Exploring Taipei New City

Taipei 101 at night

Taiwan is one of those cities you know you will end up loving. Unfortunately the week I would be in Taiwan it would be raining everyday. I got to Taipei around midnight so I took a cab to my hostel. After checking in I just went to sleep. I didn't really have anything planned for the day, I was kind of just looking stuff up on my computer. Then, I met another girl who just checked in and she wanted to get food and invited me along. She wanted to go to a restaurant called Din Tai Tung (which I never heard of), but it is supposedly the best Chinese food restaurant. There was a huge line of people when we got there, right away I knew it must be good. We ended up ordering a lot of food, different dumplings, and just shared it. It was so delicious!!!!! ​

They even provide instructions on how to eat the dumplings properly!

After having a delicious snack of dumplings were still kind of hungry so we walked around exploring. We came across a bakery called Portofino and decided to check it out. We spotted a dining room at the back of the bakery that looked really cool so we ended up staying. I've always wanted to have real afternoon high tea, so this gave me a little taste.

We both ordered the tea and cake deal. I got Mix Fruit & Rose tea and my friend Oullie got Lemongrass & mint tea. For dessert I got a cherry cheesecake and she got this crepe cake which was very very light and didn't have much tase.

Crepe Cake

Cherry cheesecake

We enjoyed our teas and dessert plus the atmosphere. It was a really cute place.

Vintage tea pots

Wine galore!

So fancy and cute!

After we were done we started walking towards Taipei 101. the weather was really crappy and was raining on the way there and of course we were unprepared and had no umbrellas.

We didn't want to spend money to go up to the top of the building since the weather wasn't nice and we probably wouldn't be able to see anything, so we just walked around the base of Taipei 101. It was also attached to the mall so we walked around there for a bit. The mall had typical store like Michael Kors, H&M, Zara, etc. it was nothing special, it was actually quite expensive.

Our last stop for the night would be to a night market. We actually got lost since we are both directionally challenged but eventually went in the right direction.

On the way to the night market there were tons of restaurants along the way. We stopped at one place because I saw a picture of food that looked interesting and I wanted to try it. The food was called Gua Bao-- a Taiwanese steamed bread with ground peanuts, cilantro, pickles and stewed beef. It's like the Chinese version of a hamburger. Apparently its supposed to be a snack but it was huge and so so so delicious! It was sweet, salty and sour at the same time which worked well together. I don't remember how much it was but I know it was under $3.

I also stopped to get bubble tea of course, since Taiwan is known for it. Plus, it was only like a dollar. The night market we visited was called Tonghua aka Linjiang St.

This market was packed! There were so many different foods and people everywhere. There was fresh seafood ranging from $3 and up depending on what you want.

They even had veggie sticks for the vegans and vegetarians.

I didn't even know what most of this stuff was.

I spent so much time eating food that I didn't take pictures of all the foods I was actually eating. This market was paradise for me because because I am a huge foodie. I think I ate about 3 different snacks but they were all so delicious and cheap.

There were even stores behind the food stations selling literally everything. We called it a night around 8 pm since we were still a bit soaked and it was cold at night. On the way to the subway station we came across this beautiful Chinese temple.​

When we got back to our hostel we researched things we could do for the remaining days. We both were leaving on the same day so we decided to hang out.

Directions to Tonghua Market:

 --- If you are travelling by MRT take the red line to Xinyi Anhe Station. From there walk east to Tonghua Street and turn right. Continue station until you hit Linjiang St. and you will be at the market.