Feb 16 - Taipei

Woke up this morning and decided not to bother with the hotel breakfast but instead to take a walk and see what local food I could find.

First thing I did was head out of the hotel down two stalls to the place I tried yesterday.   The same english speaking lady was back making a 

different breakfast for a small line of people so I resolved to come back to her on the way back.   There were two other ladies on the other side of the space

making and selling steamed bau, so I got a pork bau to go.   Wow, it was GREAT.

Then just another block or so away was another place selling Bau, so I got a scallion/garlic bau from them

Then in another half block there was a stand making some type of omelette item and putting into some fresh bau bread.

I just pointed at what the last guy had ordered and got that.   He was thrilled and spoke a tiny big of english saying "very good" and

being all grins.

The finished product (once I added soy and chiie past that you can see in the above left hand photo)

Finishing that off I headed down the road and found another stand, though I didn't get anything from him

Then I saw a little place (an actual "in the building place" -- we'd call it a street cafe.

There were two ladies outside with a big steamer with about 5 XiaoLongBau in it.

I HAD to go in.   So I ordered myself the steamer, which turned out to be six 

pork filled Xiao Long Bau.    It was only around 50 TWD, or $1.50 US.  Ouch!

And here is a video of the above steaming away!   It was GREAT!!!

I did a little more walking and found, of all things, the equivalent of the "internal revenue service" building

for Taipei (or at least one of them).   Here are two shots of the building front.

And off to the left hand side, you can't see in the above pictures, there was a statue fountain.   I'm not sure, but I think someone had a great sense of

humor to have a golden little angel peeing water towards their IRS building!

I also came across a like dog walk park.  I think it was the "dog walk and bunny park" :-)

There was also a little temple or shrine that was open about a block from the IRS building.  Maybe to pray for low taxes?

And as I got back towards the bus station (to check on where to get my ticket to get to the airport tomorrow) I found the following

bird statues...

After verifying where to get my bus ticket for tomorrow to get back to the airport I stopped by my favorite chef's stand and

ordered what she was making today.  It was only 35 TWD, or roughly $1.17.

Here's a video of her making it in two parts

and the final product

WOw!  and ALL OF THE ABOVE BEFORE ABOUT 9AM!    The major food portion was all before 8AM.    Yum!!!

I'm entering all this in and clearing out the pictures in my iPhone as I plan to have Dim Sum for lunch later today!

So around 11:00am I headed out to a Dim Sum restaurant that the lady at the front desk said was very good and was

"a famous Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurant".   It is called "Tim Ho Wan" and does have a web site in english on the internet.

I got there (it was pretty much just around the corner and less than half a block away, just across from the Taipei Main MRT 

Station on my side of the road.   I could tell I was in the right spot because there was already a "roped off" line and set of 

filled chairs along the wall of the building with people waiting to get a table.   My timing was "good" in that a staff person was

outside adding another roped off line (think Disneyland of all those twisty lines that make it look like you're in front, but in 

reality you have a long wait".   He spoke enough english to confirm I should get in line and that he would add me to the list of

single persons trying to get seated.  He also warned me it might take an hour, which I knew and was prepared for, so all was well.

Here's a picture of the giant line outside -- it goes back and forth in the roped areas about 4 times at this point.

I'd already been in line 30 minutes and was just about to get "upgraded" to being in the chair area against the window/wall by

virtue of people sitting there finally get in to the restaurant.

It didn't take quite as long as another 30 minutes, but it was close (about 20) before I got in and was seated.

I noticed, and laughed, that the wall sconce was pretty nice -- and unique.  They'd made them out of an array

of bamboo steamers!   Here's some pictures zooming in...

The restaurant was pretty crowded.  Here's a photo and a quick video.

It took a while for me to get my order -- I had to flag down a guy to get my ticket in and I wonder if they didn't get it where it was supposed to go, but 

I'm not shy, so after a while I flagged them down again and got an apology and something about 10 minutes, but then my food showed up almost right away.

Not a big deal in the end as I was already pretty full from this morning and they did deliver lots of tea while I waited which was quite good.

So I ordered a fairly vanilla set of Dim Sum -- ShuMai (pork and shrimp hash dumplings), HaGow (shrimp [or if you like prawn] dumplings) and baked BBQ Pork buns (they 

came 3 to an order).  I would have liked to try more but I didn't think that I would have the ability to eat that much more by myself.  I was probably right -- I did finish it all off but I was

full by the time I left.

