Taiwan- what's there to eat

ok, first things first. FOOD!
We honestly had a LOT to eat. I personally LOVE to try new things and here are some good ass places we went to! Sadly, we really didn't have a full 2 day to travel around so I couldn't go to a lot of places, but oh well. You gotta eat as much as you can in one day, hey?

Dongmen Market (go there in the morning if you can bare it)

★★★★★

Such a local market we stumbled upon. It's very close to a monument near by called 中正紀念堂大忠門, but maybe because of the season or something.. ? we saw no tourists walking around. Ok, So I though it was a 5 star experience, but for people who are vegetarian or who can't bare with the horror of animals being chopped right in front of you (not to mention the smell) maybe this place is not for you? I think it's a natural thing to look at especially when your not vegetarian and that's your life choice, you should know how the food you eat is processed in between. I think it's a little selfish to feel grossed out with it, because you eat the god damn thing! Know what your eating.  Anyways, the animal chopping was pretty real but it was a good stroll to say the least. 

Look up close... and yeah you'll see some heads and fur..?

This MOCHI? thing was the BEST breakfast desert. It was like ¥5~10yen for one lol 

老店 鼎元豆漿　（For Taiwan style breakfast food）

106, Taiwan, Taipei City, Zhongzheng District, Jinhua Street, 30-1

★★★★★

We didn't want to fill ourselves up, so we just ordered a little, but they also had a little English menu (It is on a couple of guide books, so I guess) that helped us figure out stuff. 

the food is also on display so easy to see what you want. 

NIKUMAN from 10:00am and a little sesame seed sweet bean pie?

阿妹茶樓/アーメイチャーロウ (tea house from 千と千尋の神隠し)

★★★★☆

Now we are in 九份 district, which is a good 30-40 min taxi drive from Taipei. This time we had no time, (Literally only a full day to explore including the lantern festival so we bought time with money). However, the cabs are really not that pricy. It was about 3000-4000 yen so if you divide it with a friend, it wasn't a big deal. 

This tea house is said to be where ゆばあば from Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し)'s house was inspired for the creation and it truly seemed like there was going to be a creature with 10 legs will come out of the door steps very elegantly.
The tea itself was very tasty, and the little snack rice cakes we got were very good as well, but the price was...expensive lol I think it was like 3000 yen per person? But to get there, its a hustle so if you just want to take a breather, it was fine. I think this was the most expensive bill while we were in Taiwan lol 

You can literally chose a variety of teas. There was about 30 selections of teas, and someone will help you what kind of mood you are in, and they will tell you so no worries! 日本語も堪能なスタッフでしたね〜

これ景色！海まで見えてとても素敵な休憩タイム〜

赤い提灯がいちいち千と千尋っぽい

ごま団子みたいなやつ！すんごいほくほくでした。

DIN TAI FUNG (I mean...when in taiwan you gotta have the real one?) 

★★★★★

Everyone loves DIN TAI FUNG. Won't explain since there are multiple joints in Japan as well, but it was even better since we only had a bunch of street food at this point, a little bit of warm food was very nice. 

Pingxi Market 

★★★★★

After going to 九份, we had to go back to Taipei city to catch out tour bus but then headed back to an area called Pingxi where the lantern festival was going to happen. Before the festival, we had time to spare so we were able to walk around the street market. Honestly, such a beautiful scenary and you can also fly out lanterns here all year around. ピンシーの一年に一回ランタンの打ち上げもあるけど、このエリアで 年中ランタンを飛ばすこともできるので、どっちに行ってもいいかな。ただ本当にこのエリアは混んでる（ランタンフェスの日だったから、というのはあるかもだけど）ので、まあ、ツアー とか申し込んで一気に打ち上がるのを見る価値はある！

これ、まぢで美味しくて中がピーナッツ味のアイスになってて
それをワンタンみたいなやつで包んでるの

これ、肉飯って呼ばれるやつで、そぼろ的な肉がご飯に乗ってて鬼美味しかった

線路見えるでしょ？これ普通に人混みの中を電車が通るの。

阿財虱目魚肚

No. 53, Neijiang Street, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

★★★★★

This place was so unexpected but so so so good. Proballly hands down the best restaurant. さすが台湾に住んでる友達！My friend who lives in Taiwan took us here for our last night. Apprentlt since their restaurant has "fish" in their name as well, it's famous for seafood and also they start opening the shop from 10:00pm!! Crazy! When we got there, we were so dead beat from the lantern festival so we got there at like 11:00pm. There was a huge line, we waited for about 30 minutes and got a table. We ordered like 8 dishes???? Some were some stuff we already ate like fried rice, the 肉飯 thing, but other's was all very Taiwanese authentic food. Please go here if you can, but I don't think it's on any guide book so you don't have any English... But you can get by I think. Please try to go! 

この上の鍋の中には例のハッカクが！！台湾に行くとハッカクの匂いが・・っていう人がいるけど、こんな美味しいご飯と一緒に食べるとは想定してなくてまぢではまった！美味しかった！

見ての通り、あさりの殻はテーブルに生で置くのが台湾スタイルのよう

A local random morning market I have no idea of the name 

★★★★☆

Because it was so local, we saw people getting their hair done outside, fresh veggies, fresh fish/meat, and a lot of clothes as well. This sticky rice I guess you can say we had, was so so good. おこわとまったく同じなんだけど、なんかすごいでかい入れ物に入れてくれて300円くらい？本当に安いしお腹にたまる

RICE IS LIFE

Appendix

I totally forgot the restaurant name, but we went to this random place near our hotel, since we were kind of hungry. We were walking around at 12:30 pm ish and saw this place opened so we went it...

but the food we ordered... was a little unexpected in a bad way... lol 

Yum or nah? 

So this dish.. It was VERY sticky and OILY and nothing at all what you will expect... And apprently, its called 羊肉麺・・・which since we are Japanese, we should have known better, but the oil is all from a goat and apperently goat meat is common next to chicken and pork in Taiwan.. which is like I can't say anything about it... but damn it was not something I'll keep eating. It was very thick. The oil was sticky and just sticks in your mouth for a while. 

As you can see the sign in the back that clearly says, "羊肉麺"LOL

So what did you think? Honestly, a lot of the food resinated a lot with Japanese food but it had a very distinct taste which I love in general. I hope you guys go to some of the places and I made your tummy want some of that fried rice ayyy?