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Travelling Taiwan: Eating out – Hotpot in the winter is BEST! 火鍋世家

April 28, 2012 by · 8 Comments

Western winters seem to be all about casseroles and stews. While tasty, they never quite hit the spot like a good hot pot does. Upon meeting up with my sister’s friend in Taipei, we decided to visit Shida Nightmarket and the nearby hotpot restaurant: Huo Guo Shi Jia (火鍋世家). Since that’s a fairly long name to type, I’m going to refer to it by HGSJ from now on.

HGSJ is located about 5 minutes from the Taipower Building MRT Station (Exit 3). Just head towards Shida nightmarket and you will be able to find HGSJ easily.

Travelling Taipei Tip #8:

Make sure you note down which exits you need to get out from a MRT station. Taking different exits will sometimes lead you to completely different places. There are maps all around the station for you to work out the exits needed as well.

In HGSJ, hotpots are individual hotpots. They are sunken into the table and everybody gets their own. On a nearby table, there is an assortment of different condiments and dips you can pick to go with your hotpot ingredients. If you can’t figure out what some of the dips are, there is a helpful sign that tells you what each one of them is, even in English. Perfect! You don’t have to stick to just one dip either, you can mix and match to your liking! The dip I made up for myself was a combination of 4 items from the selection. Yum.

Everybody gets a plate of vegs for the hotpot. My friend cheekily mentioned that technically you could come in and only have vegs and not pay anything since they only charge for the meats you have, but don’t get any funny ideas!! We did order meat since, what’s a hotpot without meat? (Sorry vegetarians)

Gorgeous. This meal really hit the spot and as I remember it, it came up to less than 40 aud for 3 people. If ever you are in Taipei and near the area, do try this place out. Simple, straightforward and no nonsense hotpot goodness.

HGSJ is a chain. It’s low prices means that it is very popular with students from the nearby universities. Free flowing drinks are available though I did find their milk tea to be a tad too sweet. The service is good with the waitresses diligent in adding in your soup base. You are able to pick different soup bases ranging from clear to spicy ones. As per usual, soup bases gets sweeter as you add more things into the soup. Quality of the meat was standard, nothing too extravagant which is expected for the price. Value for money, definitely.

*火鍋世家涮涮屋(師大店)*
台北市大安區雲和街21號(政大書城旁)
０２-２３６７００２２
上午11點至晚上11點

http://www.suabu.com.tw/

See all other chain locations here:


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Travelling Taiwan: Danshui Old Street 淡水老街 and Keko Fishball Restuarant 淡水可口魚丸

April 25, 2012 by · 6 Comments

Travelling Taipei Tip #5:

Plan to visit Danshui after a visit to the National Palace Museum. They are along the same MRT line and it is possible to finish Danshui within an afternoon.

Danshui Old Street is easy to get to via MRT. It’s the last stop on the line and impossible to miss. From the MRT station, it is a short stroll to the start of the street. There’s lots to see and lots to eat along this street especially because the shops along here specializes in Taiwanese snacks. The most famous of them being the Iron Eggs (铁蛋) which are small eggs that have been continually cooked in soy sauce till they are dark, flavourful and chewy. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of them but you can easily google that up if you are curious. As for eating them, I love them! But I do love anything eggs.

1: Ah Gei (阿給) unopened. 2: Ah Gei (阿給) opened. 3. Braised Pork Rice (滷肉飯). 4. Tian Bu La (甜不辣) or otherwise known as Taiwanese Tempura

Another thing that Danshui is famous for is Ah Gei (阿給). I couldn’t go to Danshui without giving it a go so hopped into the first shop I saw selling it to try out this local specialty. You can see what Ah Gei looks in photo 1 and 2 in the collage above. So what is it? It’s Fried Tofu stuffed with glass noodles covered with a spicy sauce. Was it good? So-so. I wasn’t blown away by it but it was definitely interesting to try something different!

