Daan Forest Park – Where to, Gumshoe?

Taipei (Day 26): A Near Perfect Day

March 26, 2015

Today was our last day with my sister, Noel, and Nate here with us in Taiwan. We woke up to sun shining through the window blinds – which made for a good start to the morning and a perfect last day with them.

We walked to Daan Park one last time to play in the playground with Nate. I think we went there four times with them during their twelve day trip. It would have been more if not for the rainy weather and going to Kenting for three days. After the playground we walked through the park towards Yong Kang St. for lunch.

The plan for lunch was to go back to Yong Kang Beef Noodle since it was Noel’s favourite meal of the trip. We made our way to Yong Kang St. around 10:45am and headed for the restaurant. There was already a line formed and the restaurant was full. They hadn’t opened the upstairs section this time so we had to wait about 10 minutes before we were seated. Since we were on the first floor, there were no high chairs available and all the tables were way more cramped. Sitting downstairs is where all the “action” is but also made for a very different dining experience. My sister had to hold Nate while they both ate, which was a bit trickier, but Nate loved their noodles so he was happily slurping it down and wasn’t fussy.

Next up on our agenda today was to visit SunnyHills pineapple cake shop. Pineapple cakes are the most common souvenir people buy when they’re in Taiwan. There are so many shops around Taipei it’s hard to sift through which ones are actually good. On our first trip to Taiwan, Tim’s aunt bought us both Chia Te and SunnyHills to bring back to our families. Chia Te is the most internationally known pineapple cake shop and is often the only place people will buy their pineapple cakes from. After trying both of them, our favourite was SunnyHills. They use real pineapple rather than jelly or melon (which most places use), so depending on the season the cake filling may be tart.

At first, my sister and Noel weren’t planning on buying any pineapple cakes since Noel isn’t a big fan of them. He talked about how the first time he had a pineapple cake, it was so dry and turned him off from them. We tried to convince him that the SunnyHills pineapple cake were different than all the other ones he’s had before.

I did a bit of research on the SunnyHills store as it’s about a 15 minute walk from the closest MRT station in a residential area. Luckily we had google maps loaded on Tim’s phone because you can easily miss the subtle signage. When we found it, it looked like a little oasis in the middle of the city.

When we walked in, the very friendly and pretty ladies (Nate kept waving and saying “ni hao”) at the store led us to a table to sit down. The front room was full so they brought us to the back room and we got to sit at our own round table for four people.

The ladies there were so kind and kept pouring us more tea, which was nice of them. Noel, the former pineapple cake hater, had a change of heart after trying them here. After sitting and relaxing for about half an hour, we went to buy some pineapple cakes. Each pineapple cake is 42 NT = $1.70 CAD, and buying them in boxes of 10 or 15 doesn’t change the price per unit. Along with pineapple cakes they sell pineapple juice, honey cake (Castella cakes), and tea.

I would highly recommend anyone traveling to Taipei to go here for pineapple cakes. I have yet to try a better one. I haven’t been to Chia Te yet to look around but I can only imagine it would be a gong show of a store as Trip Advisor reviews all say to go early to avoid massive line ups. SunnyHills was seriously such a calm and relaxing experience that I wouldn’t mind just going there to have some tea and reading a book if they let people do that.

We headed out and decided to walk to our next destination – Breeze Shopping Center. The walk was about 30 minutes and it was nice because we were in a more residential area of Taipei. The streets were tree lined and very quiet. One of the major streets had multi-coloured pinwheels lining it, which gave it a community feel.

As we were walking along the “pinwheel street”, we found a Cama Coffee (I call it Taipei’s Starbucks). We have seen locations all over the city but my sister and Noel (who are coffee drinkers) hadn’t had a chance to try one. Interestingly, as much as Taiwan is a very tea-centric country, Taipei has a lot of really great coffee shops all around the city. Tim and I don’t drink coffee, but according to my sister and Noel, all the coffee places that they’ve tried were very good. Their iced Americano from Cama was 40 NT = $1.60 CAD.

We finally made it to Breeze Center, a mall filled with high end luxury goods as well as other stores. We were there for the other stores, like Muji, Uniqlo, and they even had a Maison Kayser (Paris bakery).

After a pretty full morning and afternoon, we made our way back to the apartment so they could do a final pack up before dinner and the airport. We planned on going to the Tonghua Night Market for dinner, since Noel wanted stinky tofu for the last time and my sister hadn’t tried an oyster omelet yet.

