Swan Island Dahlia Festival

 

Swan Island Dahlia Festival is a famous festival in Oregon where the farm has various kinds of Dahlia flowers blooming and offers live music and food truck at the farm.  Swan Island Dahlia Festival is located in Canby, Oregon.  It is about 40 minutes South of Portland.  Every year between August and September, the farm hosts Dahlia Festival and invite friends of all over the world to attend.  There is no entry fee and anyone can enjoy the beauty of Dahlia flowers.

We got to Swan Island Dahlia Festival around 9:30AM in the morning.  There were not many people at this time.  There was a small parking lot at the farm but visitors can also park along the road around the farm.  The farm was quite large with rows and rows of different Dahlia flowers.  It was a beautiful sight.  As we walked down the path, we could see the farm workers carefully cutting down few Dahlia flowers.  There were also name tags at each row indicating what kind of Dahlia flower it was.  Some Dahlia flowers just started blooming and it was just like a little ball.  It was such a beautiful ball like flower.

There was a small garden at the back of the farm near the farm house.  The garden has all the beautiful flowers aligned properly.  There were also several food trucks there selling food and beverages.  The band group was testing out their mic to get prepared for their performance around noon.

Dahlia Festival also allowed dogs to enter, which was great for dog owners.  We saw several dogs really enjoyed the flowers at the farm and were really sniffing around the flowers.  There was also a train led by tractor.  The ticket price was about $5 per person to ride it.  It would take the visitors around the farm and go back out on the road and then turn back.  We did not ride it however.

Swan Island Dahlia Festival also had another half of the farm on the other side of the road.  Most people only stayed on the main farm but did not go across the road to visit the flowers on the other side.  Thus make sure to visit the farm on the other side of the road as well.

We really loved Swan Island Dahlia Festival.  It was unfortunate that we did not stay for long but we highly recommend this, especially for family with kids and elderly members.

Stonehenge Memorial

 

Stonehenge Memorial is located at Goldendale in Washington State.  It is about 2.5 hours of drive time East of Portland.  It was built as an exact replica of the famous Stonehenge in United Kingdom.  This Stonehenge Memorial was built to honour the fallen soldiers that died for their country back in WW1.  This place is open to public and can be visited all year round.

We got to Stonehenge Memorial around 11AM in the morning.  This was a weekday and thus there was very little people there.  The Stonehenge Memorial was sitting on top of a hill and we could see it when we got off Highway I-84.  Once we got off the Highway I-84, it only took about 5 minutes to get there.  The parking lot was a large unpaved gravel area.  People could essentially park where ever they wanted.

We got off the car and had a closer at the Stonehenge Memorial and we saw that the stones were actually made out of concrete.  It was very well built and very little damage is seen.  From Stonehenge Memorial, we could see the entire Columbia River beneath us.

We also saw several name plates placed on the pillar of the Stonehenge Memorial.  These names were the soldiers that it was honouring for.  At the enter of the Stonehenge Memorial, there was also a large flag rock.  There were flowers placed on top of the rock.  We were guessing it could be family members of the fallen soldiers.

As we were leaving, there were several more people coming.  There was also a camper van parked there and seemed to be having a great picnic day at the Stonehenge Memorial.  This place did offer a great view from the top.  It used to be closed a night but it seemed like it is now open for public for the whole day.

The Stonehenge Memorial is an interesting place to visit.  However, it is a little far and not close to any other tourist attraction.  Thus it may not be a must visit place for tourists visiting Portland enen though it is a fun place for locals to visit.

National Palace Museum

 

National Palace Museum in Taiwan is a well known museum in the world.  It hosts a large collection of cultural national treasure from China.  When the civil war in China ended, the Chinese government fled to Taiwan with thousands of cultural treasures shipped to Taiwan.  Rumour has indicated that the mountain behind National Palace Museum is actually hollow inside and hides huge amount of treasures beneath the mountain.  The collections shown on the display in the museum is only a small portion of the entire treasure.

National Palace Museum was a must visit place in Taiwan.  We took the metro subway to Shilin station and then took the bus to National Palace Museum.  There was security check point and the entry of the museum and people were not allowed to carry large backpacks.

There were three floors at the museum.  We first went around the first floor and saw various sculptures and bronze buddha statues.  There were also several famous paintings that were 2 stories tall.  The carving on the multi-layer ivory ball was magnificent.  Each layer had its own unique pattern and could be moved around freely.  It was difficult for us to imagine how much effort the original owner put in to carve this whole thing.

