Jun Yue Pork Ribs

 

Jun Yue Pork Ribs is a popular in Taiwan and it specializes in lunch boxes and serves various delicious side dishes.  Although its restaurant name has pork rib in it, it serves more than just pork ribs.  Its menu also include chicken legs, fish steak, and beef dishes.  This restaurant gained popularity among locals and it is one of the go to place for lunch for office workers and school students.

Jun Yue Pork Ribs had many locations in Taipei.  We went to the one in Daan District since it was close to the metro station.  We got there around 2PM in the afternoon but there were still about 5 groups of people dining in there.  What we enjoyed the most was that it had a very strong AC in the dinning area.  It was a saving grace for us during this hot summer day.

We ordered Pork Rib Rice since it was the signature dish at Jun Yue Pork Ribs.  We also ordered 3 side dishes including bamboo shoot, pickled cucumber, and sliced tofu.  Our food was served in about 5 minutes.  The rice came in a large bowl and we could put our face in it.  There were cabbages and other pickled vegetables on top of the rice.  The lunch meal also came with a soup that has well cooked radish in it.  It was quite sweet and enjoyable.  The pork rib was so big that it deserved to be served on a separate plate.  It was as big as a person face!  The pork rib was fried but still very juicy at the same time!

We really loved the food at Jun Yue Pork Ribs.  There was an option to swap rice to noodle and we might try that next time.  There were also other dishes that we did not have the chance to try, thus we would definitely want to visit again in the future!

Alishan National Park

 

Alishan National Park is one of the national parks in Taiwan and also one of the most visited national park by foreigners.  It is located in Chiayi County near the central Taiwan region where the mountain ranges are.  Alishan is well known for its famous sunrise photo.  The sun rises about the mountain and sea of clouds are beneath it.  There are also several folk songs from the locals praising the beauty of Alishan.  Over the years, Alishan has attracted thousands of visitors every year.

Since we were visiting Taiwan, we were definitely not going to miss the chance to visit Alishan.  We booked a private dedicated driver for our 2 day trip to Alishan.  This was because we also wanted to stop at few other places and having a car was more convenient than taking trains and buses.  The driver got to our hotel by 7AM and we started heading South from Taipei.  Our driver was young and very social, he would also point out interesting facts as he drove the car down South on the highway.

The first place we stopped at was a local special cold noodle in Chiayi.  It was a small shop and the driver highly recommended this place.  There were many locals here having the cold noodle and it was the only dish that the shop served.  The cold noodle was thicker than the usual ones we see in other places.  Then there were sesame sauce and vinegar sauce added on top of it.  We really loved having this cold noodle in such hot weather.  Afterwards, the car driver took us to a famous restaurant called Alishan Turkey Rice.  This restaurant was also amazing and the turkey rice was incredible.

After the incredible lunch, we went to Hinoki Village.  It was an interesting small village showing the historical buildings during Japanese occupation in Taiwan.  We spent about an hour there and then headed towards Alishan National Park, which was just about an hour away.  As we got to Alishan National Park's main gate, the scenery was already incredible.  The sea of cloud beneath the mountain was astonishing.  We then headed towards the visitor center and that was where all the shops were at.  The car driver dropped us down here as he cannot go any further and we had to take shuttle bus to Alishan Hotel.

After we checked in to Alishan Hotel, we had a walk around nearby trail.  The trails were all very well paved and very family friendly.  In addition, we went to the top of the Alishan Hotel and we saw incredible sunset view from there.  The cloud formation was still unbelievable with golden sun rays peeking through the clouds.

On the second day morning, we woke up at 3AM to make sure we can hike up to the mountain top to see the sunrise.  We took the trail beside Alishan Hotel to reach to the start of Zhushan trail.  The Zhushan trail was only about 2.5km long.  When we got to the viewpoint, it was only 4:30AM but there were already many small shops open near by the viewpoint.  We waited there for almost an hour and the sunrise was finally here.  It was just as incredible as people said. no word can really describe the scenery here.  Although the viewpoint was only about 2500m high, the cloud beneath the mountain really made a big difference to the view.  We really loved it.

