day1: shilin traditional market, jinshan, yangmingshan

saturday, 3/29/2008

i left minnesota thursday morning, arrived in taiwan (and finally shilin, where my relatives live) late friday night, couldn't sleep at all that night, and saturday morning the activities on my trip came to an official start!

first thing on my agenda was having a bowl of salty soy milk. my cousin walked me through the shilin traditional market and then to the nearest breakfast shop. salty soy milk is one of my favorite foods! it's a bowl of hot soy milk (unsweetened) and then they add salt, a little vinegar, sesame oil, little dried shrimp, salted dried daikon, green top onion, spicy oil, etc. but the soy milk looks curdled, i think from the vinegar. don't let the curdled look stop you from drinking the most delicious soy milk ever!!

anyway, back home, and then my uncle came and he, his gf, my cousin, my grandpa, and i, went to taiwan's north coast area to see the little cubby, in a big tower of cubbies, where my grandma's ashes are stored. then winding through more and more traffic on the way to jinshan, we passed a zongzi (sticky rice and meat wrapped in bamboo leaves) shop in sanzhi, liu jia's zongzi, which is supposed to be well known. it was like a dozen small zongzi for 100NT (~$3)! the sticky rice was made perfectly so that each rice was it's own self, and not smashed together and merged with each other. i'm not a huge sticky rice fan, but the zongzi were made well enough that it was still worth eating. (i hate wasting stomach space and calories on bad food in taiwan, because i know i only have 3 weeks worth of eating!) then to jinshan youth activity center for lunch (the zongzi was a snack, hehe), which is my grandpa's routine. i had a drumstick and rice set, definitely NOT worth eating. from jinshan we wound through more traffic and stopped at these docks on the north coast. there was a lot of rapid water there, i think from an energy plant or something, i don't remember. there were people selling kites and snacks: grilled squid, fish balls on a stick, ...corn dogs (didn't expect that). also there was this scooper truck thing that i thought was really cute! it looked like a little dinosaur as it scooped trash and debris on the beach. and then we wound up yangmingshan. there we ate at a food stall on the side of the road, not that we were the least bit hungry. the bamboo shoot soup and the fried taro and fried sweet potato (picture) were SO GOOOOOD! especially the fried taro and fried sweet potato, which were lightly battered before they were fried. then we just turned around and wound back down the mountain because everyone was tired. next time i'm definitely going to go to yangmingshan by myself so i can see a few things other than just food.

then back home, at which point i was asked, "you want to have some dinner?" i was like, "o god, save me!" instead my uncle walked me to the mrt stop and back so i could learn my way. then i chatted with my other cousin, who didn't come with us. she has a table full of snacks in her room. and even though i was still beyond full, the snacks were just too cute!! she had taiwanese, japanese (she was the cousin who gave me those amazing japanese crackers i posted about before), and even american snacks (can you believe she loves snyder's pretzels?!). i chose a bag of taiwanese chips that she says are a staple for every tawainese kid. the chips are called "lucky" and are in the shape of hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds! and are SO TASTY! then i finally had my first (although short) night of sleep.

at the end of every post, i will include a "worth seeing" and a "worth eating" section. almost everything on my trip was worth it, but the stuff i list at the end are high recommended and should not be missed!

WORTH EATING: salty soy milk, yangmingshan bamboo shoot soup and fried taro and fried sweet potato

full set of pictures at picasa!