The second floor had more pottery related items on the display.  This included vase, miniature horses and other interesting figures.  The pair of blue lion caught our eyes as the colour of the blue paint was very vibrant on the bronze body.  We were not sure if it was repainted or it was the original paint.  It was quite interesting however.  There was a lot of collection on the potteries from the Tang dynasty.  The miniature horses with three different colouring was a big representation of Tang dynasty.  Then there was also a large collection of vases from Ming and Qing dynasties.  These vases often had painting on it and painted dragons, flowers, and other images.  Many of these were broke down during multiple war in China and only a handful survived.

The third floor was the most interesting one as it was displaying the most ancient items from China.  It included ancient swords and cauldron from China's bronze age.  The swords did not look sharp and looked quite fragile from today's standard, but it represented an advancement in craftmanship in ancient China.  The cauldron was quite interesting.  There were writings inside some of the cauldrons.  Then there were sculptures of various creatures on the outside of the cauldrons.  These creatures usually represent various mythical creatures in China.

The final display on the third floor was the world famous jade that shaped like a cabbage.  It was one of the most valuable items in the entire National Palace Museum.  It was not always on display and usually rotated with other items.  We were lucky enough to be able to see it!

The entire visit to National Palace Museum took about 2 hours for us.  We had a great time here.  The first floor was not as interesting, but the second and third floor really showed us the progression of Chinese culture in the ancient times.  It is definitely worth the visit for visiting Taiwan.

Munchen Haus

 

Munchen Haus is an extremely popular restaurant located in Leavenworth, Washington State.  The restaurant is well known for its Bavarian Grill and the various types of beer that it offers.  During the summer weekends, this place would be packed with locals and tourists from other places.  The line at the front can stretch out all the way to the front street.  Munchen Haus has a wide variety of choices of different types of sausages.  People tend to come here for its large sausage collections, beers, and pretzels.

We got to Munchen Haus around 11:30AM.  The restaurant had just opened for about 30 minutes.  Since it was a weekday, there was not a lot of people.  It was our first time here and we were having a difficult time on which sausages to get.  Thus we got the three most popular sausages recommended by the server.  We got The Big Bob Bratwurst, Helga's Giant Kelbassi, and Dirtyface Beer Wurst.  In addition, we got a Warm Bavarian Pretzel and a German Potato Salad.

When we got our sausages, we went to get the condiments.  There was so many different types of condiments on the table, we were amazed and it was difficult to choose!  We had a mix various condiment across all three sausages.

The Big Bob Bratwurst was more red and had a harder texture when we bite it.  It also had some smoky flavour to it.  The Helga's Giant Kelbassi was thicker and softer.  We actually liked this one a lot more.  The meat was a lot easier to chew on.  Then the Dirtyface Beer Wurst was the longest sausage we ordered.  This one was quite juicy but tasted a lot like Helga's Giant Kelbassi.  The pretzel was hot and soft.  It came with a cheese dipping sauce which was warm as well.  The German Potato Salad was different than the typical potato salad we see at the supermarket.  This was more like mashed potato with vinegar mixed in it.  It was a bit to sour for our liking.

Overall, we really enjoyed the sausages at Munchen Haus.  There were still a lot more selection that we could try next time!

Backwoods Cafe

 

Backwoods Cafe is located in Yakima, Washinton State.  It specializes in breakfast and brunch dishes.  The cafe itself isn't a well known restaurant throughout the state, but it is known to the locals for people to have breakfast at.  Since Yakima is not a large city, Backwoods Cafe is considered as a decent size restaurant in the region.

We got to Yakima around 1:30PM.  Since we havn't had breakfast yet, we were looking for a brunch place nearby.  We happened to see Backwoods Cafe showing up on the map and it appeared to be quite close to where we were.  We drove directly to Backwoods Cafe and it was in a small plaza with plenty of parking spaces.  When we got to Backwoods Cafe, it appeared to be closing soon since it closes at 2PM.  The staffs in the restaurant were already cleaning up and the kitchen was shutting down.  They were still welcoming us and insisted us to dine in.  We knew that they were about to close so we chose to order take outs.

We ordered a Three Egg Omelet and a Two Egg Omelet for kid.  While we were waiting, we were also checking out the restaurant.  It seemed to be family owned and had a really nice cozy feeling.  All the furnishing were made out of wood.  There was a nice wooden staircase the led to the upper floor with more dining area.  It has a really good vibe in there.