After a decent breakfast buffer at Alishan Hotel, we went for a hike at the Giant Tree trail.  Alishan was also known to have giant trees that were over a thousand years old.  We saw several gigantic trees along the trail.  The oldest one was approximately 1500 years old.  These trees were not just tall, but they were also very side in length.  As we walked down the trail, we passed by the Alishan train station where people could choose to ride the train within the Alishan National Park to go from one place to another.

We met up with our car driver at 11AM and headed down the Fenqihu Old Street.  It was also a famous tourist attraction near Alishan.  When we got to Fenqihu Old Street, it was extremely crowded and all the parking spaces were taken.  Many people were parking on the side illegally.  We went to Xiaoshe Bento Shop for an incredible Taiwan bento lunch.  Then we went to Lavender Forest Ice Cream for an exotic dessert.  Before we left and head back to Taipei, we also got this popular Aiyu drink from the local shop.

We got back to Taipei around 7PM and the car driver dropped us off at the front of the hotel.  The trip to Alishan National Park was an incredible experience.  Everything at Alishan was very family friendly.  The only downside is that it is difficult to get there without a car.  We would definitely visit Alishan National Park in the future.

Yong He Soy Milk King

Yong He Soy Milk King, or Yong He Soy Milk is an extremely famous restaurant in Taiwan that specializes in Taiwan styled breakfast.  The breakfast that it serves are the typical traditional items that people can also just grab on the go and eat while they walk to school or work.  The well known items includes soy milk, clay oven roll, and fried bread stick.  There would be crowd every morning where people want to get tasty breakfast as fast as possible before they start a brand new day.

Yon He Soy Milk King has multiple restaurants across the entire Taiwan.  We went to the one in Daan District because it has dine in area.  After we sat down, we ordered soy milk, clay oven roll, fried bread stick, Chinese omelet, and rice roll.  This seemed like a lot but it did not cost much. This would add up to be $275 NT, which translates to less than $10 USD.  It was considered as extremely cheap.

The food was served very quickly as most of the stuff were pre-made.  The soy milk was freshly made every day and we really loved the flavour of it.  The clay oven roll was warm and crunchy.  It did not have much taste but we really loved the texture of it when we chew on it.  The fried bread stick was the classic.  It was crunchy with a bit of saltiness to it made it really enjoyable.  People can also dip the fried bread stick in the hot soy milk to soften it and add more flavours to it.  The Chinese omelet was our favourite.  We loved the egg being added on top of the Chinese pancake.  Then dip it with sweet soy sauce made it even more tasty.  The rice roll was also a classic.  It has a quarter of fried bread stick in it long with sugar and peanuts.  The sticky rice also made the rice roll really sticky.

We really loved having breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk King.  It was one of the best breakfast we have had for a while.  We wish we could have this as breakfast everyday and will probably try to do so while we were still in Taiwan.

Lavender Forest Ice Cream

 

Lavender Forest Ice Cream is a specialty shop that is located in Fenqihu Old Street in Taiwan. The shop is small and it is located in the Fenqihu garage.  It sells soft serve ice cream with weird flavours such as Wasabi flavour and Sakura flavour.  It has drawn attention from the tourist due to its weird flavour offerings.  Many people come to Fenqihu just to have a taste of Wasabi flavoured ice cream and see what it is like.

Since we were visiting Fenqihu when we were in Taiwan, we were obviously not going to miss the opportunity to try Wasabi flavoured ice dream.  When we got into the garage, there were already a small group of people at the front of the shop checking out its weird offerings.  Several people were hesitating on trying out strange flavours but we were not backing down.  We purchased the ice cream using the automated kiosk to order.  We ordered a Wasabi ice cream and a Sakura ice cream.

