Our Taipei and Tainan adventure is primarily about food, and some sightseeing too. Tainan is historically very significant city because this was where the first seat of the early Chinese government under Ming loyalist Coxinga, and also where the Dutch and other colonial trading houses first established themselves. Coxinga captured Tainan from the Dutch in 1662.
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| My favorite breakfast! Yutiao dipped in dou jiang (soya bean milk). |
Before we go into all that food, let's share about our visit to a tea producer on Ergeshan (二格山) mountain, in the Xiaogetou (小格頭) district, just 40 minutes out of Taipei. They produce under the label of Wénshān bāo zhǒng chá (文山包種茶).
Xiaogetou 小格頭 district / Ergeshan 二格山mountain
Ergeshan is about 25km southeast of Taipei.
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| View of Shihding Ciandao Hu 石碇千島湖 (the lake with surrounding hills) from the lookout hilltop. |
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| Rows of tea growing on the hill sides of Xiaogetou小格頭. |
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| Hospitality house near the lookout hilltop, overlooking Shihding Ciandao Lake (石碇千島湖). |
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| Paranomic view of the surrounding hills from near the lookout hilltop. |
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| Our walk to hilltop overlooking Shihding Ciandao Lake (石碇千島湖) |
Xiaogetou has an elevation of 522m or 1,713ft. Nearby Zhitan Shan
直潭山 rises to an elevation of 544m or 1,785ft.
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| We met some friendly cyclists couple riding the mountain roads (in the rains) |
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| Another brave cyclist. He had stopped to change out his wet jerseys. |
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| The resthouse and restaurant.... |
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| The much touted fried chicken...yummy! |
Looking crispy and tasty, like what mom used to do in the old days. The chicken is nice and chewy!
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| The fried vegetable is superb. |
Just couple of minutes down from the rest house, is our destination....the Chen's 陳 home and tea factory.
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| Wénshān bāo zhǒng chá (文山包種茶) brand. |
We sampled their green tea (or li-cha), and it's very fragrant to savor and leaves behind a nice after taste. We were informed that there are 4 harvest of the tea leaves each year, but the leaves do not grow in the winter months, and not until spring. Typically the leaves are picked and dried on round rattan nets. The roasting of the tea leaves are done below the main house, after which the tea are packed into plastic bags as we can see in the photos below. Everything is done by hand!
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| Mrs Chen 陳 packing the li-cha tea for us. |
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| The rows of tea grown by the Chens 陳. |
The Chens are in their 80s, but look at least 20 years younger. Both Mr and Mrs Chen had worked in Taipei in their younger days.
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| The Chens 陳, the good people who produces tea under the Wénshān bāo zhǒng chá (文山包種茶) brand. |
At the hilltop residence of the Chens 陳(photo above) on Ergeshan 二格山, the temperature was a very pleasant 20 deg C, with humidity below 70%. Lovely weather!
Now let us head back to the cities....
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| Map of Taiwan with Taipei and Yangminshan in the north, and Tainan in the south. (Photo courtesy of Google.) |
Taipei 台北
Taipei is the capital city of the Republic of China, or simply Taiwan. Japan ruled Taiwan from 1895 to the end of the Second World War in 1945. For this reason, Japan culture in the food and life of the country is still quite evident. The Hayashi Dept Store and the many superb sushi eateries are some examples. Because of its close proximity to the Chinese province of Fujian 福建, the commonly heard dialect spoken here is Hokien much similar to parts of South East Asia where there had been concentrations of Hokien migrants in the past many years.
During our visit to the historically more significant city of Tainan, we discovered the early history of Taiwan which apparently was first colonized by the Dutch and later recaptured by Coxinga (1624-1662), a Ming loyalist around the time of the fall of the Ming Dynasty(1644) to the establishment of Manchurian Qing Dynasty (1661) in imperial China.
We visited the famous Yangmingshan National Park and also a Ma-tzu or Mazu 馬祖 temple in Songshan 歌山, the location of one of its bustling night market.
Yangmingshan 陽明山National Park has an area of 114 sqm. It's highest peak Qixingshan 七星山(Seven Star Mountain) is a dormant volcano rising to a peak of 1,120m or 3,675ft. It is the highest dormant volcano in Taiwan, and is part of the Datun 大屯火山群 volcano group and within the Yangmingshan National Park. Yangmingshan National Park is about 35km north of Taipei.
