Taiwan 2012

This year I was lucky enough to have an overseas trip scheduled to Taiwan the week before Thanksgiving. This gave me the perfect opportunity to take some additional time to explore Asia without taking too much time off work. 

November 11 - 17, 2012

To get over to Taiwan I took the Taiwanese airline Eva Air - (http://www.evaair.com/en-us/index.html).  They offer a direct flight from SFO to TPE - which runs about 14+hrs and leaves San Francisco at midnight or 1am depending on day light savings.  This flight works out perfectly for me because I board Saturday night - sleep 10-12hrs, watch a movie - and I arrive in Taiwan around 6am Monday morning.  This really helps eliminate the jet lag.  

After arriving, getting my luggage and going through customs it was about 7am and the car service I booked through the hotel was waiting for me with a sign.  They then whisked me outside to wait while they grabbed the car.  The car I booked through the hotel was 2600TWD which equates to about 90 US dollars.  This is expensive - however - it is nice to not have to worry about taking a taxi or trying to grab the bus into the city.  The car ride is about 45mins - 1hr ride from the airport into Taipei.  

Clearly the Miss was lost in translations and they felt so bad. 

Upon checkin at the Westin Taipei, the front desk attendant brought me up to my room and showed me all the amenities and how to use the key card system.  When you are in the room to use any electricity your card must be inserted into a key slot by the door.  When you take the key out within 5 mins all lights, air conditioning etc shuts off - the trick is to ask for another key to leave one in at all times or depending on sensor type you might be able to use another card or a wad of paper.  My room had a pretty good view of city life and some of the mountains that surround Taipei.  

The hotel

View from my room

After a hot shower - much needed after 15+ hours of traveling - I went down to the hotel breakfast.  Through the conference package I booked with we got free daily breakfast which is generally about 25 US dollars.  The breakfast buffet offers a mix of western or asian cuisine.  You can get bread, cereal, fresh fruit or eggs to order.  You can have dim sum style dumplings, bbq pork buns, ramen or udon noodles, miso soup, stir fry, congee (rice porridge) etc.  

The weather in Taiwan was a lot cooler than what I was expecting.  It was in the 60's and overcast with spurts of rain storms depending on the day.  So day 1 I decided to walk around the hotel area and explore the food, shopping and sites near by.  The concierge told me about a local tea shop which was around the corner called Cha for Tea.  In the shop there was a counter which you could order drinks to go, a section which you could sit and order food and drinks off a menu and another section which was a tea gift shop.  Since I love boba drinks and Taiwan is the birthplace of boba - I ordered a green milk tea with pearls.  It cost me 50TWD which is 1.75 US dollars.  It comes sealed up with the big straw and in a plastic bag.  As you walk down the street you will notice - no one takes their drink out of the bag kind of like in the US when you buy alcohol and drink it out of the brown paper bag.  

Cha for Tea near the Westin Taipei

Part of the tea menu

My green milk tea with pearls 

From there I continued down my path to the SOGO shopping mall (right near MRT - Zhongxiao Fuxing Station).  SOGO is a big shopping department which is common throughout Asia.  Instead of grouping the clothing by mens, womens, contemporary like Nordstroms and Macy's in the US, each brand has a section in the 9+ story mall.  For example, there is a Marc by Marc Jacobs stall, and next to that is a Tory Burch stall, and then a Kate Spade stall, etc.  Each of these stalls have their own decorations and color schemes, sales people, dressing rooms and cash registers for check out.  The walk from the Westin Taipei to SOGO is about 10mins.  On the way there you pass a few other clothing shops, lots of bread bakeries, noodle or tea houses and restaurants.

SOGO shopping center

Walking around SOGO is always fun - great people watching and good shopping although everything is equivalent or more than the price in the US.  While in the Marc by Marc Jacobs section I fell in LOVE with the sales girl's ring.  I asked her what brand and where can I get one - and she said it was from a brand called Agete.  It is a Japanese based brand and only sold in a few stores outside of Japan.  She said she got hers at a department store near the Taipei 101 - so I made sure to add that to my to do list.  

