What Ximending is to young adults and fashion in Taipei, Shida Nightmarket is to food. There’s plenty to eat here and it’s priced for university students. Unfortunately the same can’t be said about most of the shopfronts there, with a lack of vendors in favour of more traditional boutique shopfronts slowly taking over.

Away from the main strip that serves as the main nightmarket area, you’ve also got a bunch of side streets offering a more cafe/restaurant environment for those wishing to escape the nightmarket crowds.

That said, the nightmarket area retains most of its urban culture and is one of the “warmest” nightmarkets I’ve been to in Taiwan.

Well, not if the Taipei City Government and cranky residents of the surrounding area have their way.

Citing some bullshit Taiwanese law that states ‘restaurants are not allowed within a radius of 8 meters from residential buildings‘ (that makes what, nearly every eatery in Taiwan illegal?), the residents of Lane 13 Pucheng Street in the Shida Night Market area petitioned the local government do so something about the noise Lane 13 was generating.

Shortly before the turn of the year, the city government, at the request of long-suffering local residents who organized themselves into a “self-relief association, medium-sized demolition vehicles struck down the signs, neon or otherwise, of the “exotic” eateries lining (Lane 13 Pucheng St).

The lane, which has over time become a hub of international cuisine (Korean, Indian, Malaysian, Thai, Tibetan are just some of the countries represented), is now under threat as the government has hinted that removing the signs is only the first step in the complete removal of business there.

The signs are the first to go, and the evictions of the businesses cannot be ruled out, the owners of the eateries were told.

Whilst the eateries sit on the borders of what can be constituted Shida Nightmarket, it appears the government is escalating a growing desire to eradicate Shida Nightmarket altogether.

Following a protest by residents of the area in October last year , Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) announced that ‘no further expansion of the Shida Night Market would be permitted‘.

Recently however the first shots appear to have been fired with Taipei City Government removing the words ‘Shida Night Market’ altogether from the nearby Taipower Building MRT station (the main public transport entry/exit point for the nightmarket).

The ‘Longquan Market’ that Shida Nightmarket has been replaced with, is from what I understand a regular run-of-the-mill Taiwanese daytime grocery market. These markets are a dime-a-dozen in Taiwan and why this needs a mention as a local attraction escapes me.

It’s a bit like listing Walmart in a tourist guide.

The removal of Shida Night Market from the TaiPower MRT station signage was apparently done in response to yet another petition filed by locals. In addition the petition requests that the government

remove the name ‘Shida Night Market’ from all official bulletin boards, road navigations (signs), tourist brochures and  even bus stops.

All traces of Shida Nightmarket have also apparently been removed from the Taipei City Government Tourism website.

This appears to have been done in response to yet another petition filed by local residents. In addition to the removal of ‘Shida Night Market’ from the MRT signs,

Because yeah… pretending the nightmarket doesn’t exist will fix it. I imagine once the local’s demands have been met, they’ll simply launch new petitions requesting the government take more action towards the eventual close of Shida Nightmarket altogether.

Clearly this appears to be the ultimate end-goal for local residents.

Shida Nightmarket appears to have its origins dating back to 1987 but didn’t really develop into a fully fledged nightmarket until the early 1990s.

Roughly twenty years old give or take, Shida Nightmarket is currently one of Taipei’s busiest tourist attractions, generating ‘NT$12.3 billion (US$408.6 million) in 2009, rising to NT$14.7 billion last year‘.

It’d be a shame to see Shida Nightmarket disappear just because some locals can’t play Mahjong in peace…


Additional source used: UDN (English)

Footnote: This news story uses a Chinese new source that  has not been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

During this time I like to take in my surroundings. The people around me, all stuffing their faces or ignoring eachother with their smart phones all offer a few moments relief from the meal at hand.

A look over at the food area rekindles any forgotten ‘oh I have to try that’ memories and a surveying of the decor itself often reveals little gems I might otherwise have missed.

Sitting in Greenness Hotpot in Banciao one night, it was there that I discovered ‘The Art of Food’:

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

Quite obviously not even in the slightest way connected food, let alone the art of it, I snapped a photo and made a mental note to investigate Greenness’ Art of Food when I got home.

A short Google search later revealed that indeed the Art of Food had nothing to do with food. Turns out Greenness’ the Art of Food was incorrectly titled and consisted of the first two verses of ‘Spring, the Sweet Spring’.

Spring, the Sweet Spring being poetic lyrics written Thomas Nashe around the year 1592 as part of the play ‘Summer’s Last Will and Testament‘.

Performed below by the Infinito Nightingales back in 2008:


With Greenness Hotpot not exactly priced to attract the patronage of the creme de la creme of Taiwanese high society, I’ll forever wonder if the appearance of Nashe’s play was intentionally included by the owner of Greenness, or merely the result of some an interior designer’s random whim.

‘A bit of high-brow English poetry with your hotpot, sir?’

‘Why thankyou*munchmunchmunch*that’d be*munchmunchmunch*splendid*munch*!’

A favourite (and I can only presume staple) thankyou gift appears to be a box of individually wrapped cookies. By and large whilst these cookies (biscuits) usually come in a fancy box, I’ve found they’re nothing worth writing home about.

Last year I attended one particular wedding where, in addition to cookies we also got a rather strange little box.

The back of the box looked like a regular offering of ‘Moringa Adzuki Bean Caramel’ candy:

But flip the box over and you had a nice little quaint wedding gift:

Apart from the printed photo, special touches include ‘Happy Milk Caramel’ on the front (which should probably read ‘Happy wedding’ or something?) and the couple’s wedding date written underneath the barcode.

The only problem with such a gift I found was that once you’d finished the candies… you kinda felt massively guilty about throwing the box away.

Good thing I didn’t know the couple to well and had no such reservations!

But shame the candy tasted horrible.

Seriously Taiwan, you need to get over your love affair with red-bean flavoured everything… it all tastes like freaking arse!

I’m not entirely sure when 7-11 started stocking it but I’ve had my eye on a little blue can I noticed popping up in the energy drink section of their refrigerators.

A few days ago I thought what the hell and decided to try Laohu Yatzi out.

What a mistake that was.

