Wednesday 14 January 2015

Taiwan Trip 2014: Taipei Part 2 - Xi Men Ding 西门町 / Yong Kang St 永康街 / Gongguan 公馆

7th day into my Taiwan trip which is also my 2nd day in Taipei was arguably one of my favourite days because it was filled with so much good food! :D




 Our first stop: Xi Men Ding

There were a lot more to see and eat in Ximengding than I expected. Because we were too tired the night before, we slept in and gave the hotel breakfast a miss. Instead, we went to a popular eatery in Ximending called Yong He 永和 for Taiwanese style breakfast!


Super crowded!!! The eatery is also super small, with a capacity of not more than 18 pax at one time. The good thing about these small eateries in Taiwan is that you just have to order and they will arrange a seat for you. So it's unlike Singapore where you have to keep walking round and round, looking out for people who are ALMOST done with their food and stand awkwardly next to them, staring at them and waiting for them finish the last few strands of noodles at snail speed so you can sit down the moment they get up! 




Egg + pork chop + some other stuff stuffed in the glutinous rice (Y) 

Cannot remember what this is but I remember how nice it tasted lolol
If I'm not wrong, it's along the lines of 起士抓饼

Our breakfast was similar to what we had in Taichung and I must say I really love Taiwanese style breakfast!!! Wish I could try more things on their menu hmm..........

Anyways so we had a hearty breakfast that left me feeling happy and satisfied ^^ it doesn't seem like it's a lot but don't be fooled because we felt very full for a long while!

After breakfast, we walked up and down Ximending and here's Kw obsessed with the BB Guns in Taiwan.  
He's DYING to bring one back, had it not been banned by Singapore. Everywhere we go, there's always BB guns and Kw will be SO obsessed with it that I've lost count of the number of times he's paid to play the games, be it in night markets or shops. 



 Quite happy at shopping at Ximending because I managed to buy 2 pairs of shoes :D



When we finally felt a little less full, we hunted for Ximending's branch of 阿宗面线 and it was one of my most 幸福的时刻 when I found it!

The Q was quite long but they are already so well-trained that it didn't take more than 10 minutes for me to finally get a bowl of this legendary meesua.



A bowl of awesomeness 

 This is how 幸福 I felt

Apart from having flaky dry skin by the 7th day of my trip. I was spamming masks every single night.


Continued to walk around and I found another snack on my to-eat list! I originally intended to eat this at Shilin Night Market so I didn't buy it the first time I passed by it. But I really really wanted to try it so we turned back to get it even though we were still quite full.

And I'm glad we did cuz the one at Shilin Night Market was ALWAYS crowded with a long Q. So I got to eat this cheesy potato without having to wait as long as I would have had to at Shilin.

It's fried potato stuffed with your choice of ingredients............ 

....and drizzled with generous amount of cheese!!!!!


 Taadaaaaaaaaaa!

Happy couple with food again :D




We left Ximending with our happy tummies and headed to Yong Kang St 永康街, a street populated with cafes, located at Dongmen Station. Unfortunately, our tummies weren't going to be happy with us stuffing more food down ourselves so we just hang around the area instead of cafe-hopping.



Everyone says that the Ding Tai Fung is a must-try and look at the queue!!!


Am not a fan of Ding Tai Fung even in Singapore so I wasn't about to patronize the one in Taipei.


 We passed by a park and saw this surprisingly engaging performance by Mario.


 This was the main reason why Yongkang St was part of my itinerary! Saw so many people raving about Smoothie House 思慕昔 so I had to try it myself!


Despite being very happy, we had a difficult time trying to finish up this serving of shaved ice lol


My conclusion: if you are travelling to Taiwan for food, GO IN BIGGER GROUPS! Ideally in groups of 4 imo so it's easier to share a cab and you can try more types of food since there're more people sharing!


Left Yong Kang St for Gongguan for another round of window-shopping. And greeted by surprising amounts of food stalls!




Thought their MacDonalds had some interesting combinations...



And here's the main reason why we went to Dongguan:
天外天火锅!!!! 


Eat-all-you-can in 2 hours! Its variety of steamboat dishes was INSANE. They have anything and everything you can think of!!! Seafood, shabu meat slices, innards, processed food, veg, mushrooms.........and that's not the best part yet. 


They also have fruits....


.....AND FREE FLOW HAAGEN DAZS ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!!!
And look at those waffle cones! Everything's of good quality and you just cannot possibly feel short-changed. 

Like having free flow Haagen Dasz is not enough, look at their offerings for cakes. 

And Meiji ice cream.....


This is the most fucking awesome steamboat restaurant EVER. We went on New Year's Day so it was a lil' more expensive than usual days and even so, it only costed 25SGD per pax. WHERE TO FIND IN SINGAPORE WHERE?!?!?!?!

Even beverages were free flow!!! Think about how you'll have to pay for that in some buffet places in Singapore. I am already missing this steamboat restaurant to bits. Anyone who's travelling to Taipei has to patronise this place!!!!

URL here: http://tianwaitian.com.tw/tianwaitian.htm



 Greedy me ate almost 2 scoops of ice-cream and that's of course not enough...
...so here's my 3rd scoop! Kekekeke.





And that was basically it for my (very happy and fattening) 2nd day in Taipei!

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