Taiwan Travelogue: Day Six - Taipei 101, Wufenpu and Raohe Night Market

Just can't keep up the momentum for blogging about Taiwan. Shit!

Day six, finally past the halfway mark at least.

Good morning :D

First up in the morning, Taipei 101.
Levon already told us not to expect too much, because its quite unimpressive.
But you know la, must have the touristy experience to go up at least once ma.

Taipei 101
臺北 101
 No. 7, Lane 5, Xinyi Rd

台北市 信義路 五段七號

Nearest station: Taipei City Hall Station (Line 5)

Exit 1, walk straight down and follow the direction signs

Opening hours: 9 am to 10 pm

Day Six selfie !

I read a travelogue saying that you can take a shuttle bus to Taipei 101,

but it's actually within 5 -10 mins walking distance so there's no need to waste time waiting :x

The ticket booth is at L5, each ticket is NT400 / SGD17

Quite pricey actually, so Levon didn't follow us up.

You can check the weather conditions before purchasing tickets, so that you don't get disappointed.

I love the street view from top down !

But other than that, there's nothing really wow. Hahahah.

I think the gigantic damper - which is the biggest tuned mass damper in the world - is much more impressive.

It's a 660 tonne pendulum which stabilises the building during typhoons, by basically absorbing movements.

The movement of the huge steel sphere is recorded, and during the intro video,

we saw some serious swaying - like a scary only, especially if you imagine being inside the building during a typhoon.

Oh and Bimb fell in love with the gibberish talking Damper Babies - the mascots.

Okay yes you can call us geeks now :B

The silver one is my favourite !

The proportion of Bimb's head to the Damper Baby's to the actual damper.. Wahahah.

Went to Ding Tai Fung 鼎泰蘴 after that - which is probably the main point of visiting Taipei 101 LOL.

Ordered the usual suspects.

Food is not very different in terms of taste and quality, but it is damn AFFORDABLE compared to Singapore.
And the Singaporean staff wont mistake us for Japanese either. HAHAH!

Freaking funny, when we approached the entrance the waitress greeted us with a irasshaimasu,
and one of us went arigato, then everything escalated too quickly from there.
They actually handed us the Japanese menu and order form, 
which had no English translation so we were damn stunned like vegetables. HAHAHA.
Wanna continue the show also cannot liao.

Then even when we wanted to swop the menus, some of the staff didn't dare to attend to us, 

but went looking for language competent staff. ooooops.

Walked over to Eslite 誠品書店! Basically like Taiwan's Kinokuniya. 

I spotted a Game of Thrones: Puzzle of Westeros jigsaw puzzle there.. omg I want. 

There is a Porter International store there as well, and Bimb got her bag at a freaking cheaper price than sg. 

So for Porter fans, it's a definite must go.

Eslite – Xinyi District

誠品信義店 

No. 11, Songgao Rd, Taipei 

松高路11號

Opening hours: 

Friday to Saturday: 10 am – 2 am 

Sunday to Thursday: 10 am –12 pm

Nearest MRT Station: Taipei City Hall 市政府

5 min walk from Exit 2

I got my glutton wish granted - missed out Miyahara in Taichung, so I'm not skipping this one!!
8% Ice Cream Shop has the classic as well as super unique flavours, infusing tea and fruits.
Examples are French Peach with Rose Wine, Marco Polo Milk Tea.

Yeah we suay kuan, go pick all the tea flavours available HAHAH.
Marco Polo Milk Tea, Hojicha with Honey, Chocolate with Earl Grey.
Slightly pricey, NT100/SGD5 for a cup, but I loved it so I didn't mind ;p

8% Ice Cream Shop – Xinyi District

8% Ice 冰淇淋专门店

1F, No.12, Songgao Rd, Xinyi Dist

台北市 信義區 松高路 12號1樓

Opening hours: 

Friday to Saturday: 11 am – 10 pm

Sunday to Thursday: 11 am – 9.30 pm

They also offer these frozen popsicles too - and I'm in love with the color combinations ~

Headed to Wu Fen Pu 五分埔商圈 for some serious shopping! 

WFP is a large clothing wholesale market, which translates to cheap clothes, shoes, and accessories.

Their styles for clothes might not be for everyone, but we got some good deals for accessories there.

But first. Lunch. HAHAHAH.

A must try in Taipei - Formosa Zhang 鬍鬚張 for braised pork rice 魯肉飯 :D

It's along the way to WFP if you go via Hou Shan Pi 後山埤 Station
Come out from Exit 1, and walk down Yongji Road 永吉路 

Formosa Zhang

鬍鬚張 

No. 533 Yongji Rd, Nangang District

南港區 永吉路 533 號

Opening hours: 10 am to 12 mn

Menu!

