Day 4 Yumcha, Computer Town,Grocery Shopping, Hakka Dinner (2005-04-19)
I had planned on having dimsum at a Yumcha restaurant at our hotel for our first meal in Taiwan, but the plan didn't work out because the restaurant no longer exists. Therefore on the fourth day of our trip, we thought we would go to one near Taipei station which we saw a couple of days earlier. Taipei station (for long distance buses, not the MRT) is within walking distance from Sheraton, so we just went there on foot.
We did some shopping for tea leaves, sweets and cookies at
Mitsukoshi Department Store's food section in the area before heading
to Tien Chen Lo (
)
Chinese Restaurant in Cosmos Hotel. The food was
pretty expensive but very good. We only ordered four dishes to
leave room for other snacks and hawker food.
After lunch, we walked around the area and made several stops at
some book stores on Chungshin South Road
(
),
known as the Bookstore Street
by the locals. Browsing book shops is one of my favorite things
to do. We then walked back to the hotel to unload our shopping
and took a train to Zhongxiao Xinsheng station
(
)
to go to Kwonghwa computer market
(
)
which is just a few minutes from the station and easy
to find. Most of the people there were geeks and computer nerds,
with whom KL can easily blend in. I found many shops on the
basement selling used books and bought three Chinese books which might
be my best shopping of the trip. There are also a number of
computer shops on the main road which we didn't go, may be next time?
We left Kwonghwa and hopped onto another train to Zhongxiao Fuxing
station (
)
to a larger grocery store. Being someone who loves to
cook and eat, I am always interested in browsing supermarkets for
interesting food items. We ended up buying two big bags of
grocery including a bag of Thai fragrant rice! I was just so
happy! Our next stop would have to be the hotel again where we
unloaded yet again before we went out for dinner.
This time we took the train to Shuanglian station
(
) to look for famous
Timogen restaurant (
)
to eat Mongolian BBQ, a type of cuisine where you
gather some raw thinly-sliced meat and vegetables from a self-serve
table and hand the bowl to a chef who will then stir-fry it on a large
iron plate in front of you. I have had that before, perhaps KL
would be interested in it. When we got out of the station, we saw
a busy road with bright leon signs and full of people. Street
signs are few and hard to see, so we just hailed a cab to take us
there. The drive was just a couple of minutes up the busy
road.
The restaurant's on the second floor of a building on a darkish
alley. The first thing we saw once we entered it was the
sheer number of tourists diners. Almost the entire restaurant was
occupied by tag-wearing Japanese and Asian tourists. Alarm bells
went up our heads immediately; we don't like eating at places where
locals don't go. Either 1: the food is bad, or 2: the food is
unreasonably pricey. We waited at the cashier for 5 minutes and
still no one came to serve us. The two ladies behind the cashier
was busy on the phone, when one of them finished, I asked about the
cost. At $15 per person, it is expensive by local standard.
I asked if we could just have a look at the food first before we made
our decision. There were several hot dishes on a table followed
by half a dozen types of raw meat sliced thinly and three vegetables on another
table. There was also a row of condiments and sauces for one to
make his/her own dipping sauce. Two chefs stood behind a large
iron plate each behind a glass panel to stir-fry customers' bowl of
meat. The selection didn't impress us, neither did the
service. Most importantly, all those Japanese tourists spelled
gimmick to us, so we told the lady we would eat somewhere else.
When we got back on the alley, we saw the many tour buses parked on the
high street near by which we did not take notice of before entering
the restaurant.
Since the busy main road was only steps away, we figured we could
find a better restaurant to have dinner. We walked past several
good-looking ones including a seafood restaurant and their prices were
all reasonable. But when I saw one that prepares Hakka
cuisine--one of my favorite-- I looked no further. The restaurant
is not too big and I asked the cashier lady to see the menu to make
sure they have my favorite dish at acceptable prices before we sat
down. It's all very well and we ordered the famous Salt Cooked
Chicken (
),
a tofu dish and rice. We'd rather under-order to have room to
try other food than stuff ourselves on a single meal. As we began
to eat, local people started filling up the restaurant which is a good
sign. The chicken was superb, it had moist meat, crunchy skin and
just the right amount of seasoning. We loved it. Our dinner
cost $10.5.
After the delicious meal, the friendly cashier showed us how to get
back to the station. We walked the 15 minutes and took the train
to Taipei Main Station (
) and wandered a bit more, perhaps we might find
some yummy hawker food and snacks before we went back to the hotel.
We got a couple of very inexpensive drinks at a street stall and
realized we were actually full, so we took a stroll back to the hotel
and called it a day.
- Tien Cheng Lo Chinese Restaurant (Yumcha) in Cosmos Hotel 43 Chunghsiao west Road, Section 1
- You and Me Hakka Restaurant 135 Jilin Road (cross street at Minsheng East Road)
- Welcome supermarket B1, 218 Chunghsiao East Road, Section 3
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