Braised Pork Rice (滷肉飯/Lu Rou Fan) is a mince pork with soy sauce rice dish. Usually ordered as a side dish, this is often incredibly flavourful and very yummy. Every restaurant/street hawker does their version slightly differently and I started ordering this at every place that sold it to compare. So, so good! (Note that in the southern part of Taiwan, instead of mince pork you will receive a whole piece of pork.

Tian Bu La (甜不辣) is an assortment of different fried foods covered with sauce. It’s also known as Taiwanese Tempura but has no relations with the Japanese Tempura, with the most obvious difference being that the Taiwanese version has no batter. Definitely try it – again, done slightly differently at every stall.

There are different stalls lining the walkway and I stopped curiously in front of this one. Fried durians? I love durians, so bring it on! Unfortunately, it wasn’t that nice. There was hardly any durian and way too much batter. Not really worth the tummy real estate.

I couldn’t help taking a photo of these even though I don’t much fancy Spongebob Square Pants. So cute! These are cakes on a stick. Yum.

As we were walking along, I couldn’t help being drawn by the intoxicating smell of butter. We tracked down the source to this bakery, and it turns out that they were selling croissants! Or what looked like croissants anyways. There were quite a number of flavours but I realised with a shock when I tried to sink my teeth into them that they weren’t quite the buttery soft croissants I was after. They were hard! Still, I finished it all but I don’t think I’ll be getting them again in a hurry!

Travelling Taipei Tip #6:

Danshui is a port town and famous for its fishing. Lots of the town’s catching is then turned into food items such as fishball. Make sure you find yourself a good bowl of fishballs and wonton to try while at Danshui. They even have a fishball museum!

I recommend: Keko Fishball Restuarant (淡水可口魚丸) No. 232 Zhongzheng Rd, Danshui.

This, in my opinion, is the whole reason to visit Danshui again. Danshui Ke Ko Fishball Restaurant (淡水可口魚丸) has the best fishballs and wontons I’ve ever eaten in my life. The fishballs are bouncy, full of bite and the middle is stuffed with minced meat. The wontons have the softest melt-in-your-mouth skin and everything was bursting with flavours.

We weren’t hungry originally, but after tasting just how amazing everything (especially the wontons!) were, we were definitely hungry for more and ordered more bowls thereafter. How can you stop eating those wontons?!

So, so good. If you are ever in Danshui, you have to visit this restaurant!!!

Filed Under: Street Food, Taipei, Taiwanese Street Food, Things to do in Taipei Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Travelling Taiwan: Chen San Ding Bubble Tea 陳三鼎黑糖粉圓專賣店 and Lan Jia Gua Bao 藍家割包 (Taiwanese Hamburger)

April 24, 2012 by · 13 Comments

Taiwan is the Mecca of Bubble Tea. Accordingly it is where this amazing drink came from, and with me being a bubble tea fiend, I was practically shaking with excitement at being able to visit the motherland.

But even in a land where most bubble tea stands have bubble teas that taste way better than anything the local aussie bubble tea shops could ever serve up, there is a King. And the King is Chen San Ding Bubble Tea.

Technically not bubble ‘tea’ as there is no tea involve, Chen San Ding is made from brown sugar, tapoica pearls and amazingly tasty fresh milk. The owner invented this drink and named it 青蛙撞奶, literally translated as Frogs crashing milk. Not the most elegant of names but I think he was referring to how the pearls looked floating about in the milk. Regardless of the name, the drink is fully capable of blowing your mind and it certainly did mine. The pearls are cooked in brown sugar and are kept warm at all times. Topped up with fresh milk in your cup, they mix together to become the most incredible cup of milk ever with a tinge of caramel. The quality of the milk used is top notch and the pearls are melt in your mouth. I could drink this again, and again, and again!