Taadaaaa star of the meal - Braised pork rice 魯肉飯 NT35 per small bowl!

Yeah the bowl is really small, so me and levon had to share an additional one.

The rice was fluffy, and meat very fragrant - but be forewarned, its more like 90% fats and 10% meat.

Very sinful I know, but how else to get the melt in your mouth texture!

Also ordered some other dishes - Radish and Meatball soup 貢丸湯 , Braised egg 滷蛋, 

Stir fried cabbage, and Braised tofu 老皮嫩肉 - which Levon only let me have one pc and promptly ate the rest HAHAH.

Didn't take photos of WFP, because too busy shopping HAHAH.
It's like Bugis street, but some alleys are quite squeezy.
Here's a map I found, don't say I not helpful ;p

Wu Fen Pu 

五分埔商圈

Nearest MRT: Hou Shan Pi or Songshan 

Opening hours: from 2 pm onwards

Usually closed as late as 2 am on Saturdays, and closed earlier at 9 pm on Sundays.

It is not recommended to go on Mondays as most shops are dealing with wholesale transactions.

I recommend going from HSP and walking through WFP, and end off with Raohe Night Market,

which was what we did. Took us around 3 hours to finish WFP heheh.

Raohe Night Market is located right next to Ciyou Temple 慈祐宮, which was built during the Qing Dynasty.

And woah the temple is damn intricate. 

Raohe Night Market

饒河街夜市

Bade Street, Section 4, Songshan District.

八德路四段松山區

Opening hours: 5 pm to 12 mn

Right at the east entrance is one of the highly recommended stalls - Pepper Bun 福州世祖胡椒餅

Expect a super long queue, because it's very popular!

They use a traditional charcoal stove to prepare the pepper buns,

which are crispy on the outside and packed with well seasoned black pepper minced pork.

I'd advise two people to share one bun though, because the dough felt slightly thick after awhile.

Photo credits: Levon

Uhh, but I totally got sidetracked by this tiny stall I spotted while queuing for the pepper buns.

I unabashedly got my bffs to help me queue while I went to attack MENTAIKO PIZZA. 

#truegluttontalking #onetargetnotenough 

Xinhua Mentaiko Cheese Pancake

幸花明太子起司烤餅

Loads of cheese and mentaiko on a wrap skin and passed through a conveyor-heater, till its oozing and bubbling.

You get to choose a blend of chili, seaweed, bonito flakes, garlic, or original - NT60

Mentaiko purist wants her mentaiko pure.

Doesn't this just look awesome?!!

Even Bimb - who doesn't love mentaiko usually - said this was good.

I was so reluctant to share. ):

黃金爆漿雞腿卷 - literally golden exploding chicken thigh roll.

Direct translation, but I'm sorry, there's no other name for this because it is exactly what it is!

Very juicy and explosive chicken thigh.

This was quite a popular feature in most of the night markets - the same type that Bimb fell in love with in Taichung. 

I noticed after awhile that there are always staple foods, and a few dishes which seem to be in trend for night markets.

Hope some of the stalls remain permanent even after the trend is over !

This one had more types of flavors you can choose - I got lemon pepper and loved it :D

Thank you cute penguin :B

Another of my must-try - Tamago-yaki 玉子燒 !
Its of course, the Japanese egg - cooked layer by layer and ending up like a moist omelette.

Array of flavours available.

Simple, comforting food. Can you see how moist is it inside?

  

Traditional Muah Chee 古早味麻糬 - NT40/60
Soft and chewy, but what impressed me more was the friendly vendor!
He very kindly asked me if I was planning to eat now, or keep for later, and helped me separate the balls and peanut coating.
He followed up with advice to "eat it no less than 4 hours later, otherwise it will lose its bounce",
and prepared a sample for us to know the 'correct standard'

Tea Casa 茶莊 - freshly brewed teas for NT40.

The tea is brewed and blended on the spot, using this unique 'blender' which has no blade.
All three of us loved the different teas we chose - I had the 東方美人

The young vendor was quite knowledgeable about the different types of tea leaves,
and you could sense his enthusiasm when describing the taste.

These last two vendors left a deep impression on me, not just because of their om nom noms,
but their passion for their craft and the sincerity which they treated their customers.

It might not be even considered a profession, but they love their jobs and what they're representing, 
which I think is important in life.
It is never easy to reunite passion with profession, especially in such a fast paced society like Singapore,
but I believe that loving what you do is more meaningful than churning out money to live.

Oops I think I deviated. HAHAH.