February 14th - Tokyo to Taipei

Woke up late after such a fabulous meal last night and decided to take it slow and easy for the travel day.   Sadly this meant I didn't walk back to the fish market for another sushi/sashimi-don breakfast and

just used my last breakfast coupon at the hotel for a small breakfast before checking out.   Here's what I had (same buffet a in past days and I ate light)

Runny scrambled eggs, rice with whitefish (apparently this followed me home from last night!) and a fried apple tart

(I actually had three of them)

And the yummy corn soup was back:

After breakfast I checked out and walked back to the higashi-ginza station to get a ticket for the

limited express train to Narita.    I'd done a lot of research yesterday to confirm that by taking the limited 

express I could just 'get on' and have no transfers.    The web site 'www.hyperdia.com' is amazing for helping

find routes and know how it all works/costs.   Here's a large PDF of that "info" (perhaps not all that interesting in

the food blog sense, but gives some idea of the hour long travel involved.   By the way, cab fare would have been 

around $100 USD -- the train ride cost about $10 total!

Anyway, made it to Narita.   On the way to get my boarding pass from the Scoot counter I stopped by a money exchange place and

exchanged 5000 yen (about $42) for Taiwan dollars so that I'd have some money when I landed.  Then I found the Scoot counter and got my boarding pass, 

cleared immigration and walked for what seemed to be about a mile to the gate to wait for my 11:45am plane ride to Taipei.    All went well, 

other than it got somewhat crowded and there was a family with the way too loud and antsy small children that were difficult to be next to, but at least I had bought a 

"ScootBiz" ticket (flying "business class" as it was not all that more expensive on this discount airline).    I got onto the plane and seated once boarding began and it turned out that no one

was next to me -- infact, business was only about 20% full, so it was an "easy" flight.    This was really the equivalent of the first class section on a 

domestic US flight minus "high end food".   The lunch, which you preordered when getting the ticket, was a thick terriaki chicken dish with rice-- not bad

for airplane food.   I include a picture here, but it tasted better than the photo makes it look!   It did come with a small toblerone chocolate bar too!

The flight time was about 4 hours, so after eating the meal I took a nap and then read my kindle for a bit.

Once we landed I walked the 1/4 mile (or that's what it felt like) to immigration and spent about 30 minutes in line 

before getting the front of the queue and getting admitted into the country.

I then found the bus ticket counter and bought a bus ticket for $125 TWD (about $4 US) and queued up for the bus

ride to Taipei Main Station.    Bus showed up in a few minutes and I took a seat.   Shortly after sitting down 

another guy showed up and asked if he could sit next to me.   We had a nice conversation on the way to Taipei--

turns out he was on a 5 day holiday from his job working in South Korea for an investment banker firm.   Among other

things he really wanted to try and get an additional degree in business from UC Berkeley, so we talked al little about

Berkeley and the Bay Area on the hour long bus drive to Taipei Main Station.   I bid him farewell and went into the station

to ask for directions to Hotel Relax, which I knew was only a block or so away -- but which block is always confusing, so best to 

ask.    The nice lady at the info counter was able to sort me out and point me to the right side of the building to exit (it was of

course the opposite side from which I had arrived) and I walked to cross the street and go up a quarter block to the building 

which housed Hotel Relax.   On the way I saw this very strange older guy on stilts.   I haven't asked yet what that was 

about but I took this picture:

My hotel was just across another street about a 1/4 block up.   The the building is more than 11 stories high and the hotel is on something like

floors 9 and 10 with reception on 11.   But unlike hotels in the US the building is more of a commercial building than the hotel with commercial stuff 

renting for them at the base level.   So as a result the street level doesn't look like there is a hotel at all.   Intact there is -- ugh! - a McDonalds there.

I wasn't "loving it" (food wise) as I had to walk past that to get to the elevators to get up to reception on 11F.    

Anyway, checked in and cleaned up a bit -- it was now almost 5:30pm -- not much of a food day so far, but at least I got here!   The room I 

reserved was a "no window" room, but was comfortable in size and had a large walk in bathroom/shower area at the far end that was very

spacious compared to those in Japan.     After cleaning up I decided to head back to the train station and get some more money via an ATM machine

and then head off to a night market somewhere for dinner.

