Feb 15th - Taipei

Woke up this morning quite early and worked on finishing yesterdays web site entry for February 14th.

Got a little hungry to ate part of the "togo" mochi/powered dessert food I'd brought home from the night

market near Shuanglian station.

After "work" it was time to get up and goto breakfast, which I had included as part of my hotel relax

booking.   There are actual two hotel relax's -- about a block away from one another - and breakfast is

served at the other one.   So I went around the street and down to the basement of the other building.

Breakfast was, shall we say, not to the levels of what I was hoping for ;-(   I ate a little of it and then passed.

Here it is:

Fortunately, right outside my hotel's front door down one storefront is some type of restaurant or stall

area that had several ladies and a steamer hard at work.   I watched for a little and asked her some questions.

Her english, she said, was "not so good", but it was just "not so much" as I understood what she was saying.

Turns out she was making some type of pressed rice ball filled with yummy items.  She let me taste a few

(some pickled veggies -- kind of like shredded pickled cabbage, some seasoning, possibly some dried powered meat

stuff (not sure), some fried tofu for 'crunch', some type of either black bean or black rice substance.   All rolled up in a ball.

Here's what it looked like being made-- 

Then press into a ball and put into a plastic bag for distribution-- here's a video of that last part:

And then finally, the  "biting open" and eating by someone like me!

Later that morning I headed out to the Daan Park and Daan area, about three station stops down the red line 

in the opposite direction of where I went last night.    I wanted to get some exercise and work up an appetite before

having lunch.

I got off at Daan Park station and walked over to Daan Park.   This is a really nice green area full of people exercising, 

meditating, singing and the like.   There are also numerous birds and squirrel creatures around as well as many people walking

their dogs and some feral cats (or at least I assume they were feral) going about their business.   

Here's what the park entrance nearest the station exit I took looks like and a video of a small walk from that entrance into the park:

After walking into the park a short ways I saw an elderly gentleman playing some type of musical instrument.   He waved me over and actually had me

try it out!  He was much much better than I was.   He let me make this video of him playing "do-ray-me" :-)

A bit further into the park I saw some folks practicing something like Tai-Chi -- here are some pictures:

Even further into the park there were some folks doing this type of thing with swords!

Here's a video!   I had to take this quickly before they chased after me :-)

There was also quite a bit of wild life in the park, from people with dogs and stray cats to squirrels and birds.

Here is a video of some of the tree squirrels which you could really hear (and can hear in this video)

There was one guy with his son feeding some of these -- they had some fear, but not much!

See the video the right of the still shot:

The bird life was not as visible, but was quite vocal.   Here's some video of some trees/bamboo, but you can really hear the birds going in it!

Not to be outdone by birds, there was a group of people singing too.   I videoed a little of it, though I see from the last 

bit of footage that one of them didn't want to be filmed!   Oh well, I guess I'm a tourist paparratzi! 

That was about it for the park.   I headed back to the train station and rode one more station to 

Daan station itself.   Did a little walking around ,but didn't see much of interest.   At night there is a night market

in the area, but nothing visible to me during the day.    So I got back on the train and headed back to 

Dongmen station which is right near the original Din Tai Fung restaurant where I wanted to have lunch.

When I got there there was about a 1 hour wait.    That was okay with me.   I got a numbered 

ticket for the "single person" table and they also gave me a menu card to decide what I wanted to order.

The ticket had 4 digits on it and there was an electronic numbered sign in the window with three columns,

one for single table, one for small parties (I guess up to 4) and one for larger parties.   Each had a 'next number to

be seated is' displayed.   Each time a display changed a bell/ringing sound went off so you could look, or wander around

and come back to see if your number was up yet.   Here's the sign in front and if you look in the 2nd picture you will see

this counter:

While I was waiting I suddenly felt under-dressed!    I have no idea what this guy was doing but his apparel was certainly dramatic!

