Chun's Flavour

 

Chun's Flavour specializes in Taiwan traditional barley drinks and desserts.  It often offers various drinks mixed with Barley and other Taro related menu items mixed with barley.  Other than just barley related items, it also sells boy puddings and shaved ice.  Chun's Flavour may not necessary be the best restaurant that offers this type of dessert options, it is certainly a good place to try barley related Taiwan dessert.

We were in Tainan and the day was extremely hot and humid.  We had been walking for 30 minutes under than sun and really needed a rest to cool our body down.  Thus we chose to have a quick dessert at Chun's Flavour as it had indoor seating with AC on.  We ordered a Taro Soy Pudding and an Assorted Shaved Ice.

As we sat down, we already felt replenished with the strong AC running at the back.  It felt really good to get out of the humid hot weather.  The Soy Pudding was sweet and delicious.  It would be difficult to compare against the other popular brand but the soy pudding at Chun's Flavour was still a decent choice.  The Assorted Shaved Ice was one of the best shaved ice we have had in Taiwan.  Not only it came with taro ball, red bean, and green bean, it also had barley poured on top of the shaved ice.  The soft and chewy texture of the barley combined with the brown sugar coated shaved ice were an amazing mixture for the dessert.  We enjoyed this the most!

While there are many various Taiwan styled dessert place in Taiwan and Chun's Flavour may not be the best out there, it did offer decent choice and unique options that other shops don't have.  If we had the chance, we would visit again to try other barley related menu items.

A-Mei Teahouse

 

A-Mei Teahouse is an iconic landmark at Jiufen, Taiwan.  It is known for its unique building structure that came from the Japanese animation Spirited Away.  A-Mei Teahouse is located at the enter of the Jiufen Old Street.  It is a rather large structure that no one would miss.  There are always tourists taking photos of A-Mei Teahouse, thus it is rather easy to find by just spotting where the crowd is taking the photos.

We went to A-Mei Teahouse around 5PM and there were so many people at the front of the entrance taking photos.  It was extremely difficult to even walk into the teahouse entrance.  The entire street and the platform were fill with people taking photos.  A-Mei Teahouse did not offer any food and only offered snacks that came with the tea tasting menu.  Customers could choose to have hot or cold tea.  We chose 1 hot and 1 cold tea to see the different.  The cold tea can be refilled as many times as you want.  The hot tea came with tea leafs and a huge black pot was placed at the front of our table to provide hot water for the hot tea.

The server also brought us some snacks such as plums, mochis, sesame cookies, and Chinese cake.  The plum was not sour due to the white sugar coating on the out side.  The other snacks were sweet as well.  We enjoyed the cold tea a lot more than the hot tea due to the fact that the weather was hot.  The cold tea really made the body a lot more refreshing.  When we were paying the bill, the server also gave us a post card that has A-Mei Teahouse on it.  This was a bit of a surprise.

A-Mei Teahouse was an unique place to visit, but the price per person was not cheap.  It was about $300 NT per person.  Most people were just there to kill time to wait for the night time to come.  We probably won't visit A-Mei Teahouse again if we didn't need to.

A Gan Yi Taro Ball

 

A Gan Yi Taro Ball is the most popular taro ball dessert place at Jiufen, Taiwan.  It has won a Michelin star back in 2025 and every tourist visiting Jiufen would come here to get a bowl of taro ice dessert.  A Gan Yi Taro Ball is located at the very top of the Jiufen Old Street.  So every visitor must complete the challenging stair master hike all the way to the top of the hill before they can get a bowl of the famous taro ball ice dessert.

We got to A Gan Yi Taro Ball around 4:30PM in the afternoon.  It was so crowded on the way to the top of the hill and there was a line in front of the A Gan Yi Taro Ball.  The line was so long that people were actually lining up along the stairs.  However, the line did move quite fast since all the food was pre-prepared and just had to put them into the bowl.  It did not have many items on the menu and we got the taro ball with assorted beans.  The assorted beans included read beans and green beans.

We took our food and went to the dining area.  The dining area was all the way at the back of the store.  The dining area was an enclosed balcony with amazing view over Jiufen and we could see the ocean on the far side.  The taro ball was chewy with amazing texture.  It was not too sweet either.  We loved the mix of red bean and green bean.  This was the classic traditional Taiwan dessert that people love.  The shaved ice helped us to cool down after climbing the steep stairs of Jiufen.  After finishing the first bowl, we could not help but getting the second bowl.  It was just too good.

This is definitely a must go place when visiting Jiufen.  This place is highly rated and everyone visiting Jiufen should definitely give this a try.

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.