Taiwan trip 2014 day 4 1 mar 2014 (Taichung city)

March 14, 2014

Taiwan trip 2014 day 4 1 mar 2014 (Taichung city)

Now is 11.07 am n mr Cheong is still sleeping. Both of us were exhausted n now suffering from muscles aching... But I'm gg to bathe now . We are planning for xinshe today

Change of plans... Coz both of us were exhausted, we decided to explore taichung city instead. I have previously noted down some of the must go places in Taichung city centre
Our first destination will be towards 第二市場.
We decided to alight at 中友百货 and slowly walk there, so that we can shop a little along the way n Mr Cheong was feeling hungry and since there was a stall selling 鸡蛋糕 we decided to buy. The 鸡蛋糕 came in cuter designs compared to the ones we ate the other day at Fengjia night market.

Along the way we bypassed many bridal studios, cakes shops selling GDL stuffs and shops doing events planning/selling events decorations stuff. One of the bridal studio attracted me there. The whole studio is 2 storey high but it covers a very huge area. The whole studio is decorated using Tiffany Colour. Outside the studio is like an events area n it is again decorated in Tiffany Colour. I couldnt help it but to take a photo there. Isn't e deco nice?

1) 第二市場

No. 87 號,Section 2, sanmin road, zhong district, Taichung City, Taiwan 400

It is near to taichung tra station. It is a popular foodhunt place for the locals in e day time. However by the time we reached many of the stalls were already closed. This gives us another excuse to visit Taichung again. Heehee

Our first stop:

顏記

They are famous for their 肉包 and 餛飩. We decided to get just the 餛飩 as the 肉包 would be too filing for us

Our 餛飩湯:

The ingredients used were indeed fresh. The staff was surprised that we only ordered 1 bowl to share..

Btw, they also sell frozen 雲吞 for u to buy some n cook yourself. But the frozen ones are not any cheaper. It cost the same for both frozen ones and the already cooked ones.

If u visit 第二市場.. U must definitely eat from this stall...you won't missed this stall as it has a queue which will never shorten.

老王菜頭粿

Operating hours: 7am to 5pm

We ordered the combo set - carrot cake + rice sausage + egg at 55NT

They are really yummy... Especially the carrot cake,.. Somehow it is just different from the normal ones sold in Taiwan n of course very different from the carrot cakes sold in singapore. Thinking Abt it now makes me drooled...

By the time we finished this... Many shops were closed. Mr Cheong decided to patronize a sushi stall in the middle of a market...

陽媽媽立食

We were greeted by a cute wasabi drop.. The owner actually made an effort in decorating even the wasabi.

Sitting in a wet market enjoying the sashimi and looking at 陽媽媽working on our food was indeed a very unique experience.. They were actually having a promotion as in if u posed and take a photo with their name prop and after that post it on your Facebook, you will be able to get another sushi free of charge. They didn't approach us though, maybe knowing that we are foreigners n didn't know that we have data access. Otherwise, I thought getting foreigners to publicize for them is better isn't it ???

Next stop we will be going to is the famous Miyaharu.
On the way to Miyaharu, we bypassed 红瑞珍 which is famous for their sandwiches. We weren't really sure what makes it so famous and popular. When we were there, we saw many of their customers buying the sandwiches which I was holding on in bulk. None of the customers only buy 1 though there is no minimum purchases. We didnt buy any since I was kind of full and Mr Cheong doesnt like bread

We also by passed another store which is a popular place for local products-美珍香. This is not the Bee Chiang Hiang we knew in Singapore. The 美珍香 of Taichung is famous for their 凤梨酥, 中秋月饼 and 三明治

While still on our way to Miyaharu, we bypassed a ice cream shop which has a amazingly big crowd and long queues for both sit-in as well as their take away counter. We later found out that it was the same ice cream shop as Miyaharu.

2) Miyaharu (Gong Yuan Yan Ke/宮原眼科)

No.20, Zhongshan Rd., Central Dist., Taichung City 400, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

http://www.miyahara.com.tw/

Many may think that it is some optical shop from its band but wrong!

It is located along the 眼科 street and housed in a former eye hospital, that's the reason for the name.

Miyaharu is opened by Dawncake – an established store in Taichung that sells pineapple tarts and other pastries packaged in nice boxes – and it has become so popular that it is listed on most travel guides to Taichung.

