Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow

See Part II: Taipei City Hall, Warner Village & Shi Lin Night Market
Part III: Shi Da Night Market and Xi Men Ding

Chiobu went to Taipei and reports. Exclamations marks are free, she uses them a lot.

4D3N Food Expedition in Taipei, Taiwan

Hello everybody! Finally, I’m posting again! I miss you too! Muacksie poosie!

Yandao & I wanted to go Bangkok for a short escapade but the flood ruined our plans. Luckily for us, the airline allowed us to change our destination for free! And off we scoot to Taipei. (SQ budget airline, I can be your spokesperson! Look for me when you launch! I love Australia! I am totally Bondi Beach material!) We love Taipei because the food is so cheap and good! And I’m in love with Xiao S! She’s like the Asian Nicole Richie.

This entry is going to help people who are travelling F&E to Taipei!

Accomodation

For people going Taipei, try to book a hotel in Ximending (XMD)! It’s hip & young with lotsa food around. You can see many pretty 台妹 (ah lians) on weekends. My recommendation for accomodation will be Wonstar Hotel (either Zhonghua or Ximen branch). Else, you can choose Rainbow hotel which is right smack in the middle of XMD.

How to get to Ximending from Airport

To travel from airport to XMD, just take Freego (飞狗) bus from the airport. When you exit from the arrival gate, turn left and walk all the way, go down 1 level and you should see all the bus operator counters. Our bus ride cost NT$140/pax and we took about 1.5 hours – 2 hours to reach XMD.

Freego bus (Freq 15-20 min)

Toll Free: 0800-051519

To Taipei: 5.50 AM – 1.10AM  To Airport: 4 AM – 11 PM

Service call: 02-87917200 / 02-87917201

To return to Airport on your last day, simply inform the hotel receptionist at Rainbow Hotel (you don’t have to be a hotel guest) in advance and she will call Freego to arrange.

Anyway, I was using my iPhone 3GS in Taipei to take pics and when I came back to Singapore, I changed to iPhone 4S. All my photos in 3GS are GONE… So, I’m just using whatever pictures Yandao has. Just to let pre-empt you, Yandao’s art direction and photography skills are not very good.

In summary, the reviews on food are in/around the following areas:

–          Wu Fen Pu (五分埔) & Rao He Night Market (饶河街观光夜市) (See below)
–          Taipei City Hall, near Taipei 101, Warner Village
–          Shi Lin Night Market (士林夜市)
–          Shi Da Night Market （师大夜市）
–          Xi Men Ding (西门町)

*

Day 01
Suggested Itinerary:
Day: Wu Fen Pu
Night: Raohe Night Market

Wu Fen Pu (五分埔)
How to get to WuFenPu
Take Metro to Hou Shan Pi Station, Exit 1. Walk straight along Jhongpo N. Rd. to the intersection of Jhongpo N. Rd. and Yongji Rd. Wufenpu starts on the left.
Wufenpu opens at about 2pm. Try not to go on Mondays because the shop owners will be busy with their new stocks arrival.
After checking in, we went to Wu Fen Pu to shop! Do you know it’s the best place to shop in Taipei? All the stuff are imported from Korea, or so says the shop owners.

胡须张 (鬍鬚張Formosa Chang)

Everybody must try 鲁肉饭 braised meat rice at 胡须张 (鬍鬚張Formosa Chang). It is DA BOMB. Awesome-ness to the MAX. It may look simple but it’s really MINDBLOWING. Yandao and I ordered a big bowl (NT$59) and we totally regretted. We should have ordered 2 big bowls EACH. The rice is fragrant and QQ, topped with the sauce it practically sent us both to heaven. The 鲁肉 braised meat is so tender, it practically melts in your mouth. This is the BEST 鲁肉饭 braised meat rice in Taiwan. We also ordered a hard boil egg which you should totally skip it.

How to get to胡须张 (鬍鬚張Formosa Chang)

Take Metro to Hou Shan Pi Station, Exit 1. Walk straight along Jhongpo N. Rd. to the intersection of Jhongpo N. Rd. and Yongji Rd. It is across the street, on the right. Watch out for the yellow signboard with the logo.

Crepe 可丽饼先生

We chanced upon this Crepe stall (可丽饼先生)while walking around Wufenpu. We ordered Butter & Cheese (奶油起司) at NT$60. If you say 起司out loud, you will know that it’s Cheese. How cute! Crepe was not buttery and cheesy enough. We kind of regretted ordering it because there’s so much glorious food elsewhere in Taipei!

RaoHe Night Market饒河街觀光夜市
How to get to Raohe Night Market from Wufenpu
From Wufenpu, walk to Songshan Railway Station (not metro) and look out for signs pointing to Raohe Night Market. If you are lost in Wufenpu because it’s so huge (I was lost), just ask around for directions, Taiwanese are very friendly!
Raohe Night Market is mainly about food. It’s considered a small market as it takes up only one long street.

Beef Noodles (齒牛香)

Left: Mixed beef noodles soup
Right: 红油抄手 chili oil wantons

You should totally skip this. After researching online, we thought we found this good yummy Taiwanese Beef Noodles place, 程班長牛肉麵 (Sergeant Cheng). When we were there, we hunted high and low for this Sergeant Cheng and we swore that we were going to break his neck when we find him because we walked the entire RaoHe 4.5 times! Alas, we found a young guy who told us that the name has changed to 齿牛香 (teeth cow fragrance?). You won’t miss this shop. The staff are wearing red t-shirts with caps and there are lots of photos (of celebrities who dined there) on the walls. Not sure if there was a change in ownership with the change in name because the beef noodles was super disappointing. The beef was chunky which made it disgusting to bite. We thought the beef was a bit smelly too. The soup was bland.

If you want to seek rest in this air-conditioned shop after combing the street, just order the Chilli Wantons (红油抄手). Taipei Chilli Wantons 红油抄手 is different from Singapore’s. Their wantons are very small but they are very very tasty, probably because of the chili oil 麻油! The skin is thin and soft.

Chou Tofu (臭豆腐)

Look out for the stalls set up in the middle of Raohe street. We tried smelly tofu 臭豆腐 at one of the stalls and it was sedap! There was a picture of Shasha 公主! I love Shasha because she looks like my BFF! So pretty. It was our first time eating smelly tofu 臭豆腐 and we LOVED it despite the rancid smell. The texture was perfect. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, 外脆内软. The tofu totally melts in your mouth. The radishy gravy totally complemented the tofu. A guy beside us ordered 2 plates! zOMG. How can a person finish 6 pieces of tofu-s! It was that good…

To get back to Ximending from Raohe Night Market, walk to Songshan Railway Station and take a train to Taipei Main Station to catch a Metro back to Ximending.