Manufactured by O²+ Life Co., they describe Laohu Yatzi as

the drink of the 21st century.

Laohu Yatzi is refreshing and aids the body in recovering from aerobic exercise, restore lost essential vitamins and promote a sense of general well-being.

It helps to boost the body’s ability to uptake Oxygen in the body, and helps metabolism too.

Translated literally as ‘Tiger’s tooth’, I suppose O²+ Life Co. are trying to cash in on the old Chinese association with eating tiger parts and good health. By calling your drink ‘Tiger tooth’, you probably hope people will drink it for the same reason they chow down on tiger penis soup in China.

What I didn’t realise till I got home though was, despite it being clearly grouped with 7-11′s energy drink offering, Laohu Yatzi is more a sports (“aerobic”) drink.

As such it’s not fizzy!

That and it’s got a pretty mellow orange Vitamin C type flavour to it. Essentially what you wind up with is a drink that tastes like someone mixed a berocca with water, regurgitated it into a can for you and then diluted it with some more water.

I did note on the can it mentioned ‘Light’ (I couldn’t see a full-strength version anywhere), so I’m not sure if that had something to do with the appalling taste.

That said, why the hell do you need to make a ‘light’ version of a sports drink anyway?!

Laohu Yatzi Aerobic Drink – Unless you like that non-fizzy watered down Vitamin C taste, this is one drink you’ll want to pass on.

Around June of last year I paid a visit to Laodong Beef Noodles down in Banciao Distict of Taipei County and enjoyed a highly satisfying bowl of regular flavoured beef noodles.

With LaoDong’s regular flavour beef noodles being an excellent mix of spice and oniony broth, with the meat slow-boiled for around 24 hours, I walked away keen to try LaoDong’s other beef noodle offerings – in particular, the tomato flavour.

A few weeks ago I was in the area and had the chance to sit down and order me a bowl of LaoDong’s tomato flavoured beef noodles.

When I first visited LaoDong, I lamented that LaoDong

had a tomato flavour offering too which looked interesting, if not sounding a bit bland

and unfortunately, this turned out to be pretty accurate.

In comparison to Laodong’s regular beef noodle offering, the tomato variety tasted like heavily watered down packet soup that totally destroyed the flavour of the dish.

Why LaoDong even offer the tomato variety when the regular flavour is so full of flavour I have no idea. If you ever find yourself looking to dine at Laodong though, probably best to just stick with the regular beef noodles.

LaoDong do have some other varieties of beef noodles on offer but with the tomato flavour turning out to be so boring I’m entirely terrified of trying anything else for the time being.

Still, there are times when I feel, as much of a devoted follower of the hamburger that I am, that even I pale in comparison to the true hamburger devotees out there.

This niche of society operates in complete secrecy, most likely largely due to the ridicule that follows when you tell someone just how much you love hamburgers.

Occasionally though, in rare moments of revealing clarity, a glimpse of this cult-like cross-section of society can be seen – if you know where to look and more importantly, what to look for.

The other week I walked past a billboard for MOS Burger.

For those not in the know, MOS Burger are a Japanese burger chain that specialise in serving tiny overpriced hamburgers that almost always leave you hungry. Possibly even more hungry than when you first walked into the store…

To the untrained eye, the MOS Burger billboard above is innocent enough. But take a closer look and well, clearly someone at MOS Burger takes their hamburgers a wee bit too seriously…

‘Hamburger is my life’… really guys?

If MOS Burger weren’t some multinational giant corporation, you’d almost want to forgive them for their enthusiasm. Instead, the billboard left me with a shudder that resonated down into the deepest recesses of my spine.

The day I ever meet someone who agrees that hamburger is indeed their life, is the day I finally lose all hope for humanity.

On the other hand, maybe it’s just the final realisation that the man in the mirror is now truly what terrifies me.

May whatever hamburger god you choose to believe in have mercy on us all.

With the standard price for all you can eat hotpot in Taipei city starting at roughly $500 TWD ($16.50), sometimes it pays to venture out of the city into the surrounding Taipei County.

If you look hard enough, it’s often possible to score yourself an all-you-can-eat hotpot meal for well under $500.

As the current temperature in Taipei continues to hover around 10 degrees C, today I’ll share with you a recent dinner we had at Greenness Hotpot.

Situated in Banciao District, just south of Taipei City, Greenness Hotpot is quite large compared to Taipei City’s cosy hotpot places.

On offer a variety of hotpot flavours for you to pick from:

Personally I have a thing for curry flavoured hotpots so I ordered this and am happy to report the flavour was quite delicious. The girlfriend went with the spicy flavour and equally found it satisfying.

Being an all you can eat buffet, it’s up to you to get up and serve yourself and Greenness provide you with a huge selection to stuff yourself with.

At the far end you’ve got a refrigerated wall of meats and chilled foods,

and in the centre a series of heated mains for you to help yourself from, along with various steamed dumplings and soups.

If you’re craving sushi, Greenness have a manned sushi bar you can order from,

and I believe these guys will also cut up various types of hotpot meat on request if you’re not happy with the wall fridge offerings of meat.

Oh, and there’s plenty of options to choose from when it comes to mixing your sauce too!

For dessert there’s a cabinet of cakes and bread, and in the centre aisle you’ve got jellies and two fondue fountains (milk chocolate and white chocolate) to dip marshmellows and breadsticks in. Greenness also has a selection of Meiji icecream as well as several brands of individually wrapped icecreams to enjoy.

There’s also a well stocked drinks bar down one side offering a ton of drink choices and around the corner from that is a soft drink fridge serving delicious Coke, Fanta and Sprite in glass bottles!

After filling my plate up, I went back to our table and marvelled at the wonder that is all you can eat hotpot in Taiwan.

Sometimes the staff let the meat and more popular dishes run out at these large all you can eat hotpot places, but I’m happy to report this didn’t happen at Greenness. Stuff did run out but the staff were constantly refilling everything up.

Coming in at $379 TWD ($12.50 USD), Greenness Hotpot is definitely a viable cheaper alternative to Taipei City’s all you can eat hotpot joints. $121 TWD might not sound like much in savings but if you eat hotpot regularly it’s a noticeable difference over the long-term.