Turned out the ATM was a little difficult as the two I found on the ground level were either out of service or didn't like my US ATM card.   So I went back to the

information counter and they directed me to a "first bank" teller upstairs one level.   That one worked fine, so I was able to get more currency and be ready for

the next few days.

The other good news was that second floor of the main taipai station is almost entirely food!    Lots of little restaurants and shops.   I will go back tomorrow and

take pictures and because I was headed to the night market I didn't get anything this evening, but it looks like some of the places could be quite good.

Anyway, got a little help and direction that I should take what I'll call "the red line" (as in trains with red as their system line color vs blue or other colors) up two

stations and then walk a few blocks to the nearest night market.     Also got directions to use the machines I'd find downstairs to get an "EasyCard" to load with money 

to deal with station fares.    Pretty similar to Japan card system vs their single use ticket system.     Headed downstairs and followed signs and arrows to the red line

down about two levels and about (what seemed like) a 1/4 mile walk.   Got an EasyPass loaded with about $4 and got on the correct line headed two stations up.

Got off and asked stationmaster guy in the booth which way to night market and was told go to out staircase #1 and turn left and walk.  

Pretty easy -- as I walked I past a number of small restaurants and after about 7 blocks reached what was obviously the night market.   Lots of stands and people,,

very crowded, and smelled wonderful!   Being somewhat hungry (long travel day without any 'great' food) and it being crowded I focused a bit on eating what I 

thought would be fun more than on the photos, but here is a long summary of what I saw and some of what I ate.    I really only ate about 5 or 6 items but took pictures

of many more...  So here we go!

The first stand that I wanted to stop at -- "Duck Heads (and parts)".   You got to pick the parts you wanted

and put them into a basket (I snapped some shots of the lady in front of me doing this before doing it myself)

and then put them up on the top.   Then the guy in back gets around to your basket and fries them and, when 

done and/or appropriate, chops them up a bit and slides them into a bag for you.   I think I paid about $2.50 for 

a shiskabob of 4-5 parts (I don't know what parts they were as they were already on the skewer), two little

duck drum sticks, and something 'flat' looking which might have been a duck and tofu patty but I'm not sure (other than

it tasted GREAT).

From the other side of his stand -- the lady's order from 

before me is what he is using the tongs on.

And here's a closeup of the items that I had once my order was done:

More stands called!   Many of them had tables and chairs right behind them so you could sit and eat.

By the way, most stands had banner at the top (in english too) to tell you what they were serving.

I decided that some soup would be good, so I got some at one of the stands:

Lots of noodles and a nice almost dark-soy broth with little bits of some protein or

proteins in it.  I think this was the "thick soup" with noodles, but I'm not 100% sure.

I got to sit at a table with five other people slurping and eating away!

A few stands down they were skewering and grilling up squid!

I would have liked to try some but it was bigger than I wanted to eat -- maybe 

tomorrow.

Another stand was doing fried bau's with egg and oyster.   I should have gotten one but 

didn't.   Again, maybe tomorrow!

And a stand with fried chicken rolls:

A stand with more things to pick out for grilling:

Here's a video of what I think was tepenyaki -- though it could have been something else!

Another stand with pork product:

A call out to Japan -- takoyaki stand!

And more grillables:

Some dessert kabobs:

grilled shell fish:

Some steamed pork dumplings "in progress".    These were the ones they 

had not steamed yet:

A wonderful dessert that I had -- I think its a chinese version of mochi.   Sweet peanut dust on right side, not sure of the other dust on the other:

I liked this so much that I got some "togo" from another stand later that night:

Here's a video of the guy on the right making it for me:

I also tried an order of "stinky tofu" which is a regional specialty.   I didn't think it was

all that stinky by the way!    It was pretty good -- it was fried and also soaked in

some sauce that it sopped up somewhat like a sponge.   I ate about half of it

and took the rest home as I was actually full!

Rice with Pigs Feet?   Who knew that such things were great together!!

Sounds like a Taiwan version of Reeces Peanut Butter Cups -- "two great

tastes that go good together:  Rice and Pigs Feet!  Yum!!!

I was, sadly, full, so I headed back to the train station and took the train two stations back to

Taipei Main.    Once there I managed to get a little disoriented in leaving the station for the street level

so it took me about 10 minutes of wandering around to find my way back to where I could navigate to

my hotel.    I got back to the hotel, stored a few left overs in the fridge, took a hot shower and

went to bed!