After about 10 minutes, our orders were ready.  The omelet was big.  The Three Egg Omelet came with all wheat toast and hash brown.  The omelet had onion and ham in it, which we did like.  The Two Egg Omelet for kid came with potato chunks.  We actually liked the potato chunks a lot more than the tots.  It had some special seasoning to it which made the potato a bit more savory and sweet.

Overall, it was a decent choice for brunch at Yakima.  We did see a few more other brunch places at downtown Yakima but we were a bit further away from there.  We would probably try a different place next time.

Topaz Farm

 

Topaz Farm is a famous family owned farm located in Oregon.  It is located at Sauvie Island, right across from the city of Portland.  Every year, Topaz Farm hosts sunflower festival during the summer to invite everyone to come and harvest your favourite sunflowers.  There is no entrance fee and everyone is welcome.  Topaz Farm also offers you pick blackberries and grape tomatoes.  There are also other farm animals on the farm for kids to watch.  On the other side on the farm, there are also several old farm tractors that kids can enjoy.

We got to Topaz Farm around 9:30AM in the morning and the parking lot was about 30% full.  We could already see the sunflowers field as we entered the farm.  We were so excited to see the bright yellow flower field just across from the parking lot.  We strolled into the sunflower field and followed the trails and saw many bumble bees collecting honeys from the sunflowers.  There were also many photo spots that the farm owner had set up.  Most of the time we had to line up and take turns to take photos.  There were several people holding scissors to cut their favourite sunflowers, but we didn't want to do so.  We spent about an hour going through the whole sunflower field and took a lot of photos.

We then headed to the farm animals area where we saw chickens, turkeys, and sheep.  We were not allowed to touch them but we could watch them from the outside.  As we walked further down, there was a you pick flower area where people could cut down their favourite flowers not limited to sunflowers.  The next few rows were blackberries.  We took a pint and collected a pint full of blackberries.  Most of the blackberries at this time were still red and not ripe, but we still managed to find black ones on the far end of the bushes.  The grape tomatoes appeared to be bright orange colour.  Although it might have seen to be not ripe yet, it actually tasted really fresh and sweet.

Afterwards, we went to the playground where the kids enjoyed the tractors.  There were 4 small tractors where kids can hop on and pretend to ride on it.  There was also a giant tractor on the side.  It was huge and at least 2 stories tall.  Many people were waiting in line to have a ride in it.  We waited for 30 minutes just to get to hop onto the big tractor.

We really had a lot of fun at Topaz Farm.  It offered an amazing experience going from flowers, to farm animals, to you pick berries, and then the tractors.  It is a perfect place for family with small kids to spend the weekend at.  We highly recommend to visit Topaz Farm and have fun here!

Ximen Mango Shaved Ice

 

Ximen Mango Shaved Ice is a shaved ice restaurant located in the crowded tourist location of Ximen, Taiwan.  The restaurant offers various beautiful shaved ice mixed with various sweet fruits.  It is most notably known for its mango shaved ice.  This restaurant has 2 levels for dine in and the second floor of the restaurant has stronger AC and cooler for customers during the hot summer day.

We were shopping at Ximen but it was really too hot in Taiwan during the summer.  It felt like 40 degrees with humidity.  Thus we were looking for a place with AC to rest.  We happened to pass by Ximen Mango Shaved Ice and felt the strong AC blowing cold winds out of its door.  So we decided to enter to get cooled down and get some dessert.

We got the Mango Snow Ice and the Mixed Bean Taro Shaved Ice.  When we ordered the Mango Snow Ice, the server told us the mango today might be a bit sour.  We were ok with that since there was still sweetness from the snow ice.  After about 5 minutes, both shaved ice were served in a huge bowl.  The Mango Snow Ice had a scoop of mange ice cream on top of the snow ice.  Then drizzled with mango syrup from the top.  Chunks of mangoes were placed along the perimeters of the bowl.  We mixed the snow ice with the ice cream, it had a really soft and sweet taste.  The mango syrup was sweet but the flavour of the mango was strong.  The mango chunks were not as sour as the server warned us about.  We still enjoyed it.

The Mixed Bean Taro Shaved Ice came with red bean on the side of the bowl.  The taro balls were also placed along the side and there was a really good amount of it.  Then the brown sugar was drizzled from the top.  We loved the chewiness of the taro balls.  The softness of the red bean also added a fine touch on top of the shaved ice.  When mixing all of it together really created a new texture of shaved ice.  We actually enjoyed this more than the Mango Snow Ice.