We went to the night market around 6:30pm and it was already really busy (it’s a Saturday night after all). Since Nate needed more of a sit down dinner place, we took them to Formosa Chang’s on Tonghua St. first. Formosa Chang’s is the fast casual chain restaurant that serves a good braised pork on rice. We ordered two large rice bowls, a stewed egg, a plate of vegetables and a pork chop for 242 NT = $9.80 CAD. After we ate at Formosa Chang’s, we got our night market eats and headed back to the apartment with about 45 minutes to spare before Uncle Albert came by.

We’re very fortunate that Uncle Albert has been so kind to us and to my family. Without even meeting them he offered to pick them up from the airport and now has dropped them off for their 11:55pm flight back to Vancouver. My sister and Noel said he parked and saw them off through the security gates.

Saying goodbye to loved ones, especially when we’re away from home for 4.5 months is hard. As most people know I’m extremely close to my family and see them more often than the average person, so being away from them for so long is harder on me – that and I’m a pretty emotional person. Saying goodbye was a teary affair for me and my sister. I think Tim was worried about how much I was crying when they left (I’m better now).

It was great having my sister, Noel, and Nate here. Things started off a bit rocky with Noel and Nate not feeling 100% but after that initial hurdle, the days couldn’t have been better (despite the rainy weather). It was awesome that they were able to come visit us in Taiwan and be able to meet some of Tim’s family and learn more about Taiwanese culture. I’m happy that Taipei was so baby/toddler friendly and we actually learned a lot about what it would be like to be a parent in Taipei (I’ll expand more on that in a future post). We all said we would come back in 10 or so years when we have kids – hope that happens!

Steps for the day: 24,000

Taipei (Day 20): Yong Kang Take 2

March 20, 2016

Last night we looked up mass times for a Catholic church (Holy Family) in Taipei, which is just on the other side of Daan Park from us (about a 15 minute walk). It’s Palm Sunday today (week before Easter) and they hand out palm leaves to symbolize Jesus riding into Jerusalem. I find it’s always interesting to go to different churches while traveling to see all the subtle differences in each church (although there’s more similarities than differences in Catholic churches). The palm leaves were different than what we would get in Vancouver, so that was neat!

After mass, we headed to Yong Kang Street because last time we were there Noel was not feeling well and didn’t get to enjoy any of the good food there. We decided to try the more famous beef noodle restaurant this time – called “Yong Kang Beef Noodles”. When we got there around 11:15am, there was already a huge line outside. The line went really quickly because they had just opened the 2nd floor seating. We went upstairs, grabbed some side dishes and waited for our beef noodles to arrive. This beef noodle’s soup is more soy based and spicy, where as Lin Dong Fang is more herbal. Everything was really good – Noel and my sister said it was their favourite beef noodle of the trip!

After we had noodles we went to the shaved ice place we saw the other day called, “Smoothie House”. If you walk down Yong Kang St. you won’t miss it. We shared one mango and panna cotta shaved ice. It was good, comparable to Ice Monster, and 60 NT cheaper.

After lunch and our snacks, we headed to Daan Park on our way home to play in the playground with Nate. The crowd at the playground was like night and day on the weekend compared to when we’ve been during weekdays.

After Daan Park, the weather was starting to get colder and windier. You could tell it was going to start raining again soon. We decided to go back to the Taipei 101 area and shop around while Nate was sleeping in his stroller. Thinking about what to do for dinner, we ended up going to Din Tai Fung again to have XLBs for the last time (Tim: ever!?). Since we put down our names at around 5pm, we got our table right away even though it said on the board that it would be a 30 minute wait. After we left around 6pm, the wait time jumped to 70 minutes!

When we got back to the apartment, we were all tired (the adults). We stayed out all day so once we sat down it was nice to relax a bit. Nate was up from his nap and all he wanted to do was go out. He kept pointing to his stroller and wanted to sit in it. He also kept saying “go outside” and “put on shoes” to all of us. The Nate we all know and love is slowly coming back. We all agreed to take him to the night market that’s close to our apartment.

It was his first night market experience where he wasn’t sleeping. He seemed to really enjoy looking around at all the different stores and food stalls. He kept pointing to them saying “want one”.

It’s our second last night in Taipei with my sister, Noel, and Nate before we head down south to Kenting for a more relaxing getaway. Tomorrow we’re planning on checking out Ximending and packing up/cleaning up the apartment.

It’s been nice to have everyone around (although tiring at times, it’s always worth it). It’s only been day 20 out of 140 on this leg of our trip – not even close to halfway! We’re already talking about doing a Taiwan, Japan and Philippines trip in 10 years or so with our (future) kids. They should be at a good age where they can actually remember things by then.