Miyaharu is famous for their ice cream and bubble tea too. There was a super long queue when we were there. All waiting to get a scoop of their famous ice cream.

It was no wonder that people were all fascinated by their ice cream just by looking at how the different varieties of chocolate ice cream alone.

We didnt manage to get any of the ice cream due to the 'out of this world' queue. It seemed as though the whole population of Taichung has came to get their ice cream. We will try it next time if there is no queue.

Interior of Miyaharu reminds me of a library in the Harry Potter scene doesn't it ?

Miyaharu is worth visiting – even if it was just to see the shop’s interior ( like us ) - and to buy some gifts for friends and relatives.

3) 春水堂（chun shui tang)

30 Siwei St, Taichung
+886 4 22297991
http://chunshuitang.com.tw/

Chun Shui Tang Teahouse, believed to be the inventor of bubble tea, is also a must-try in Taichung. Besides having a wide range of tea-based beverages, they also serve affordable and tasty traditional Taiwanese snacks such as pig’s blood, beef noodles, and braised pork rice

We didn't ordered any food as my purpose of "bringing" Mr Cheong here is just to try the original. ( Mr Cheong loves to argue with me about who brings who to a place... :x i must confess that though I was often the one who found out about a new place, but didn't really know how to go.. And Mr Cheong is always the one who literally bring me to the place I have found :x)

For me, I ordered e original milk bubble tea

While Mr Cheong ordered the Plum red tea

Haha from the photos, u can see Mr Cheong was busy looking at the map to analyze how to go to the next destination from where we were. And I'm there snapping photos :)
Our verdicts for the bubble milk tea was great. Both of us find it smooth, pearls were not bad ( we don't eat pearls esp in singapore as we found it too tiring to chew), in fact, my dear Mr Cheong exchanged with me cause he didn't like what he had ordered claiming that it was too sour... Usually he has a higher tolerance for sour than me. But I actually found it ok. Just taste of the plums...

Can u imagine, we only spent NT115 ( S$4-5) in total and we sat in the teahouse for more than 1 hour? I think we might have already been chased out if we were in Singapore.

4) BANANA NEW PARADISE 香蕉新樂園茶飯館

No. 111, Section 2, Shuangshi Road

Bei District, Taichung City, Taiwan
台灣台中市北區雙十路二段111號
(+886) 04 2234 5402
Mon – Sun: 11am – 12.30am
http://www.vernaldew.com.tw/

A retro eateries which looks like the "Malaysia Food Street" at RWS Singapore and Singapore Flyer Food trail but of a much bigger scale.
The interior is modelled after a Taiwan street from the from 1920 to 1940, completed with Ching Dynasty and colonial-era store fronts and hundreds of real antiques and items collected.

The design of the menu let you feel like you are one of the character living in the 1920s

I was actually quite disappointed with the custard bun.I had hoped that it would be those oozing kind instead of this solidified kind

Initially we had only wanted to order the above 3 dishes. However, the cost was not enough to meet the minimum order so we added 1 more dessert. The amount of sago in it was rather pathetic.

Overall, I would say Banana New Paradise is recommended for photos but dont bother to travel there for food at least for those dishes which I have ordered.

How can we end the day in Taiwan without patronising their night market?

We decided to go to

4)中华夜市 (Zhong Hua Night market).

We took a cab there as our legs were giving way. We had initially chose to explore Taichung city as we thought that there would be less walking but we were wrong. In fact, we walked most today than any other days of our trip.... another reason for taking a cab is also due to the fact that there isnt any bus that could bring us there....

Zhong Hua night market is supposed to be Taichung's oldest and largest night market but it was a disappointment. Yes it was largest as it spans over a very large area. However, the stalls were very scattered unlike those in other night markets. Each stall is facing the main road and motorists can just stretch out to make their order without alighting from their vehicles.

Mr Cheong actually ordered 卤肉饭 from the above stall which was supposed to selling bak kut teh from Singapore. I have missed that photo though :(

The oyster mee sua and fried oyster were from the same store. The fried oysters were kind of expensive at NT80 but still ok considering that they did give us quite a few oyster. However, the oyster mee sua was disappointing. The store still claimed to have a history of more than 50 years -_-"

After a disappointing visit to Zhong hua night market, we decided to head back to Fengjia night market just to get a couple of few more dishes before I ended off with 阿伯双淇淋