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| Yangmingshan Park |
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| Spring flowers aplenty. |
We spent 3 over hours walking all over the trails of Yangmingshan (陽明山) National Park. The park has a lot of hot springs which seems to be coming up from all over the hill and its slopes. There is also a distinctive smell of burnt sulfur in the air, and we found later that this is due to the Datun volcanoes 大屯火山群 nearby. The volcanic range is about 15 km north of Taipei.
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| Waterfall along a trail in Yangmingshan Park |
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| Cherry blossoms still in bloom along road in Yangmingshan Park |
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| Yangmingshan National Park |
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| Stone steps which form part of the Wuzhi Mountain Park trail |
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| Our walk in Yangmingshan (陽明山) National Park |
When we came back to Taipei, we visited the Raohe night market
饒河夜市 at Songshan
歌山, and this cultural and religious icon...
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| Songshan Ma-tzu 松山媽祖廟 temple |
Construction of the temple started in 1753 and completed 4 years later. The temple is almost 300 years old and had played a central role in the spiritual life of the community. There are several other Ma-tzu 媽祖 temples in Taiwan but the Songshan 歌山temple must be one of the earliest. It's the center of community life with the night market beside it.
Tainan 台南
As mentioned earlier, Tainan is historically significant to the development of Taiwan as a country. The Dutch built a fort on Tainan when they colonized Taiwan or Formosa as it was previously called. Formosa was name given by Dutch explorers in late 16th Century. It means "beautiful island".
Fort Provincia (now Chihkan Tower) was built in 1653, but was captured by Coxinga 國姓爺, a honorific title ascribed to Zhen Chenggong 鄭成功 (1624-1662), who became the first Han ruler of Taiwan in 1662, when the Dutch surrendered Fort Zeelandia. For this reason, Tainan has the distinction of being the first capital city of Taiwan. Its original name of Tayouan has been claimed to have given its name to "Taiwan".
Coxinga was a Chinese-Japanese loyalist who resisted the Qing conquest of China's southeastern coast. He set up a kingdom of Yanping (1661-1683) in Formosa. The migration of the Han people into Taiwan started after Coxinga established his control over the land.
Straits Times reported (16 Apr 2017) that their tourism bureau have started actively promoting Tainan for its heritage streets, which have a bohemian vibe, with hipster cafes and art galleries. Interesting concept for its contrast with its rivals in the cooler north.
Fort Provintia / Chihkan Tower (赤崁樓)
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| Chihkan Tower (赤崁樓) |
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| Ruins of the 3rd tower of Fort Provincia. |
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| A model of the old Fort Provincia with its 3 towers. |
Fort Provincia was built in to strengthen the Dutch Fort Zeelandia's control during their 38 years rule over Tainan on Formosa.
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| Drawing side view of original Fort Provincia |
Fort Provincia was destroyed by an earthquake in 19th century was was rebuilt as Chihkan Tower afterwards.
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| Present day side view of Chihkan Tower. |
Fort Zeelandia at Anping (安平)
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| The southern wall is the last standing wall of Fort Zeelandia in Anping |
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| Statue of Coxinga aka Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 (1624-1662) |
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| See "Fort Zeelandia" emblazoned on the wall which is now the museum at Anping. |
Next to the old Fort Zeelandia is the old town of Anping 安平老街, with many streets filled with peddlars selling anything and everything. See some of the interesting sights we saw on the old streets of Anping......
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| Monkey God at the Anping temple |
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| Plenty of street vendors lining both sides of Anping streets. |
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| Gaming stalls are common place. |
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| Map of old Fort Zeelandia, and the surrounding of nearby Dutch and other European trading houses locations. |
After the Opium Wars in the 19th Century, China had to allow Europeans to set up trading bases in certain ports, one of which is Anping. They mainly deal in tea, camphor and opium, and also banking and insurance. The Japanese who ruled Taiwan later removed all European traders in 1911. Some of these old buildings were left abandoned, and one such is the old Tait & Co. premises, now called the Tree House. Here's to see why.....
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| The entire complex of abandoned and most roofless houses have been overpowered by the extensive trunks and roots network of the Banyan Tree. Their round shape leaves is a Banyan Tree specie particular to Taiwan. |
Sunday flower market
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| Jianguo Flower Market |
Restaurants in Taipei
Shi-Yang Shan Fung restaurant 食養山房
The restaurant is first and foremost a culinary mountainside retreat. It's inspiration is that of a getaway, meditation in a Buddhist scholar ambience. As expected, the main menu is vegetables and very little meat is served, and certainly nothing that walks on all fours. It sits on 5-hectares of rented mountain side property off Jingshan Road.