Greenness Hotpot is located on Section 1 of Wenhua Road in Banciao between Banciao and Xinpu MRT stations (blue line).

I’m not sure of the exact address (website URL is in Chinese) but if you’re heading from Banciao Station, Greenness is on the left side of Wenhua Road (it’s huge, just look for the giant fish logo).

Not really having a stocked kitchen, much the less an oven, this year we found ourselves once again eating out on Christmas Day.

The venue of choice for Christmas Dinner in Taipei this year was On Tap, a bar situated in central Taipei City.

Coming in at around $750 TWD (~$25 USD) or so, On Tap’s Christmas Dinner was a three course meal with one complimentary drink.

The drinks on offer were Tiger Beer, red and white house wines and San Miguel Light. I’d had a mug of San Miguel before and didn’t particularly like it, and not feeling like wine I opted for a bottle of Tiger.

Next up was our entrée, a bowl of corn soup:

The soup was pretty good I thought. Creamier then the corn soup you get from McDonalds or the steakhouses. It also had a little cubes of meat in it too which was good (chicken or ham, was difficult to tell!).

Shortly after that was our main, which was an assortment of meats and veg.

You had turkey, brussel sprouts, carrots, peas, a sausage wrapped in bacon (delicious!), brocoli and some potatoes. Rather than offer condiments separately, each plate also came with a serving of bread sauce, gravy and cranberry sauce.

Personally I found the main quite satisfying and a nice change from my usual staple diet of Taiwanese food. The best bit was definitely the bacon wrapped sausage, I could have easily downed 3 or 4 of those!

Desert was a straightforward affair,

A chocolate brownie with some icecream. I’m not exactly sure what it was but the brownie had some sort of fruit inside (cranberry?), which offered a nice slightly sour taste to offset the sweetness of the chocolate and vanilla icecream.

I know that doesn’t sound appetizing but I found the combination worked. Again, could have easily eaten 3 or 4 of these but that’s just my big mouth talking.

All up, not bad for just over $20 and with On Tap being a bar, afterwards you’re free to relax and have a few drinks.

Some of the other patrons did seem to get a bit loud later in the night though and I heard a glass smash at one point… but from what I could see nothing too out of control.

Back in Australia without a doubt my favourite junk food escape was a McDonalds Quarter Pounder meal.

Not something I’d eat regularly, but when that fatty food craving hit, a Quarter Pounder meal was always the ticket for me.

When I came to Taiwan unfortunately I had to give this treasure up. Unfortunately McDonalds Taiwan didn’t have any love for the Quarter Pounder – instead replacing it with a crispy skin grilled chicken burger and some weird grilled chicken marinated burger that I’ve never seen anyone eat.

To my surprise, I was walking past a McDonalds the other day when I saw on the door what looked like a Quarter Pounder.

Flushed with excitement but still not sure if it actually was a Quarter Pounder and not some crappy Taiwanese copy version I was looking at, I ordered a double and when the box came let out a small squeal.

Indeed McDonalds Taiwan are now offering the one and the same Quarter Pounder I’d grown so fond of back home.

Obviously only to be eaten in moderation, but as delicious as I remember them being back home.

Pricewise they’re just as comparatively dirt cheap as the rest of McDonalds with the normal Quarter Pounder coming in at $125 TWD ($4.15 USD) for a regular meal and the double $145 TWD ($4.81 USD).

The Quarter Pounders are listed as ‘new’ rather than the usual for a limited time so if I didn’t know any better, I’d say they are permanent additions to the McDonalds Taiwan menu lineup.

Life in Taiwan has its ups and downs and whilst a simple menu change at McDonalds might not be all that much – stay here long enough and you quickly learn to roll with the punches and take the good news any which way it comes.

Here’s to high cholesterol and fat clogged arteries!

The first thing you’ll probably notice about the Taipei International ‘New Row Mian’ Beef Noodle Festival is the ridiculous spelling of the event.

I’m not sure why, but rather than opt for calling it the Beef Noodle Festival or using the correct Pinyin, the organisers seem to have just slapped together English words that sound right, but have nothing to do with beef noodles.

If I had to take a punt, I’d say this come from the practice of putting together whatever Chinese words fit together to sound out English words that can’t be directly translated (such as names).

Unfortunately Taipei International New Row Mian Festival didn’t seem to get the memo that the reverse in English doesn’t really work.

That aside, for fans of beef noodles festival is a must visit. With so many beef noodle varieties on offer, you’ll be wishing you had the four stomachs of a cow to sample it all.

Haw haw haw, see what I did there.

Hosted at ZhongShan District’s ‘Expo Dome’ (next to the ZongShan soccer stadium and YuanShan MRT station) in the north end of Taipei City, the Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival is a moderately sized affair showcasing what is supposed to be the best of beef noodles in Taiwan.

There was an international offering there… but from the one enthusiastic local couple we spoke to, they said it was pretty crappy compared to the local samples available (no beef chunks, just thin slices of beef!).

On offer were probably 20-30 different beef noodle makers and the basic idea is that you walk around and for $50 TWD ($1.65 USD) get a small sample cup size of their beef noodles to eat.

Situated around the main vendor area are seating areas for you to sit and enjoy your beef noodle samples.

These areas can get a bit messy but the festival staff were quite efficient in keeping areas clean and running smoothly.

There are bins provided to throw your own rubbish out so if you go don’t be a dick and leave your bowls and crap on the table (like most people did), just throw it out. It takes a whole thirty seconds of your time and the people waiting to use the eating area after you will be thankful.

Arriving mid afternoon, we managed to hit up three beef noodle joints before finding ourselves full;


Taiwan Yi Pin Ramen and Sliced Noodle

Taiwan Yi Pin Ramen and Sliced Noodle had won awards in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010 so we had some pretty high expectations ordering a sample from here.

To add to your noodles you had selection of various meats and organs as well as the additional option of some grilled stinky tofu.

Wanting to focus just on the beef noodles we each just ordered a bowl of the noodles.

Being the first meal we were having for the day we were eager to wolf down the noodles but unfortunately Taiwan Yi Pin’s beef noodles were the most bland of the three we had.

The beef was nice enough and you got a nice big tomato with your noodles but the taste was massively lacking. Basically you felt like you had a very weak tomato based soup with some boiled noodles and beef thrown in.