You get to Chen San Ding via Gongguan MRT station. It is a short walk from the station with Chen San Ding being in the middle of Gongguan Nightmarket. The place is filled with students from the nearby National Taiwan University and is also home to the incredibly yummy Lan Jia Gua Bao 藍家割包 that bloggers have come to nickname as Taiwanese Hamburger.

Lan Jia is opposite to Chen San Ding and if you are coming for one, you need to have the other too. They operate out of a pushcart kitchen which makes it really easy to just do takeaway which is what we did. Behind the pushcart kitchen is some seating space, so if you’d like to stay and relax into the space, that’s okay too. Gua Bao reminds me of the Momofuku pork buns but not having tasted the latter before, I cannot compare them in flavour.

A fluffy white bun is folded into half, filled with preserved vegs and your choice of meat (lean, somewhat lean, somewhat fatty, fatty or a mixture). The sauce is somewhat peanuty and the combination of every ingredient makes for perfection in both texture and flavour. I was craving and dreaming for this for months afterwards!

Lan Jia Gua Bao can be found in numerous nightmarkets but I have found that the one at Gongguan to be the tastiest. Not sure why, but that’s how it is. Definitely the one at Shida nightmarket couldn’t compare, and it’s only one or two MRT stops away. Go for the one at Gongguan, trust me.

Unfortunately, due to time and tummy constraints, we couldn’t fit anything else from Gongguan Nightmarket in. The next time I’m back in Taipei, I’ll be making a beeline for these two, for sure! YUM!


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Filed Under: Street Food, Taipei, Taiwanese Street Food, Things to do in Taipei Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Travelling Taiwan: Tips while travelling in Taiwan, Nightmarkets and Pepper buns.

April 23, 2012 by · 4 Comments

It’s been forever since I travelled overseas. My last trip was in 2008 in which I visited New Zealand. Since then, I have been keeping to the Aussie soil and travelling around country Victoria as well as to the other major cities in Australia to get to learn my adopted country. So it was with much excitement that the sister and I headed off to our first overseas trip together.

The sister is 5 years younger than me, and since I left home at such a young age, we have hardly had time or opportunity to go anywhere together. It made this trip even more special as it was a time for us sister to spend some quality time together without having to ‘behave’ in front of the parental units.

We flew with Airasia which meant leaving KL through LCCT, the budget terminal. It was my first time there and I realised that I have been awfully spoilt with my frequent trips through Changi Airport. Why can’t every airport be like Changi Airport!? Oh well, we were just passing through anyhow. Taipei, here we come!

I was incredibly impressed when I reached Taoyuan International Airport. Especially with the luggage carousel. I wouldn’t have thought that such a simple thing as a man standing at the luggage entry point to stand and arrange the luggages as they came out would make such a difference. Things were orderly, folks manage to retrieve their luggage easily and move on quickly, I was amazed!

Taipei Travelling Tip #1:

When travelling in Taiwan, it is a good idea to obtain a mobile sim. You can obtain them from the airport. Just turn left after baggage collection and left again at the end of the path. In most cases, you will need two form of IDs (eg: Passport and IC/NRIC). You are able to choose between just a data sim or data and GSM sim card. They are also able to do micro sims, so feel free to bring along your iPads and iPhones. No activation is needed, just pop in and go.

I went with Chunghwa Telecommunications as I felt their rates were the best. You can study their rate cards to see which suits you best!

Taipei Travelling Tip #2:

Instead of taking a taxi to your hotel, take a bus to Taipei Central Station instead and take the MRT from there. It’s a lot cheaper! A one way ticket will cost you NT90 or around 3 aud. How’s that for cheap?

To get to the buses, turn right after baggage collection and right again at the end of the path. Follow the outside of the building till you come to the bus lounge with the ticket counters at the corner.

We were lucky and realised later on that our bus actually stopped at a bus stop near our hotel before Taipei Central Station, so off we got and headed to Sunroute Hotel to check in. I will share my review of Sunroute Hotel later on.

