day2: hotpot, longshan temple, chiangkaishek memorial, taiwan storyland

sunday, 3/30/2008:

another day, another salty soy milk! on the way to the salty soy milk (this time with my other cousin and to a different breakfast shop, but also near home), we walked through the traditional market again. my cousin ate a "twins" (shuangbaotai), which is basically a piece of sugary fried dough that has identical halves. i broke off a piece and tried it...tastes like heaven. anyway, finally to my second bowl of salty soy milk and i also got a shaobing youtiao (flaky bun with stick of fried dough...i know it may sound the same, but this fried dough is totally different from the previous fried dough). the shaobing youtiao was also exceptional, way better than any i have eaten in the US.

we are never very good at getting out early, so that means, by the time we get back from our breakfast excursion, it's time to head out for lunch! today my grandpa, uncle, aunt, 1 cousin, and i go to a hotpot restaurant nearby! hotpot is only my very favorite meal! i order the lamb meal, of course. it's not much different from shabu zen in boston...i think even the dishes are the same! i'm pretty particular about the process of eating my hotpot. first i drop in the corn and tomato, they mostly contribute to the soup; usually i don't eat them. then i start eating my thin lamb slices, never boiling more than 1 or 2 slices at a time so that i can keep track of them so they never get over done. after a few slices, i start boiling my various meat/fish balls, as i continue with the lamb. i also start boiling the taro chunk, because that needs a while. if there is seafood, this is when i boil and eat that. then i boil and eat a few leaves of vegetables. then boil and eat the mushrooms, don't cook the mushrooms too long. then i start boiling the tofu products. then i eat the meat/fish balls. all this time, i'm continuing to eat a few slices of lamb in between. then i eat more vegetables. then i start to eat the tofu products. then i finish off the vegetables, lamb, and eat my taro chunk. now the soup is mostly empty again and i crack my egg into it and make and eat a poached egg! finally i cook the cellophane noodles. (omg writing this made me so hungry.)

after hotpot, i left the family and headed out to longshan temple to meet my tour buddy! when i was doing research on my trip, i came across taiwan's youth travel website and the wonderful tour buddy program! taiwan seems to be trying to promote tourism to taiwan among foreign youth, and so have created a host of wonderful programs! in the tour buddy program, taiwanese college students are trained and volunteer to be tour guides. this is awesome because college students are way more fun than middle-aged tour guides (no offense to them), the tours are one on one, and because these tours are free! when i got to the longshan mrt station, i found out that my tour buddy had also brought 4 of her classmates! they were so much fun and so sweet (picture)...hanging out with them turned out to be one of my most memorable experiences during my 3 week trip! the tour began at the longshan temple in wanhua, where the tour buddies showed me one of the more famous temples in taiwan, and explained a lot of its history and the cultural and religious practices in the temple. then we went to the nearby huaxi street tourist night market ("snake alley"), where you can eat snake and baby alligators and such. it was still afternoon when we went, so there wasn't a whole lot of activity, but we were still able to see some animals: snakes, baby alligators, etc. the tour was coming to a close, but i found out that the tour buddies were college students from taoyuan, which meant that to meet me in taipei they had taken a 45 minute train ride, so they planned on spending the rest of the day hanging out in taipei. i was 臉皮厚 and invited myself into the rest of their day!

...and this is where the tour really started! first they took me to eat shaved ice. then i found out they were going to go check out the chiangkaishek memorial, a place i have gone to a million times, but truly enjoy every time. it is a really nice, open, relaxing space in the middle of busy taipei! AND, i haven't seen it since it went through its name change and some other ridiculous changes in decor, due to politics of course. we went to chiangkaishek memorial, took pictures and saw the ridiculous kites that are hung in front of chiangkaishek as he sits in his memorial hall. next stop was dinner and the tour buddies decided to take me to taiwan storyland, which is next to the taipei main station mrt stop. this basement space is a mini-neighborhood that has been decorated to represent taiwan from the 50's to the 70's. the entrance fee is 180NT (~$6), but then you get 180 taiwan storyland dollars to spend in the "museum". inside are old streets, food stalls, restaurants, a movie theater, a school room, a police station, barber shop, dentist, western medicine, eastern medicine, a pub, little shops, games, and many more things i can't remember, all 50's-70's style. we ate at the food stalls; i had an oyster omelet. then we were walking around and one of the tour buddies had stopped to eat at this non-impressive looking food vendor that just had all these big dry buns hanging on his cart. but then we all tried some of what she got...and omg...it was SO GOOD! first the guy drizzles sweetened condensed milk in your bowl, then he puts in the big bun (which is really a flaky basically hollow pastry bun with a little sugary filling inside), then he drizzles more condensed milk on top, then he adds some hot water to the bowl, and then you eat it! i found out a lot of taiwanese people don't even know about this, but it tastes amazing! apparently it's called 牛奶碰餅 (niu nai peng bing) or i also heard it called 疏餅 (shu bing). after eating we explored the various streets and scenes in the museum, bought some souvenirs of candies, and played some games with our left over money. we played a very rudimentary pinball game! and we also all bought tiny diy models of famous places in taiwan! i have yet to start mine, but i'll post when i finish ;) then it was pretty late, so i headed back to shilin on the mrt and they took a train back to taoyuan...hopefully they didn't have class too early on monday morning!

WORTH SEEING: chiangkaishek memorial, taiwan storyland

WORTH EATING: salty soy milk, shaobing youtiao, hotpot, 牛奶碰餅 (niu nai peng bing)

full set of pictures at picasa!