Taipei I

An Easy Day in Taipei #1 - March 2, 2016

Nothing was planned for the first morning in Taipei until lunch time. With the luggage incident in the middle of the night, we just had to make up some sleep. We all slept in until late morning before getting ready to meet our friend for lunch.

We did not have a view of the Taipei 101 from our hotel window. This was what we had.

We then took the MRT to meet with Lin at his office. We particularly wanted him to take us to some place nearby for local street food since he and his family was scheduled to treat us a seafood dinner that evening. He took us to this building about two blocks away from his office where there is a food court on the ground floor. And this was what we had...Yang's Fried pork ribs noodle.

I think this place is called the Guang Hwa Digital Plaza, which is a huge shopping plaza for 3C products.

(No. 8, Section 3, Civic Boulevard, Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan)

Simple but delicious! The pork ribs were almost boneless and melt-in-your-mouth tender.

After lunch, we needed to go to this special stores for some pineapple cakes. We were asked to bring some pineapple cakes back home. This store called "ChiaTe" is supposedly one of the best pineapple cake places in Taiwan. We were told that we may have to get in lines for their products. We were going to take the MRT, but considering the amount that we will be buying, he volunteered to take us there in his car. It was definitely a very busy place, but fortunately, the line was not that bad. We were so busy getting stuff that we did not have a chance to take pictures there. Lin dropped us back to the hotel before going back to his office for a meeting that afternoon.

When we got back to the hotel, they were still cleaning our room, so we waited in the lobby until they were done. Then we just rested for a couple of hours before we met up with Lin's family for dinner.

View from the elevator side of the hotel, the hotel swimming pool.

Lobby, Grand Hyatt Taipei.

ChiaTe Bakery

Besides the pineapple cakes, I couldn't resist and bought a box of fresh egg tarts from ChiaTe also.

Just the right snack for afternoon tea.

BTW, ChiaTe have many varieties of fresh pastries in their stores to choose from. Very hard to decide what to get.

Oh, my, they were super delicious! These are not the normal flaky crust egg tarts but the crunchy cookie crust. Good for the eyes and good for the stomach.

Boxes of pineapple cakes waiting to be taken back to L.A. If you have extra luggage space or an extra luggage, these could be good inexpensive gifts. These came in boxes of 6, each piece cost $30NTD (original flavor), $180NTD a box, which comes to about USD $6 a box. No wonder this place is always filled with locals and tourists alike. It's quite an experience shopping at this bakery. They are so used to tourists getting these as gifts that they just throw in rolls of individual plastic gift bags in the package. I think she gave me 20 little gift bags instead of 10 that I needed.

ChiaTe Bakery: 88 Section 5, Nanjing E Road, Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

When it was time to meet up with the Lins family, we again took the MRT to Lin's office on Zhongxiao E Road, then we walked over to the restaurant nearby.

Awww....

We walked past Hwa Shan 1914 Creative Park on Zhongxiao E Road.

IKEA

Northsea Fishing Village

No. 8, Section 1, Hangzhou S Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan

+886 2 2357 6188

This seafood restaurant is frequented by many local politicians and entertainers, we were told. They featured fresh seafood from the island of Peng Hu in southern Taiwan. Needless to say we had a great dinner waiting for us.

Menu in Chinese and Japanese

I won't be able to name all the dishes that we had but they were all incredibly delicious!

Peanuts, a famous product of Peng Hu.

An old calligraphic scroll, a surprised gift for MOR from the Lins. 

"Jehovah God with His Words of Righteousness and Wisdom, is the Lord of the Universe". 

He actually bid this in an auction for MOR.

sashimi mix

seafood and pumpkin fried vermicelli

Our dear friends.

fish stew

dessert

peanut candies

After a wonderful dinner, we took the MRT back to the hotel and called it a day. It was a relaxing day with not much activities. Just enjoying some precious time with old friends with good food. What else can we ask for?

Taipei 101 at night

MRT Station for Grand Hyatt and Taipei 101--Taipei 101 and World Trade Center Station.