When the ice cream was served, we thought that it looked more like frozen yogurt than the ice cream.  It did not look creaming at all.  We first had a taste of the Wasabi ice cream and it did indeed had a strong Wasabi kick to it.  It was not that spicy however but it did taste strange when combined with ice cold cream.  As for the Sakura ice cream, it did not have much flavour to it or we did not know how to describe the flavour.  The Sakura flavour was like the smell of the Sakura flower.  The flavour was very faint and barely noticing it.

Overall, it was an ice cream shop just to try something strange but it did not offer a good ice cream or good frozen yogurt.  We probably would not visit this place again since the ice cream was not cheap at all.

Xiaoshe Bento Shop

 

Xiaoshe Bento Shop is a well known restaurant located in Fenqihu Old Street in Taiwan.  This bento shop specializes in classic traditional Taiwan railway bento box food.  The restaurant is located at the center of the busy Fenqihu Old Street.  Its flashy red banner hanging off its roof made it rather obvious for tourists to spot it.  The restaurant has a large dining space and sometimes even opens up its second floor for the diners to enjoy the great view of Fenqihu from the top.

We got to Fenqihu around 1PM and it was extremely busy and crowded.  It was difficult to even walk through the street.  When we got to Xiaoshe Bento Shop, it was still busy with 80% of tables taken but we were able to secure a table at the balcony.  We ordered the classic pork rib railway bento as it is the most classic bento.

While waiting for the food, the crowd continued to stream through the street behind us and it was crazy to see this amount of people in such a small town.

We got the bento box after about 10 minutes.  The food was served in a white plastic box.  The box looks larger than the other bento boxes served in other restaurants.  The box included egg, cabbage, bamboo shoots, and corn as the side dish.  The white rice was served with flagrant bonito flakes on top of it.  The spotlight of this bento is the pork rib.  It was quite large and extremely tender with juice coming out of it.

Xiaoshe Bento Shop did not disappoint us.  We loved the port rib and also enjoyed the side dish.  The side dish was full of flavour and extremely fresh.  We would definitely visit it again in the future when we visit Taiwan.

Hinoki Village

 

Hinoki Village is a popular tourist attraction in Chiayi County, Taiwan.  It is a village made out of last few remaining Japanese heritage buildings that were built during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.  Many of these buildings were built from the giant cypress trees that were cut down in Taiwan.  This was the reason this place was named Hinoki as it meant cypress tree in Japanese.  The Hinoki Village is now being preserved as a heritage site showing the history of the Japanese occupation era of Taiwan and also sells many souvenirs made out of cypress trees.

We got to Hinoki Village around 10:30AM in the morning and there were already a lot of people.  All the buildings in the village were painted black and there was a giant cypress tree trunk at the entrance of the village.  These cypress trees had a very special scent to it that could lift the spirit of an individual.  It was also said that the scent could help to prevent mosquitos away from people.

At the center of the village, there was this gigantic cypress tree root beside a gift shop.  The root of the tree was 10 times larger than an adult and was quite impressive!  It was unbelievable to see a tree as large as this, but it was also sad to see such giant tree got cut down like this.  There was also a tree that were wrapped with red string for people to make wishes.  People could buy wooden pendants and write down their wishes on it and then hang it on the tree.

As we walked down the street of the village, we saw several more houses but there were all very similar.  There were also many Japanese anime characters built along side of the houses such as Totoro.  The streets within the village were paved and fenced on the side.  We felt that these streets and fences were all built in the recent years and did not represent the old heritage village.  By looking at the houses, the paint on the wall was also way too new and the roof top were definitely newly constructed.  This was a bit of a disappointment as we were hoping to see some real historical buildings that were left behind 100 years ago.

There were also way too many gift shops.  Essentially every single building in the village was a gift shop selling various items to the tourist.  There was no exhibition hall show casing the history of this village and providing tales of this village.  There was only few boards talking about what this village was for and how it was funded.  This was a bit unfortunate.

