We Ate Taiwan

A delicious interactive travel journal

Our Photo Gallery

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Monica and I, jetlagged, waiting outside of Dǐng Tài Fēng where we will have her birthday dinner.
Monica at the entrance of Dà ān gōngyuán.
More Dà ān gōngyuán; each of the parks sections features a different type of tree.
A very interesting brick paver pattern on the sidewalk around Dà ān gōngyuán.
A woman rolls dough for the popular breakfast pastry shāobǐng.
Lunch: some of the best cōngyóu bǐng I've had.
Our lunch, clockwise from the left: spicy dried fish and vegetables; ōngyóu bǐng rolled with meat; pickled cucumber; Ma Po Tofu; stir-fried pork and leek.
The wind lion statue that guards a Yong Kang Gongguan, a small park near Monica's home.
The park itself, where Monica used to climb trees as a child.
A typical narrow street near Monica's home, busy with stores, food vendors, pedestrians, and vehicles.
The components of Monica's post-lunch snack.
The snack, all mixed together like a soup.
The central hall in Taipei's main train station. Here, the HSR (high speed rail), regular trains, and MRT (subway) trains all meet.
Another view of the hall and ticket counter.
A woman at a food stand makes dànbǐng for our breakfast.
The streets and sidewalks of Taipei are filled with scooters.
Monica's high school, students on on the track during physical education class.
Monica's former volleyball teammate (left) and two former teachers.
The main building at Monica's high school.
A statue at the front of Monica's high school.
One of the finely detailed miniatures at the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan.
A miniature of a 50's era kitchen.
A beautiful miniature of a dining room being prepared for dinner.
A miniature of bread in a French bakery.
A miniature of bread in a French bakery.
A huge medieval castle miniature built with Legos.
A Taiwanese specialty: spicy beef noodles.
A non-spicy version of beef noodles (left) and a casserole of grains, pork intestine, and sweet potato.
The beef noodle restaurant is across the stree from Monica's elemetary school.
A CD/DVD media vendor at the electronics market.
USB flash media drives designed to look like sushi.
A traditional Taiwanese dinner: clams with chinese basil (left), drunken chicken (top), greens with ginger.
More for dinner: fried fish (center) and beef liver (top left).
Do I look intimidated? It's because of what I will have for breakfast.
A traditional breakfast: rice noodes (4 corners) and assorted meats.
The assorted meats includes pork intestine and lung.
The vendor who provides us our breakfast has been on TV and written up in magazines.
Next to the noodle vendor was a group of women making huge quantities of dumplings
The noodle vendor and dumpling makers are part of a traditional market.
A fishmonger in the traditional market.
A stall at in the traditional market selling food cooked in soy sauce.
Duck blood and stinky tofu in spicy broth.
Squid, small shrimp, and small fish.
Lunch at the Big Foot Print: super-spicy squid (right) and lamb stew with herbs.
More lunch: spicy beef (background) and fried chicken, thai style.
Monica and I climbing stairs in Danshui.
Great view of Danshui from the stairs.
Another view of Danshui showing the river.
More of Danshui.
Monica and I pose for pictures with her grandmother.
Fish balls for sale on the "old street" in Danshui.
Amazingly cut fried potatoes.
Taiwanese sausages.
A very odd item called iron egg: egg cooked until dried out and firm.
The entrance to a Taoist temple on the old street.
Monica with a bear claw glove. Why? Why not?
A view of the old street in Danshui.
Danshui is on a bay that opens onto the Pacific Ocean.
A huge fancy dinner prepared by Monica's mother: drunken chicken (left), fish (top), greens, vegetable soup, and more vegetables.
A breakfast treat: sticky rice steamed in lotus leaf.
Opening up the lotus leaf.
Monica and one of her old English professors.
An afternoon snack: crushed ice and flavored jellies.
A large assortement of food items for sale in the night market.
A view of the night market in the alleys near TaiDa University.
