Taiwan2014之梅雨的季节-湖口老街（Hukou Old street)

 1st stop of the trip is Hukou old street ( 湖口老街) which is a small town located in Hsinchu. Apparently, Hsinchu have a large community of Hakkas and thus this is an Hakka village it seems. 姗姗姐 did explain briefly how to Hakkas and Taiwanese (Hokkiens) communities are spread out in Taiwan but I wasn't paying much attention. Hehe

Map of Hukou old street

 There are quite alot of old street in Taiwan but those that are known to us are more commercialised, thus they decided to bring us here.

We 1st came infront of a Cathedral which was the old train station previously. Can still see part of the tracks. The train station had since been moved where else but not nearby.

Part of the old tracks

Hukou Cathedral

 Things were pretty quiet on a Saturday morning at 10:30 and we went the around the premises of the cathedral before moving off to the old street.

So happy to find see-saw here

Hukou old street is pretty short as compared to other similar old streets we been to. There is nothing much here too, with some small shops selling kuehs, handicrafts and a handful of tea house/restaurants.

Hukou Old street

Address plates

 The only different thing that sets here apart from other is, the old buildings are still well preserved. Other old streets we been to have modern buildings but I was told that the buildings on the 2 sides are the orginal ones maybe with some renovations done only.

Old houses along the street

 We came across a provision shop selling old school stuff and went into it and shop around. Didn't buy anything but I took some photos of the old school stuff that reminds me of the good old times.

Glass bottled soft drinks that my grandparents used to sell

I love these candies when I was young

Fruit flavoured bubble gums

Old school cinema

 We came across a stall selling Hakka kuehs and 姗姗姐 encourage us to try them. So we brought 1 草仔糕 & 芋糕巧 to share.

草仔糕 looks similar to our ang ku kueh, with the skin layer being green. I was told that the skin was made with some edible grass and has a sweet taste to it. The fillings inside is made of radish and is fried salty. Thus this kueh has a unique sweet and salty taste when you 1st bite into it. Suits my taste though and I finished the whole of it, giving a bite to Mr Love only.

Hakka kuehs

Fillings inside-Radish

 芋糕巧 on the other hand is yam kueh which is 1 of my least favourite food and 1 of Mr Love's favourite. I took a bite of it and went back to mine. Haha According to Mr Love, it is really nice. We decided against buying some more as am going for lunch soon.

Yam kueh

 With this, we ended our little tour in Hukou. There is nothing much to see here but I am glad we had this stop over and tried the kuehs.