Sightseeing Taipei: Elephant Mountain, Bopiliao Old Street and Longshan Temple

I went on a girls' trip to Taipei earlier this year with my friend and her then 18-month-old. I brought along my youngest (then just shy of her first birthday) and a nanny to give us an extra hand. Bringing the nanny was the best decision. For the most part, we did everything as a group. But being able to leave the little ones sleeping while we go out at night to explore the night markets was awesome! And while we initially planned to hike up Xiangshan (Elephant Mountain) as a group with the little ones strapped onto us in carriers, we rejoiced when the babies fell asleep in their strollers on the way to the hiking trail, and we could leave the sleeping bubs at the bottom of the mountain while my friend and I did the hike. And oh my, while we were climbing those countless steep stairs up Xiangshan, we were so glad the babies were not strapped on to us. We also joined a free night walking tour through Bopiliao Old Street to Longshan Temple - without kids! So yes, getting our nanny to Taipei with us was a good investment of my airline miles!

Just a small portion of the stairs we climbed to get up Xiangshan:

The view of Taipei from Elephant Mountain (click image for larger photo):

My friend and I, glad that we didn't hike up the mountain while carrying the babies!

On the night walking tour, we walked through Bopiliao, a historically important street in a district that was once a prosperous trade center. Just a tad spooky walking through here in the dark:

The exterior gate of Longshan Temple, built in the 18th century:

Beautiful and ornate detail on the gate eaves:

Lighting joss sticks for temple worship:

A huge joss stick holder:

One of the offering tables in the temple:

One of the altars to a deity popular with students who pray for good grades:

There were a few large lanterns, celebrating the Spring Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar year. People were bowing and walking under these lanterns:

Outside Longshan Temple:

Chef A-Yi's Big Teapot Tea Restaurant, Maokong (Taiwan)

When my friend and I travelled to Taipei, we were both too busy to make any planning ahead of time, and our itinerary was planned on our first night in Taipei. We had babies with us, so a trip to the Taipei Zoo went on our itinerary, and since the Maokong Gondola has a station at the zoo, we hopped on the gondola up the slopes of Maokong. We were also hungry for lunch, and picked a random tea restaurant from the free guide booklet we picked up from the information kiosk near the Maokong Station. The map in the booklet is not detailed at all, and when we asked for directions at a small coffee kiosk, the locals recommended another tea restaurant and sent us on our way. Chef A-Yi's Big Teapot Tea Restaurant is about a 15-minute stroll from the gondola station, and it was well worth the walk. We enjoyed the friendly and helpful service, and the menu features tea-infused dishes. There's also a lovely view, and I loved the complimentary tea so much that I bought a small cannister of it. The food was delicious, and it was overall a pleasant experience.

Wuyishan Rock Tea Smoked Chicken Leg (NT$380). I liked the subtle tea-smoked flavour:

Fried Shrimp with Jade Green Tea (NT$420). The lightly astringent flavour of the tea leaves went quite well with the juicy, sweet prawns:

Fried Rice with Green Tea and Egg (NT$100). Delicious! (But I can't believe we gave green tea to our babies!)

A cold dish of fern that was simply seasoned. It was refreshing and tasty:

Small Steamed Buns (NT$100) with six flavours - red yeast rice, green tea, black tea, sweet potato, charcoal and taro.
The flavours were very subtle, and the colourful buns were fun to eat:

Highly recommended. Even the locals choose this place.

Chef A-Yi's Big Teapot Tea Restaurant
37-1, Ln. 38, Sec. 3, Zhinan Road
Wenshan District
Taipei, Taiwan
Tel. +886 2 29395615

Taipei Night Markets: Huahsi, Ningxia and Raohe

Earlier this year, a friend and I went on a girls-and-bubs trip to Taipei, and as much as we love our babies, the best part of the trip was leaving the sleeping babies behind at our accommodation with a nanny, and going out at night to check out the night markets! It was the one thing I wished we did more in Kaohsiung, where we only did one night market (battling the crowd with a 4-year-old is rather challenging). In Taipei, my friend and I visited three markets, and it left me wanting for more! I'll just have to plan another trip to Taipei!

A street cart on Zhonghua Road between Carrefour and Ximen MRT (either near the intersection with Guiyang St or Changsha St), peddling mochi (glutinous rice snack):

Mochi simply tossed with sweet peanut and sesame sauce:

Huaxi Night Market, aka Snake Alley

Huaxi night market is located near the Longshan Temple, and specialises in snake dishes, which we did not try because of time constraints. We did try many other street snacks, and here are some of the highlights.

My friend's favourite Chinese street snack is cong you bing, a savoury scallion pancake. This lady makes a delicious you bing at Huaxi market:

A shop specialising in choudofu (stinky tofu):

Our first taste of choudofu was a stewed version. I'll be frank here, we were not keen on it. But we persisted, and I found with each spoon that the taste sort of grew on me:

Fried taro balls are popular here, and this girl flicks the balls out of the deep-fryer onto the cooling tray with the speed and precision that can come only from doing this for a long time:

Ningxia Market

Ningxia is a traditional market that reminds its visitors of old Taiwan. There are plenty of food stalls to visit and also interesting stores to shop in. We enjoyed delicious oyster omelet and more fried taro balls. We also tried the deep-fried version of stinky tofu to find out if it's an improvement over the stewed version we had the previous night (it's not).

Popular shop selling oyster omelet:

This oyster omelet was worth the wait! Plump juicy salty oysters with crispy egg

Deep-fried choudofu. Definitely an acquired taste, and I wish I had longer time to give stinky tofu a chance (like I did with bitter gourd (as a young child, my mum told me eating it would make my blood bitter and repel mosquitoes - that's a lie because mozzies still find me tasty, but it got me acquiring a taste for the bitter gourd), Aussie Vegemite, and Japanese natto):

More crispy taro balls:

Raohe Street Night Market

On our final night in Taipei, my friend and I ventured to Raohe Street Night Market for more street snacks.