So my number was finally up!  And it was a good thing too!   Actually, just before that I spoke to one of the outside waitress people

(they would come out to give new people numbers and menus) and she checked my "order menu" and took it in advance inside.   Here's 

a picture of the modified menu selection as she was REALLY nice and changed the order a little for me.   The normal order menu has things like

pork buns - 2 per order, or their house special xiao long bau with pork and truffle with 5 per order.   She 'made an exception' so I was able to get

2 of the truffle and 5 of the normal "famous" pork filled ones, as well as dropping the pork bun down to a single pork bun.   That way I still got 12 

pieces, but more variety and for the same price.  The whole lunch only cost me about 450 TWD which is about $14 US.

So here's the modified order:

Oh, and before anything showed up they "helped" me (as someone who they felt was pretty clueless :-) by 

pouring the soy and vinegar over the strips of ginger to be used as a condiment for the XiaoLongBau.  They also

gave me a "how to eat" X.L.B. warning sheet (as there is hot liquid inside the trick is to move it onto the soup spoon,

poke it with the chop stick to the fluid drains onto the spoon, and then use chopstix to add ginger/soy/vinegar and then eat.

Less splashing and/or scalding that way!   

And then the food came!   First was the Truffle and Pork filled X.L.B.   They did tell me to not add sauce as the truffle oil has a delicate flavor unto itself.   Good advice!   And

it was reallyreally good.   I had two of them (as they'd shortened the normal order of five down to two so that I could have 5 'regular famous' pork filled X.L.B's too!

And the next thing that came was the 5 pork XiaoLongBau that they are famous for:

Next came out the 4 pork and shrimp wontons with house special spicy sauce:

These wonton with house spicy sauce were so good that they deserved a second "closeup"!

Then the final course was the steamed pork bun -- also great.   Unlike many pork buns the pork inside this one was much higher "ground" quality and almost

a perfectly seasoned pork and scallion (or whatever veggie they used) meatball:

Wow!  What  a meal.    As I left to pay to bill I had to wait a little in the pay-queue and was able to take a video over the heads of some of the new people

coming in to eat of some of the line staff prepping the food I had been eating.   Check out the video!

I still can't believe that the entire meal was only around $15 US!

I wasn't 100% full (though was happy with what I had eaten) and my sweet tooth kicked in.   So I stopped by a 

little cafe a few doors down.   Although I was tempted by their pastry selection I ended up getting a nice 

mocha tea 8% milk ice cream from them instead.   It hit to spot.   Here are pictures of their dessert array 

(which I showed great self control in not going for!) and what I ended up getting on the right.

After this refreshing ice cream treat I headed back to via train to Taipei Main Station.   Unlikely last night when I got a little lost

between arriving at the station and navigation of the underground to get to the right street I managed to nail it this time and

come up on "my side" of the main street next to the station (so didn't even have to wait for a very long stop light to cross).

As it was still before 1pm I stopped by the basement of the department store right across the street from my hotel (on the way 

from where the MRT exit was) and checked it out.   As expected the two lower basement floors were all restaurants and food,

though I didn't take any pictures (they were not happy with me in Japan when I did!) or buy anything... just good to know

its right there across the street from my hotel.

I headed back to my room to upload all these photos and videos and enter this was page.which has taken about an hour and forty minutes.

At the tail end of that housekeeping stopped by to confirm that I really didn't want my room cleaned, so I vacated with my computer and

went up a floor to the "lounge" area while they clean my room up for me (not that it was that messy, but they can swap out towels I suppose).

Later tonight I plan on heading over to Shilin Station (about 4-5 past the one I stopped by last night) to try out the Shilin Night Market for dinner.

I must say that I'm pretty happy with the food here, just wish I had a larger stomach and could eat/sample more!

So I took a nap and then work up and headed out to the station to take the MRT to the Shilin Night Market around 5:45pm.   I already knew

to get off at the station just before Shilin (which is called Jiantan) because the night market 'starts' just across the street from that station,

not right next to the Shilin station.   The MRT folks are so with it that the little blimp sign and english audio even tells you this on the train

(something like "passengers going to the Shilin Night Market disembark at Jiantan Station for access to market, use exit (I think it was 1)"

Anyway, I did as 'instructed' and sure enough the night market started right there.    Boy is this thing huge!   Multiple blocks and side streets.