These guys really need to work on pumping up the taste of their noodles.


Royal House

Royal House noodles were our second pick and this was largely based on the consistently huge line they had out the front of their stall.

With so many customers to serve, here you can see the Royal House production line;

and evidently winning giant beef noodles trophies is serious business.

Just look at the guy’s expression. He’d totally rip your face off and serve it for dinner if you dare criticise his noodles.

I’m not usually one for standing in queues but not really being hip to the Taiwan beef noodle scene on a name basis, just decided to go with it.

Thankfully we did as Royal House beef noodles was easily my pick of the day.

Their beef was succulent and their soup was awesome. I’m a big fan of slightly salty noodle broth (not too much) and Royal House was a perfect mix of onion and beef flavour soup.

Highly recommended.

Yong Kang (永康)

Yong Kang really surprised me as in stark contrast to some of the other beef noodle displays around, these guys had nothing up and were simply just a white blank stall.

Despite this though, throughout the day they had a consistently long massive line out the front of their stall.

Apparently Yong Kang is famous around Shida Night Market and going off the enthusiasm of the locals I just had to try some.

This guy had a pretty hardcore job, note the compression band on his elbow!

Unlike Royal House and Taiwan Yi Pin, Yong Kang used thick sliced noodles in their beef noodles and this guy stood around all day shaving the noodles off a big chunk of noodle dough (or whatever you call it).

He was super friendly though. Not sure if he spoke English (didn’t want to bother him as he was quite busy) but he smiled and said hi to everyone in the line as they went by.

The best part about Yong Kang noodles was the beef. I don’t know what they do to marinate it but it’s infused with the most delicious slightly spicy flavour.

The bad part about Yong Kang noodles was the sample bowl only had one piece of meat in it, whereas everyone else gave you 3-4 chunks of beef.

The soup wasn’t as flavourful as Royal House but the beef more than made up for it. On the day I still picked Royal House as the best tasting out of the three we sampled but it could have easily been Yong Kang if they’d included 2-3 chunks of beef with the noodles.

Other than eating beef noodles there wasn’t all that much else to see. As you walked around speakers everywhere blared out what was going on from the main stage area at the back of the hall.

For about the first hour we got there, some annoying company was promoting their Australian beef and all you could constantly hear was the promoter woman shrieking ‘Ow-jo niu-ro!’ (literal translation: ‘Australian beef’) into the microphone trying to get the audience pumped.

Every so often they’d all shoot their hands up and I assume someone won a prize.

This went on for about an hour and then some belly dancers came out.

They  weren’t exactly lookers but the middle-easterny music was a welcome relief from the shrill cries of ‘au-jo nui-ro!’ that had been blasting our eardrums.

Just off to the side of the stage you had the chef preparation area with chefs from the various teams cooking furiously away.

I think there were just under thirty teams competing and I think they had to prepare beef noodles from scratch (?).

Later once the chefs were done you could actually walk in around the area and whilst I’m not sure if this is what the chefs were working on, on show were artistic displays of beef noodles.

As you can see some of the art was quite elaborate and a lot of thought had obviously gone into the presentation.

With so many restaurants vying for business, it was interesting to see some of the sales tactics used.

Some stalls used giant statues:

whilst others relied on kinky maid sex appeal to draw in the hungry masses:

Walking around the back end of the festival was kind of like stepping into the twilight zone. There were some stalls selling pots and pans which I can understand but what some of these vendors had to with beef noodles I have no idea.

The above photo I think was of some shoe soles and behind it you had all sorts of massage chairs, LED lights and other random stuff.

Mobile phone manufacturer HTC and a bedding vendor:

Remote control helicopter guy:

A fruit vendor:

This woman was giving out what I think were resort discount tickets to a very enthusiastic gathering:

Hell, even Costco were there…

Along one side of the festival area you also had this giant comic display set up;

Unfortunately all the comics were in Chinese… but even without a translation they looked confusingly random;

Two rich guys meet, fantasise about cows in lingerie and then go on to start up the beef noodle festival??

If you brought kids along and they got bored, there was a little area near the comic wall where they could sit and color in some cows on paper;

Also small dogs are allowed in too,

I saw one woman with three medium sized dogs in a pram though so I don’t know what the rules are, health and safety regulations be damned!

Finally towards the end of the day the news cameras burst in and began to take over prime real estate near the stage at the back

Don’t ask me what those presenters are wearing… apparently grown adults dressing up like Japanese school kids was in vogue for beef noodle fashion this year.

We didn’t stick around to hear who won (it would have all been in Chinese anyway and I had no idea what was going on), but today my girlfriend tells me nightclub ‘Room 18′ took out #1 in the spicy beef noodles category.

A nightclub being judged best spicy beef noodles in Taiwan!? I bet that pissed off some of the other more ‘serious’ entrants!

Entry to the International Taipei Beef Noodle Festival is free and although the festival runs for four days, one weekend afternoon is pretty much all you need to take it in and enjoy some beef noodle goodness.

If you’re keen to try as much beef noodles as you can, I’d advise sharing a cup from each vendor rather than buying two separate cups each time as we did.

Oh and make sure you starve yourself on the day too so you’ve got enough room.

If I go to the beef noodle festival next year I’m definitely going to focus much more on the beef noodles themselves and try to sample as much as I can.

I did use to like the Toblerone bars 7-11 had until late last year they jacked the price up from $33 to $40+ TWD (can’t remember the exact price hike).

The otherday I walked into a 7-11 craving a chocolate fix and I was surprised to see a shelf just inside the door with a whole bunch of different chocolate products on it.

Turns out 7-11 Taiwan are running a limited time ‘World Chocolate’ promotion.

As you can see there’s a whole bunch of imported chocolate that 7-11 don’t usually stock. There’s too much chocolate on show to include the entire display with any great detail so instead here’s a shelf by shelf rundown;


Shelf 1

36 Chocolas chips and various Mirabell chocolate varieties.


Shelf 2

Ritter Sport, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey’s Kisses, Meiji Black, Meiji Milk and Meiji Strawberry.