By the time we came back out of our room, it was raining heavily. But determined to get the most out of our first day in Taipei, we headed off towards our first nightmarket: Raohe St. Nightmarket

Taipei Travelling Tip #3

If you are going to be in Taipei for a few days, consider getting the Taipei Tourism Pass. This means unlimited rides on the MRT and city buses within that time frame. It also comes with a brochure to give you more of a guide around Taipei, including discount vouchers and even recommended routes for the convenience of travellers.

The Taipei pass is available in the following denominations: 1-day pass (NT$180), 2-day pass (NT$310), 3-day pass (NT$440), 5-day pass (NT$700), and Maokong Gondola 1-day pass (NT$250).

Raohe st nightmarket is actually a fair hike from the MRT station. But if you are already in the area visiting Wu Fen Pu, then Raohe St Nightmarket is the perfect place for your dinner. Rest assured that you can’t miss it, as the entrance to Raohe is decorated with lights and a big glaring sign that proudly welcomes you to the nightmarket.

The hustle and bustle was unmistakable even in the rain. As I huddled under an umbrella with sis at the entrance, my first thought was: “Oh my gosh, why’s everybody lining up at that stall!?” Because right at the entrance of the nightmarket sits the Pepper Bun stall (福州世祖胡椒饼). Arguably the most famous thing about Raohe too.

Taipei Travelling Tip #4:

If there’s a queue at a food stall, join it.

And join it, I did. These pepper buns were charcoal baked, stuck to the walls of the oven and handmade on the spot. While the queue was long, it also moved fast and within a few minutes we were already at the front of the queue. Freshly baked, these pepper buns were aromatic and distinctly smokey. The crust was crispy and dry, not greasy and the meat filling tender and juicy. If this was what Taiwan street food is, then I was in for a treat for the week already! Be careful of copycats though, look for the black and yellow sign!

And thus this was how we spent the rest of the night. Eating, shopping, and then eating some more. Raohe nightmarket is somewhat cramped especially that day because it was raining quite heavily so all the umbrellas were out in force. Most of the food stalls were on the road while both sides are filled with shops selling a range of shoes, boots, shirts and dresses. We came across these little desserts that looked amazing and seemed intriguing so we got a bag of it. Unfortunately they didn’t taste quite as good as they sounded and didn’t have much going for them. Pity.

Despite the rain, the crowd was showing no signs of letting up. We soldiered on as best we could and I did an incredible amount of shopping when I wasn’t too busy eating. Shoes, boots, coats, dresses, you name it, I bought them all. I also sank my teeth into stinky tofu (at two different stalls!) and marvelled at all the different kinds of street food that were on offer. I wish I had a bigger stomach!

Without noticing, it was already past midnight. Here’s where we made our first mistake. We didn’t check to see what time was the last MRT. Whoops. So by the time we were ready to go, we were informed by the friendly Taiwanese sellers that the MRT was shut and we would have to cab it back. Sighing at our idiocy, I proceeded to sit down for another spot of dessert. After all, there’s no more MRT to run for, right?

Man. Taiwanese really know how to make desserts. I’m salivating just thinking about it all. As it were, sis and I thoroughly enjoyed this bowl of beancurd pudding. Yum.

With that, we decided it was time to go home. Our shopping was getting heavy, it was half past midnight and it was only the first day. We cabbed it back to our hotel and fell asleep with our tummies happy. I love Taipei!

Address: 249 Raohe Street, Taipei (Next to the temple)
地址: 台北市饒河街249號前

Walking Directions: about 25 minutes walk from Houshanpi (後山埤) MRT station (exit: Wufenpu commercial district)

You can do the Houshanpi MRT->Formosa Chang->Wufenpu ->Raohe Night Market route if walking. Alternatively, take a cab from Houshanpi station.

Filed Under: Street Food, Taipei, Taiwanese Street Food, Things to do in Taipei Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,