We really loved the shaved ice at Ximen Mango Shaved Ice.  There were several more other dishes that the restaurant offers and we would try it next time.

The Duck House

 

The Duck House is a restaurant located in Ximen, Taiwan and it was established since 1950.  Although the name of the restaurant is called The Duck House, it actually serves goose meat instead.  We were not sure why that is the case.  The goose meat is actually served by telling the restaurant how much money you want to spend on it.  For example, the customers can tell the restaurant that they want $100 NT worth of goose meat, then the restaurant will cut the exact amount of goose meat that is worth $100 NT.

When we got to The Duck House, it was 1:30PM already.  The restaurant was about half full.  We sat down and ordered soup noodle bowl.  1 bowl with regular noodle and 1 bowl with vermicelli.  We also ordered the cabbage and $300 NT worse of goose meat.  The soup noodle bowl came with 1 slice of goose meat.  Comparing the noodle bowl and the vermicelli bowl, the regular noodle bowl had better flavour.  We were guessing that the vermicelli sucked too much soup away.  The cabbage was drizzled with goose oil on top of it.  It was so aromatic and we really loved the taste.  The $300NT worth of goose meat filled about half of the plate.  It also had soy sauce and sweet and hot sauce on the side.  The goose meat was decent.  It was really juicy and tender.  We did not see any pink spot on the meat either.  We had never had goose meat in Taiwan either, so it was our first time to try it out.  We could not really tell the difference between goose meat and duck meat to be honest, except maybe goose meat came with larger slice.

Overall, it was a decent experience to try the goose meat at The Duck House.  The amount of items on the menu was quite limited and people are just here for the goose meat.  It is a decent place to try goose meat if that is what people are looking for.

Niu Mowang Steak House

 

Niu Mowang Steak House is a unique type of streak house that serves Taiwan style steak on a hot grilled iron pan.  It is established in 1988 in Shilin night market.  Its steak is unlike the ones seen in United States.  Its steaks are thinner and paired with sweeter sauces, egg and pasta at the bottom.  This type of steak is not as expensive as the other thick cut steak and usually can be served quickly.

We were visiting Shilin night market and saw Niu Mowang Steak House at the corner of the street and decided to try it out.  The drinks at Niu Mowang Steak House is self-serve and customers could get as much as they want.  We ordered the typical beef steak since it was their signature dish and also the cheapest.

The steak meal came with a bowl of soup.  The soup bowl came with pastry on top, which was a surprise to us.  Pushing the pastry down into the corn chowder soup made it taste even better.  We really loved the corn chowder soup!  When the steak was served, it was sizzling hot.  Like the locals, we took the paper towels and formed a shield in front of our body to prevent any steak juice from bouncing onto our clothes.  After a minute or 2, the sizzling started to go off and it was time to east.  We really loved the idea of pairing the steak with the egg.  The mixture of egg yolk and beef steak was amazing.  We really loved it.  The sweet sauce also added its touch to the taste, but the best was to mix the sauce with the pasta at the bottom.

It was a great meal at Niu Mowang Steak House.  We could east more if we wanted to since the steak with thin and didn't fill much of the stomach.  Nevertheless, this was an unique type of steak that could only be seen in Taiwan and we would try this type of steak again in the future.

Jioulong Tapioca Balls Tofu Pudding

 

Jioulong Tapioca Balls Tofu Pudding is a restaurant that specializes in tofu pudding.  It is located right by the Shilin metro station and its red banner at the top of the restaurant makes it very easy to be spotted.  Jioulong Tapioca Balls Tofu Pudding is established in 1999.  Not only it serves tofu pudding dessert, it actually also makes onion pancakes with basils in it.  It is kind of a weird combination but it has gotten famous with this meal combo.

We got off Shilin station and saw Jioulong Tapioca Balls Tofu Pudding giant red banner, thus we decided to take a break and have some dessert.  We ordered the signature onion pancakes with basil and egg, and also a bowl of the famous tofu pudding shaved ice dessert.  We ordered it via mobile phone after scanning the QR code on the table, then paid at the front of the store.

