Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 2: Taipei (Chen Gen Breakfast 陳根找茶, Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產), Yehliu 野柳, Keelung Night Market 基隆夜市

April 04, 2015

Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 2: Taipei (Chen Gen Breakfast 陳根找茶, Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產), Yehliu 野柳, Keelung Night Market 基隆夜市

Today was my first official day of travelling in Taiwan alone. I was really fortunate as my Couchsurfing host somehow feels that I am trustworthy enough to pass her whole bunch of house keys to me so that it would be convenient for me to come back and leave whenever I want.

Taipei Medical University

My first agenda of the day was to meet up with a Taiwanese friend for breakfast. I had walked over to Taipei Medical University and explored the campus grounds while waiting for her to arrive, when in actual fact I could actually take a mini bus haha. Still unfamiliar with the bus systems here.

Upon meeting her we then walked about 10 minutes towards Chen Gen Breakfast (陳根找茶) which was by far one of the most popular breakfast joints in the vicinity. On weekends the queue can get really long and even on the weekday that we went, we still had to wait 10 minutes for a place to sit and another 15 minutes before our food is served.

French toast with mixed fillings (pork + tuna & some other stuff.). NTD 100

What is popular is their french toast with various fillings and milk tea. Personally I find it not too bad but it certainly not worth it to queue for an hour or more for this. On the other hand, their milk tea was really really good! I think it's got to do with the milk that they used. And since their business was really good, we were chased out once the staff saw that we were done with our food. Also another place to avoid if you plan to sit down, relax and have a good time chatting with your friends.

Next on the list was a restaurant next to Taipei's fish market: Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產 which is located nearby the Songshan Airport. If not for a blog, I would not have noticed that this place existed at all. This place is similar to Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan whereby all the fresh fish that were caught at the market are then sent to this place to be cooked to be served! I really missed having really fresh sushi after trying out at Sushi Daiwa. It is really hard to find really fresh sushi in Malaysia since we don't have any salmon or tuna swimming nearby so my cravings were never satisfied.

Fresh seafood on display

As soon as I read that there was a sushi bar I was ecstatic and immediately put it on my must-do list in Taipei. And since the meal would probably cost a bomb, I purposely arranged to go here first while I still have money haha. This place is actually quite popular with tourists despite my limited knowledge about this place, so do come here early if you are keen on trying the various food on offer. There were some friends who questioned me why on earth would I go to a Japanese restaurant when I'm in Taiwan?! Well, people often forget that Taiwan was under Japanese occupation for 50 years and if you want excellent and cheap (comparing to Japan) Japanese food here is the place to be.

Fresh fruit on display

Huge crabs

At the sushi bar, you are required to get a number before you get seated, well not literally, because there are no chairs and everybody has to stand up and eat! Fortunately for me there wasn't a long queue that day I was able to get in quite quickly. On the down side I did not get to face the kitchen directly, hence not being able to see the sushi chef's skill on display.

My order

Without much hesitation I ordered the sushi set and a cup of green tea. There are also other options to consider (saw my neighbours ordering other sets and oyster sashimi etc.) but I was here for the sushi!

Before the sushi set arrived I was served with a huge bowl of miso soup. I must say that it tasted delicious and it was one of the most luxurious miso soup that I've ever tried as it contained bits of pork ribs, salmon and prawns!

And finally, after waiting for awhile, the main star has finally arrived! I was really taken aback by how huge this set was and kinda regretted eating so much for breakfast. I took more than one hour just to finish the whole plate haha. Overall the sushi was really good, although there were a few which I could not recognise lol. I did try asking the waitress but the reply was all in mandarin so I couldn't figure it out properly but those that I know, the salmon and tuna, was exquisite. Some fish had some herbs on top of it and it certainly added a different twist to the flavour. Comparing to Sushi Daiwa in Tsukiji, I think the fish was about there but the quality of the rice was quite evident. Nevertheless it was still really good stuff, and even more so when I am paying 3 times less (NTD 693) than what I paid in Tokyo. Definitely a must try in Taipei if you are a sushi fan! The only downside was you have to stand throughout the experience and the sushi chefs do not service you directly.

Sushi chefs hard at work

Huge kitchen

Apart from the sushi bar, there is also another area selling grilled food, a bar as well as pre-packed food. Many people can also be seen just buying packets of food and eating at the various tables inside and outside the compound. Perhaps will come back and try the other options some other day, but I will always return for the sushi!

How to go: Take MRT towards Zhongshan junior High school station & walk about 1km. You need to empty your stomach and be as hungry as possible anyway.

After all that eating it's time to do some sight seeing. Thanks to Google maps I was able to locate the nearest MRT station to embark and knew which bus to take which brought me all the way to Yehliu Geopark, which I missed 3 years ago. Sadly the weather was not very kind and it started drizzling as soon as I got off the bus. The bus did not stop right at the main entrance so I had to walk for about 10 minutes to reach the place. I also did not bring an umbrella nor does my down jacket comes with a head cover so I had to make do with a really short rain coat that I got for free at an event. By the time I arrived at the scenic area my shoes were already soaking wet. Oh well.

The weather just got worse as I entered into the geopark, with raging winds blowing ferociously against my raincoat. The flapping sound of it against my ears was really annoying. The floor was really wet as well so everybody there had to walk really carefully in order not to slip and bang against the really hard rock formations. It was also quite scary too with the huge waves hitting on to the shore. Guess this is typical winter weather in Taiwan.

Essentially it's a place worth going once, to see the famous Queen Head which has a really huge and obvious crack on it now and to learn about the formation of Taiwan's landscape. There was another observatory to watch birds but I wasn't too keen upon seeing the flight of stairs that I had to climb in this wet weather haha.

I left the place around 5 plus before the sky turned dark and took a bus to my last stop of the day: Keelung Night Market! Honestly with my shoes and half of my body being thoroughly wet whatever mood I had had evaporated lol. It made matters worse when the night market was quite some distance from the bus's drop off point and Keelung train station. Had quite a bit of trouble trying to locate my bearings haha.

After circling the area for one round I then settled for this stall for dinner. It was some glutinous rice served with crabmeat and mushrooms in a starchy soup. Also bought a mini umbrella at a shop here for NTD 100 and I must say the quality was really good as it managed to hold itself even under strong wind conditions throughout the 29 days.