Total number of steps today is 23,100.

Taipei (Day 19): Family and Food

March 19, 2016

It was another rainy morning in Taipei, but at least it’s a lot warmer than earlier in the week. Nate was in a good mood this morning and asked to sit in his stroller after breakfast and said to my sister, “Go!”. My sister and I took him to Daan Park to walk around, but as we began walking there it started to rain even harder. So unfortunately for Nate, he wasn’t able to play in the park.

When we got back from the park, Tim and I went to grab breakfast for everyone from a restaurant down the block that has since become our new breakfast/lunch/late night eats joint – “Ya Meile”. Once we walk in, the lady behind the counter recognized us and welcomed us in. She gave us free soy milk and said it was her treat (we think she’s the boss lady, she’s really friendly and very in control of everyone). We brought some dumplings, XLBs, lo bak go (fried turnip cake) and rice rolls to bring back to the apartment. It was our second day eating at this place and it’s probably one of the cheapest restaurants we have found for good eats (for breakfast, lunch and dinner). We could feed all four of us for less than $10 CAD.

The rain was coming down really hard at this point in the morning so we decided to just chill out and let Nate nap. The guys stayed back at the apartment to rest while I went with my sister to walk around a bit and get some bubble tea. We headed towards Daan Park and stopped by a Coco Bubble Tea. My sister really likes their passionfruit tea with coconut jelly and pearls – it’s really refreshing and only 40 NT = $1.60 CAD! We were discussing that this drink in Vancouver would likely be around $5. We also went to try to look for a KFC so my sister and Noel could try their delicious egg tarts. We had no luck because the one I looked up that was close to Coco closed down.

After our failed attempt to find a KFC, we walked by a beautiful indoor flower market – if only we actually lived here I would buy fresh flowers and an assortment of succulents.

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped by a restaurant that looked like a very popular lunch spot a few blocks away (Tim: Ruei An Taiwan Buffet). It was a self-serve lunch bar but we weren’t sure if they charged by the box/plate or if they weighed it. We didn’t see any signs with a fixed price so we assumed it was by weight, as people weren’t going crazy filling up their boxes/plates. We picked a few things to share and went to the counter to pay. There wasn’t a scale, but the cashier counted everything with her tongs and charged us for what we had. For a pretty full box we paid 90 NT = $3.60 CAD.

When we got back to the apartment, Nate was waking up from his nap (such good timing). We got ready and headed to Zhongxiao Fuxing to go to SOGO (Japanese department store). I’m always impressed by children’s toy floors at department stores here. They have a huge selection of toys and a variety of arts and craft stations around- like sewing, embroidery, clay making, painting, etc.

After SOGO, we walked down Zhongxiao Road towards Ice Monster. We wanted to stop by before dinner to get a popsicle as we wouldn’t have enough time before meeting the Ho family for dinner. As it was a Saturday afternoon, there was a huge line up for Ice Monster if you wanted to eat in. We got two popsicles (passionfruit and mango) just to try. They were perfect for Nate – super mini popsicles for 30 NT = $1.20 CAD.

We met Auntie Sandra, Uncle Dave and Kris for dinner at the original location of Shin Yeh. They were in town for the weekend so it was perfect timing that we were all able to meet up. Uncle Dave ordered a lot of classic Taiwanese dishes for us to try (I forget to take pictures).

After dinner we headed back to the apartment to put Nate to sleep before heading out to the Tonghua Night Market. My sister was exhausted so she decided to stay back and just go to bed early (it’s hard being a Mom…). We’ll come back to this night market again with her when we get back from Kenting – it’s close to Tim’s uncle’s apartment, where we’ll be staying for their last night in Taipei.

Now we’re back at the apartment, all ready to go to sleep. We’re planning on going to church tomorrow at the Holy Family Catholic Church close by (on the other side of Daan Park). There’s one English service there on Sundays at 9:45am.

Our total step count for today was 21,045 (I walked a bit more than Tim because I had two separate walks to Daan Park without him 😛 )

Taipei (Day 14): We Have Visitors!

March 14, 2016

It was another early morning as my sister, Noel, and Nate arrived in Taipei this morning at 5:30am from Vancouver. Tim and I set our alarms and waited for their arrival. They got to the apartment with Uncle Albert around 7am. They dropped off their bags and we headed straight to our favourite breakfast place – Yong He Soy Milk King! We were excited to share our love for this place with our Vancouver visitors.

