台北。Taipei.
After landing in Taiwan, I took a couple of days to explore Taipei.
My jet lag had just kicked in, but I did end up walking around, soaked in sweat or torrential rain, looking for exciting food and pockets of old charm in the sparkling, modern city.
Humid weather and stifling heat meant frequent stops at fruit stands, ice-cold teas or shaved ice breaks in between meals - braised pork, fried anything and steamed xiaolongbao vendors dotting the streets.
Taipei travel Stories.
Taipei riverside tiles
New meets old in Taipei
Fried food's everywhere
Chicken butts!
Steam City
Bowls of Braised pork on rice
Mango shaved ice
Breadfruit trees in the city
Riverside dance floor
Looking up.
A lovely dim sum dinner with Hsiao Mokki, talented food writer and a natural food guide to Taipei's hidden spots. We're graduates of the same university in Italy and decided to meet up while I passed Taipei on my way out of Taiwan. After a relaxed coffee break at Fong Da Coffee (蜂大咖啡), one of the oldest coffee shops in town, we sat down for a slightly more chaotic dinner at 金獅樓, an old-school cantonese dim sum restaurant tucked away in a building in central Taipei.
Bad timing on my part, I only ever saw the historical block of Bopiliao at night.
There's so much of my experience in Taitung in Clarissa Wei's Made in Taiwan. Knowing I ate my way through all the dishes mentioned in the book in less than 2 months spent in Taitung, seeing Aeles (Lily) in it and recognising myself in the struggle to figure out the labels for starches in stores. And meeting Wei and Ryan, the couple behind the food photography and food styling for the whole book during my last week in Taiwan by pure chance. I’m glad I’ll have the book going forward. It’ll be a bit like my Taiwanese diary.