lai’s taro balls. A few internet people said that if you had to only get one thing in Jiufen, it would be taro balls from this place. Taro balls also seem to be a Jiufen thing (maybe?) since I saw a few places advertising them, and I feel like some taro ball places I saw in Taipei proper also claimed they were “Jiufen taro balls”. When I went, it wasn’t too busy, and I was able to easily get a seat to eat in and chill. What I also found really nice was that you could choose the temperature of your bowl, so since it was a hot day, I got the cold one.
It was a really nice refreshing treat! I’ve only ever had Taiwanese potato mochi balls hot, so I liked being able to experience this as an iced dessert. There was a wide variety of balls, such as taro, sweet potato, purple sweet potato, a green one (which might be grass again?), and a bunch of red bean. Overall there was just a slight bit of sweetness, and every ball tasted distinctly different and just like how the original potato tastes.
After finishing my balls, I walked around for a bit, taking pictures in scenic areas, and window shopping some more souvenir shops. I also spotted a second Xing Fu Tang (yes, there’s two in Jiufen, which I found hilarious, but didn’t end up getting from either to save stomach room), and then around noon, made my way to A Mei Tea House, which is one of the most famous tea houses in Jiufen. I did have to wait a bit in line, but thankfully wasn’t that long, and I was seated on a kind of rooftop balcony. There was a tea snacks menu that included all you can drink hot or cold oolong tea, and an interesting higher end tea menu that came on this wooden stick scroll thing. I really wanted someting cold, but since the cold tea is just a generic oolong, and the balcony provided AC thank god, if I was going to be at a tea house, I might as well get some higher end tea. My mom has previously requested Li shan oolong, and I found it on the menu, so I figured it must be good. Plus, it was the most expensive tea on the menu…
Oh, and there were Japanese people everywhere! In front of me and behind me in line, a lot in the tea house, and you can tell because the employees kept having to use Japanese with customers.
The tea was really good! The lady did the first pour of the tea leaves, and did the initial set up and pour, let me smell the smell cup and the tea cup, and then showed me how to do the rest myself. I think one round of leaves is supposed to get up to 4-5 pots of tea, and then there was a pot of hot water right next to my table for my own refills. The best part was that the leaves came out of a small tea bag, and if I couldn’t finish all of it, I could take the rest home with me. I took my time admiring the scenery, drinking my tea, and chilling while my phone charged.
When I felt done drinking my tea (really, I needed to use the bathroom after ingesting so much water in a short time period but didn’t want to leave all my stuff alone), I left the tea shop, and basically finished exploring the area and seeing what I wanted to see. One thing I was kind of dissapointed was that I couldn’t get a nice asethetic picture of the entire area in the mountainside like all the famous pictures, but I figured I probably needed to be further from the area to get that shot. I finished my trek through Jiufen by heading down some stairs and then sort of hiking back up some street that led back to where I came from.
I didn’t eat a proper lunch (as you can read I kind of just snacked the whole morning), and one fish ball stall had caught my eye early on in the Old Street, and fish balls also seem to be a thing here, so I decided to eat in and order a fishball soup. This place was advertising freshly handmade fishballs, and also sold some fried tofu filled with fish paste. There were a couple ladies just constantly stirring a giant vat of boiling fishballs.
It was very comforting, and the broth was light, but flavorful, and reminded me of simple lunches my mom would cook for me at home with wakame, fishballs, and vermicelli. The fishballs were great, chewy, fishball-y, and did indeed have a sense of handmade feeling to them. Chinese style fishballs aren’t a huge thing in Japan I think; fish paste that you scrape into ball form to boil does exist in my local supermarket and such, and sometimes in my school lunch there’s fishball adjacent things in my soup, but otherwise, I find my boyfriend and I both missing out on fishballs.
I was truly done with the area at this point, so I bid farewell to Jiufen and bussed for about am hour back to Taipei, this time getting off around Zhongxiao Fuxing. It was around 4 pm, so I figured I’d just hang around the area, explore a bit, grab a bite, and then call it a day. I looked at my bookmarks on Google Maps for anything interesting to eat, and Zilin Steamed Dumpling caught my eye. This place is located in an underground food court area, and are known for their steamed dumplings (as you can tell by the name), but have an array of other foods that people apparently like. Much of their menu seemed very enticing, but I just got an order of their pot stickers (which come in a plate of 10). I was highly tempted by their jajiang mian, but figured it might be too much before dinner, and hopefully saved it for a different day. My grandma also told me she would be boiling dumplings for dinner later, so also no point in getting the pretty similar signature steamed dumplings.
The pot stickers came out fresh and hot, and the bottom was super crispy! There was plenty of meat inside, and it was also plenty juicy.
Oh, and the appetizers/side dishes are free here and self serve! At other places I’ve been, you have to pay for sides, but here there’s a whole variety of typical sides on some glass shelves in the middle of the seating area. I told myself to only get one so I wouldn’t be too full, and decided to go with the dogan. It was pretty good, saucy, light and refreshing. UPDATE: I thought they were free because I read a review that said they were, but other reviews I’ve read since said you need to pay. I’m sorry Zi Lin, I’m just a stupid foreigner, and one plate won’t cost you, right? I’ll totally go back to try your other stuf
After I was done with my afternoon snack(?), I made my way to Cookie DPT, a kind of aesthetic, high end cookie store because it seemed cool on Maps. They sold a few different flavors of giant cookies, and I went with the Marshmallow, since that looked really good (but they all looked good to be honest).
Again, I didn’t eat this one right away, but what was kind of cool was that it came with reheating and storage instructions. I ended up reheating it by microwaving it, and the cookie came out warm, just a bit chewy, and the marshmallow part super soft and a bit stringy. If you’re into thick, fat cookies, I’d recommend giving this place a try.
I realized I hadn’t gotten boba yet that day, so I searched up some milk tea shops in the area and found Hechalou. I never heard of it, and it was new, so I went to check it out. Read about the drink here!
After I got my boba, I headed to the MRT station, browsed the underground street for a bit, and then returned home, where my grandma had already prepared dinner and fruit. The dumplings were so satisfying, chewy skin, and plenty of filling (seriously, Japan isn’t very good at anything other than pan fried gyoza), and really satisfied my boiled dumpling craving I’ve had for a while. Oh, and oh my gosh was all the fruit so good.
Japan Excursions 
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