{travel & eat} Taiwan

This past weekend, M and I headed over to Taiwan to visit his grandma and dad.  It’s turning out to be an annual trip, as I looked on my passport and it turned out we had gone to Taiwan almost exactly one year ago to the date (it was off by a few days!).  Grandma is getting older (she’s 91 years old!) and with Baby Shu making his appearance in January, M and I will try to make another trip out to Taiwan in the spring so Grandma can meet her great grandson.

We decided to spend our first night in Taipei and indulge in some food goodness.  We arrived at the brand new W Hotel Taipei, where we were greeted in our room by a plate of pretty and pretty yummy macarons.  They hit the spot!

Our room was really nice!  Just as in the States, the hotel provided us with Bliss products and a tastefully modern room.

After settling in, we met up with M’s dad and M’s godmother for dinner at the hotel’s buffet.  It was pretty tasty.

The following morning, we went to Taipei 101 for some brunch.  We tried some burgers at Mos Burger (I guess a popular burger in Taiwan) with some dou hua, a soft tofu dessert with boba and jelly and peanuts and other yummy goodies.  We tried the fish sandwich and a seafood rice burger at Mos Burger, and both were really good!  I thought that the fish sandwich was better than the filet-o-fish at McDonald’s, although it might be because it was definitely super fresh.

That afternoon, M and I made our way to the high speed railway station to catch a train down to Taichung, M’s family’s hometown.  Just an hour by high speed rail, we arrived at the station early and grabbed some lunch while we waited for our train.  While waiting, I took a picture with my new (Mexican gingerbread man) friend.

On all the subway stations and railway stations in Taiwan, these signs are posted everywhere.  I guess the stick figure with a soccer ball for a tummy would be me??

Our 2 night stay in Taichung involved mostly eating.  Granted, we ran a few errands, went shopping, but mostly, it was just eating.  M’s grandmother, while 91 years old and frail, out-ate all of us.  So we ate a lot, and after eating some more, M and I went to the night market at night.

One of the things I love about Taiwan is that they sell these HUGE drinks.  I heard that Half and Half in CA also carries these huge 1000 cc drinks, but I have yet to see them.  But in Taiwan, they are quite prevalent.  So imagine my surprise when we went to lunch with M’s grandma and his dad, and the restaurant had GINO drinks!!!

The following morning, we ate breakfast on the street with the locals.  We ate some sweet rice sausages, lou bo gao (turnip cakes), and two kinds of soups.  Some of the food was good, some not so good, and I have never sat so close to the street before in my life.

After wandering around, taking a nap, and eating some more, we headed back to the night market on our last night in Taichung.

Something that I noticed this time was the prevalence of Korean influences.  It definitely wasn’t present last year, so it was amusing to see this time around.

All in all, it was a quick but good trip.  We saw Grandma, hung out with M’s dad, and did the things we needed to do.  Next up: Korea and Bali in less than 6 days!!