Shelf 3

Pocki Almond Crush, Meiji Macadamia, Meiji Meltykiss and tubs of chocolate balls (can’t make out the brand and I forget what they were).


Shelf 4


‘Always’ assorted dark chocolate varieties,  Guiylan Shells, Grahams Goldfish and assorted Dove chocolate balls.


Shelf 5

Pocky Peanut Crush, some Chinese brand of chocolate wafers, some Japanese brand of chocolate biscuits and Brown & Haley Almond Roca.


As you can see the chocolate is priced between $35 TWD ($1.15 USD) and $279 TWD ($9.25) so it’s a bit hit and miss.

Not having had them before, but having heard of them throughout the years we opted to try a box of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, coming in at $59 TWD ($1.95 USD).

Inside the box you had six of the cups individually packed.

Compared to a normal size of peanut butter cups I have no idea how the 7-11 size goes for value… but I thought it was alright for just under $2.

Tastewise though, although the cups did taste like peanut butter… it was highly salted peanut butter. As such you were left with what felt like an oily chocolate sensation as the peanut butter slowly melted and then somewhat of a finely gritty and heavily salted aftertaste.

I probably should have gotten something more chocolatey but oh well, lesson learnt.

Memo to Reese: Just because something is made in Chocolate Town doesn’t mean it’s good! False advertising much?

Oh and unless you’re an idiot like me, do remove the paper cup on the bottom of each cup before eating. I thought it was enough to take out the plastic bag from the box, remove a cup from the plastic bag, unwrap the foil covering the cup and then pop one into my mouth.

Evidently not… as there’s an additional paper cup on the bottom of each chocolate cup itself and if you don’t remove it, you have to spit out the cup and waste precious chocolate!

Yeah, I wasn’t too impressed either with my overzealous habit of stuffing chocolate down my mouth without thinking Reese’s peanut butter cup fail.

We asked the 7-11 staff how long they were running the promotion for and they said until stock runs out. They were also holding a promotion where if you bought two of the chocolates (above $50 TWD I think it was) you got the second for half price (they have to be the same variety).

Enjoy.

Realising I’d have to excuse myself, I wandered outside in search of a drink. Usually in this circumstance I’d simply head outside and walk a few minutes to the nearest 7-11 and grab something. In this particular instance however I didn’t really want to miss what was going on inside.

Finding a water fountain with no paper cups nearby, I approached the desk next to it.

‘Hi there, would you have a paper cup for the water machine?’

‘Sure’.

I looked down at what she handed me, slightly confused.

‘Uh, what’s thi-…’

Cutting myself short, I then realised what it was she’d handed me. In the truest sense of the word ‘paper’, I was indeed holding a paper cup.

In my whole life I’d never seen a paper cup like this which, let’s face it, is really just a folded bit of paper held together with glue, so I had to suspend my disbelief that it was actually going to hold water and not fall apart.

Thankfully upon filling the cup I noted that it did indeed hold its water. Drinking from the cup however was another matter entirely.

Once full, the cup is quite awkward to hold, you’re essentially gripping something paper-thin holding a body of water.

Grip too hard, which is all too easy to do and you’ve got water all over yourself.

Putting this style of cup to your mouth isn’t any easier. Apart from barely holding just a mouthful of water, even with its tapered lip you still feel like you’re giving yourself a paper cup when you raise the cup to your mouth.

Nobody else seemed to particularly mind so I can only assume these cups are quite commonplace here. Meanwhile it was definitely the most awkward cup of water I’ve ever had. Thanks Taiwan.

I’d like to think the cup was being used was progress of Taiwan’s environmental awareness, but realising that these cups probably cost a fraction to manufacture than their proper and somewhat sturdier counterparts, I couldn’t help but feel the cup was just the end result of some government department trying to save a few dollars.

When it comes to hotpot in Taiwan there’s three things I always look forward to. The first is unlimited Coke refills on tap and the second, a really strong soup base that infuses itself with the hotpot ingredients and third, the making of my own custom Chinese barbecue sauce.

After I’d finished climbing the stairs, as I walked into Pin Dang Ding Sukiyaki my eyes darted around and after finding the Coke machine breathed a sigh of relief.

As we waited to be seated however, I realised that there didn’t appear to be a sauce station.

‘Hey, they don’t have any sauce… what kind of hotpot place is this?’ I remember asking.

As we sat down, my fears were confirmed as there was indeed no sauce station.

‘No sauce?! Wow, well you’d wanna hope their hotpot soup was damn good then…’

Lucky for Pin Dang Ding, it was.

Sukiyaki as it turns out is basically a Japanese styled hotpot (nabemono) with a strong soup base consisting of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin (rice wine).

Unlike your traditional hotpot restaurants in Taiwan, in sukiyaki you simmer, rather than boil your chosen ingredients.

Pin Dang Ding provide the following guide on their placemats;

Whereas with hotpot you make your own Chinese barbecue based sauce, with sukiyaki you make a sauce out of egg yolk. Me not liking egg at all, let alone an egg based sauce I skipped this altogether and just enjoyed the marinated food straight out of the hotpot.

Luckily the menu is pretty much the same between traditional hotpot and sukiyaki so you’ve got your standard meats and vegetables commonly available in Taiwan to choose from.

Of particular note is that Pin Dang Ding Sukiyaki use ‘certified Angus Beef brand‘ beef. These guys have a quality checklist of their own for all meats that fall under their certification and the end result shows.

Normally I’d shy away from eating meat in hotpot without flavour, but this Angus beef was delicious.

Simply put, the sukiyaki style of sauce and simmering of the food rather than a straight boil resulted in a wonderfully rich soy based flavour blending with everything we put into the pot.

Not so strong enough to take over the flavour of the food being simmered but just enough to infuse the soy soup perfectly.

Even better is that Pin Dang Ding Sukiyaki is all you can eat so for $500 TWD (plus a 10% surcharge I believe) you can eat all the sukiyaki simmered Angus beef you want.

Unfortunately there’s no buffet for the other ingredients so you have to wait for the staff to come around with a cart, at which point you pick and choose what you want off that.

Despite being busy the cart still managed to come around every ten to fifteen minutes or so. With enough food on the table to keep you going, this system worked well enough.

