Taiwan Day 5 - Part 2

On Part 2 of Day 5, its obviously going to be about food and this time, we resolved to going back to Xi Men Ding to look for the fabled Ah Zhong Mee Sua. Bear in mind that we only have a name to go by and the rough idea that it is in Xi Men Ding. And with that, we set off on our journey.

Weekday crowds

This is indeed a weekday

It was quite surprising for me to find the streets filled with people on this normal weekday night. In fact, i couldn't see a difference between a weekend night and a weekday night so i came to a conclusion, Taiwan people love to eat and stroll around at night with friends and family. They are such friendly and communal people that its difficult to imagine them in any other way. And to be honest, Taiwan's night life and sheer attraction is its neverending store of energy, food and talent that is strewn throughout the place.

Ah Zhong Mian Xian

No Tables and No Chairs, stand and eat or get lost!

Big Generous Bowls

Overflowing with goodness

Ah Zhong Mian Xian: After much trepidition and backtracking, we finally found the accursed store. I now understand how tough the amazing race is given the foreign setting and a short time frame to look for specific places.
True enough, simply look for a place where everyone is standing and slurping down hot rice noodles and you'll find this famous hangout. Without thinking about the food and the consequence, we immediately joined the queue and ordered 2 large bowls of noodles to quench our hunger.
The bowls were indeed pretty big and cost wise, it was only about $3 sgd or $5 sgd per bowl. Upon tasting the broth, the one association that springs to mind is Shark's Fin. The broth is thick and has a strong vinegar taste rendering it sourish and starchy. However, its the combination of the melt in your mouth and light rice noodles with the broth that makes it a winner. In fact, finishing the bowl strangely left us both ready for more food.
One thing to note here is this, the little whitish and rubbery looking thing floating in the bowl is actually pig intestines. I mistook them for oysters and finished the whole lot....that was the one and only time i've eaten pig intestines. To its credit, the intestines held no foul taste or wierd smell and were cut open to reveal a milky white underbelly. I can thus rest assured that its clean and hygienic. However, the next time i have this, i'm throwing the intestines away for sure.

Easy Way Bubble Tea

Bubble Tea...again

We've had so much bubble tea that its difficult to remember anything much about them. I can tell you that the tea in Taiwan is definitely better then Singapore and our choice for bubble tea in Taiwan was Easy Way as compared to others which did not measure up.

Food Stalls on Wheels...the better to run from police with

A display of talent

An aspiring singer - Man Qing

The one thing about Taiwan's performers is that they really do have talent. The indian like performer gave a nice calming performance while this little lady, who was found a little further out, sang pretty well. Apparently, she won multiple awards for her singing from local television shows already and was trying to make more money to fulfill her dream of becoming an actual singer. Good to have dreams.

Taiwan Day 5 - Part 1

On Day 5, after chatting too much with my dad and sisters online, i was finally persuaded to visit the "Window of China" or "Xiao Ren Guo" since its the second country in the world to have such an attraction. I've visited this place years ago when i was a young chap, around 8-10 years old and was interested in what has changed over the years. So thats the destination for today.

Mister Donut

Mister Donut was found all throughout Taipei and i'm guessing its a Taiwan donut brand. We bought 3 flavors to try out for our own benefit since some local brands turned out to be the better ones. Such as our very own Donut Factory in Singapore.
This is unfortunately not the case with this franchise. Their donuts tasted wierd, almost rubbery in texture and also a little like bread. The coatings, though packed with flavor, was not able to distract my disappointment on the texture. Thus, this wasn't for me.

Flowers

Just a table setting photo from our favorite breakfast place in the hotel.

Taipei Railway Station (the inside)

Tickets at NTD 89 to Zhong Li

Its a huge place

Takeaway Packed Food

Braised Pork Chops,Egg and Cabbage with rice

Now this was the actual packed food my mom and grandma raved about when they returned home. Maybe i waited a tad too long before eating it but i didn't find it very tasty in the end. The braised pork was soft and fragrant but soggy probably due to us holding on to it for too long. I only found the egg worthwhile but thats a given since eggs taste good easily. Overall, its another disappointment in the food department.

Signs

Zhong Li Station

When we arrived at Zhong Li station after about 1 hour 15 minutes on the terribly slow train, the first thing that came to mind was culture shock. This was more akin to a rural area as compared to Taipei.
Buildings were a mess and most look dilapidated for some reason. The traffic looked scary as well and the cab drivers will continually hound you to take a ride. We started off saying no to a burly looking driver until another driver came up and convinced a young couple and their kid to take the cab ride. In order for the ride to be cheaper, they require 4 paying adults paying 100ntd each. So just like that, we were dragged into the ride as well. Partially, it was for convenience and secondly, it was because the bus ride took 1 hour longer then a 40 minute cab ride. I do have to warn you though, the cab drivers are pushy and look rather scary but all in all, we got pretty nice people during our journey.

Window on China

Map

The place looked rather small in the beginning and i was disappointed to see many of the old attractions still doing their rounds. What looked fascinating as a child simply felt tagged on right now. Thank goodness the back of the park yielded better surprises and new attractions. The following will be some of the sights for the day.

We took this ride and for some absurd reason, we came out totally and utterly drenched when the rest of the people came out barely wet. I suspect the attendent didn't really like me or something and changed the current to ensure i was drenched. Still, can't say i didn't enjoy it.

The one thing about the show that amazed me was how true to form the costumes were. It was superbly alike with the cartoon and that is very well done.

Now this was interesting as well. The 6 people you see on this ride repeated the ride upteen times. In fact, the took the ride at least 15 times and thats when i started counting! They were taking the ride before we came and were still taking the ride after we left. Talk about getting your money's worth!

This was a personal favorite. In fact, i've made up my mind to find this church and fly to its actual location one day to see it in real life. Its simply a splendid example of artistic architecture and i just can't wait to experience it in person.

More Doraemon exhibitions before we left the theme park. Seems like Doraemon is making it big in Taiwan in recent times still.

After another 1 hour or so on a nerve wrecking bus ride back to Zhong Li, we alighted at the correct stop by luck and made our wobbly way through peak hour traffic to the train station. The ride back was even cheaper and soon we found out why, the train was an even older and slower model and our journey back to Taipei was filled with the smell of burning rubber throughout. Not exactly pleasant but at least dinner wasn't too far away now.
For dinner, we resolved to find our way in Xi Men Ding for a famous Mee Sua thats been said to be rather good. Coming up in Day 5 Part 2.