Taipei: NTU Part 2 [Day 4]

Today was another free day and I was to meet up with Karen L. for dinner so I decided to go to 光華 Guang Hua to search for a cheap, good quality tripod for my DSLR until dinner. Guang Hua is known for its numerous vendors with all things electronics. There's even a big building that houses over 100s of vendors, as well as vendors located throughout the main streets and alleys. It's pretty much an electronics freak/geek's heaven haha. Of course Guang Hua is known for the food around the area as well catered to students since the Technology University is located right next to Guang Hua.

An alley leading to all the food stands near Guang Hua.

光華鹽酥雞 Guang Hua Frying Shop. They used to have a single stand but now they've acquired a store front. Much cleaner this way.

Big 雞排 fried chicken breast from the shop. Bigger than my hand as you can see from the picture. A little bit too much breading though.

Forgot to focus but its a stand selling various scallion cakes.

My 抓餅加蛋 loosened scallion cake with egg.

Had to get a oolong milk tea to go with all that before I went searching for my tripod.

Unfortunately all the tripods are too expensive for me. They have a lot of really nice brands and I guess Taiwanese people are starting to use those too, since they probably last much longer, and who doesn't like named brands? Higher profit margin for the retailers too probably hahah.

Chilled a bit around there then met up with Karen at Gong Guan (AGAIN) to decide on where to eat. We didn't really want to go anywhere else so we just decided to search for something to eat around NTU. Pretty much went to the same alleys and streets as the day before.

Stopped by here cause Karen kept on raving about how good the 水煎包 water-cooked bun was, especially the one with chives.

Of course had to wait in line. A good sign.

The bun itself. I got the 白菜水煎包 cabbage & pork bun since the chive & pork sold out. Really subtle flavors. You can taste the pork and the sweetness of the cabbage. I hella wanted some soy sauce & vinegar to go with it.

梅江韓國烤肉 MeiJiang Korean BBQ

台北市中正區思源街10號

SiYuan Jie, #10

Zhong-Zheng District, Taipei

After grabbing the bun and buying some bread, we finally decided on an all-you-can-eat KBBQ spot... which wasn't really smart considering I already ate a bunch at Guang Hua. Nevertheless, I wanted to try something new and preferred a sitdown restaurant so we dove in.

The round copper grills are really popular in Taiwan. Water is added and flows to the edge so it cooks the veggies and noodles. Comes with a few banchan like kimchi, seaweed etc.,

Getting ready to EAT. Definitely a good deal. Only a little over $8 US.

Pork, kalbi, chicken, beef, and lamb. Marinated pretty well. It seems like they use a sweeter marinade.

I decided to bust out the bread I got from a bakery earlier near the Gong Guang MRT. This one looked really promising since it had crumbly crust.

Turned out to be custard inside..... which isn't my favorite but I still ate it cause for that small cube it costs like 15 NT haha.

My breakfast bread! Egg and bacon on a bread. What a complete breakfast! Decided to save that for the next day hahah.

After dinner we walked around for a bit and we're both getting thirsty so decided to stop at 陳三鼎, another spot famous for fresh milk with boba drinks, located in one of the alleys again.

Karen recommended the fresh milk + green bean boba drink. Sooooo good. Gonna be getting this combination from now on! Boba's a little softer than the one I tried yesterday but you can really really taste the brown sugar.

Afterwards, Karen pushed me to try the stinky tofu right across from NTU even though we just had AYCE KBBQ. Honestly... what an evil girl.

But I gave in and got the stinky tofu. The outside of the tofu was fried perfectly to a crisp so you can hear a crunch everytime you bite down. The sauce at this spot isn't as vinegar-y or garlic-y as what I'm used to but very good too. The only thing was the pickled cabbage. Kinda sweet.

After eating the tofu, walked past a KFC and saw them making deliveries for boxes of popcorn chicken hahah. Wanted to jack a box.

臺一牛奶 Tai-Yi

台北市新生南路三段82號

ShinSheng Nan Lu, Section 3, #82

Taipei

臺一 is famous for their traditional shaved ice and sweet dessert items. Been here for over 40 years! Karen was adamant about me trying this place too. I was seriously stuffed already because of her but after seeing the place and realizing this was an old school spot, I had to have it.

芝麻湯圓紅豆湯 Sesame tang yuan in red bean soup. Wow this... was good. 臺一 only serves hot items and sesame tang yuan during the winter season so I definitely came at the right time. $60 NT.

The gigantic tang yuan. Tang yuan is essentially mochi filled with either sesame or peanut filling. Came with 3!

The sesame filling. At first I thought the red bean soup was sweet but after taking a bite of the sesame tang yuan I realized the soup was nothing compared to it! In fact, it's so sweet that when I drink the red bean soup again, all I could taste was red bean and not the sugar.

Sadly I couldn't finish the whole thing since I was so full and I was getting a sugar overload. After eatubg all the sesame tang yuan, we decided to head back to the MRT station.

Passed by Hubert's Yogurt Art haha. Would've gone in.. but really... too much sugar already and sweet stuff.

So I said my goodbye to Karen and forever shall remember her as the evil girl that kept on making me eat. As I began to take the MRT back to my aunt's place, I decided I needed another drink just cause it's my last night there and I might as well take advantage of the late opening hours so I went to 遼寧 nightmarket again.

Went to 清心 again but got a oolong qing tea this time. Decided I needed something lighter.

BUUUUUT on the way to the apartment, I saw 格登炸雞 Golden Fried Chicken. It's another frying stand that sells everything from chicken to fried veggies. They've been around forever too. What's different is that they use a batter which is more similar to the West but they use the same spices for flavoring. I walked a lot on the way back so my stomach had made room and decided to get 雞排 fried chicken for my late night snacking. Bad idea cause I felt like crap afterwards... but it was good!

So that was all... in one day. Holy as I'm writing this I realized just how much I ate that day. I really should be 300lbs or something, but I did have a glorious day of eating that I can be proud of thanks to Karen.