SHIFEN

After 2 days stay in Taipei we proceeded to Shifen Old Street, located in Pingxi District of New Taipei City.  We had substantial breakfast from Four Seven Eleven at the Taipei Rail Station.  Their diverse selections are unmatched with many options at your convenience.

Big bowl of pick and choose oden

TRA 45-min train to Rueifang station and transferred to the branch line to reach Sifen

Pingxi branch line, a scenic and nostalgic ride running through wild woods and gorges

Food stalls along the street, spicy stuffed chicken wings

Only elementary school in Shifen

Relaxing ambience  -  residents chatting and socializing in front of their houses

The street is filled mainly with souvenir shops, grocery stores and restaurants

Scenic view

Cool weather

Farmland along the scenic route

LOCAL FLAVOR

After the museum visit we went back to Sinlin, a shopping and eating haven, for lunch.  We lunched at a small eatery nearby to the metro station.  We waited a while for a table as the place was filled with lunch crowd.

Local flavor eatery

Steaming beef noodles

Authentic Taiwanese minced pork rice.  The deliciousness is from the lard

Lu wei, Taiwanese common street food consists of amalgam of tofu, eggs, pig offals and seaweed serve with spicy sweet sauce.   We ordered a gigantic plate

Boneless pig trotters dried noodles in sesame oil and soya sauce

Vegetarian noodles

NATIONAL MUSEUM

Since we have a lot of time before checking in to our hotel we took a day tour of the Taiwan National Museum.  The museum holds probably the richest collection of Chinese historical artifacts in the world.

We took TRA (Taiwan Rail Administrator) from Taipei station to Shilin station and transferred to a bus from Shilin road to the Museum.

All the collections rightful place should be at the Forbidden City in Beijing, which did not have such a mass collection.  They had been transferred out of China by Chiang Kai Shek during their defeat by the Communist during the civil war.  It is believed that eight thousand containers were used to ship out all these treasures.

The museum holds many extraordinary artifacts and treasures as compared to the Forbidden City.  They have done a great job in preserving and exhibiting all the treasures and artifacts to the world.  It is a pity that no photograph taking is allowed.

The museum was crowded.  We browse at our own pace but were wary of the pushy mainland tourists who simply barge you out of the way.

The most popular site was at 3rd level where beautiful porcelains and jade cravings were on display.  The workmanship was one of the most extricate and delicate art that one had ever seen, especially those from the last 2 dynasties, the Ming and Ching Dynasties.

TAIPEI

We spent 10 days in Taiwan during last week of December by travelling through Taipei, Taichung, Sifen, Jufen and Hualian.  We arrived at 6.30 am on the morning of 23rd December at Taoyuan International Airport.  As our first stop is at Taipei city center which is 30km away from the airport we had to take a bus from the airport to the rail station to get on the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Taipei Main Station.

The Station is a huge facility which is situated on Zhongxiao West Road opposite the 53 storey Shinkong Mitsukoshi Building (新 光 三 越）10 minutes from our accommodation, Miyi Hotel.  The hotel is located at the shopping district and is accessible to lots of food option, convenience shops and fast food.  

As the check-in time is at 3pm we had plenty of time to shop around before checking in.  We cared off our luggages at the concierge and went to fill our tummies.

米 糕 - Glutinous rice with cabbage pickles and mushrooms.  Carbohydrates to fill our hungry tummies

The glass noodles were springy and tasty

This soup we had to try as is our favourite pig blood soup and can no longer be found in Singapore.  They are generous with red "tofu", as they called it and was delicious with firm bite.  Hot hot soup with lots of spring onions to warm our cold bodies


As we walked down the streets after round 1 we were faced with more eating places and snacks and we went for further rounds.

永 和豆 浆  -  Popular soy milk king, Yonghe Soy.  Queue to order for eating in or take away

Savory soy with onions, eggs and fritters  -  eating porridge

Huge and crisy fritter.  Half is really enough for one

Scallion pancakes, the skin is relatively thick and slightly chewy

Loacai Shui Jian Bao.  Varieties of meat and vegetable buns.  Tried every flavour and every bun was juicy and full of fillings.  

Chilli sauce was super hot but went well with the buns.  Vow to return but never had a chance.

SOLSTICE

We celebrated the winter solstice before flying off to Taiwan to spend a cold winter there.  Glutinous rice balls sweet soup is a must eat and the balls are not difficult to make. 

I made the "tang yuan" instead of getting them from the supermarket.  As they were without fillings thus the sweet soup were cooked with snow fungus and eggs.  The balls were boiled in water till they float and then add to the sweet soup.  After consuming the "tang yuan" one is considered a year older.

2013

BEST WISHES

For

2013

APPLE CRUMBLE

With some balance of cooked apples I baked apple crumble

125g sugar, 100g plain flour, 60g butter, 1 tbsp cinnamon powder and almond slivers :

Mix sugar, cinnamon and flour. Knead in cold butter and almonds till mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Sprinkle mixture on top of apple fillings in ramekin.  Bake in 150C till fruits bubble and mixture is brown.