Taipei

It was an early morning arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday. 4:45AM to be exact. But my body clock was still on California time so I felt like it was mid-afternoon and, other than being a little groggy after 13 hours on the plane, I was excited to explore Taiwan’s capital for a few days on my way Down Under. Taoyuan was a well oiled machine: I breezed through the exceedingly clean and modern customs and passport control stations in less than 10 minutes and was on the first express train into central Taipei in short order. The 40 minute ride into the city toured through the mountains of Taiwan, where the jungle was broken here and there by the occasional cluster of apartment buildings, communal gardens or handfuls of terraced rice paddies. The jungle was incredibly dense, I was half expecting to see monkeys swinging from the branches (fun fact: Formosan rock macaques are the only native primates in Taiwan and can occasionally be spotted in the jungles surrounding central Taipei). I lost count of the number of times I banged my head on that first morning, I felt like a bit of a giant in the subway to Ximen from the airport. I had to duck to get in and out of the train, and couldn’t stand up straight in certain sections of the Bannan subway line.

Some cities I’d classify as “early” cities. San Francisco is one of these, probably due to it always behind three hours behind New York: if you walk around downtown SF at 6AM on a weekday there’ll be plenty of people on the sidewalks, cafes open, no lack of spots to grab breakfast. Madrid is a “late” city: you’ll be laughed at if you try to book a dinner reservation before 9PM. I discovered on Friday that Taipei is also a very “late” city: even in central Ximending, the streets were almost completely devoid of humans when I hopped off the MRT from the airport, and I subsequently spent 20 minutes walking around in circles trying – with no luck – to find a coffee shop to recharge my batteries a little. I discovered coffee shops in Taipei generally don’t swing into action until at least 9AM (the one next to my ABNB didn’t open until 11AM!). The only storefronts open anywhere when I arrived were 711 mini-marts, so a canned ice latte had to suffice. Speaking of which, I was surprised again and again at how affordable Taipei was. 711 canned iced latte: US$1.20. A journey on the exceedingly clean (low-ceilinged) MRT subway: $US0.65 (!). Dim sum from a street vendor: roughly US$0.60-1.00 a piece. Boba tea with handmade tapioca balls (none of the chemically formed ones we get in the US): $US2.50. For a small island country that’s home to so much high-end specialized manufacturing (Giant bicycles, SRAM/RockShox, Specialized…) as well as the semiconductor fabs for the world’s most advanced chipmakers, I was pretty astonished at the affordability (I’m not complaining!).

I had to wait until the afternoon to check into my ABNB digs in Ximending and had already been wearing my t-shirt for 18 hours, so figured it was a good opportunity to explore the mountains around Taipei during the AM before the heat of the day kicked in. Lisa’s cousin Kiddy (officially my first cousin in-law) was born and bred in Taiwan and was kind enough to give me a few hot tips prior to my trip. One of these was exploring the hiking trails below Nangang Mountain, one of the many jungle-clad peaks surrounding Taiwan’s capital. The culmination of the Tamsui-Xinyi MRT subway took me to Songshan Fengtian Temple, a majestic grand Southern Chinese structure specifically tailored to honor the Jade Emperor. It’s home to over 80 deities representing Taoist, Buddhist, and folk traditions across multiple levels and had some exceptionally intricate wood carvings inside. Some very cool architecture, great to explore before I embarked into the mountains. The Four Beast Mountain trail system began right behind the temple, and even though it was only about 2.2 miles/3.5 kilometers from end-to-end, traversing the thousands of concrete steps through the jungle in 90°F/32°C heat with 85% humidity had all my clothes literally soaked through within 20 minutes. That said, the view from each of the mountain peaks along the way was well worth it, and the temples dotted through the jungle were fun to explore for a bit of a break from hiking (thanks Kiddy!).

One of the things I was really looking forward to in Taipei was sampling all the food. On Friday morning, a post-hike scallion sesame bun and green onion omelette wrapped in chewy sesame flatbread at Fu Hang Soy Milk were exceptionally scrumptious, especially at under US$3.00 for the lot. The flatbread omelette was the perfect balance of umami and salt, although I don’t know if I’d brave the 30 minute line in 95°F/35°C heat again. I also had an impromptu adventure following the throngs of high school kids on lunch break into the lanes in Meihua Village – Lane 82 was a standout – where I sampled a handful of steamed buns and street pancakes, all of which were exceptional (who knows what I was eating, pretty sure it was mostly pork, definitely no English at the stalls!).

The night markets of Taipei are pretty legendary, any blog or travel guide to the city is going to prominently feature night markets as spots for authentic local cuisine at dirt cheap prices. There are more than 20 major night markets within the bounds of Taipei so there was no way I was going to be able to explore them all. Instead I did a bit of research before arriving and targeted a couple each day. On Friday I ventured to the Huaxi Street Night Market in Qingshan Village a short walk from my digs in Ximending, fortunately it was late afternoon so it wasn’t hopping with people yet. The gua bao pictured below from Yuan Fang Gua Bao was a standout favorite: the anise-infused sticky pork belly coupled with sautéd mustard greens, fresh cilantro and a sprinkling of peanuts was divine. No, I did not try the snake penis.

