When we arrived at 鼎泰丰 (a three-storeyed shop house), we were shown to our seats immediately. The menu in Taipei was pretty much the same as the one in Singapore, though we caught a few special dishes here and there. We ordered a serving of 小笼包, 卤豆腐, 海藻小菜 to share and I had a 蛋花汤 while L tried the 酸辣汤. I quite liked my egg soup though L's soup was not spicy at all! In fact, it should be more aptly named the "sour" soup as I tasted nothing but vinegar. The 小笼包 was quite "juicy" and delicious but my favourite was the braised beancurd (卤豆腐). It was very well done! The seaweed salad was alright though not fantastic.
Top left: Braised beancurd; Top right: The famous dumplings
Bottom left: Seaweed salad; Bottom right: The snaking queue formed outside
We noticed quite a number of Japanese tourists in the restaurant, in fact, more than the locals. Perhaps the fame of 鼎泰丰 is more attractive to foreigners. When we came out after a sumptuous meal, I was shocked to find a long queue formed outside the restaurant. It was so crowded that we could hardly move! Mousie really wasn't kidding...
On our way to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, we browsed through a few shops to satisfy our shopping craze. Because of our "shopping anxiety syndrome", we forgot to dry the mango ice (芒果冰) nearby which was apparently quite famous. Well, girls will always be girls...
As the name goes, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall serves as a monument to the First President of Taiwan. The exhibits detailed the journey of his life: including his army days and life with his wife, Song Meiling. We took our time to browse through the artefacts before rushing out to catch the "changing guards" ceremony. Unfortunately for us, it had started raining and the ceremony was cancelled! What a disappointment!
The miniature version of CKS Memorial Hall...
And the real thing!
Snapshots of other pics taken around the memorial hall
Entrance of the CKS Memorial Hall train station
Inside the train station.. Along the walls..
Very impressive decor huh?
Our next destination was to 台北车站. You might be thinking now what was so interesting about a train station right? Actually, our objective was to shop at the numerous underground shopping malls at the vicinity of the train station! Alas.. things didn't go as we planned.. because what happened was that we ended up spending close to 4 hours at the underground malls instead, and emerged on the surface only in the late evening! By then, the rain was quite heavy due to the typhoon so Mousie's mother, who was afraid that we would be trapped in the rain, invited us home for dinner. Thus our Friday evening was fairly quiet.
The rain raged ferociously the following day, spoiling all our plans. We had to stay indoors at Mousie's house and ended up playing Wii as well as watched "The Day After Tomorrow". Was a little disappointed at having to stay indoors as we were on holiday! But well, there was nothing much we could do since Mother Nature was against us.
By evening, the rain had subsided slightly so Mousie, L and I decided to brave the intense drizzle to 台北101, where we would see the tallest building in Taipei. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant and it was there that I had my first taste of Mister Donut, a Japanese donut franchise. The donut was yummy! We shopped at a few shopping malls around 台北101 and of course, I made victory purchases again! It was really hard to resist the draw of fashion in Taipei.
On our way back home, Mousie suggested we make a day trip to the outskirts of Taipei City since the rain was still pouring. We tossed around a few possible destinations and eventually decided on one. So where did we head off next? Keep reading to find out! :)
Coming up.. A mystery drive in the outskirts of Taipei City
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