Totally impossible not to "get lost" but not a big deal as one is hardly alone.   Intact, most of it is shoulder to shoulder, but everyone knows not to push 

or shove, so it all works out -- just take a little time!

So I took pictures of many stands and vendors (some in carts, some in buildings that opened up to the street).    Without a doubt my favorite 

food at these markets has been the steamed Bau's Taiwan Style.   I found one stand with a long line (a good sign) where the queue went around the back of the 

stall all the way to where they were making the dough, then sending it forward to another set of folks who were rolling and filling it and "pleating" it into bau shape,

then back to rest a while in the back, then into a huge boil pot to cook, then eventually out front to 'sell' to those of us waiting.   Because the line twisted into the back in this way

I was able to get several photos and videos of the whole process, which you can see below:

Guy needing dough, rolling it and breaking it into little balls

Thena whole bunch come back on a tray to "rest" and "rise"

Then pots are filled up with bau side-to-side in full and water is poured over them and they boil away:

When done in the boiler/steamer they go to hot plates on front to crisp the bottoms and then

get sold to people like me!   Cost?  I think that one was about $1 or $1.50.  Wow!

I also really liked a rolled dessert -- almost a cross between a rolled crepe and a soft cookie.

The lady next to me (another customer) spoke al little english and helped "sell" it to me.

Not hard to do!   I started eating it (still warm) and she tried to explain that it was better once it cooled

down.   Maybe, but it was pretty good warm too!    It was actually somewhat funny -- she tracked down

a young boy and girl who I'd assumed were her kids, but nope!  She just found some "young people" and 

showed up a few minutes later and had them talk to me.    Basically it gets a little more "crisp" when cool.

I think the young boy and girl though it was funny too that this lady just walked up to them and grabbed them

as interpreters!   All the fun of the night market!

I had a drink as well (risking it all on local water no doubt) but I was thirsty.   It was a cranberry sweetened juice.  Pretty good!

In a side ally I found yet another Bau place (this was was actually a store front right there).   It had the good sign of a long line, so I waited with everyone else

for "the next batch" to finish.   As a result I was able to get both some still shots as well as some video, which you can see below.   I think the place was called

Jianbau.

And the final product (with a bite taken out so you can see the inside yummy pork dumpling)

I've really focused on the Bau's in the site here, but there were lots of other vendors and foods, some of which I ate and many of which

I just took photos of.    Here are some of them:

Making a stew out of something big!

Many pieces to grill on demand

Grilled Squid anyone?

Some type of dessert place... I think sweet beans and "other thing" to mix in to a

congee or something to that effect.

\

Squid and Crab and other shell fish grilled and chopped up into little cups:

Grilled chicken or other protein.   

Little eggs that she was cutting open with a scissors and dropping into 

the little mini-muffin-like tins to grill up.

This guy was in an actual store space, working on about 4 pots of rapid boil yumminess at a time.

I may list some more items later, but these were the interesting ones.    I finally "gave up" for the night, being both full and tired -- this place is so large

that I was all tired out as well!  

The other problem was that I had no idea where the MRT was now that I'd walked and criss-crossed Shilin Night Market so much.

Fortunately I have technology -- an iPhone with google-map app that let me do "current location walking to shilin station" and 

"current location walking to Jiantan station".   Turns out I had walked fairly far away from Jiantan and was now only a 4-5 minute walk to

Shilin Station.   So I "followed the dots" on my iPhone and headed to the station on a street just outside the market zone (so I was not shoulder to shoulder

with a million people).   On the way I got a real treat!   The "bosses" showed up for some grooming:

All of which should be entitled "We Are The Boss of You, now groom us!"

After the above "detour" I continued to follow the dots on my iPhone back to the Shilin MRT Station and took the train back to Taipei Main and then back to my hotel

where I entered all of this onto the web and went the sleep!