Taiwan

  • Funky Foods of Asia

    I was able to sample some interesting foods while in Asia, some courtesy of the ever adventurous eating sensei Frank. Here’s a list of the highlights. Raw marinated crab. The ick factor for me was not knowing how clean the…

  • weekly recap #10 – taipei & hong kong

    *very late update due to nonexistent internet issues for us all week 🙁 q. current home/addy where i stayed (neighbourhood) and how long a. taipei for four nights (airbnb, da’an), ruifang for two nights (airbnb), taipei for one night (airbnb,…

  • guangzhou night market, longshan temple and more

    our second night market of the trip was guangzhou night market; very close to our airbnb at the taipei main station.  we heard that this one was quite big and in the area of two more markets so we gave…

  • dumplings, dumplings, dumplings

    ooooh the xiao long bao, asia’s best contribution to modern society along with female drivers.  we prepped our stomachs in anticipation of plenty of dumpling adventures and we had our first run in with the infamous din tai fung juicy…

  • baot it, baot it

    with my parents owning two ‘sandwich tree’ shops while growing up, i’ve ingested a good number of calories involving meat and bread.  as for home cooking, my fav dish that my dad would make was braised pork belly in a…

  • shaved ice, ice baby

    ah desserts.  everyone’s favourite crutch to fall back on to make themselves feel better about themselves before they can go back to hating themselves.  in the continent where desserts run wild, taiwanese desserts are more fruit-centric, refreshing and can be…

  • Kittens and Wishes

    Our second day in Ruifang area was spent in Houtong and Shifen. We hired a taxi for the day to drive us around to the different villages for 2000 NT. Our first stop is the Houtong Cat Village. So many…

  • Searching for Chihiro

    We made it to the mountain town of Jiufen in the evening, just when the sun was setting. Jiufen is the inspiration for Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away which is one of my favourite animated films. The streets were narrow and…

  • a breakfast state of mind

    maybe the biggest change in culture from japan & korea to taiwan is the inclusion of breakfast as a regular meal.  the majority of breakfast options in japan were western style which generally included eggs, toast and minature sausages of…

  • a change of pace

    it’s taken a while but our first week in taiwan has finally been the relaxing vacation we’ve been looking forward to.  a much slower pace to the city, hot weather and good food has gotten us into relax/lazy mode for…