Taipei in December
Right after the holidays a couple of friends and I went to Taipei for some good food and rest and basically a break from the terror of exams for the past few weeks. We were not disappointed. Taipei was very relaxing; people walked slower than HK-ers, and their food was awesome. And our hotel was just located on the street across the Night Street, where food stalls offered delicacies appealing to different taste buds late till midnight. On the first night we went to the Night Street and ate BBQ mushrooms, omelets with kimchi etc. The street was packed and there was a strong scent of deep fried food and the like. This is the entrance of the night market. BBQ mushroom Omelet + kimchi, cheese, asparagus A snack made with quail eggs with a shrimp inside each eggball A really cute souvenir where the flowers inside each glass bottle grow when there’s sunlight and sleep when there’s none The next day we began our journey to Ximending. First though we went to grab some lunch at a Taiwanese restaurant, Tu Hsiao Yuch at No.16, Zhongzheng Rd., with one of the best Taiwanese dishes I’ve ever had, especially the dish below. Ximending was packed, but everywhere there were many things to see. There’s no doubt that it is indeed a shopping paradise. There are cosmetics shops, shops selling fashionable and low-priced leather bags, and many cafes that served Japanese, Chinese, and Western food. For dinner we went to the famous Din Tai Feng. We queued for over an hour but the wait was definitely worth it. We also visited Tanshui, a sea-side district in Taipei where shops selling Taiwanese snacks and little gifts abound. This is the Jieyun Station for Tanshui At night we went to the Lovers’ Bridge in Tanshui. The scenery is quite romantic, but perhaps it would be better if we went in the summer, because it was raining and cold when we arrived. It was also quite interesting how many ex-Hong Kongers we met in Taiwan, who have immigrated there for decades. Life in Taiwan does seem more relaxed compared to Hong Kong, so perhaps they moved there for these reasons. Taiwan is also much less densely-populated compared to Hong Kong, especially with the influx of tourists during the holidays. I would definitely want to go there again for a short getaway from the hustle and bustle of it all.