Dessert wise there’s no icecream which was a bit of a downer and the only thing on offer was some little puddings in glass jars (mango, milk (below) and coffee flavours I think from memory).

Unfortunately these weren’t all that good. The jars are rather small and oddly shaped making it difficult to eat with a spoon and the flavour wasn’t all that strong.

In the future I’d probably give dessert a miss and just focus on eating enough mains so that you’re quite happy to skip dessert altogether.

Situated on the second floor (1st level), Pin Dang Ding also offers some nice views of the bustle of Banciao while you eat.

Personally I didn’t think hotpot without barbecue sauce was possible but these guys and their sukiyaki proved me wrong. Sukiyaki is heavily soy based though so if you’re not a fan of salty flavours you might be better off sticking to regular hotpot.

For everyone else, Pin Dang Ding’s sukiyaki makes for a refreshingly delicious change if you’re into hotpot.

Yet undoubtedly, on pure purchasing power alone this little card has saved me thousands since I bought it and weekly I find myself using it 2-4 times a week on average.

With nothing like it existing back in Australia, today I want to introduce you to the McDonalds ‘Dessert Card’.

Ridiculously cheap for what’s on offer, this little plastic card is quite possibly the best thing I’ve bought in Taiwan yet.

The basic idea behind the Dessert Card is that you pick one of the ‘A’ menu items on the back of the card.

For each ‘A’ item you pick, you then get a ‘B’ item for free.

As you can see, ‘A’ items include (from left to right, two rows);

• Coke in the large size (1L?) for $35 TWD ($1.17 USD).
• Thickshake (500ml or so) for $45 TWD ($1.50 USD) .
• Coffee with price varying on which one you order. I have no idea as I don’t drink hot coffee. All coffees are medium size.
• 4 McChicken nuggets, this is $59 TWD ($2 USD).
• 1 small chips + 1 apple pie which is around $40-$50 TWD ($1.30-$1.65 USD). I’ve never ordered this so I’m not 100% sure.
• Corn soup which is a small paper cup (250ml or so) and is cheap at $25 TWD (83c US).


After making your selection, you can then pick any ‘B’ item (left to right, two rows);

• a Coke in the large size
• an ice-cream soda in the medium size
• an iced coffee (coffee + ice)
• an an ice cream cone
• a sundae (regular size) or
• a coffee (small Americano, small hot caramel milk tea, hot chocolate, hot black tea)


Now think what you may of McDonalds food but when your cycling about in Taiwan’s heat, being able to buy 2L of not too fizzy McDonalds coke for $35 TWD is heaven.

One for me and one for the girlfriend and we’re good for a few hours hydration.

Additionally the corn soup + sundae or chicken nuggets + sundae (or coke) option makes for a cheap lunch or midnight snack.

Amazingly, McDonalds sell this Dessert Card for a measly $29 TWD (97c US) and it’s valid for a year!

The catch however is that they only sell the card for a month or so, which I believe is April. Each year the design on the card and menu slightly changes so you can’t use the same card once the deadline is up.

My current card expires on the 30th April 2012 so I’ll be sure to pickup a new one in April next year once they go on sale.

Why there isn’t something like back in Australia I’ve got no idea but there certainly damn well should be!

There’s me like a chump paying over $60 TWD ($2 USD) for one sundae in Australia when here in Taiwan I can walk away with a sundae and coke for roughly HALF of that.

Definitely a recommended purchase if you’re in Taiwan around April and planning on staying a year or so. Again, love it or hate it anyone from the west is sooner or later going to get that ‘omg I want something without noodles’ pang and McDonalds is easily your cheapest and most widely available bet.

Even if you only use the card two or three times a year you’re still going to easily wind up in front savings wise, anything else is just a bonus.

The McDonalds Taiwan Dessert Card – don’t leave home without it!

A few months ago I had a conversation with the girlfriend that went something like this…

‘hey, you busy?’

‘Writing… what’s up?’

‘This weekend my friend is having an engagement party, wanna go?’

‘Sure sounds good. What time?’

‘Around 10′ish’.

‘That’s a bit late to start the party isn’t it?’

’10am in the morning’.

‘…’

‘that ok?’

‘who has an engagement party at 10am on a Sunday morning?!’

…but it was no use. That Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed half asleep and headed down to Taoyuan for an early morning engagement party.

I remember walking through the door and being hit in the face with the surreal experience of feeling like I was at an evening dinner, but with the stale ash taste in my mouth from the night before reminding me that it was indeed quite early in the morning.

As we sat down at our table I near cringed at the red wine offered me, but in the spirit of politeness graciously accepted the glass.

Here’s how an engagement party in Taiwan at 10am or so on a Sunday goes down.

After being seated and sipping on your wine, everyone has to wait a bit before the grand entrance of the engaged couple.

This pretty much works in much the same manner as a normal wedding reception. Red carpet, lights dimmed and everybody goes a little bit crazy as they enter. There was a pretty large crowd so I struggled to get a clear shot of the couple.

Shortly after the couple are seated at their table, out with the food!

It was a banquet meal (extremely early lunch by my time) that just coming and coming. Served up by the folks at ‘Fuli Sichuan Banquet’ in Taoyuan City up in Taiwan’s north, I must say despite the time the engagement party was held, they did a pretty superb job.

And although I wasn’t all that hungry, here’s the banquet in all its photographic glory;

Hot Sour Soup

Ham (I think) Salad

Lamb Chops

disgusting Sea Cucumber

Fried Fish

Duck Soup

Mushrooms with Abalone

Lobster with Prawns

and Curry Puff baked things

Throughout the meal, as they do at the wedding reception the parents of the engaged couple had to walk around to each table toasting everyone.

Unlike the wedding reception though this seemed to be a parents only affair. I’m not sure if that was a family decision or a notable difference between the engagement party and actual reception.

Bellies full, the clock barely touching on 1pm and we were finished.

As with the wedding reception, there’s the obligatory cookie box present for the guests along with lollies and photos with the engaged couple.

Not quite all that different to a Taiwanese wedding reception but seriously, 10am in the morning guys?

If I ever do get married in Taiwan I think I’m going to put my foot down and opt for a more traditional evening party. Banquets are nice and all… but after sitting through an eighty four million course meal first thing in the morning it’s not like you really feel like doing anything for the rest of the day.

