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!

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.