Taipei, Our Way

228 Peace Park, Yi Fan Di Sukiyaki, Astoria Cafe--Taipei

August 24~26, 2016

During our week-long stay in Taipei, ChC and I were free to wander around on our own while MOR attended the conference. To tell the truth, we had made many plans to check out places we wanted to go before the trip but ended up staying in at the hotel most of the time. Being in an air-conditioned room was much more pleasant than fighting the hot and humid weather outside. We did explore a couple of places but readily came back to the comfort of our hotel room as soon as we could.

228 Peace Park

Located about two blocks away from the Hotel Flora, is a city park that used to be called Taipei New Park which is now renamed as 228 Peace Park to commemorate the February 28, 1947 incident in Taiwanese history. I have passed by this park a couple of times before but never really gone inside. It was a pleasant surprise to find this area with beautiful pond, pavilions, old tress, and shrines right in the middle of this busy city. We decided to take a walk to this park one morning, to give time for the housekeeping staff to make up our room. It was certainly a nice find for a morning stroll.

Shady pathways

serene pond

Pavilions

While walking around the park we 'discovered' the subway NTU Hospital station which seemed to be closer to the hotel than the main Taipei station. Since then we used this station as our main transport point while we were in Taipei.

A statue of Confucius. 

One of the historical Huang family memorial.

National Taiwan Museum on the north entrance of the park.

Yi Fan Di Sukiyaki--No. 48, Section 1, Kaifeng Street, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 

About a block away from the hotel, there is an all-you-can-eat sukiyaki restaurant (shabu shabu) that I have read about on some Taiwanese blogs. This turned out to be one of the most memorable dining experiences we had on this trip. I would highly recommend this place to all who will be in this area of Taipei, especially at lunch time. Lunch is $388 NTD, and dinner $458 within a 90 minutes time frame.

We did not make reservation, so we figured if we go early it should not be a problem getting a table for two at lunch. We were definitely early, too early for their 11:30 opening, so we waited patiently outside for this meal. Sure enough, we were their first customers for the day and we got a table for two. 

Entrance of the restaurant

The sukiyaki soup base was just the right flavor and very delicious. You can order all the meat you want from the list including prime and choice cut beef, pork, and lamb plus many more.

Cart with a variety of vegetables and various extra items will be at table-side for your personal selection.

Placemat with instruction

Egg dip

Yummy!

More, please!

Heavenly!

You can choose meat from US, New Zealand, or Taiwan. 

Dessert--green tea ice cream with red beans, lime pieces with brown sugar (surprisingly good!)

What a great lunch!

Views From our hotel balcony

Neighborhood of Hotel Flora

A lot more boutique hotels sprung up in this part of town since the last time we were here.

A huge balcony with nothing, just a lot of space.

Eslite Bookstore, Tunnan--No. 245 Tunhua South Road, Section 1, Taipei

ChC wanted to check out this 24-hour bookstore one day. This is a huge bookstore in a nice area of town with multiple floors of merchandise. It was nice to be inside this air-conditioned building, flipping through the pages of interesting books in many languages and selections. Unfortunately, there are not that many places for people to sit, so you could see people just sitting on the floor without blocking other customers. We managed to spend over an hour in there and bought a couple of books before leaving this place.

Exterior and main entrance of the bookstore.

one of the subway stations

Astoria Cafe--No. 5, Section 1, Wuchang Street, Zhongzheng District, 2F, Taipei 

This historical restaurant is located just a block away from Hotel Flora, which made it convenient for us to go there. Throughout the years, I have read many stories of people and events relating to this cafe and always wanted to see this place. Astoria Cafe is said to be the first western style bakery and restaurant opened in Taipei in 1949. It was owned by a group of friends, including Russians and Chinese, so they serve meals with a little Russian twist. Maybe that was why it was a favorite restaurant of Chiang Fang-Liang, the Belarussian wife of President Chiang Ching-Kuo. This was also a popular gathering place for many writers, poets, and artists in the old days.

Up the stairs to the restaurant.

Menu

Place setting

The set meal came with a salad.

Interior, definitely old fashion.

Cream soup that came with the set meal.

For an additional $160, you can upgrade your cream soup to the borscht.

ChC had the chicken wrap...

and I had the traditional fried pork chop (Pork Kiev).

A tiny little piece of cake and a piece of Russian soft nougat for dessert.

All in all, the food was OK, nothing spectacular in my opinion, but if you are interested in a place of nostalgic atmosphere with a little bit of history in this modern city, this could be it! As for myself, I guess I can tick this off from my list of places to visit. Been there, done that!