For those interested, Fuli Sichuan Banquet is located in the heart of Taoyuan City not too far from Taoyuan train station, so access is relatively easy.



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Street address: 3rd Floor, Number 6, Minquan Road, Taoyuan City, Taoyuan County, Taiwan 330 (Chinese address: 桃園市民權路6號3F).

Prices for banquets are per table and range from $5,000 to $10,000 TWD ($165 – $330 USD) per table (unfortunately the Fuli Sichuan Banquet website is in Chinese so I have no idea which banquet it was we had).

One of my favourites thus far has proven to be a Japanese dish called Takoyaki (Chinese: 章魚燒). Literally translated as fried or grilled octopus, Takoyaki in Taiwan is essentially octopus balls served in a ‘ship’ like paper container that looks something like this;

Brushed with Takoyaki sauce (soy sauce based I think) and topped with mayonnaise, seaweed sauce (Aonori I believe) and katsuobushi (dried, fermented and smoked skipjack tuna (otherwise known as Bonito)), what you wind up with are delicious balls that look like standard fried calamari but taste more like fishballs with dried onions and sauce.

Whereas back in Australia we’d smother something like this with tomato sauce, Takoyaki has a distinctly Asian (well, Japanese I guess) flavour to it and is oh so easy to wolf down with enjoyment.

Be warned though, it can get messy as you’re essentially eating the balls with nothing more than a supplied toothpick. And whatever you do, don’t drop the ball or let it run down your top – these little marinade covered balls leave a huge trail of destruction!

Takoyaki can be found quite commonly in Taiwan’s larger night markets. On this particular occasion our Takoyaki was sourced from a street vendor named ‘日章魚小丸子船’, which translates into ‘Japanese Squid Ball Boat’ down at Shilin Nightmarket in north Taipei.

Priced at $40 TWD ($1.40 USD) for six balls, if fried food is your thing you pretty much can’t go wrong with Takoyaki.

That said, even if you do make it through and manage to still massively fail at life, you’ve always got your parents to fall back on, family connections, the family business or I guess even the military.

Welfare isn’t much in Taiwan but it’s enough to get by on if you’re living in your parents basement.

Whilst Taiwan’s deadbeats might be taken care of and have plenty of options, a far more grim reality faces Taiwan’s chickens.

I was walking through Shilin nightmarket the other day when I came across a chicken stand. When I say chicken stand I don’t mean nice cuts of chicken meat ready to go, but rather piles of chickens stuffed in cages anxiously waiting.

As I walked past I stared into the beady eyes of despair. Unable to speak, the carcasses of skin, bone and feathers silently screamed out to me with their fear.

And I felt it, it hit me like a ton of bricks and stuck to me like a squashed cockroach on my scooter tire.

Realising I couldn’t ignore the plight of Taiwan’s chickens any longer, I stopped and asked the owner what these chickens had done.

‘These are the chickens nobody wants. Abandoned by their families, the farms they grew up on and their friends.

There is no hope here for them, only suffering,’ he replied.

As I took another look around at the thousands of beaks staring back at me, I felt completely helpless.

‘What…

…what will happen to them?’ I managed to wearily force out.

The old man slowly and painfully lifted his finger, as if plagued by arthritis time seemed to stand still until his arm came to a resting place.

Taking one last look at the thousands of condemned faces in their dirty cages, I slowly turned and it was then that I saw it.

Deadbeat Chicken: The most horrid of places and inevitably where this chorus of the damned would no doubt end their days.

Taiwan’s chickens don’t get a second chance. If they fail, this is the end of the line, and there’s no second chances. What I bet they would give to be inundated with homework or beaten at school…

Today I want to ask you to stop and spare a thought for Taiwan’s chickens. These are the chickens nobody wants… the forgotten deadbeats of a society that just doesn’t care.

May they find peace in those last moments before they’re plunged into the crispy abyss of deep fryer hell.

Sometimes, no matter how much planning or foresight you put into something, mother nature has other plans for you.

A few months ago now my girlfriend thought it’d be a nice romantic change to enjoy a mid afternoon lunch buffet at Chin-Chin Garden Restaurant.

Situated in Taipei’s Shihlin District, Chin-Chin Garden Restaurant boasts some wonderfully scenic gardens and architecture, set against the backdrop of Taipei’s northern mountain range.

After planning to go for a while but continually putting it off for various reasons, we locked in yesterday mid last week and looked forward to a relaxing afternoon.

Of course then typhoon Nanmadol decided to rock up and completely ruin the otherwise weeks of sunshine we’d been having here in Taiwan.

With a forecast of rain for the week, postponing the lunch didn’t really make a difference (we had to use the tickets before the end of August) so cautiously, yesterday we headed out.

Thankfully it wasn’t raining for the trip down there on the scooter although it did start to drizzle once we got there. Nothing too serious, but given that Chin-Chin had a big swimming pool and invited us to swim, cloudy and raining weather didn’t make for an ideal setting.

That said, once we got there any concerns we had about the rain were soon forgotten. Rather, it was a family of greedy piggies that almost ruined what otherwise turned out to be quite a pleasant lunch.

Chin-Chin Garden Restaurant usually does weddings but in an attempt to use the facilities during the week when they would otherwise be empty, they offer a 2 hour all you can eat lunch buffet.

Along with food you’re free to walk the gardens

swim in the wonderful looking pool

have a swing or two of golf

or just relax next to the pool and soak up the tranquility

Food wise, on offer was salads was an assortment of cold lunch foods.

Vegetables, prawns, chicken, some assorted organs (duck I think) along with cheap Conwenie (客維您) icecream and some nice cakes.

Unfortunately though, the atmosphere, food and service… all of it was overshadowed by one family of selfish piggies.

As we queued up for food we noted the line was quite big.

The buffet area was quite small so it was more of a grab what you can and keep the line moving type affair.

Well, at least it was for everybody except one greedy fuck of a father.

After noticing that the line wasn’t moving all that much, I also began to notice the same bunch of unaccompanied kids walking in and out of the buffet with plates laden full of food.

Wondering where there parents were, I took a peek into the buffet area and saw why the line wasn’t going anywhere.

