Took an impromptu trip to Taipei for 5D4N in May this year to have a little break from parenting. Its been a stressful year for Mr Love and I. From finding out I'm pregnant to knowing they are twins to be diagnosed with incompetent cervix to lying in bed for 15weeks prior to delivery and final first time parents to twins.
How exciting it is. Not for the fainted heart though. Mummy was nice enough to let us off for a week and we took the chance to celebrate Mr Love's birthday in Taiwan.
There is no particular itinerary planned since we've been to Taipei nearly every year starting from 2010.
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| Touched down look |
Took the red eye flight and touched down at 5am. As usual we hang around to have breakfast and then took the bus out to Taipei at 6.30am. Reached downtown Taipei at 8am and was caught in the morning rush.
Feels nice to be walking leisurely while everyone seems to be rushing for work.
It's too early for check in and we took a change of clothes in the hotel and begin our day.
1st stop- Tamshui Old street.
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| Sotong balls |
The main purpose of this Taipei trip is to come to Dan Shui Old street and add in 2 more Ram figurines to our photo frame brought here 3years ago. The sales person told me to come back and add on should we have kids and I kept thinking of it ever since I had the Dinos.
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| Black boar sausage |
We first whacked the street food while walking to the intended shop. Ate at every other shop along the way.
No joke.
Hungry and greedy. Haha
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| Favourite food this trip- Squid balls |
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| Super yummy |
The street food here changes every time we come and there's no knowing whether the same stall will be around the next round. So I usually will not recommend any stall. Haha Just eat whatever that catches your eyes and usually the food is good and not to mention cheap.
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| Mini fried shrimp monkeys |
Spotted a new shop selling dumplings and brought a share. Man, it was god send in the cool weather and we finished it in no time.
I forgot what this shop was previously selling but it is certainly a new shop selling dumplings here.
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| Family zodiac signs photo frame |
Finally found the shop and added in the 2 Ram figurines. Luckily for us (or me) the shop did not closed down given the high turn over in shop fronts here. Mr Love kept teasing me as we walked along not seeing the shop. I would have been very disappointed if the shop is closed for operations.
Went back to hotel to settle things down and then out again to Shilin Night Market for dinner. Love our hotel location which is nearer to Shilin as compared to previous hotels we stayed in Ximenting. This is why we chose to come back here again though some might think this hotel is out of place.
We decided to have teppanyaki in Shilin and apparently it's an award winning one. Truth to be told, I feel there's nothing special in this after eating but nevertheless the prices are much cheaper as compared to back home.
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| Menu |
The good thing about the stall now here is they allowed us to order 1 portion and share and will not give us dirty looks. Maybe locals will come here for dinner and eat 1 portion by themselves.
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| Combo meals |
But travellers would look to try eat as much variety as they can here. It makes no sense for us to order 1 portion each and be too full to eat other food. Then I would rather much on finger food.
We decided to order a combo meal comprising of beef, prawn and cod fish and it costs NTD 350 which is around SGD 15.
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| Ala carte items |
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| Set meals |
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| Beef |
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| Here comes the prawns |
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| And finally cod fish |
This combo is just nice for us since I love beef and Mr Love loved prawns. We then shared the cod fish and he took the veggies while me the bean sprouts. Yay. Not too full and we can carry on with our feasting.
Next, we went to have the hotplate noodles that Mr Love usually will want eat while we are here. The last time when we came and order 1 plate to share, the worker was shooting us dirty looks as though we had no money to eat 1 portion each.
No kidding. Mr Love was oblivious to the look while I just hecked.
This time round they changed their tactic after realizing most travellers eat the same way as us and took us we could ordered 1 portion to share and served us nicely.
This should be the way man for I was contemplating no to patronize them should they shoot me dirty looks again while I order 1 plate.
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| Hot Plate chicken chop noodles |
Lastly is the sausage feast. Usually will order the big ass sausage where it's charged by weight instead of the smaller ones where you can get it anywhere on Taiwan streets.
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| Spoiled for choices |
Mr Love likes it with garlic while I just devour the meat as it is.
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| Meat galore |
Then we moved to my favourite accesorries shop to top up my annual earrings quota. Haha The lady boss was pleased to know that I'm back for my annual shopping and give me discount as usual for my purchases. Chatted with her and showed her my Dinos.
Didn't managed to bag much this year since all I had my eyes on were the more expensive ones (read SGD 10bucks) Haha. But brought 3 pairs in the end.
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| New earring |
You think this is the end of our feasting? Haha Nope.
Cause we chanced upon a shop while trying to shop for beer near our hotel. Turns out that the 7-11 below our hotel don't sell beer and we asked the receptionist for other convenience stores near by.
This shops sells all kinds of deep fried food you can find. Muhaha
And we brought from them every single night while we were there. Super heavenly to go with the fruit beers we managed to find in the convenience store opposite this shop. Haha.
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| Menu |
Since it was in a dark alley, we thought there is not much of a queue. Later then we found out that they accept phone orders and while there seems to be no queue at the shop front, we waited 20min on average every night. Our favourite with them is their fried chicken, fried squid and fried chicken skin.
Super sinful I know but there is no stopping once you started.
If anyone is staying at Park City Hotel Luzhou, you may want give this shop a try. I do not have the address but here's the directions :
1). With the main street facing you from the hotel, walk left.
2). Turn into the alley besides 7-11 and walk straight for 5min.
3). You will see a family mart on the right side of the alley and the shop is directly opposite it.
Be warned though, the food is highly addictive. Haha.
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| Where the Family Mart is |
