A day in Taichung City with visits to YiZhong Street and Feng Chia Night Market

8 January 2016

We travelled to Taichung City after two nights stay at Sun Moon Lake. The day began with rain at dawn washing away my hope for another sunrise photo-shoot at dawn. So it meant we could sleep late and enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the Mei Jen House minsu before taking the Nantou Bus to the Taichung HSR Station. From there, we took a taxi to the Kun Hotel, our hotel in Taichung. The hotel was chosen because it is located within walking distance to the Feng Chia Night Market.

There is plenty of taxi queuing up for passengers at the HSR station and travel to the hotel via the highway was fast and convenient. Fare was about 260 NT which was reasonable. We were too early for check-in and the hotel staff stowed our luggage away at the hotel so we could go sightseeing without our luggage. We took a taxi to YiZhong Street, known for shopping, cafes and street food.

It was just before noon and the stalls and shops were beginning to open for business. We walked from one end of the street to the other end, junction of JinNan Street, before backtracking along the YiZhong Street to decide on a restaurant for lunch. During this time, students from the nearby Taichung University of Science and Technology began streaming into the cafes and streets for lunch. We sat, amongst mostly students, in a restaurant selling steak, egg and noodles served on a sizzling hotplate.

View of YiZhong Steet near where we alighted from the taxi.

After lunch, we sampled our first Taiwanese street food and did some shopping while exploring the side roads in the area.

Dog, creatively “painted” with leopard spots.

Once tired of walking, we took a taxi back to Kun Hotel for check-in and took a rest before going to the night market. We got upgraded to a slightly bigger room on the top floor. We were quite satisfied with the room which came with complimentary soft drinks, mineral water, tea and coffee, kettle and even an electronic WC with seat warmers like those commonly found in Korea and Japan.

Feng Chia Night Market is about 10 minutes walk from the Kun Hotel. Along the way, there were shops to browse as we walked along FuXing Road to the edge of the night market. Time for more street food in this famous night market. In my last trip here, I had a bad experience with street food. So, have to be careful what to eat this time.

We took the courage to try the stinky tofu. The deep fried version which is not so stinky and actually was quite good with the crispy deep fried exterior, moist interior with sweet and tangy dipping sauce.

Stall selling the deep fried stinky tofu.

Our first course – stinky tofu.

“Big Intestine Wrapped Small Intestine” stall.

Next up was the “Big Intestine Wrapped Small Intestine” – basically grilled sweet pork sausage wrapped in a glutinous rice bun. There are two famous competing stalls here – the red stall vs the yellow stall. Both are equally good according to reviews, so we just bought from the yellow stall.

Feng Chia Night Market (and Taiwanese Night Markets) are all about cheap and excellent street food.  So much to eat, so little space in our tummy. So we had to be selective and pick those with good reviews in the internet.

Grilled Squid. It takes some skill to not overcook the thick squid. There were a few types of spices to choose for flavouring.

Yummy grilled squid.

Fried Oyster Omelete – this was good. Cost 60 NT. Taiwanese oyster omelette comes fried with fresh vegetable, oysters and sweet sauce.

Fried Chicken with salad as featured in a local TV show – this is not bad.

Grilled Sweet Corn  as featured in a local TV show. We have to take a number and queue for the corn to be prepared – but the taste was disappointing.

On the way back to hotel, we saw a stall selling oven baked buns filled with braised pork along the main road (FuXing Road). The buns were made by hand, stuck and cooked on the sides of clay oven. Interesting.

The cylindrical drums are the oven.

Even though we had ate a lot, we had to buy one for 40 NT to try!

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From Taichung to Taipei and seeking the best beef noodles in Taipei at Yong Kang Street

9 January 2016

After Taichung, we took the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Taipei and checked into our hotel in Taipei (CityInn Hotel Taipei Station Branch III), located within 10 minutes walk from the Taipei Main Station. Once again, we left our luggage with the friendly staff at the hotel, since it was too early for check in, and go explore Taipei. Prior to the trip, I had researched on where are the best beef noodles restaurants in Taipei. Top of the list includes the Yong Kang Beef Noodles.

To get to the restaurant, we took the subway to Dongmen Station and walked a short distance to the restaurant. The restaurant is actually on Lane 31, JinSan South Street, next to a school. Easy to find with help of google map.

This was what we came for!  Best Beef Noodle. Extra soft beef in thick and slightly spicy Szechuan-style sauce.

It was about 1.20 PM, slightly after the peak lunch time but there is still a queue outside. The line moves fast since everyone comes here for the food, not the ambience. It is order food, eat and then leave. No time to linger in this rather packed and busy restaurant.

Queue outside the Yong Kang Beef Noodle restaurant.