The Hinoki Village was a good place to visit as part of the rest stop of a long road trip.  About 30 minutes were enough for us to see everything here since we did not visit every single gift shop there.  Parking is a bit difficult to find here but many people simply asked the drivers to drop them off.

Alishan Turkey Rice

 

Alishan Turkey Rice is a restaurant known for its famous turkey rice.  It is located in Chiayi County, Taiwan.  Although it is far away from large metropolitan cities, it still gained popularity among the locals and people from all over Taiwan.  Not only it serves delicious turkey rice, it also offers various tasty side dishes for people to enjoy.

We got to Alishan Turkey Rice around 2PM.  It was not during the peak busy hour but there were still over 10 groups of people dining in the restaurant.  We obviously ordered the famous turkey rice.  We could choose the minced turkey rice or sliced turkey rice.  Both were good options but the sliced turkey rice came in a larger bowl.  We also ordered meat ball soup, marinated soft tofu, and stir fried cabbage.

The food was served quite quickly and it was served with a robot.  The robot rolled to our table with all the plates on top of it.  We took all the plates quickly before the robot ran back.  The marinated soft tofu was amazing.  The flavour had completely soaked into the tofu and it was not extremely soft where it might break when we try to use chopstick to grab a piece.  The tofu was soft and also sturdy enough that it did not break easily.  The stir fried cabbage was tasty as well and quite soft.  We loved it very much.  The meat ball soup came with 2 giant meat ball that were tender and juicy.  The soup itself was very clear and yet very tasty with soft sliced radish chunks in it.  Lastly, the turkey rice had a very strong sweet aroma to it.  The turkey meat was very soft and tasty and the saltiness was just right on the spot.

We really loved the food at Alishan Turkey Rice!  If this restaurant was not too far and difficult for tourists to access, we would loved to dine here every day when we were in Taiwan!

Mercuries Noodle House

 

Mercuries Noodle House is a popular noodle restaurant that specializes in Beef Noodle Soup in Taiwan.  It is also known as the San Shang Qiao Fu in Chinese.  This popular Beef Noodle Soup restaurant chain has been in Taiwan for over 30+ year and is still a popular place for people to enjoy beef noodle soup.  Although Mercuries Noodle House is not as famous as it used to be due to all the competition in the industry, it is still our all time favourite place to go for lunch when we visit Taiwan.

Mercuries Noodle House is a chain restaurant and has multiple locations in Taipei and quite easy to find.  Its orange logo is its signature to welcome the guests to come in.  We went to the Mercuries Noodle House restaurant located in Daan District and it is just beside the subway station exit.  We got there around 4PM, which was already past the peak hour.  There were only 2 other groups of people dining in there.  We ordered large bowls of beef noodle soup, a side dish of bean curd, a side dish of streamed vegetable, and a side dish of pig ears.

The side dishes were served very quickly as they were already made in the kitchen.  The bean curd with the sweet soy sauce on top was a blast.  We loved the texture and the taste of it.  The streamed vegetable had ground beef sauce on top of it.  The sauce made it very juicy with amazing sweet and salty flavours to it.  The pig ears had special texture to it.  We were not a big fan but wanted to give it a try.  It was very chewy and definitely could be delicious to many people but not really our type of food.

Finally, the beef noodle soup came in a large black bowl.  The soup looked dark with soy sauce with amazing aroma to it.  We went to the counter to grab a plate full of pickled vegetable.  This pickled vegetable was crunchy and added a lot of flavours to the beef noodle soup.  We added as much as we could since we loved it so much.  The beef chunks in the soup was also very tender and juicy.  The noodle was thick and chewy, and we loved it.

Overall, Mercuries Noodle House offered amazing beef noodle soup and we would definitely go to Mercuries Noodle House every time we visit Taiwan.