Xinyi District

We took the MRT Red line over to the Taipei 101 area and walked around to soak in some of the (commercial) sights. Christmas in Taiwan is certainly done up to be a very... "loud" affair if you know what I mean. While the Taiwanese certainly appreciate - no, fawn over - European style, it seems like the charm of European Christmas has not made its way over here just quite yet..












The area around the Taipei 101 is primarily a shopping / restaurant district. Every high-end designer has multiple outlets here, set in the numerous department stores. Japanese department store operator Shin Kong Mitsukoshi seems to hold a near-monopoly on many of the department store real estate here....

A tip: the underground food halls / food courts underneath these monstrous complexes are incredible. Filled with every sort of prepared food / gift / grocery store you could ever think of, you won't go hungry.

Of course, we had to stop by Din Tai Fung for a snack (at my request). Din Tai Fung has gained notorious popularity in the last 5-10 years, for good reason. The founder originally sold cooking oil out of his store in Taipei, and then dedicated half the shop to selling soup dumplings. After gaining popularity, the cooking oil business was closed and the rest is history... Din Tai Fung's global empire now spans London, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Australia, the United States, and more. Their Hong Kong location has won a Michelin star on five occasions.

Din Tai Fung is famed for its precision and training, carefully weighing and crafting each dumpling that comes out of its kitchens. The dumplings are famed for having near-paper thin, translucent skin (yet not breaking), and an umami-rich savory pork broth (secret: it's a combination of pork fat and stock that makes it good). The dumplings are a source of Taiwanese pride, but the funny thing is that soup dumplings (or xiaolongbao) actually are from Shanghai EVA Air even serves Din Tai Fung specialties in business class (which I did try on the inbound leg from TPE-SEA, covered in a later post).

My personal favorite are the spicy wontons. The US outlets (I believe they're only on the West Coast, and there are three in Seattle) are far more expensive than their Taiwanese counterparts (2x the price, you get charged for extra ginger, and so on...). I do love the local customization that Din Tai Fung branches provide though - in the US they have sauteed kale


Pork soup dumplings

Pork and shrimp spicy wontons

Eggplant appetizer


Dinner at Tou Tou An
Later that evening, we had a Japanese kaiseki dinner at Tou Tou An, unable to get into any of the more famous Michelin-starred restaurants due to demand (or us not trying that hard).

The meal was excellent, though service could've improved a bit - our junior server seemed a bit impatient when explaining some of the dishes and felt a bit robotic, but the food was outstanding. Taiwan was annexed by Japan in 1895 for 50-60 years, and as such has a huge Japanese influence in terms of culture and food. My late grandmother even spoke Japanese.

The menu, unfortunately, was written in Chinese and difficult to read (even my parents had trouble interpreting what some of the dishes were meant to be), so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Japanese kaiseki is one of my favorite meals - the attention to detail and presentation is hard to beat.


Appetizer presentation



Selection of appetizers



More soup - with a sheet of radish on top



I believe this was some sort of jelly with tofu cream



Strawberry matcha palate cleanser



Excellent presentation!



Selection of sashimi



Red miso soup with cheesy scallop rice



Seared seabass with meringue



Teriyaki pork tenderloin




Dashi fish soup


Black sesame bun

And of course... what you'll see frequently in Taiwan (and other parts of East Asia I believe) are emergency buttons / pullcords. They're quite common in public washrooms so I'm not sure if this is some sort of regulation. I snicker everytime I see one because of course all of us are children at heart. I still have to wonder what sorts of "emergencies" warrant a button push.

These would've been supremely useful in Bali





Bathroom emergency!!!

Next up: Tamsui and more eating