The property has a mountain trekking trail running beside it, with stone bridges cutting across streams of water running down from the mountain. The Wuzhi Mountain Ancient Footpath passes just by the perimeter of the restaurant premises (see photo of the Wuzhi Mt. signboard later). But the restaurant though perched on a hilly stretch of mountain, is not on Wuzhi Mt 五指山. The area is within the New Taipei City area.
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| Driver Xiao Chen arriving at restaurant |
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| Meeting the restaurant reception at the car park which is a huge drop down drive from the road. |
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| Bridge linking carpark to restaurant gate |
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| Behind the steel plate is the entrance to corridor.... |
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| the corridor leading into the inner "court yard" of restaurant |
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| Stone steps from "court yard" up to upper dining rooms. |
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| Upper dining rooms on left and right |
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| Taking our orders |
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| View of garden from our second floor dining room balcony |
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| Mountain streams and lush vegetation. |
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| Balcony outside our dining room |
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| Tea to start the lunch |
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| First course: Tofu with corn (yi-min) soup |
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| Course #2: Scallop, mushrooms, fungus and daikon, with bean string and pine nuts |
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| Daikon dip in yu-zu sauce |
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| Course #3: Tomato infused jelly with root paste. |
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| Course #5: Sashimi, salmon and squid, abalone on mushroom with mock vegan, served on ice shavings. |
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| Accompanied by a lavender vinegar appertiff |
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| Kettle to self top up tea cups |
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| View of surrounding hills from our dining seats |
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| Course #6: Fried rice with corn and mushrooms, served with preserved pickles and mushroom butter sauce and ginger. |
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| Course #7: Veg soup with chrysanthemum flower, stirred into the soup |
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| Rose apple (taste like guava) with pear |
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| Fragrant chrysanthemum red tea |
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| Or-nee with "kai-sing" guo. |
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| Or-nee or yam paste |
After lunch we put on our shoes and took a walk in their lush gardens.....
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| Many banana trees here. |
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| Map of the Wuzhi Mountain trail passing by the restaurant |
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| Ducks on the stream chasing fishes |
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| Huge rabbits' foot fern sitting on the bridge over the ducks |
Da-wan Yakinku Dining (Japanese) restaurant 大腕烤肉店
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| Parts of cow on the chefs tee-shirts. It's like a map when they explain which part of beef we are having. |
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| Special order of salad. |
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| Hakkaisan sake |
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| Pork neck to be put on the grill |
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| Dipping into the lime juice. |
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| Chunky ribeye |
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| Beef grilled with spread of garlic and leek on top. |
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| After its grilled, the beef is folded with the garlic and leek inside. |
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| Thick ribeye |
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| The chef stands before the diners to grill what they have ordered. |
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| Rump. |
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| BBQ beef with Japanese marinate. |
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| Finally the chicken arrived. |
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| Scallop grilled to perfection. |
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| The chicken is grilled together with a garlic sauce on alum-foil bowl. |
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| We were well served by this young chef. |
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Our last course, the big tiger prawn!
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The total bill for both of us for all the above meats and seafood came up to S$270. One of the best grills we have had.
Xianyu dian (Fresh fish shop) 鲜鱼店
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| Mr Pan is the owner. |
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| Shop front. |
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| Grilled squid. |
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| Steam prawns with ginger slices. |
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| Fried local fish. |
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| Sauteed clams with basil leaves |
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| Steam local fish (looks like kinki fish) |
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| Oysters blanched with fried garlic and scallions. |
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| Stirred fried local veg. |
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| Fried oysters with eggs. |
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| The kitchen. |
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| Mr Pan with guests. |
The total lunch bill came up to S$130. With all the fresh seafood we had, it was a very good price for the 3 of us.
Komodo (Japanese) restaurant
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| Salad with peanut truffle sauce |
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| Matai sashimi |
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| Daikon pickles |
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| Tuna sashimi |
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| Du Sifu slicing the fish |
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| Jianso sashimi |
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| Expensive but empty burgs lining the top shelf. |
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| Hakkaisan sake |
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| Sima (paikayu) sashimi |
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| Cool hands making the sashimi |
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| Fried yellow-tail cheeks |
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| Tempura prawns and vegetables. |
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| Sea urchin (uni), salmon roe and rice. |
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| Clams soup |
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| The clams |
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| Grinding out the wasabi root |
The total bill for omekase meal for both of us came up to S$250. Value for money for such fine food.
