Taiwan: Din Tai Fung & Shilin Night Market (Day 5)

February 15, 2012

We started off the day at Grandma's - we stayed quite a while to chat. Andrew's aunt and her assistant from school became our tour guides for the day. We went to the famous xiao long bao (soup dumpling) restaurant, Din Tai Fund for lunch. This place is apparently infamous for their long lines due to popularity but since we went late in the afternoon (2-3pm), we lucked out and didn't even have to wait for a table. Apparently, in 1993 it was named Top 10 restaurants of the World from the NY Times and was awarded 1 Michelin star in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Din Tai Fung - famous soup dumpling restaurant in Taiwan

Pickled cucumbers

Shrimp and squash soup dumplings - light and tasty

Crab meat soup dumplings - rich and flavorful

Spicy wontons - really good

Beef noodle soup - best I've had

bean sprouts and tofu skin

Dessert: red bean dumplings - superb (and I don't even like beans!)

We were stuffed by the time we finished all that food between the 4 of us. Thanks to "ah-jea-ah-yee" for treating us! After lunch, we took a short local bus ride over to Guanghua Digital Plaza; it was literally a mall of solely electronics. Afterwards, we took the MRT to the famous Shilin Night Market. We were still really full from lunch but since we were strongly advised not to consume street food, it was a good thing that we weren't hungry; we weren't allowed to eat anything anyway!

Shilin Night Market

Guava - local fruit

Crazy looking fruit - looks like an artichoke. Believe it's a breed of pineapple and something else...

Aiyu jelly drink - wanted to try this but didn't get it

All the food in Shilin Market was in the basement...

Stinky tofu! Did not try it here

My love....I want you so bad :(

Oyster omelet

Shiao Bing - we DID get to eat this :)

It was so GOOD...piping hot meat in a crispy bready shell

After a look only food tour at Shilin Night Market, we were ready for dinner. Ah-jea-ah-yee took us to a local restaurant to try some traditional chicken herb soup. The soup was very traditional with medicinal flavors and was really refreshing. We each had to order our own pot so we were barely able to finish. We also ordered noodles and marinated tofu blocks as sides; the tofu was very "QQ" (chewy) - delicious.

Plain noodles to accompany soup

Traditional chicken herbal soup

After dinner, we went over to try stinky tofu at this stand (Andrew's family's favorite stinky tofu stand)

Stinky tofu to-go! Delicious - a Taiwan must-eat

For dessert, we went to Alex's favorite shaved ice shop

Look at the size of that!

Needless to say, we were stuffed beyond imagination. We spent the whole day eating. Definitely gained about 10lbs today. Everything was delicious. Thanks to Xinyu and Ah-jea-ah-yee for spending the day with us and showing us around. We had so much fun!