Tea in Asia: Day 6 - Taipei, Taiwan

Day 6 of my trip to Asia was the last day in Taiwan.

Our group had a choice of going back to Dante Coffee for breakfast again, or to have a taste of an authentic Taiwanese breakfast.

The first thing I thought of, for some reason, was congee. That would definitely settle my stomach. Instead of congee, the nearby stall served radish cakes, a few varieties of breakfast wraps (like youtiao, fried eggs, and pork floss). They also had pot stickers.

I went for the youtiao and sweetened soy milk. I was hoping that they were recently deep-fried, but they were heavy and greasy.

While I went for the cold soy milk (in the cup), some other people got the hot soy milk.

I noticed that they were also selling some sandwiches, which Jimmy told me about. I didn’t get one though. The locals seemed to enjoy the sandwiches, as most of them were sold by the time we finished our breakfast.

Most of our group went to Dante’s, so we met up with them and then went to see the Confucius and Baoan Temples. Afterwards, we headed to Taipei 101 for lunch.

I was in serious need of something comforting to eat at this point of the trip. The soy milk was comforting, but it was cancelled out by the greasy youtiao. What I really needed was a bowl of pho, which was exactly what I got in Taipei 101’s food court. The soup tasted the same as the sweet soup we get in Ottawa and Toronto.

We had a choice to go to the Presidential Office Building and watch the changing of the guards, or stay in Taipei 101 and shop. Since I was low on energy, I chose to stay in Taipei 101 and rest up. A bunch of us ended up going to watch Iron Man 2 in a nearby theatre. I felt so recharged afterwards – it was great!

For dinner, we met up with the rest of the group in the Ximending shopping district. Most of us went to a steak house that one of our guides recommended. He explained that it was sort of all you can eat (AYCE). The fountain drinks, salad, vegetables, fruits and desserts were all included with every plate.

AB ordered a steak with a side of udon, vegetables, and an egg. Taiwan locals think that this is how North American’s eat steak. Silly people. I remember seeing a very popular stall in the Shilin Night Market that was serving steak on a sizzling plate with either a black pepper sauce or a BBQ sauce, atop of pasta and eggs.

I still didn’t have an appetite, so CPR and I shared the seafood plate. The prawn was over-done and the skewer of shrimp, scallops and squid was over-done. I don’t remember the crab, but I’m sure it was over-done as well. I ended up filling my stomach with the various salads and fruits.

I found out, afterwards, that JB and BZ went to the Modern Toilet for dinner. Daaaamn! I missed out. We left the drizzling weather and headed back to pack up for our flight to Beijing.


Read about my first day in Beijing.