This hu jiao bing (black pepper pork bun) stall at the end of Raohe Street night market had a huge queue, though it was a weeknight:

There were about 8 or 9 staff on the production line to efficiently churn out delicious pork buns to satisfy the hungry crowd. Though the line was long, we didn't wait long to get to the front of the line:

Buns lined up waiting to be stuck on the wall of the clay oven, which is similar to the Indian tandoor:

Truly delicious! Definitely worth the short wait in the long queue:

We also tried some herbal pork rib soup, which I'm sure was very nourishing:

And I indulged in some thick sweet soup full of mixed beans and black taro and chewy tapioca balls:

The best pineapple cakes in Taipei @ SunnyHills, Taipei

The most popular edible souvenir in Taiwan is the pineapple cake. There are so many shops selling pineapple cake, and truly one can make a free (albeit unhealthy) meal out of sampling pineapple cakes. We visited two of most popular bakeries in Taipei: Chia Te (where I discovered their delicious egg tarts, and SunnyHills. I'd also bought pineapple cakes from a few other shops for comparison's sake. I'm only reviewing SunnyHills here because their pineapple cake was unanimously voted by my household to be better than Chia Te's pineapple cakes. That's not to say that Chia Te's pineapple cakes are inferior - the quality and range of products and the variety of pineapple cakes offered by Chia Te is incomparable. SunnyHills specialises only in pineapple cakes, hence it should follow that theirs would trump over others. SunnyHills was a bit of a trek from the nearest MRT station, but we were welcomed with a cup of tea and a small pineapple cake. I certainly wasn't expecting that, so it was a pleasant surprise. They even gave a cake and a cup of water each for our little ones. This is a brilliant marketing idea, as I was able to sample a full piece of cake, and not just a tiny morsel of mostly crust or filling, which ensured that I bought something before leaving the store.

The simple entrance:

Our complimentary cakes and tea waiting for us while we sorted out our babies and strollers:

The products offered by SunnyHills - two different boxed quantities of pineapple cakes (10 or 15), oolong tea and 100%
pineapple juice:

A cup of tea and cake for me, and water and cake for baby:

Delicious. I love the crust, and the not-too-sweet not-too-tart filling that actually resembles pineapple fruit:

Sunny Hills
No. 1, Alley 4, Lane 36, Section 5
Minsheng East Road
Songshan District, Taipei City
Taiwan 105
Tel. +886 2 2760 0508

Yummy egg tarts @ Chia Te Bakery, Taipei

Based on what I've seen and the food samples handed out to me while walking through the food basement level of Taipei 101 and around the streets of Taipei in general, pineapple cake is a big thing to buy in Taiwan. My friend and travelling companion had the name of two bakeries most well-known in Taipei for their pineapple cake, and Chia Te was one of them. So famous is Chia Te, that there are often long queues of people buying its delicious baked goods by the boxes. Indeed, Chia Te's pineapple cakes are delicious, even winning the bakery first place in a pineapple cake contest, but I want to highlight the egg tarts sold here. I live in Hong Kong, the land of yummy egg tarts, and I have been to Macau and had Portuguese egg tarts several times, so I know a good egg tart when I eat one. The type sold at Chia Te features a deep-pan shortcrust pastry, and the egg custard is cooked perfectly through despite its depth. It's absolutely divine when eaten fresh out of the oven, but I did buy a few more to bring home the next day, and I found that the quality suffered a little with the shortcrust pastry absorbing some of the egg custard moisture. Hubby and the kids were nonetheless appreciative and the tarts were polished off within minutes.

Pastries galore:

My humble purchase compared to the multiple boxes other customers were paying for:

A box of half-dozen egg tarts:

Just look at that custardy goodness and the crumbly pastry:

So yummy:

Chia Te Bakery
No. 88, Section 5
Nanjing East Road
Songshan District, Taipei City
Taiwan 105
Tel. +886 2 8787 8186

Superb lunch @ Din Tai Fung [Taipei 101], Taipei

When I was planning our Taipei trip, visiting Din Tai Fung in its native city should have been on my list of places to eat. But I'd mistakenly assumed Din Tai Fung was born in Shanghai, very likely because xiao long bao is usually associated with Shanghainese cuisine, not Taiwanese. Anyway, now I know better! When my friend and I (with our babies) visited the iconic Taipei 101, we planned to lunch in one of the restaurants in the higher floors of the skyscraper. However, we were put off by the limited and expensive choice of menu, and the indefinite waiting time (any period of waiting with cranky hungry babies is torture, especially in a small lobby with no shops to pass the time). So we decided to check out how bad the queue was at Din Tai Fung in the basement of 101. The waiting area outside the restaurant was pretty crowded, but we were told our group would only need to wait 10 minutes, which was manageable. We did some food tasting at the nearby shops to pass the time. Upon entry, I was surprised at how vast the dining room actually was! The waiting area only showed a small portion of the interior. Baby girl and I loved watching the dumpling-making action through the windows into the steamy kitchen. Those guys were working very hard, and there were many of them! Service was pleasant and efficient, and the food was delicious! There's good reason why Din Tai Fung is a very successful franchise worldwide!

Huge dining room:

Xiao long bao, and lots of them!:

Dandan Mian:

Guotie (potstickers, aka gyoza in Japan):

Zongzi (rice dumplings):

And of course, we had to order xiao long bao! We ordered the normal one, and the fancy truffle type. Both were delicious:

Din Tai Fung [Taipei 101]
B1F
45 Shifu Rd
Xinyi District
Taipei, Taiwan
+886 2 8101 7799