Breakfast at JSP (甲尚宝) -
Stepping out time at 9am, we walked to our nearby eatery. Actually, it was not so near to us, but very near to The Red House. No, we did not go in The Red House, but I took a photo on the way to JSP.
The JSP eatery is really small but the staff was nice to help us with a table for 6, with 2 people at the width of the rectangle table. There was a bit of a smokey smell from the cooking though.
The variety of breakfast choices is quite wide. I liked the chinese pancake with selected ingredient s inside. It kind of reminds me of roti-prata. Somehow, all their carrot cake looks similar like it was factory-made. I do not like it personally and found that the ones in Singapore have more taste and is more real. The crispy scallion pancake is yummy! Once again, I really don't like the fact that they add their signature sauce everywhere.
By the way, the meaning of "with egg" is literally frying an egg on top of it. We thought they would have mixed the egg with the batter or something.
I also had one of their sandwiches but I probably made a mistake with the choice of filling. I chose the pork patty one, and what came along was a flat thing that looks like ba gua. It is acceptable, but quite weirdly sweet in a toasted sandwich. My bf's brother on the other hand, really loved his choice of beef and black pepper noodles. What came was more like spaghetti with black pepper sauce and really tender and well-marinated beef chop.
Maybe it was the timing that we were there, but the staff just seem really busy and everything seems in a rush.
National Concert Hall, National Theatre Hall & National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall -
It is only two stops down via the metro to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station. The good thing about the metro stations is that the toilet is conveniently located within. There is also a water dispenser for re-filling of water bottles.
Look at their round train ticket, which is like an arcade token. Saves paper! It is collected back when you step out of the specified station.
The sun was scorching when we stepped out, and out came the umbrella. The first building we saw was the National Theatre Hall. The architectural design is amazing, like a palace of the olden days. The National Concert Hall is also of a similar outlook and I thought it looked more like a temple or a palace. Very Chinese indeed! There were so many groups of students practising their dance right outside the National Theatre Hall.
We walked down a nice garden lane towards the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. The thought of climbing those stairs under the hot sun put me off a little, but it had to be done to see what is upstairs. There were some constructions going on at the middle part of the stairways.
While we were there, it was just right at the time of the changing of guards and many people were gathered around to see the procedure. I could barely see anything and so I looked through the screen of my phone while I captured the video. It was quite hot up there and I stood in front of one of the fans to enjoy the breeze. That was when we realised the guards have fans blowing directly at them to cool them down as well.
Chun Shui Tang -
It is said to be Taiwan's first authentic bubble tea shop and we got to try it. It was such a warm day and a cool cup of cold bubble tea was the perfect thing!
Our table ordered the original milk tea, milk green tea, black tea, matcha flavoured and mango flavoured, all with pearls! Their big sized ones were on 15% discount and so we mostly had the large one. The original milk tea really taste like Koi milk tea! Wow, so Koi's taste is the authentic Taiwan taste. The milk green tea taste like Gong Cha's! Wahaha love it as well, nice jasmine aroma and very smooth tasting. The matcha one is very flavourful and the taste is just nice. The mango one is more like mango pomelo sago but really great as a thirst qencher.
And lastly, why would someone order black tea in a milk tea shop? Because it is so awesome and fragrant for a black tea!
We were so full from our drinks as we made our way to our lunch place nearby.
Lunch at Sheng Yuan Dumpling (盛园丝瓜小笼汤包) -
As we walked to the planned dining place, we saw this dumpling restaurant with such a long queue. Sheng Yuan was just a random search of mine online and we could have decided to eat at the seemingly more popular restaurant. Thankfully, we stayed to our initial choice!
Sheng Yuan is also quite popular, although it loses out by comparison. We had to wait awhile for our seat and the boss/staff was very hospitable and told us to sit and wait. During the wait, he reccommended all the best sellers and advised on the portion. He told us that there will be appetizers to choose from as well, so we can save some stomach space for those.
We got our table in around 10 minutes and sent in our orders. We took the appetizers from the self service area, unknowing at that time that each small plate was chargeable. We thought they were complimentary! Depending on the type, each plate cost around NT$50 - 60 which is okay.
We had 4 containers of steamed dumplings, each containing 8 pieces. They are not your usual sized xiao long bao, but slightly larger. Their famous one is definitely the melon xiao long bao. The taste of the melon vegetable is nicely incorporated in the soup and essence of the dumpling. Quite a refreshing and light taste that goes well with the minced pork filling. In comparison, the crab roe and original xiao long bao lost out. Since the dumpling is larger than usual, and the stomach has limited space, we need to choose wisely which we should order.
The last container is the chive dumplings which comes in an orange coloured skin. The dumpling skin contains wolfberry which is beneficial to our eyes. It is a very flavourful dumpling with adequate chive flavour in chewy tasty skin. If you are okay with beef, you got to try the beef slice with egg (滑蛋) in sauce. Basically, everyone sang praises for this one dish. The beef slices are just so amazingly tender and well-marinated. I strongly recommend the chicken soup as well. There is so much richness in this Chinese boiled soup, although I did not really like to eat the chicken meat itself.
Shopping at Wufenpu -
After our tummies were filled, we went for a shopping therapy. Taking the metro to Houshanpi Station and walking a short distance with the guidance of the map, we reached Wufenpu. This is Taiwan's version of bugis street and there is quite a lot of shops to see. Unfortunately, I found that there is nothing suitable for me. I bought a denim shorts (which I sold at Carousell) and a dress (which I did not find it that nice after trying) only.
Dinner at Raohe Night Market -
Here comes the most anticipated part of the Taiwan trip - the night market culture and food! Raohe is very near to Songshan Station and it is just walking distance from Wufenpu. It's good to plan these two places together in one day.
The first store I saw was the black pepper bun and I immediately bought 1 to try. And right after that I saw the queue for the more famous store of the pepper bun lol. I tried it in the end too, I think both are quite similar and quite interesting. It's like a crispy outer skin wrapping well-marinated peppery minced pork and spring onion.
Beef cubes are not to be missed too! Some cubes were quite fatty and unchewable, but it was mostly so juicy and delicious. We tried the smelly tofu fries and I concluded that smelly tofu really isn't as smelly as how it is advertised. And I do not fancy it as much as a normal tofu.
Been excited to try the cheesy potato dish with toppings and I found it overrated. hahaha. I really like potato dishes but this is not something I will queue for. It's basically half a potato, toppings of your choice and the nacho cheese sauce poured over. It makes a difference to ensure the firmness of the potato though, not too hard nor soft.
We ate the takoyaki with spicy sauce but it was not nice. My standard for takoyaki is too high because the ones in Japan are just too yummy. The flour in the takoball is quite bland. We tried the meesua and glutinous rice in one of the sitting stores. The meesua is more soupy than Singapore's but quite nice.
My favourite is actually the aiyu jelly and pearls dessert. I find jelly & lime juice combination so refreshing and so addictive. It was a bit of a turn-off to see flies flying around the jelly though. I ended the food trail with a cup of bitter melon and honey drink from the juice stall. I love it! The bitter melon is the white one and I find it so refreshing as well, and not too bitter.
We ended our day with the arcade. I felt really happy that night as we finally re-visited our dance dance revolution machine and played the familiar songs together.
Sweet memories of our younger days. :)
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