After breakfast we went back to the apartment and the travellers took a nap before we headed out for the day. Since the weather today is a bit cold (around 15 degrees) and gloomy, we decided to go to Taipei 101 to check out the mall and eat at Din Tai Fung. But before we went to Taipei 101, we went to Daan Park to stop by the children’s playground for Nate to play. He seemed a bit scared about where he was so we wanted to bring him to the park to cheer him up; it worked!

Once we got to Taipei 101, we could see the hoards of people waiting in front of Din Tai Fung. The wait was around 50 minutes (this was at 1pm). The wait actually went quicker than we thought it would be and we only had to wait about 30 minutes. Since we told them we needed a high chair, when we got to table they had the high chair set up with a Din Tai Fung plastic dish set (how nice). The dish set was really cute and we asked if they were for sale. Our waitress said they are but they are all sold out at the moment – the set (bowl, plate, utensils, cup) is 350 NT ($14 CAD). So now we’re on the hunt for these.

With my sister and Noel here, we were able to try a variety of dishes. We were also really hungry when we ordered since we hadn’t eaten since 7am. Nate was polishing off the noodles and loving the food. It actually slipped my mind to take pictures of a few of the dishes because I was too hungry to think about it. The dish I really enjoyed that isn’t pictured is the DTF house special appetizer dish. It’s a cold dish of sliced bean curd, (organic) bean sprouts, julienned seaweed tossed in a slightly spicy sesame sauce. (This dish was 70 NT = $2.80 CAD)

After lunch we walked around to the neighbouring malls and ended up at the 24 hour Eslite Bookstore (Xinyi location). We started on the top floor and worked our way down. Nate walked around the children’s floor and enjoyed looking around and touching everything. He even made some Taiwanese friends in the book department.

It was fun to watch Nate interact and observe other kids and their parents in the bookstore. A Dad was reading his son a book in Mandarin and Nate sat really close and kept inching closer hoping to listen. As he inched closer and closer you can tell from the look on his face that he didn’t understand anything that was being said. Pretty sure Nate knows he’s in a foreign land.

Eslite has floors of books as well as boutique shops within the bookstore – we took our time going through each floor since Nate fell asleep in his stroller.

After spending an hour or so at Eslite we made our way back to the apartment area (we decided to just walk there instead of taking the MRT two stops). We stopped by a 7-Eleven for pudding (to eat later) and bubble tea from “50 Lan”. We’ve seen this bubble tea place everywhere and have been meaning to try it out (there’s one located just down the street from our Airbnb). We ordered pearl milk tea with mini pearls – the tea was good, but I think I still like the bigger pearls (or a mix of both like the Panda bubble tea in Taitung).

After we got our bubble tea, we headed to MOS Burger for dinner. We decided to have a low key/casual dinner because everyone was getting tired. My sister and Noel were doing well staying awake considering they’ve been up for over 24 hours with minimal amount of sleep on the plane. MOS Burger is a Japanese fast food restaurant with multiple branches in Taiwan. I was waiting for them to come so I could try it out. We decided to just eat in since Nate was still sound asleep. I ordered the shrimp patty burger and Tim ordered an “Australian Wagyu Beef” burger. He ordered one combo which came with a drink and a side of chicken nuggets (default option instead of just fries). My sister and Noel tried their more famous burgers – ones that use rice instead of buns. I had a bite of my sister’s sukiyaki burger and it pretty much tasted like you were eating a donburi (rice bowl) in your hands.

After an eventful afternoon/early evening, we headed back to the apartment. Everyone washed up and now are fast asleep. Tim and I are still awake working on our blog posts. We expect them to wake up really early like how we did during our first week here.

I hope tomorrow will be a good day after they get their much needed rest. Even though we are far from being locals, the fact that they came to visit us here, I feel like we’re responsible for getting them to like Taipei and enjoy it as much as we have. I hope the weather improves – we were blessed with such great weather our first week here but now it’s so cold.

Traveling around the city with a 20 month old is challenging and also enlightening to see how child friendly Taipei is. I noticed that it was really easy to get around with a stroller – especially in the MRT stations, which is something not to be taken for granted (ahem, NYC subways). Also, in each MRT station they have super clean bathrooms and “breastfeeding rooms” (which are also family rooms used to change diapers).

I’m really happy my sister, Noel, and Nate are here to visit us. I just hope that (even travelling with a toddler), they will be able to experience as much as we have so far during their time in Taipei.

Our steps for today are: 18,000 steps (I was surprised we walked so much with Nate – it was mostly because we walked back from Taipei 101 instead of taking the MRT).

Taipei (Day 2): Let’s eat!