Japan Sushi
This is our second visit to Japan Sushi. The food is good and inexpensive by home standards.
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| Sake |
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| Squid grilled |
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| Alaskan crab claws. |
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| Scallop wrap |
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| Black squid sausage |
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| Sushi |
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| Chef Xiao Ping |
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| Yellow tail sperm bag sushi |
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| Oyster sushi |
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| Salmon sushi |
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| Fried kinki fish |
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| Clams miso soup |
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| Sea urchin sushi |
As usual, we had a great omekase dinner at Japan Sushi, and the totally bill for 2 came up to $210. Fantastic deal.
Din Tai Fung at Shinkong Mitsokoshi
Din Tai Fung is Taiwan in origin, but we were told its still the best, and is somehow different from the ones operating in Singapore and China. We had to come and try some of their unique dishes. Actually we were famished, having just trained into Taipei from Tainan, a 2 hour train ride and it was past 8pm.
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| White bitter gourd |
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| Black fungus |
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| Their iconic beef noodles - thick broth with chucky beef slices |
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| Xiaolongpau |
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| Chicken broth or soup |
Although we did not feature Shin Yeh A9 restuarant at Songshou Road Xinyi, it became our clear favorite. We were treated to dinner by friends and polite company rules is best not to take photo of the food. We will definitely be back there next time we are in Taipei.
Snacks in Taipei
Zhizhen Dou Jiang (Soya bean milk)
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| Zhizhen dou jiang business card. |
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| Ordering the soya milk |
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| The soya bean milk |
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| With the yu-tiao this is heaven! |
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| Scallions pancake |
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| A piece of heaven frolicking in the dou jiang! |
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| Pancake with egg |
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| Dough making yu-tiao pancakes |
Yong He Soya Milk 永和豆漿
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| This breakfast is located at this junction. |
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| For takeaway, the queue starts here. |
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| Egg pancake is smooth like egg prata |
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| Dou jiang (soya bean milk) |
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| Enjoying a hearty breakfast of yuo-tiao and dou jiang (soya bean milk). |
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| Enjoying a delicious and traditionally healthy yui-tiao |
We like the Taiwanese yu-tiao because it has a very light texture. The inside of the yu-tiao is hollow and this makes eating this delicacy both crispy and light. It must be the way they do the dough!
Sunnyhills (pineapple tarts)微熱山丘
The shop is located in a very pleasant suburb - 1, Alley 4, Lane 36, Section 5, Minsheng East Road, Songshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 105. It is facing a park.
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| The fascade of the Sunnyhills shop |
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| Guests queuing up for their turn to be seated. |
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| Chinese tea and a pineapple tart |
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| Delicious pineapple tart - compliments of the House. |
Ay-Chung fluor-rice noodles (mee sua) 阿宗麵線
西門町 Ximending
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| Pay the cashier and wait your turn. |
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| Our two "small" bowls of the oyster (and chicken) mee-sua |
Sha-yu mien (Shark's meat noodles)
This is an interesting breakfast shop. Its located at No.1 Linkou Street.
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| Waiting for breakfast in anticipation. |
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| Shark and meat ball soup |
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| Braised to-kan 干豆腐, kelp and egg. |
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| Feeding on shark....not for me! |
Shark's meat is pretty bland and rough. Needs chilli.
Snacks in Tainan
Wenzhang beef soup
It's in a shop facing a canal at No. 590, Anping Rd., Anping Dist, Tainan, Taiwan.
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| Queue building up in front of shop (about 4.40pm) |
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| Earlier we went at 4.15pm, and they were not yet opened. Just 20 min later the crowd was unbelievable (see above). |
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| The menu offering in a block in front of shop |
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| We ordered 3 items (indicated above) |
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| The beef soup are done here right out front |
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| This guy does the dishes that need to be fried with wok. |
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| The shop inside |
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| Slicing the beef |
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| The beef soup preparation |
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| Plain beef soup - apparently comes with bowl of complimentary rice |
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| Add soya and the sauce is set right |
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| Fried beef with bitter gourd - very nice! |
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| We ordered the beef brisket because it looked good. Tasted good as well. |
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| The tendon is separately sliced with the fatty parts taken out |
Zi-kan "coffin" toast
This shop was the pioneer of the "coffin" toast. After it became popular, many other copycats jumped onto the band wagon.
