[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 13 November 2016]
Day 3 – 17 June 2016, Friday
It’s my last full day in Taipei, and I don’t really have an agenda today. The first thing I did was to go to Ximending to look for a bubble tea stall that my friend, VC, had recommended me. She told me that the Tieguanyin Tea Latte (鐵觀音拿鐵) was dope and insisted that I must try it. So I went to search for this elusive Cha Tang Hui (茶湯會, also known as Tea Pa Tea – Tea Party, geddit?) shop. It was kind of hidden along a row of shops because its shopfront was partially obscured by two makeshift stalls in front of it. Even at 10:30am, it was not too early to drink bubble tea, as evidenced by a few other customers before me. As it was another hot day, I ordered a large, cold Tieguanyin Tea Latte, costing NT$59 (S$2.50). It was smooth and creamy and quite nice. But I think I prefer Oolong milk tea. Or maybe a hot version would be nicer.
I then went to look for another stall that was recommended by my friends, everyone actually. They all say that when you come to Taipei, you must eat the famous mee sua at Ah Zong Mian Xian (阿宗麵線, also known as Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle). It’s like the quintessential thing to do and you can’t leave Taipei without eating it. They also said that there is always a long queue, so I thought it should be better if I came early in the morning. Since it is so famous, I figured it should be quite prominent and true enough, I didn’t have much difficulty locating it.
I spotted a crowd of about 20 people at the stall but no queue. All of them were busy eating their mee sua, either sitting on the plastic stools provided or standing at the area in front of the stall. It was a very simple shop as there were no proper dining tables or seats, and there was only one item on the menu. The mee sua came in two options – small bowl at NT$50 (S$2.20) or large bowl at NT$65 (S$2.80). Being a typical kiasu Singaporean, I ordered the large bowl. After paying at the cashier, I proceeded to the collection point on the left and my mee sua was ready almost immediately.
Like the one I had on my first night, the mee sua here came with assorted oyster and innards. More innards than oyster. There was also no vinegar added so it tasted different from the one I was accustomed to (I just did some research online and realised that Ah Zong does provide vinegar sauce at the side and you are free to add it yourself). I wouldn’t say it was overrated, but I think I still prefer our Singapore version where the oyster serving is plentiful and it is nicely complemented by chicken floss rather than pig innards. But at only NT$65 for a big bowl, it is cheap and good value for money.
For the rest of the morning, I wandered among the streets of Ximending to catch up on shops that I had missed the previous two days, but it was mainly just window shopping. I then took a Metro to Taipei Main Station to look for a shop that sold cheap CDs, as recommended by another friend, WY. The good thing about Taipei is that many people have visited it before, so you’re never short of recommendations on places to visit or good food to try out, which is great!
The shop I was looking for was called Guang Nan Da Pi Fa (光南大批發), a wholesale store. I visited the branch at No. 40 Xuchang Street. At the ground level entrance, there was a decent collection of new CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays. The prices were quite cheap but unfortunately I didn’t find anything that I wanted. The shop also sells a whole lot of other electronics, toiletries and lifestyle products, much like a Daiso.
I then went back to the Taipei Main Station underground mall, which is a massive shopping mall with hundreds of shops, including an Eslite branch. However, I didn’t find anything that caught my fancy there. I then headed back to Ximen for lunch.
As I was browsing through the city map yesterday, I came across an advertisement for a really interesting restaurant called Modern Toilet Restaurant (便所歡樂主題餐廳), and I knew at once that I had to try it. It took me some time to locate it because it was hidden among one of the smaller lanes at Ximending. The address is 2nd floor, No. 7, Lane 50, Xining South Street Road, 台北市西寧南路50巷7號2樓.
The entire restaurant is toilet themed. For example, the wall décor shows stick figures doing their business at a toilet bowl, the menu is poop shaped, and instead of chairs, guests sit on life-size toilet bowls. Most interestingly of all, the main courses are served in mini toilet bowls, so you will literally be eating out of a toilet bowl. Not everyone may be able to stomach this. To intensify the experience, I ordered a Modern Toilet Chicken Curry, one of the classic theme meals. It cost NT$260 (S$11.20) and it came with a large glass of green or black tea, a bowl of rice, soup and ice cream. Pretty good value for money, I would say. Do note that there is a minimum order of NT$90, which is not hard to achieve. I guess they imposed this rule to prevent people from coming here just to take photos and not eat anything.