March 2, 2016

After our day of travel, we woke up at 6:30am, feeling refreshed and excited to explore! The first thing that came to our minds was, Taiwanese breakfast. We’re staying around the Daan and Xinye Anhe MRT stations so we decided to pick something close by. I googled “The best Taiwanese breakfast in Taipei” (I know, my google skills are top notch).

永和豆漿大王 (English translation is “King of Soy Milk”) came up as one of the top picks that was only about a 10 minute walk from us. We left the apartment around 8am, and made our way to the breakfast place. From the looks of it and the amount of locals inside, it looked promising.

Everything hit the spot. The Chinese doughnut was super light and just out of the fryer which made it super delicious. I can see us going here multiple times during our time in Taipei. I have to keep telling myself that we’re here for a while, so we don’t have to eat everything in the next two days.

After breakfast we went to Daan Park (Taipei’s “Central Park”) and walked around and checked out the children’s playground area. My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew (20 months) will be visiting us in Taiwan in two weeks so I wanted to check out to see if it was “Nate friendly”, and it was!

I always love to visit parks in the middle of the city, to escape the hustle and bustle. Although Taipei is a pretty laid back city, there wasn’t that much crazy hustle and bustle to get away from, but it’s always nice to have that option. Tim and I said we could go running around the park together, we’ll see if that actually happens…

We continued our walk to Taipei 101. Last time I was in Taipei, we went at night so we didn’t really get any good views or were able to go inside. When we got to Taipei 101, they had just opened the doors to the mall at 11:00am, it was like we were waiting for it to open like the several groups of Chinese tourists. The mall is filled with multiple floors of luxury brands and free wifi!

Din Tai Fung also has a location at Taipei 101, so we decided to just go and have some xiao long baos. We know we’d go again (likely to the original location) with my sister and Noel. We didn’t have to wait for a table, which was good but when we left the line ups looked outrageous (Tim: Actually, the sign said 5 minute wait).

We ended up ordering 10 XLBs (200 NT), Green beans with minced pork (110 NT), and Beef Noodle (230 NT) = 540 NT + 10% Service Charge = 594 NT = $24 CAD (Tim: Current “priciest meal” champ). Everything was good and the service was excellent – my tea cup was never empty.

After our early lunch we walked around to the neighbouring malls and checked out Eslite 24 hour bookstore (8 levels) which was also filled with so many cool boutiques and restaurants within the store. If this wasn’t a backpacking trip for us, I would probably buy a lot from here.

On our way back to the apartment, we passed by the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and decided to check it out. It was filled with Chinese tourists – which was reminiscent of some of the temples we saw in Bangkok with all the tour groups being dumped there at once. Inside, they had the changing of guards in front of a huge statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

At this point in the afternoon, it was about 25 degrees celsius and we were both wearing t-shirts and jeans. With the sun beating down on us, we were warm (Tim was obvs sweating)! It was funny because we passed by so many people wearing parkas, wool jackets and 80% of people had scarves (it is winter I guess..). Even when we got back to the apartment, a lady talking to the doorman looked at us and said “they hardly have any clothes on, it makes me feel like I’m wearing too much” (this was Tim’s English translation for me). Maybe we’ll start to acclimate soon.

It was nice to relax in the afternoon – I started this blog and Tim caught up on the Walking Dead. We started to get a bit sleepy but we had to get ready for dinner with Uncle Albert.

Uncle Albert picked us up at around 6pm and we headed to the Ningxia Nightmarket for dinner. I was pretty excited for this because last time we were here, I was only able to eat one thing (stinky tofu) at the Shilin Nightmarket because we had a huge dinner beforehand. We ended up starting off at a Taiwanese chain restaurant called “Formosa Chang” for their stewed pork on rice and a couple of other sides. We ventured back out to the stalls and Uncle Albert ordered us a bunch of things to share – BBQ steak bites, bacon wrapped chives and a shrimp paste patty wrapped in a spring roll but presented like a pancake. We also ordered a chicken thigh that was fried, grilled and glazed (delish!) and I got my favourite ai-yu jelly drink.

After our non-stop eating, Tim and I were fading. It was 8pm and we both fell asleep in the car ride back. We washed up and Tim tried to finish watching the end of Survivor and we fell asleep at 9pm.

I got woken up by a phone call and couldn’t go back to sleep – it was 4:30am. I started to write this blog post and catch up on what happened on the Bachelor on Monday (I knew Ben didn’t love Caila… poor girl)

To offset everything we ate, we walked 24,761 steps yesterday. Yay!