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| Entrance into shop |
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| "Coffin" toast with milk, cream and chicken cubes. |
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| Oyster soup with ginger and salted vegetables. This oyster soup is good! |
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| Crunchy cuttle fish served with plum, chilli and scallion sauce. |
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| The inconspicuous entrance into Zi-kan. |
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| The business card |
Simu-yu shop (fish porridge)
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| Ximu-yi shop |
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| Steam Dace fish goes well with bean paste |
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| Anything with yu-tiao can't go wrong |
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| Bean paste sauce |
Anping Bean Jelly (bean curd) shop
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| We had two options - one white and other black bean curd. |
I prefer the white bean curd. Maybe is just prejudice as white is the one served commonly at home.
Zhenci wan-ke (wan koey)
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| Carrot cake with yam and rice flour (wan ke). The wan keoy is reason we came to eat at this shop. |
Wan-ke is made from rice flour with yam and sliced pork. The chui kuay in Singapore is made from rice flour only.
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| Garlic and chilli condiments |
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| The thick shimu fish paste (yu-ken) soup - bit fishy so needed lots garlic and chilli |
Zhou shi sia quan (prawn rolls)
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| The prawn roll was quite delicious |
We wanted to order their fried oyster omelette but were told they did not have it.
Du Xiao Yue 杜小月担仔面
We were visiting Tainan's famous Confucius Memorial and temple when we came across this famous local staple noodle fare - plain noodle 担仔面. This is much like wan ton noodle is to us in Singapore.
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| Its got egg, prawns and fish ball. |
Night Markets in Taipei
Raohe Street Night Market (next to Sung Shan Mo Tzu Temple)
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| Grand entrance into the night street market |
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| Preparation of the dough for the wu-jiao ping. |
Wu-jiao ping is actually a dough mixed with fillings of meat and baked to completion in an oven. It taste like the steam meat pao at home, except this one is baked.
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| Picking up the wu-jiao ping from the oven below |
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| Finally, we got our wu-jiao ping. |
In fact, the famous wu-jiao ping was a huge reason why we wanted to visit this night market. There was a queue of at least 20-30 people at all times when we were in line to buy.
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| Wu jiao ping waiting to be served |
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| Crispy spiral fried potatoes. |
Tainan's Shennong St - an architect's delight
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| Shennong St. |
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| One of the unique features of this street are the many balconies. |
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| Balconies |
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| This shop making traditional sedan chairs. Interesting to find out who rides in them these days! |
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| Even the temple has a nice balcony |
Hayashi Departmental Store -
an art-deco departmental store and iconic piece of Tainan's history
The Hayashi Departmental Store was build in 1932 when Taiwan was under Japanese rule (1895-1945). At the time, it was the first building in Taiwan to have a modern state-of-the-art elevators (which had since been upgraded). It survived WW2, and its roof top terrace still bears the evidence of damage from the fighting.
The building was so ahead of its time in the 1930s, that till today, its referred to as the "Five Stories House". Must have been the tallest building at that time!
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| The present day elevator (still a bit sensitive to weight) |
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| Old elevator level indicator |
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| The Hayashi family. |
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| History of store and building at entrance of Hayashi. |
The quintessential store in this building was re-opened in 2013 / 2014.
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| Enjoying a cuppa at the Hayashi Cafe. |
Travel between Taipei and Tainan
We wanted to spend one day in Tainan, and was advised that the best way of getting there an back was by the Taiwan High Speed Rail or THSR. The first two days in Taipei, the temperature was in the 21-24 deg C range.
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| Our train was the #205 at 7.51am departing from Taipei. |
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| Happy to be in Tainan, before we encountered the afternoon temperatures of 35 degC! |
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| Its 320km from Taipei to Tainan. Our train had stops in many of the cities along the way. The ride took just under 2 hours. |
We were very happy to return to cooler Taipei after a day in the sweltering heat of Tainan. We even brought forward our return to Taipei from 8pm to the earlier 6.15pm train.
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| Waiting at the Tainan train platform. |
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| Our train to Taipei. |
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| THSR policeman walking through the carriage. |
We recommend 小陳 to anyone who wants to have a reliable guide and driver to move around comfortably in Taiwan. He's very knowledgeable about what tourists want, and can help save time when we have a long list of to-do's. 小陳is a professional photographer when he's not taking charge of in-bound tourists like us.
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