On the streets adjacent the night market are many stores.
Monica has noodles with intestine (background) and deep fried stinky tofu for dinner.
The very fancy restaurant on Yangmingshan that is styled as a Japanese tea house.
Monica and I are ready for a fantastic meal.
Monica's parents are also ready for a fantastic meal.
Second course: an aperitif, fruit wine.
Third course: eggplant, tofu with peanut flavor, and abalone.
The tofu is made at the restaurant.
Abalone served in a shell over mashed sweet potato.
Fourth course: egg custard with sea scallop.
Fifth course: bean curd wrap stuffed with lotus leaf and sticky rice, topped with anchovy, onion, and sauces.
Close up of all the individual serving which includes broccoli and pumpkin.
Sixth course: a palate cleanser of fruit vinegar.
Seventh course: sushi and vegetables.
A closer look at the individual parts.
Eighth course: another fruit vinegar, different flavor.
Ninth course: shrimp with pepper, fried jellied chicken broth and cabbage.
Tenth course: sticky rice wrapped in salami served with mushroom.
A close up of the sticky rice ball.
Eleventh course: chicken soup with mushrooms and root vegetables.
The soup is topped with a dried lotus flower that wilts into the soup.
Twelfth course: bell fruit, zaozi, and pineapple, served with strawberry juice.
I am extremely happy about the strawberry juice.
Thirteenth course: taro pudding.
The pudding is topped with sweet grain and gold.
Final course: lotus flower tea.
A last look at the restaurant entrance.
Fruit and seafood salad for dinner.
Fried rice ball, a typical Japanese item.
Monica's dinner, lamb chops crusted with garlic.
And for dessert, red bean custard.
Monica's cousin and her husband (left) treated us to dinner.
The weekend jade market.
A glass artist working at his table in the jade market.
Taipei 101 hooded by low clouds.
When you can actually see it, it's a pretty building.
Across the street is a much shorter but still quite interesting building.
Inside the lower part of Taipei 101 is a luxury mall.
Five stories of Louis Vitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Cartier, etc.
The Sun Yat-sen Memorial
The Memorial is pretty low-key, but is surrounded by a very pretty garden.
Monica met her former college classmates at an English-style teahouse called Salut, where she had a beautiful quiche.
The entrance to Longshan Temple.
The template is a fascinating place, with many interesting features – including this waterfall.
I was lucky enough to visit during a time when people engage in ritual chanting.
The inner courtyard was full of tourists snapping photos and adherents praying.
The temple was full of smoke from open fires, candles, and incense.
The temple was festively decorated with paper lanterns and other paper decorations.
The permanent structure is also heavily ornamented with inscriptions and colorful figures.
The main gate of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.
One of the two venues that flank the Memorial's courtyard.
One of the venues is a concert hall; the other is a stage for plays and other performances.
The memorial hall across the courtyard from the gate.
The memorial hall across the courtyard from the gate.
The inside of the memorial hall with the statue of Chiang Kai-shek.
Our tea-based meal: Monica's tofu with asparagus, lotus seed, and ham.
My humble house salad.
A mix of root vegetables and bean curd.
My appetizer: jasmine tofu with ham.
My entree: green tea noodles with tomatoes and other vegetables.
Monica's entree: vegetables and fish.
Dessert: greet tea jelly.
And after dinner, they served us more tea. This was a Pu'er with chrysanthemum.
On the roof of the mall where we had our tea meal is a ferris wheel.
We meet with Monica's family friends to enjoy a traditional brunch.
Cabbage (background) and two flavors of shrimp.
Lion's head (meatballs in cabbage soup) in the center, greens (top right) and ham (right).
One of two fish heads that Monica had during lunch. I helped.
Crispy whole duck, shredded, with rolls. You put the meat in the rolls and season it with salt and pepper.
Steamed buns.
Our bath at the Spring City Resort. The whole bathroom was marble.
The National Palace Museum.