So the first to arrive was the pork and prawn hash dumplings (aka: ShuMai).  

Next to arrive was the order of Prawn Dumplings (aka: HaGow)

And Finally the 3 b-b-q'ed and Baked Pork Bums arrived:

These baked B-B-Q pork buns were a little unusual (picture of one bitten open below).   The filling was similar to what I'm used to in the US (sweet pork shreds vs the 

Taiwan bau that have an almost meatball like filling).   But the dough was very unusual -- I'd say it was made with bread flour (like what we use for baking in the US)  as it was

very light and airy -- almost like a loaf of fresh bread out of the oven as compared to normal bau dough which tends to be really puffed up and "wonder bread like".   Also the 

buns were stuffed and then baked "upside down" (from the usual in the US) in that the pleats were clearly at the bottom (vs left on the top as a steamed bau would have -- you can see

this from the flatness of the pleats in the right hand picture above).   So in short the bread was more like a really nice thin white bread dinner roll (like you'd have in the US for dinner

vs other Bau's I've had in asia so far) .   Finally, the outside was almost custard flakey (or at least a coating was).   Very sweet in taste, but not sticky like you'd get with honey glaze.

In short, very unusual and "light" -- which allowed me to eat all three of them without feeling "heavy" in the process.

I finished all of that Dim Sum that'd I'd ordered as well as about 4 cups of their tea during the meal.   So I paid the bill, which only came to 453 TWD or so -- about $15 US.

Given the quality of the proteins used this was a really good deal!    I headed back to the hotel to enter all this in and then take a nap!    But on the way I did see something ... uh... unusual?

I don't know -- but here's a picture of whatever it was--

Or maybe they put something in my Dim Sum (and fed it to my phone too?)   :-)

After a short nap I had to let housekeeping do their thing, so I got a suggestion for where to go to try "bubble tea".

I was directed to the basement of the department store right across the street as housing one of the "original" bubble tea

restaurants.

I made my way downstairs and after asking (its a huge basement area with a ton of different restaurants and shops)

I made it to the place.   I was seated and given a "menu sheet" to check off the items I wanted.   I selected their "number 1"

small original bubble tea and a small "brown sugar cake" to accompany it.    Here's a copy of a blank sheet below:

Then the waitress came back and gestured for me to leave the table with that sheet and goto the cashier to pay, which I did and was 

handed a numeric table placard and a receipt to return to my table.    A few minutes later the cake was delivered, followed about 5 minutes 

after that by the bubble tea. Here's photos of them:

We opted to eat sitting in a large outside courtyard area instead of inside.    While we flipped through the menu, a few pages of which are below (they had pictures) I deferred to my two hosts

to order "family style" as they knew what they were doing!   Here's a view from our table at the far end of the courtyard back towards the inside building,

a picture of Daniel and Elgan at our table, and several pictures of the menu and menu pages that they selected items from:

It was a really wonderful meal!    Then Daniel surprised me and asked if I'd like to try the hot spring itself!   I was up for an Onsen, so they walked me over to

the "Hot Springs" section where I amended a very long flight of stairs to the hot springs public bathing area.    As with my experience in Japan there were lockers to

lock up my belongings.   Daniel arranged for me to get a 'towel package' (small hand towel jus like Japan and assorted item like comb, etc in it).   I stored my

stuff and then proceeded to the "cleaning zone" where, just like in Japan, I sat on a small stool and used a shower hose and the supplied soap to clean myself

before walking over to the "hot" spring area.

This was a very large water area with somewhat dark water (mineral content) that was very very hot.   Again, similar to Japan.   There was also a cold bath zone,

which I apparently everyone else was skipping!    I soaked for about 10 minutes, enjoying the luxury!    Then I moved over to a middle "warm hot spring zone" that

was a little less hot and also featured some very high pressure "waterfall showers" -- when you pressed a button they really hosed you down but good for a few

minutes.    Got a serious "water massage" from that (far more pressure than any shower in the united states).   I then dried off and changed back into my street cloths

to return to my hosts.

Despite my efforts to pay for them they insisted that this was their treat as I was visiting Taipei, so in the end I gave in and accepted their very generous gift of the

dinner and the hot springs experience.    Hopefully I will be able to return the favor some day if they visit the United States, though it will be hard to top the 

amazing dining and hot springs experience "rolled into one" that they provided me this evening.

We returned to the car and they dropped me off back at my hotel where I fell into a deep sleep from the wonderful meal and hot springs experience!