Agete ring on the sales person at SOGO

Next came time for lunch - although I wasn't too hungry from breakfast and my boba tea - I knew I had to eat at this place as many times as I could before I left Taiwan.  Three words for you: Din Tai Fung.  Located on the basement floors of SOGO are bakeries including puff pastries, pineapple cakes and even a hello kitty cake store.  There is also a food court area which sells Japanese, Chinese or Korean food or bento box stations serving Asian cuisine.  And next to this area is...the Din Tai Fung restaurant.  A crazy busy dumpling house.  The average wait time is about 80+ mins and it is worth it.  Din Tai Fung specializes in xiaolongbao - a dumpling which is steamed in bamboo baskets and accumulates soup inside the dumpling after cooked.  To eat the dumpling you mix a sauce (1:3 ratio of soy sauce to vinegar) into your spoon and poke a hole in the dumpling to let the juices mix with the sauce and stuff it in your mouth.  Their are multiple Din Tai Fung restaurants around Taiwan - including one at Taipei 101 as well.  All taste equally as amazing and all are equally as busy.  

Hello Kitty cakes at SOGO

Since the line wait was over an hr at 1:30pm on  a Monday I decided to do a take out order of the chicken xiaolongbao and the red bean buns.  I brought the order over to food court seating and plopped down to eat.  

Chicken xiaolongbao to go

After a leisurely walk back to the hotel it was time to actually do some work - since after all that is why I was in Taiwan in the first place.  As 6 o'clock rolled around people attending the workshop gathered around and discussed where to go for dinner.  Thanks to a Taiwan local we decided on a hot pot restaurant close to the hotel known for their food.  Local traditional Taiwanese restaurants generally do not have many workers that can speak the English language so it is always good to have someone call before to make reservations and to request menus in English.  We had 7 people and two hot pots going at our table.  Hot pot is a boiling broth in a metal pot where you place in thinly slices of meat, seafood, fresh veggies and noodles into the pot and it is cooked in the broth.  You then pull out the ingredients and eat it with a dipping sauce you have created at the sauce station.  The sauce station consists of everything from soy sauce and vinegar to stinky tofu paste to a chive paste.  *Note the people working at the restaurants generally won't be able to tell you what the English name of the ingredient is.  We ordered lamb, beef, shrimp balls, veggies and egg and rice noodles to put in the hot pot.  And we order bbq chicken on a skewer and a beef/onion stir fry in a flaky sesame bun -- basically Taiwanese sandwich.  I would definitely recommend trying hot pot in Taiwan and the more people the better so you can order more food to try.

Hot pot at the table

Lamb and beef for the hot pot

Sauce station for the hot pot meats and veggies

They said get a little of everything...so I tried it...

Chicken skewers 

Taiwanese sandwich

Tuesday was the first day of the workshop and it was a busy one.  The Taiwan workshops are generally the busiest of the year due to the fact that most of the work for this technology is happening in Asia.  The conference generally always provides lunch for the attendees which this time was put on by the Westin Taipei.  It was a buffet style lunch with everything from sandwiches to lasagna to curry or fresh fruit.  About an hour or two after lunch I started to feel sick and by 5pm I was down and out with a bad case of food poisoning.  I am not sure what made me sick - maybe the fresh fruit?  The seafood?  The salad?  A combo of everything? But whatever it was made me miserable!

Days went by and I continued to work - however - the smell and sight of food made me nauseous.  Thursday evening I had a work dinner to attend which was at a teppanyaki house named MoSun.  Unfortunately you could not order just a side of anything - you had to order a meal so I ordered the smallest one.  The first dish was shots of salmon, shrimp, and a chicken paste - I gave these away due to the state of my stomach but everyone was raving about the flavor of the shots.  The next dish was a salad - again I gave this away as well.  :)  Then we had french onion soup - kind of random to have in Taiwan but the taste was similar to what you get here.  Next was a fresh cut of cod this had amazing flavor and the only ingredients were salt, pepper and fresh lemon.  This was like the shrimp and veggie portion when you go to teppanyaki in the US - it comes with everyone's meal before the main dish.  For my main dish I had chicken teriyaki and fried rice.  And for dessert a crepe with raspberry sauce and ice cream.  The restaurant was really good - even though I did not have much of an appetite and just nibbled my way through each course.  As far as going back, it was a little too much food for me and not something unique to Taiwan - so although it was good.  I dont think I would recommend it as a must go.    