The courtyard in front of the main exhibition hall where many people had gathered to take pictures.
The main exhibition hall. Note the cow statue in front. The structure on the top of the building is a very fine tea house.
A snack at the museum: kumkwat tea and green tea cake with orange flavor.
Our first stop at the Shilin Night Market: braised buns. We purchased two for 60 cents: one pork and one cabbage.
Your intreped traveler in front of a temple.
Fish balls (regular or spicy) on skewers.
Taiwanese barbeque: assorted vegetables and meat on skewers, grilled to order with a barbeque sauce.
Monica's dinner: duck blood and stinky tofu on spicy soup.
Here's the proof that I tried it.
A japanese temple near Huālián.
One of the temple's main features is a wall of 88 statues.
People have left prayers on wooden cards at the base of each statue.
The temple is a leftover from the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.
The temple is now a historic site.
Monica and I take a ride around this mountain lake in a paddle boat.
Because it's Tuesday, we have the lake to ourselves.
Here you can see where the paddle boats are docked.
Monica and I in our fashionable life vests.
The lake is surrounded by mountains.
Near the paddleboat dock is a tourist area with a few restaurants.
We pick one of the restaurants for our lunch: shrimp cake and stir-fried rice noodles with pork and vegetables.
Another historic site: an old Japanese logging village.
Train tracks that were used to transport cypress logs.
A very cute 'No Dogs Allowed' sign outside a park.
A view of the park from an elevated foot-bridge.
The park is a combination of a botanic garden and a sculpture garden.
The exterior of a very interesting greenhouse.
The inside of the greenhouse.
The main feature of the greenhouse are a number of varieties of orchids.
More orchids in the greenhouse.
A large dragonfly sculpture.
A walkway through the flower garden.
A very common item here in Taiwan: the oyster omelet.
The ocean view from our room near Huālián.
Another look at our ocean view.
A look at the patio from our room.
A look at the front of the B&B where we stayed.
After leaving the B&B, our tour guide took us to the beach.
A paved observation area on the beach. We rented bicycles and rode here.
A fellow tourist took this picture of us.
Another picture of us, this one taken by Monica's mother.
Instead of sand, the beach was covered with these small, smooth stones.
One of several dry river beds I observed during our travels around Huālián.
All of us ready to enter Taroko Gorge. The entrance is behind us.
A memorial to workers who died during construction of the roadway through Taroko Gorge
The memorial is built onto a hillside and over a small waterfall.
Me with the memorial and waterfall in the background.
Another view of the gorge.
Monica on the path to the memorial.
A close-up look of the memorial.
In one of the tunnels leading to the memorial are these three statues.
A rope bridge over the gorge.
We walk on the narrow path next to the roadway.
In the distance you can see a covered section of roadway.
The roadway and walkway move through a series of tunnels.
Monica under an inscription inside the tunnel.
The irony of a large rockfall just behind the sign warning of rockfalls.
Another view of the rockfall.
A look at our great room at the Grand Formosa Taroko.
Another view of our room, including the patio and the hotel's courtyard outside.
The pool on the rooftop of the hotel, surrounded by moutain views.
We saw a bit of road construction during our tour.
A picture of the river in a shallow part of the gorge.
Don't fall of the cliff.
To get to the Baiyang Waterfall Trail, we must walk through this long dark tunnel.
The Baiyang Waterfall observation area.
A look at the waterfall behind the bridge to the observation platform.
The river at the bottom of the falls.
A wide shot of the waterfall. It was morning, so the sun was low in the sky.
Another look at the waterfall.
Monica and her parents admire the view.
The tunnel we walked through to reach the observation area. Note the cracked overhanging rock.
The entrance to the Water Curtain Cave.
A plaque explaining the Water Curtain Cave.
Taipei 101 at night.
Another picture looking up at the tower from very close.
Looking down at Taipei from the top of 101.
Looking down at Taipei from the top of 101.
Monica and one of the cows on parade.

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