I also hit the Raohe Night Market at the end of the Songshan-Xindian MRT line on Friday, arriving just before dark prior to the throngs of fellow diners. The night markets in Taipei can get exceedingly packed, if you don’t like crowds they’re not for you. I actually targeted Raohe to sample one of Taipei’s famous black pepper buns, the line at Fuzhou Pepper Buns at the southern entrance to the market had already formed by the time I arrived but it was well worth the (short) wait. The buns were cooked in a glowing cylindrical clay oven, their empanada-like crust filled with lean chopped pork, scallions and of course a generous helping of black pepper. Exquisite. I had to pace myself as I strolled past the scores of food vendors, with everything from squid beaks, abalone, fried quail eggs, Taiwanese sausages and grilled oyster mushrooms on offer. Oh, and a few cameo photos of Jensen Huang on location pinned to some of the vendors’ carts from what must have been a recent visit to Raohe. The scallion pancake picture below was a memorable bite, so simple but such a perfect blend of chewy texture inside the crisp exterior. Second-to-last photo below was probably the best fried chicken I think I’ve ever eaten: the chicken cutlet vendors were a feature at every night market I visited in Taipei and I wish I could have tried them all, I can’t imagine them being better than the one at Raohe, though. Marinated bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, doused in flour and deep fried followed by a bath in a soy-based marinade and then grilled over hot coals for a few minutes. Final step was to coat with some kind of Sichuan pepper-based sprinkle. I can still taste it and it’s making me hungry. I’m going to try to make it when I get back to California.

I ventured out of the city on Saturday morning, taking the gondola up into the mountains of Maokong from the end of the Tamsui-Xinyi MRT line. It was nice to get out of the impenetrable humidity of Taipei proper, the cool breeze of the mountains was very refreshing as I overlooked the sprawling metropolis below. There were a handful of tea plantations around the top of the gondola and I enjoyed sampling some of the local fare at one of the tea houses. The guan yin tea I tried was grown in Maokong and, even though it’s a black tea like Lipton of the West, it was nothing like I’d ever tried before. I can see where my cousin in-law Kiddy gets her love of teas after seeing all the different varieties on offer in Maokong. Maokong itself was pretty touristy: high prices, tour buses, not really my jam… But it was fun to get out of the city, nonetheless, and the 3.7 mile/6.0 kilometer hike back down through the tea plantations and jungle was a nice way to get the blood flowing.

I was lucky to roll into Liberty Square as thousands of people were taking part in Falun Dafa one morning, it was pretty awe-inspiring to be honest. Liberty Square – with its majestic opening archway, the National Theater, National Concert Hall and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall on its four sides – is awe-inspiring on a normal day, but being there with thousands of synchronized people moving to the chants of Falun Dafa… Pretty cool!

I think my favorite night market from my time in Taipei was the sprawling Shinlin Night Market in the north of the city. It was a labyrinth of vendors covering multiple blocks. Interspersed with the food stalls were all kinds of storefronts with everything from trendy clothing boutiques to traditional Asian arcades. The steamed egg and scallion buns about halfway down the gallery below were my favorite at Shinlin, although the kimchi black pepper bun I tried was a close second (but not as good as the one at Raohe). I can imagine my kids absolutely loving Shinlin, exploring all the storefronts and nibbling from food vendors along the way. It was jammed with teens and university-aged kids, really a fun experience to just people watch as I strolled.

If you don’t like crowds, Ningxia Night Market is absolutely not for you: the food vendors were arranged in a single, narrow corridor that stretched on forever, and during the peak hours on Saturday night it was honestly hard to move through the main thoroughfare. Couple that with close to 90% humidity… Good times. I was pretty full from nibbling at Shinlin by the time I arrived at Ningxia, although I did enjoy some delectable charbroiled pork belly as well as skewered lamb that were both pretty memorable. Oyster pancakes are a reasonably famous Taiwanese delicacy and I’d been keeping my eye out for one to try since arriving in Taipei: the last pic below looked very inviting but the line to buy one was more than 100 people long during the peak market hours on Saturday and I just didn’t have it in me to wait… Next time.

I have a late flight out tonight to Australia, so basically had another full day to explore more of Taipei today. After a pre-sunrise morning run – the pre-sunrise timing a bit of a necessity to beat the humidity – I stowed my bags at the lockers in Taipei Main and returned to Ximending for an early lunch at Niu Dian Beef Noodles. Taiwanese beef noodle soup was all over Taipei, Niu Dian was only a few steps away from my ABNB and I’d seen huge lines waiting for a table on Friday and Saturday so figured it’d be a good spot to sample one of Taipei’s most common dishes. I arrived about 10 minutes before opening and managed to score ticket number five for a seat. The menu was pretty simple: basically noodle soup with the choice of beef shank, tendon, tripe or broth only. I went for the shank and wasn’t disappointed: melt-in-your-mouth beef with a beautifully rich broth and delicate noodles to boot. It wasn’t as good as some of the pho I’ve had in Vietnam and Laos, but definitely a wonderful culinary start to the morning.

Post-soup I explored Huashan 1914 Creative Park for an hour-or-so – an old industrial section of the city that’d been transformed into a collection of art galleries and local crafts stores – before heading to the upmarket Dihua Street, Taiwan’s oldest street. It’s pedestrians only during the day on Sundays on Dihua Street, and the throngs packed in to explore all the boutiques, tchotchke stores and vendors selling local culinary delights. I grabbed a couple of souvenirs and enjoyed a couple of $1 cans of Classic – they were cheaper than bottled water (!) – before meandering through the streets of Jianming Village to my final culinary stop of my time in Taipei: Dadaocheng Braised Pork Rice. Braised pork rice is another of those dishes endemic to Taiwan that one really has to try if visiting the country: it’s basically chopped up braised pork belly in an anise-heavy, syrupy sauce served in a bowl with white rice. Simple but exceedingly scrumptious and Dadaocheng certainly didn’t disappoint.

A really fun stop for a couple of days: such excellent food and the MRT made getting around the city such a breeze. And to cap it off: with my last NT$120 of change I just bought one last can of Classic lager at the airport. When was the last time you could visit an international airport in a first world country and buy a beer for US$3.70?!