I waited eagerly for my food to arrive as I was anxious to see how it would turn out. Besides, I was really hungry. When the staff delivered my meal, I was not disappointed. The curry was served in a mini toilet bowl and the chicken chunks floated on top of the brown curry sauce. It really resembled the real stuff! In case you are wondering if I have a fetish for that kind of thing, no, I do not. I just thought it was really amusing. You need to have a sense of humour sometimes, right? The sight did not deter me at all and I finished every last bit of the chicken curry. It was really good actually. To top it off, the chocolate soft serve ice cream dessert looked like a coil of fresh poop, but much tastier and without the smell.
Dining at the Modern Toilet is a novel experience, to say the least. If you have a good sense of humour and are not easily turned off, do try it out. It’ll be fun.
After lunch, I hung around at Ximending area because it had started to rain quite heavily. For dinner, I went to Fong Da Coffee (蜂大咖啡), an old school coffee house that I came across by chance yesterday. Established in 1956, it is touted as one of Taipei’s original coffee shops. If you just walk past it, you can’t really tell that it is a coffee house, because the shop front is dominated by a display of coffee beans and a counter selling cakes and pastries. A narrow walkway leads to the seating area inside the shop.
As it is a coffee house, the menu was rather limited. People come here for snacks and coffee rather than for a proper meal. I ordered toast (NT$40), a ham & egg omelette (NT$50) and a cup of iced coffee (NT$85), which came up to NT$175 (S$7.60) altogether. It wasn’t very filling but it was alright, since I planned to save my stomach for the night market later anyway. To be honest, the coffee was just ok and not as fantastic as some have claimed. Maybe the hot version would be better.
For my last night, I chose to visit Raohe Street Night Market (饒河夜市), and I went there at about 10pm after the rain had finally stopped. The nearest MRT station is Songshan (松山), and Raohe is just five minutes’ walk away. Before coming, my friend DY had warned me that there were many pickpockets around here, and her friend had the unfortunate experience of having her bag slit and wallet stolen. So I was extra cautious when I came. However, the crowds were quite thin tonight, perhaps because of the downpour earlier in the afternoon and evening. Many of the stalls were also not open.
Right at the entrance of the market was a stall where many people were queueing up. I took a peek to see what was on sale, and saw that it was a snack called Pepper Biscuit (胡椒餅). It was like a pastry with meat fillings and it smelled good. There was a whole production line right there making these pastries on the spot and even then, they couldn’t churn them out fast enough. Deciding that so many people can’t be wrong, I joined in the queue and bought one for myself, costing NT$50 (S$2.20). It was piping hot and really tasty. No wonder so many of them bought boxes of these pastries. A must-try.
As I walked along the street, more and more stalls opened up and the crowds grew as well. There were simply too much good food and I had to strategise which ones to try, because of my limited stomach capacity. I decided to try the smelly tofu (NT$50) to see if it was as good as the one in Hong Kong. The same stall was also selling oyster omelette (NT$60) so I decided to give it a go too.
The smelly tofu was served with some vegetable toppings and it was very crispy. To my disappointment, I felt that it wasn’t smelly at all! The point of eating smelly tofu is the smell, right? Hahaha…anyway, it tasted not bad, but I think the one in Hong Kong was better. The oyster omelette on the other hand, was downright disappointing. It was the sweet sauce that ruined it. The sauce totally did not go with the taste of the omelette. It was mostly egg and not much flour and the oyster was not as shiok as the ones we have here. So our Singapore oyster omelette wins hands down!
By this time, I was really full. I decided to have a mango shaved ice dessert (NT$120) to round up the night. The shaved ice was so fine it felt like eating snow. They were also very generous with their serving of sliced mango. You can’t really go wrong with this, so it was good. With a very satisfied stomach, I called it a night. End of Day 3!
Day 4 – 18 June 2016, Saturday
For breakfast this morning, I patronised another stall below my hostel called Cherry. I ordered a toast, egg roll and milk tea, costing me NT$85 altogether. I’m getting to like this kind of breakfast a lot.
After that, I checked out of my room and made my way to Taipei Main Station (台北車站) to catch a bus to the airport. By this time, I was rather familiar with my surroundings so I walked my way there. It took only about 15 minutes.
I bought my Kuo-Kuang 1819 express airport bus ticket for NT$125 to bring me directly to Taipei Taoyuan International Airport. The bus departed at 11:40am and arrived at Terminal 1 at 12:20pm. I then checked in my luggage and relaxed at the Plaza Premium Lounge before boarding my Scoot flight back to Singapore.
And yup, that’s the end of my first trip to Taipei! I enjoyed myself, mainly because of the food, even though some of it was not up to my expectations. But I think now that I know what to expect, I will enjoy it even more next time. And there are still so much more food that I have not tried yet. I will be back for sure, to visit the other parts of Taiwan and hopefully do a cycling trip or trek up a mountain too. See you, Taiwan!