The food was served very quickly since these things can be prepared quite fast.  The onion pancakes were folded into triangular shape like crepe.  The onion pancake with basil tasted really good.  It was quite hot as well but the flavour was decent when pairing with basil and egg.  The tofu pudding shave ice was the best.  It had soft tofu pudding at the bottom and lots of shaved ice on top, then poured with brown sugar all over it.  It had really cooled us down and we really loved it.  The best part was that we could ask to fill more shaved ice if we like.

We really loved Jioulong Tapioca Balls Tofu Pudding's tofu pudding shaved ice.  We wished that it was closer to where we stayed for vacation, but it was really one of the best shaved ice we have tried so far in Taiwan.  We would definitely come back here again in the future when we visit Taiwan next time.

Jiufen

 

Jiufen is a very popular tourist attraction in Taiwan.  It is located in the hills of Northern Taipei.  It is about 30 minutes of driving distance away from Taipei city.  It is well known for its bright red lanterns lighting up at night and make people fall in love in this anime like world.  Jiufen can also be reached by taking public transit.  People can take Taiwan railroad train from Taipei station and go to Ruifang train station, then take 10 minutes of bus ride to Jiufen.  The food and scenery at Jiufen is an unforgettable experience for people.

We took the train from Taipei station around 3:30PM in the afternoon.  By the time we got to Ruifang station, it was nearly 4:30PM.  Then we just took a quick 5 minute taxi ride to Jiufen.  When we got off the taxi, we were at the bottom of the Jiufen.  We now took the stairs and walk upwards.  We would see many latens hanging on the side of the street as we walked up the stairs but they are not lit during the days.  We went all the way to the top of Jiufen and finally got to A Gan Yi Taro Ball.  This was a must try dessert place when visiting Jiufen!

Afterwards, we went around the Jiufen Old Street to look around for interesting stuff.  Most shops sell tea, souvenirs, and Taiwan street food.  We also ran into many tourist groups from foreign countries such as Vietnam and Korea.  We also saw few small Japanese tourist groups travelling by themselves.  Many gift shops even accepted foreign currencies but at a higher exchange rate than usual.  As we got to the end of the Jiufen Old Street, we got to a balcony where we could see the ocean on the far side over the mountains.  Since we were at the top of the hill, the breeze from the wind felt really good during this hot day.

Since the day was still bright outside and we were waiting for the lanterns to lit up, we decided to go to the famous A-Mei Teahouse for a break and also to have a taste of its tea.  It was not a big experience but a bit pricy.  After the break, it was finally getting dark.  We then headed to Skyline Teahouse for dinner.  Skyline Teahouse was just across from A-Mei Teahouse and it offered the best viewing experience on Jiufen, but you must dine here else they would not allow you to just enter and take photo.  Many people dine at Skyline Teahouse just so that they could take photos.  The view from the top of Skyline Teahouse was breathtaking.  The red lanterns at night were just as beautiful as people described.  It was a very magical view.

As we exited Skyline Teahouse, there were still many people taking photos outside of the entrance.  We had to squeeze through to get back the crowds.  When we got to the bottom of Jiufen and wanted to take taxi back to Ruifang station, the taxi driver was trying to rip us off by raising the fare by 3x.  We were so pissed off and decided to wait for the bus instead.  The bus came after 10 minutes and we were happy with the decision.

We really loved Jiufen.  We had a great time here and the view was magical.  People said it is even more mythical during the winter time with fog covering Jiufen.  Perhaps next time we will visit Jiufen during winter season.

Wenzhou Wonton

 

Wenzhou Wonton is a popular dining place in Taiwan.  It has many different locations across various districts in Taipei City.  Wenzhou Wonton specializes in giant wonton in soup and also offers different noodle dish with wonton in it.  It is known to have large wonton with lots of fillings in it.  People often dine here just for its large wonton since it is one of the only places that offer such large wonton in a soup bowl.

We were at Taipei Station and saw Wenzhou Wonton right across the street.  The making of the wonton was at the front of the store and we could see those large hand made wonton being placed into hot boiling water.  The making of these wonton was what made us really wanted to try Wenzhou Wonton.

We ordered a pickled cucumber, bean curd tofu, wonton noodle, and dry wonton noodle.  The pickled cucumber and bean curd tofu were really enjoyable.  These were cold dishes but we loved the chunkiness of the pickled cucumber and the softness of the bean curd tofu.  The wonton noodle came with large wontons placed on the top of the bowl.  The noodle beneath it was the thick type of noodle, which we really liked.  The soup was ordinary but having a bite at such big large was having wish coming true.  The dry wonton noodle came without soup and sesame sauce on the top.  The mix of sesame sauce with noodle was another flavour that we enjoyed.  It added slight sweetness to it but still had the saltiness of wonton.  We actually liked the dry wonton noodle more.