The following are the recommended side dishes to try before the beef noodles were served.

Braised tofu.

After enjoying the nicest beef noodles so far in our trip, we walked to the main Yong Kang Street where people were crowding round the Smoothie House stall selling Mango Shaved Ice. Nice dessert to have after a Beef Noodle lunch.

Preparing the dessert using a ice shaving machine.

Mango Shave Ice dessert at Smoothie House.

Where we stayed at Taipei?

We chose to stay within walking distance to the Taipei Main Station for convenience. It is a transportation hub for regional and local trains, High Speed Rail (HSR), all the subway lines, airport limousine bus and buses to nearby towns. There are also many malls and eateries nearby.

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Taiwan Day 1 – Taichung Feng Chia Market

13 Dec 2011

Our first day in Taiwan was spent in the city of Tai-Chung, located in the central part of Taiwan island. The only place of interest we planned to visit in Tai-Chung was the Feng Chia Night Market. Around 1 kilometre wide, Feng-Chia Night Market is the premiere night market experience in Taiwan. This is the place to experience Taiwan’s delicious and value for money street food and cool shops. During the weekend, as much as 30,000 people can pass through the market.

Earlier in the day, we had taken flight SQ878 from Singapore  and arrived slightly after 5 PM. By the time we cleared immigration and got out it was about 6 PM. The plan was to stay in Taichung upon arrival, instead of going into Taipei.  I had booked a hotel (Le Parker) which is just 5 minutes’ walk away from Feng Chia Night Market.

There are 3 ways to get to Taichung.

Option 1: Shuttle bus to High Speed Rail (HSR) station, then take the HSR to Tai-Chung HSR Station, and then take a taxi to our hotel. This would probably take 20 minutes + 40 minutes + 13 minutes respectively (excluding waiting time). And we would need to lug the luggage all over the places, hence not so ideal.

Option 2: Taxi directly to our hotel. Most expensive (cost approximately 3500 NT) but most convenient.

Option 3: Bus to Tai-Chung (240 NT), then taxi to hotel. This will probably take 2 hours on the bus + 10 minutes on the taxi.

We were leaning towards option 1 and 2 before arrival at the Taiwan’s Taoyuan airport. Upon arrival and checking with the girl manning the information counter at the airport, we chose option 3 instead and I think it was a good choice. There were many operators and we chose one that has the next bus leaving the soonest. We boarded the 6.30pm bus from Ubus company.

The bus arrived at Chaoma bus stop at about 8 PM. The bus ride was comfortable, and faster than expected (1.5 hours) as Chaoma was the first stop in Taichung city. Le Parker Hotel was just 5 minutes’ by taxi from Chaoma bus stop. There were taxis waiting at Chaoma and it costs 95 NT for a Toyota Wish cab to take us to our hotel.

After check-in is done at the Le Parker Hotel, we immediately head to Feng Chia market for dinner, followed by shopping. It was drizzling slightly, so the place was not too crowded. Thankfully the drizzle did not last too long.

First stop was at the stall selling deep fried chicken chop. Then grilled squid, grilled live prawns, grilled mushrooms, BBQ chicken chop, washed down with strawberry milk tea and lime juice. We liked the grilled prawns so much that we went for a second round even though a queue was beginning to form. The prawns were so sweet and we ate the whole prawn - heads and shell included!

I saw this stall displaying nice cream-colour bitter gourds. I have only seen green coloured bitter gourds in my home country. It seems that the white bitter gourd is blended and laced with honey to make a bitter and sweet drink. I did not try this.

Instead we bought cut slices of green (half ripe) mango with sugar and spice from this Hulk for dessert.
Note: he looks green because of the reflected light from his green fruits!

Once our tummy is satisfied, it was time for some shopping for the boys. I like visiting markets as you can get a sense of what is popular in the country and culture from the goods offered. 

Taiwanese loves their dogs and dresses them up too (like this cute little “Police Dog”).

Taiwanese also loves scooters with nice, cute designs for the helmets.

We bought a pair of sneakers for S and a pullover for D. And some fake eye lashes for J to use while doing dance performances in school. I noticed almost 50% of the young Taiwanese girls enhance their eyes with this!

I also made contact with the taxi driver that would take us to Sun Moon Lake, Puli and then to Cingjing the next day. The driver spoke only Mandarin. I realised that my spoken Mandarin was better than I thought. He understood me. 

That night, I suffered a slight tummy upset from what I ate. The rest of the family were OK. So maybe I ate one prawn that was not too well cooked. Or it could be the milk tea with the ice.

Tip: Maybe it is better not to eat the heads of the prawns.

Despite my slight misadventure, Feng Chia Night Market is not to be missed!

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