These selfish pricks had formed a conveyor belt of food transportation between the buffet and their table, completely holding up the line and demolishing what was on offer faster than the staff could replace it.

What you have there is the father, captain piggie, waist deep in the food cabinet scooping up massive plates of everything. He’d then pass it on to one of his kids who’d walk off to the table before returning for another plate.

Once I started paying attention I counted no less than six plates carried by the daughter alone. Then on top of that there were also two older brothers walking away with loaded plates too.

Meanwhile other people tried to go around them and get what little food they could before moving on.

To top it off, the staff, realising that the line of about thirty people wasn’t moving but not brave enough to tell the guy to move on, went in and actually removed the sliding doors of the cabinet.

To this the father replied ‘good good, very good! Now we can eat quicker!’

And then as more plates of food came out, this inconsiderate fuck had the balls to say something along the lines of ‘ah great, good good, quickly quickly everybody is waiting! Faster!’

(translated by my girlfriend, who was just as unimpressed as I was).

This idiot and his family help up the line for about ten to fifteen minutes, was mouthing off at staff and nobody did anything. And I know everyone else was fully aware of what was going on because they all looked just as pissed as we were.

Sometimes I desperately wish I had better command of the Chinese language, I’d have certainly given him a mouthful.

When he finally moved on the line picked up pace although having totally decimated the buffet, there was bugger all left for anyone else. And I’m not talking slim pickings either, I’m talking this family of fuckwits completely cleared out the buffet – despite clearly being able to see the thirty of us waiting to eat behind them.

Eventually the staff managed to catch up again but that wasn’t the point. How anyone could be so inconsiderate was beyond me.

With nothing much to eat, I walked back to my table with a pathetically small offering of salad with some dressing.

We had to walk past the obnoxious family (who were happily now gorging themselves like the pigs they were) and after seeing two tables full of food I couldn’t help myself.

I put my salad down on our table and walked over.

‘Hi, I just want to take a photo of your food, cheers.’

Before any of them had a chance to react, I’d already snapped them in their gluttony.

Then, as I turned to leave, as if completely oblivious the mother fired back at me ‘why do you want to take a photo of the food?’

‘because there’s nothing left!’ I said loudly and walked off.

Apart from that unpleasantness, lunch was quite nice. The cakes were particularly nice and nobody seemed to like the cheesecake so I was quite happy to help myself.

(excuse the cake, I got distracted and ate one cake before remembering I wanted to take a photo of them!)

Cold foods aren’t entirely my thing but it’s nice to sit outdoors and eat amongst the backdrop Chin-Chin restaurant provides.

As we left Chin-Chin, I noticed this poor guy.

Obviously one of the seven dwarfs (who knew they could play guitar?), I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to his strumming arm.

Chin-Chin Garden Restaurant is located just opposite the National Palace Museum in Taipei’s Northern Shihlin District.



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The address is No 32, Lane 266 ZhiShan Road Section 2, Shihlin District Taipei City (Chinese: 台北市士林區至善路二段266巷32號). Bookings are essential (886 2 2841 1996) and lunch will set you back around $500 TWD a person. The evening bbq dinner is about $1000 I think.

They had this cool stage setup which apparently was used for live music.

They definitely weren’t using it for the lunches but apparently it sometimes gets used for the evening bbqs which adds to the experience.

For more information you can visit the Chin-Chin Garden Restaurant website (warning: it’s got annoyingly repetitive music and it’s all in Chinese).

Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli, are ‘rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms (endotherms). Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls.’

Food recalls you say? Well… not here in Taiwan.

Aside from being the bacteria with the trendiest name in the world, E. coli live in your gut and help your digestive system. As such, the primary use for E. coli outside of your stomach is to serve as an ‘ideal indicator to test environmental samples for fecal contamination‘.

In other words, whereever E. coli is found outside of the digestive system, there’s a very strong indication that the area has been contaminated with shit.

Now with that in mind, in a recent survey of 50 samples of ice cubes, 36 drinks, 17 sorbet items, 18 shaved ice items, and 23 kinds of drink flavorings (144 in total) bought from various vendors in Taipei City, the Department of Health (DOH) found that ‘nine samples tested were found to be highly contaminated with E. coli‘.

Now there’s only really one way for E. coli to leave your body. What goes in must inevitably come out and well… is your stomach churning yet?

Now of course the DOH hasn’t named any businesses so as consumers we’ve got no idea who is selling us shit contaminated drinks and desserts, or how further widespread the problem is.

With Taipei being the capital of Taiwan and most progressive city, I’d hate to think what the contamination numbers are in some of the outlying counties and smaller towns.

From the report, despite failing  ’a food safety test‘,  it’s unclear if any further action was taken against the vendors. However, the department are advising consumers to

check the sanitary conditions at drink shops before buying the products.

For example, consumers should check to see if there are insects in the shop and whether the ingredient containers are properly covered.


But of course none of that is going to prevent the real cause of this contamination… in that vendors are obviously not washing their hands after going to the toilet.

Meanwhile, you might wanna keep all this in mind the next time your standing in line waiting to order yourself an E. coli infused bubble tea…

I love icecream and I love soda – so combining the two seems to me like a no-brainer.

I find the icecream takes an edge of the cola and somewhat evens out the drink, making it more filling and creamy. I know ‘cream’ and ‘soda’ don’t usually go together (unless you’re drinking creamy soda), but for some reason in an icecream soda it just works.

Despite being in Taiwan for nearly two years now, I was gobsmacked the other day when my girlfriend returned from a McDonalds counter randomly holding this;

Apparently, despite not advertising them anywhere, McDonalds in Taiwan serve up icecream sodas.

Awesome?

Not really. Unfortunately part of what makes up a good icecream soda is the quality of the soda and that’s where the McDonalds icecream soda falls falt. Not being actual icecream, combining with coke tasted a little weird.

I know there’s no plastic in McDonalds softserve but combine their icecream with coke and plasticy tasting coke is what you get.

That and it kinda looks like a messy toilet bowl in a cup.

Strange when considering I’m a fan of both Coke and McDonalds icecream (it’s available 24/7 and tastes better than 7-11 packaged icecream).