Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Taiwan 2016 Part 1 - Yongkang Street (永康街)

Deepest apologies for the lack of updates in the past 4 months. It's been a busy year thus far, I've just ended my internship and spent the entire month of June playing. July's been pretty much reality slapping me in my face because I'm back to juggling school and work. Looking forward to the next half of the year nonetheless though there is still a lot to conquer. 

It's funny how I'm still blogging about 2016 content but that's how far I'm lagging behind (sobs). Took a 5 days trip to Taipei, Taiwan for the very first time together with Bernard after his POP in September last year! We were super excited because this trip really seemed like a reward for getting through the first 9 weeks of army and served as a great motivation for the both of us. I'll be breaking up the posts into parts instead of days, enjoy!



Yongkang Street is a place filled with cafes, eateries and quirky boutiques. It also happens to be home of the original Din Tai Fung restaurant, making it our very prominent first stop for lunch:





The location takes up four floors of the building and still, there was a 25 minutes waiting time. Similar to the queue system in Singapore, we had to grab a number and.. wait. We took the chance to take a stroll around the neighbourhood! 





Your meal can't really go wrong at Din Tai Fung but dining here at the Xinyi Road branch felt more like a formality thing since it's the first ever outlet. Food tasted pretty much similar to what is offered here in Singapore. Our meal cost us around $35, pretty decent for the amount of dishes ordered but note that food in Taiwan is insanely cheap so this would be considered slightly pricey.




Ask me what's the first thing I bought upon touch down in Taiwan? Chun Cui He's milk tea, hehe. I drank it everyday, not exaggerating - my favourite is the Earl Grey flavour.

Cafe Xiaomijo






We picked Xiaomijo out of all the cafes in Yongkang Street because it looks cosy and peaceful. Food and drinks we tried were good but what appealed to us most was how quiet the place was. We were the only souls, the cafe had no background music and they were screening a movie without sound. It literally wrote "please keep your volume down" on the menu so it was so awkward to even make any conversation in this cafe, perfect for anyone who wants to study or read though!

Smoothie House




We tried Mango Shaved Iced twice in Taiwan. The first time was at Shilin Night market because of a super funny miscommunication Bernard and I had - he casually mentioned that there was a super famous Mango Shaved Iced at Yongkang street when we passed by one at Shilin, I heard it as "this mango shave iced here very popular" or something so I forced myself to order one at the night market though we were super full. Bernard thought I was just craving for it so he just went with the flow. "Very nice and famous meh?" It was only then he told me the famous one is at Yongkang. Major face palm cause I wanted to vomit so bad cause WE ATE SO MUCH. This Mango Shaved Iced at Yongkang really is A LOT more popular and nicer though, lol.

Jin Feng Minced Pork Rice

This eatery is not exactly in Yongkang Street but is within a 10-minute drive so you must make a trip here, so worth it!!







We knew Lu Rou Fan was definitely on our to-eat list because what's Taiwan without it? However, we had no idea where to have it. We pretty much Uber-ed everywhere we went and all (I REALLY MEAN ALL) the Uber drivers were extremely friendly and nice! One of them recommended Jin Feng and told us that it's a local favourite. In every country, you'd definitely want to be eating where the locals eat. We had the most authentic Taiwanese experience here and just imagine - 1 bowl of braised pork rice for less than $2 SGD. INSANE!

Other places to visit/eat at in Yongkang Street:

- Yong Kang Beef Noodles
- Onion pancake
- Kao Chi (DTF's competitor)
- 8% ICE (ice cream) 

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