Addiction Aquatic Development

The Addiction Aquatic Development is a seafood market and food hall located near Songshan airport, conveniently next to an indoor fruit and vegetable market. Eater also has covered this back in 2019.

I visited back in 2018 and had a great time - the seafood is fresh and the variety huge... It's akin to a more Western-style upscale grocery market / food hall, and wouldn't be out of place in Copenhagen or another Nordic country. Getting here can be a challenge as it's not the closest to any MRT line. We ended up taking a bus that dropped off right in front of the vegetable / fruit market.

There many food options - you can choose to dine-in at a restaurant with table service, pickup pre-made platters and eat them outside at communal tables, or what we did -- choose the middle option where you "dine-in" but stand at the sushi bar.

All of the seafood is very fresh (and reasonably priced -- that's not to say it's cheap, mind you).

I'm not sure if others ever have "sushi brunch" - doesn't seem like a popular thing but it's certainly our family's style.




Wasn't sure what this is but it sure looked fun


Fruit and vegetable market




Look at the size of these avocados!












Outside of ADD


Live seafood



Grocery portion of ADD

My family and decided on the counter-service dine-in setup, which involved taking a number and queueing, though at 11am the line moved fast (even if it was busy). We were "seated" (aka led to our counter) in about 10 minutes.

Menus are below, remember that $1 USD = approximately $30 NTD.

Prices aren't cheap, but are reasonable for the selection you're able to get and the quality / freshness of the seafood (plus no service charge or tipping). You also won't see any California rolls.... those are appropriately named for where they came from


Counter service menu



Counter service menu



Counter service; dividers separate parties


Standing at the sushi bar



Local crab, priced by KG


Fish collar soup


Tuna sashimi sampler



Japanese uni



Tuna sushi sampler



Broiled mackerel collar



Handroll



Sushi sampler



Otoro - fatty tuna belly


Steamed crab



Pre-packaged sushi selection - $15 USD for a sampler



Pre-packaged sushi selection

Our bill ended up to be something like $200 USD, or ~$65 / person, very reasonable for the amount of seafood we had.

Hiking Elephant Mountain

We decided to burn the calories from brunch off by hiking Elephant Mountain (one of the most popular, accessible, and photographed spots in Taipei).

A quick stop back at hotel then to the MRT Red Line where we took it all the way to the other terminal station (remember Tamsui? That's on one end of the red line, and Elephant Mountain - or "Xiangshan" - is on the other end).

Obviously we had to keep the sushi train going by picking up a small 7-Eleven sushi roll snack for the climb.


A quick snack from 7-Eleven before heading out

After getting off the MRT, you walk through a small park before arriving at the entrance to Elephant Mountain. This is an incredibly popular place (especially for NYE) as the unobstructed views of the Taipei 101 and skyline are unparalleled to almost anywhere else in Taipei.

There are various viewing platforms around Elephant Mountain. For me, it wasn't a "difficult" hike by any means - while it's all stairs, it is all mostly paved and well-developed / trafficked. My parents did fine for average fitness levels, there are many places to stop as you're essentially just on a stairstepper for ~30 minutes.




Steps all the way to the top


Mid-point


One of the famous viewpoints


Back at the bottom

I was flying out this evening, so my parents let me pick dinner. I hadn't had a good tonkatsu in a long-time (really since the last time I visited Japan), and this was the closest I could get.

I've yet to find comparable tonkatsu in the states without paying a fortune -- I'm talking slightly pink center, crisp but not oily breading, sesame seeds you grind yourself, and unlimited cabbage and soup.

Maisen is a Japanese Tonkatsu chain, and we arrived around 5:45pm, just 15 minutes before they opened. We snagged one of their only tables as it seemed that -- even though they were in a shopping center -- they had a full reservation list.

I ordered a set meal, and as is custom, it came with a variety of appetizers and side dishes. Traditionally with tonkatsu sets, you can "refill" the cabbage and soup as many times as you want... and Maisen doesn't stray far from tradition.

While I've had better (in Japan), I would put Maisen in the top 75% of tonkatsus I've had.


Maisen Tonkatsu - a chain from Japan


Steamed egg appetizer


Various cold dishes


Katsu


Evening time around the Taipei 101

Next up: Flying EVA Air's 787 back to Seattle