We really liked Wenzhou Wonton a lot.  This type of small local restaurant is really what brings the best local food to the tourist.  We will come back again in the future for sure.

Qin Beef Soup

 

Qin Beef Soup is a famous restaurant in Taiwan specializing in award winning beef soup.  This type of beef soup is well known Taiwan cuisine in Tainan.  The bowl is filled with freshly sliced beef first, then the boiling hot soup is poured on top of it to get the beef cooked.  This keeps the beef tender and juicy.  The soup is also flavoured with other ingredients.  Many restaurants in Tainan offer this type of menu item with slightly different in taste.

Trying out the beef soup was a must do for us when we visit Tainan.  We walked around Anping district and found Qin Beef Soup.  It had a large advertisement and looked to be a well known shop and thus we decided to give this a try.

We first ordered a large bowl of beef soup to share among us.  We also ordered a braised pork rice as we were hungry as well.  The beef sup was ready rather quickly since they just had to pour the soup into the bowl.  The soup was served in a metal bowl.  There was a good amount of beef slices in there.  The beef was not really in a bright pink colour and instead of was more of a light brown colour.  It could be that the soup was hot enough to get the beef cooked.  When we tasted the beef, it was extremely tender and probably the best beef soup we have ever had.  The soup was extremely flavourful.  It was not greasy at all.  We really enjoyed the soup and the rice together.

Since the soup got us really hot, we also ordered 2 plates of shaved ice.  We got the watermelon shaved ice and the assorted bean shaved ice.  The watermelon shaved ice just had watermelon chunks on it.  The watermelon was not that good but the shaved ice with brown sugar was able to cool us off.  The assorted bean shaved ice was mediocre and the beans seemed to be coming from canned food.

Qin Beef Soup definitely offers one of the best beef soup in Taiwan.  We really recommend it to try.  The shave ice however was not up to par.  So definitely only try the beef soup and get shaved ice elsewhere.

Zhu Xiang Yuan

 

Zhu Xiang Yuan is a very famous restaurant located in Tainan, Taiwan.  It is well known for its famous pot cooked chicken.  It currently has 7 different locations in Taiwan serving the customers all over Taiwan.  The restaurant is also known to have its tables and chairs made out of bamboos to resonant with the bamboo in its restaurant name.  Zhu Xiang Yuan typically gets quite busy during the peak dining hour.

As we went to Tainan as a one day trip, Zhu Xiang Yuan was our first stop to go to.  We got off the Tainan High Speed Railway station and took the taxi to here.  Since the distance was a bit far, it costed us $600 NT to get there.  It was a bit pricy.  When we got there, it was barely 11AM and the restaurant just opened.  We were the first customers there.  We sat down at the table by the window to go through the menu items.

We first ordered half of the famous pot cooked chicken.  We then ordered the stir fried pork, fried oysters, and the bamboo mixed water spinach.  Since it was our first time here, the restaurant also served us sweet potatoes and a bowl of chicken flavoured noodle.

The first plate served was the famous pot cooked chicken, along with the chicken soup.  The chicken soup was free with unlimited refill.  We started with the soup and loved the sea weed and the bamboo shoot in there.  We quickly asked for the refill right away.  The chicken was juicy and tender.  It even had a small bowl with chicken grease in it and asked customers to pour it on top of the rice.  It was so aromatic and the flavour was so pure.

The stir fried pork was amazing as well, but obviously not as overwhelming as the chicken.  We kind of just enjoyed it as a regular meal.  The fried oyster was good and it came with sweet and hot sauce.  The sweet and hot sauce was not hot at all.  It was more sweet and worked really well with the fried oysters.  We loved the bamboo mixed water spinach.  The slight sourness and the crunchiness of bamboo mixed really well with water spinach.  We really loved the flavour.  The sweet potatoes on the house had some sugar coating spread on top of it.  It tasted more like sweet dessert.  The chicken flavoured noodle was basically the same chicken grease poured on top of the noodle.  It was just as aromatic as the chicken and we loved it as well.

The lunch meal at Zhu Xiang Yuan was definitely not cheap but we did enjoy the food, especially the famous pot cooked chicken.  We may visit it again in the future with people who have not tried this yet.

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!