Outside of the restaurant 

Starter 1

Delish fish plate

Main course - chicken teriyaki

Crepes 

Friday was the wrap up day for the conference and another day to explore Taiwan.  On my to do list was to go to the Sun Yat-san Memorial Hall, the Taipei 101 and to find my Agete ring.  

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall:  It is a memorial to the Republic of China's national father - Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He was the first president and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of China.  Every hour there is a formal changing of the guards ceremony that takes place at the main entrance of the memorial.  The building is located in a park surrounded by gardens and open cement space.  

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

Taipei 101:  The building was the worlds tallest from opening day in 2004 to 2010.  The building has 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground.  There is a multi-level shopping mall with hundreds of stores and restaurants at the bottom of the building.  The middle portions of the building are comprised of offices for companies such as Google.  On the 89th floor one can go to the indoor observation deck and on the 91st floor there is an outdoor observation deck.  It cost about 450TWD to go up to the observation areas which is 15US dollars.  

Taipei 101 - looks like multiple Chinese takeout boxes stacked on top of each other

To get to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall I took the MRT.  It is extremely easy to use and very similar to taking the T in Boston or the subway in NYC.  After following the signs to exit the station to see the memorial it lands you right down the street.  Similar to any large city, most people live in apartments or condos and do not have yards - so parks, including the gardens at the memorial, are always crowded with kids playing softball or with freebies, people flying kites or taking their dog for a walk, etc.  Luckily the weather was perfect outside while we were there and sun made a quick appearance.  

From the Memorial hall you can see the Taipei 101 - it is only 1 train stop down so we decided to walk over to the 101.  It was about a 5 minute walk. On our way up to buy tickets to the observatory a local asked where we were from and what we doing - we told him we were going to buy tickets to go to the top of the 101 and he laughed in our face.  He said - with a serious face - the view is similar to any tall building in any city and recommended for a unique experience to go to the Yangmingshan Mountain observatory instead.  Unfortunately it was too late to do that Friday so we turned around in the pursuit of the Agete ring.  We found a stand at the mall near the 101 however - they did not have much of a selection and on Thursday night I saw a store near the Sogo area which also sold the same brand.  So we took the train back to Zhongxiao Fuxing Station.  As we left the train station and walked down the main shopping street we found an Agete store.  :)  I found 3 rings I liked and decided to sleep on it and go back the next morning to purchase one of them.  Walking back to the hotel we looked for a night market to grab something to eat.  Since my stomach was still not 100% I decided to opt out of the crazy food and get KFC popcorn chicken. 

Sun Yat-sen Memorial statue

Changing of the guards at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial

View of the Taipei 101 from the Sun Yat-sen Memorial

Night Market near the hotel

My final day in Taipei was a wet one.  After breakfast at the hotel and checking out of the room around 11am, we borrowed umbrellas from the Westin and headed out.  I went and bought my ring :) and since it was so cold and I was not prepared I went looking for a cheap sweater/long sleeves shirt to keep warm.  Around the SOGO area I found a shop which had everything for 150TWD which is about 5US dollars.  I bought a kitty shirt and fit in with all the other Taiwanese walking around.  Unfortunately due to the weather we did not make it up to Yangmingshan Mountain - the visibility was not good, nor did we make it to any other temples or museums.  Unfortunately things to do in Taiwan are very dependent on weather.  So my day consisted of eating and people watching.  We decided to eat at Din Tai Fung and again had the most amazing meal.  Uploading these pictures make me crave it!  

My new kitty tee to keep me warm

Window into the kitchen at Din Tai Fung - fresh dumplings coming up

Pork xiaolongbao

The xiaolongbao with 1:3 ratio of soy sauce to vinegar 

Pork and shrimp shumai 

Wonton soup with noodles

Potstickers

Around 7 o'clock in the evening we headed to TPE via the hotel car service to start our journey to Thailand. 

Me with the Hello Kitty at the Eva Air terminal in TPE airport

Highlights of my trip:
- Din Tai Fung - must for anyone!
- Hot pot 
- Agete store :)

Things still on my to do list in Taiwan include:
- Hot springs in Beitou
- Maokong Gondola to the tea garden
- Yangmingshan Mountain - eat at 'The Top' restaurant which offers traditional Taiwanese food and tea with amazing views of the city   
-Hualien and the Taroko Gorge - National park good for sight seeing and hiking.  Looks stunning!