Touring Taipei over Lunar New Year

February 5, 2025

Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

Sara’s Thoughts and Recap

We arrived in Taipei after midnight thanks to a flight delay, and thus didn’t get to our Airbnb until around 1:30am on January 27^th. We are staying on the 6^th floor of the Q Square Mall in the Datong District, so getting to our apartment meant navigating a lock box, scanning our new key fob, taking two elevators, and entering a code, all while dragging our luggage and three exhausted children behind us. Nevertheless, this location has proven to be pretty great, particularly during this time of year. I was so focused on leaving Vietnam before Tet, I somehow failed to encode that this would mean arriving in Taipei just in time for Lunar New Year. Lunar New Year means a massive influx in crowds while at the same time, the shuttering of many restaurants and shops. Happily, the mall was open throughout the holiday, so just like Jews on Christmas, we went to the movies (Wicked) and ate Chinese food. We missed the fireworks and other celebrations, but just as well; a quiet day was perfect for us.

 We were also pleased to discover that we can access the Taipei Main Station without going outside, a huge plus as it’s been raining for much of our time here. The Metro is easy to navigate, though I cannot get over how polite and orderly everything is! People actually line up to board the subway trains. There is no pushing or shoving; just people calming standing in neatly formed lines, waiting patiently for others to exit before getting onto the subway. This New Yorker is awe struck and perplexed. There are also adorable things everywhere – claw machines and small toy machines with tiny stuffed animals and other toys. The cute factor is certainly high here in Taipei.

Despite 3 ½ months traveling through Asia, I was ill-prepared for the lack of English spoken here. I am using Google translate constantly. The other day, Calla and I waited an hour to order breakfast, which required the assistance of three native Chinese speakers to help us. (This is in part because Calla fancies herself a polyglot, repeatedly grabbing the menu out of my hands and insisting that she could read it and order for herself.) We’ve appreciated everyone’s patience with us as we stumble through navigating this city!

What we failed to do here in Taipei is visit temples or museums. I feel somewhat conflicted about this. One of the tensions in planning a trip this long is between going to the “must see” places in each local versus giving ourselves permission to not have to do it all. On our first day here in Taipei, we attended half a walking tour before deciding we were too cold and absconding to a bookstore. The tour was extremely interesting; I knew very little about Taiwan’s history before coming here. I could also tell that everyone was dragging, and it wasn’t worth trying to power through. Ultimately, between the holiday, crowds, and weather, as well as our more pressing desire to eat, catch up on work, and spend time with friends, we leaned heavily into the “giving ourselves permission to not hit the famous sites” side of the dialectic.

And…. We’ve had such a great time here!! Some highlights:

Taipei Zoo

The day after Lunar New Year, we took the Maokong Gondola to the Taipei Zoo. Jonah is on a quest to see every bear on earth and was excited to see a panda bear and an Asiatic black bear. There were also several red pandas, i.e., the cutest animal on earth. The zoo was ginormous, and Calla and I headed back to the Airbnb early while the boys stayed behind to conquer the whole thing.

Day Trip to Taichung

Since 1:1 time is key to our survival as a traveling family, I planned a day trip to Taichung – the second largest city in Taiwan – for just Simon and me. Due to Lunar New Year, the traffic was horrendous, and the drive ended up taking about 3 hours each way. We made the most of it and had a jam-packed day. Our driver was such a trooper, using Google translate to make jokes about developing osteoporosis in his butt from sitting too long. 

First, we visited Carton King, which is a small paper amusement park outside Taichung. We paid our entrance fee, and were given vouchers for the train and cafes, none of which were actually accepted for the train or at the café. (?) Thus, I paid a few more dollars for Simon and meto take a ride on a paper train around the park, which also included a couple of slides and a carousal made of cardboard. It was weird, but…fun?

Next, I took Simon to Miyahara for “lunch.” Miyahara is a giant ice cream shop/restaurant/confectionary. We studied the menu and selected our flavors (salted caramel and passion fruit for Simon; salted caramel and honey cheese for me). Simon wanted to get a sundae, which included a waffle bowl, strawberries, and a butterfly-shaped cookie. As I have strong opinions about putting fruit in ice cream, I just opted for the waffle bowl. After getting our scoops, we were each allowed to select two toppings; both of us got cheesecake and pineapple cookies. We ate outside and then decided to continue our ongoing quest for a bookstore with English offerings. After failing at this yet again, we headed back to the car to go to Rainbow Village. Briefly, Rainbow Village is a former military dependents’ village that was converted into a street art site by a man nicknamed “Grandpa Rainbow.” Much of the original artwork has been destroyed, and – as with everywhere else – the village was fairly crowded when we visited. Still, it was fun to look around and take photos, and Simon enjoyed the small play structure and sand pit. 

Next, we visited the Geomei Wetlands, which is a vast area mixed with both soil and sand. We took a long walk on the boardwalk, spotting crabs and marveling at the diverse ecology. Finally, we ended our night with a visit to the famed Feng Chia Night Market before returning to Taipei at 10pm.

Visiting with Old Friends

The absolute best part of our time Taipei was that one of my dearest friends came to visit us! Becky is my former college roommate, and a professor currently teaching in China. She gamely agreed to hang out with my noisy crew for four days. While I absolutely love meeting and connecting with people from around the world as we travel, there is nothing like the comfort of an old friend. One night, we hit up a local cocktail bar, Bibber, where we sampled lemongrass gin martinis with elderflower and passion fruit, and then split one of the most delicious cocktails I’ve ever had, the “Tipsy,” a magical concoction of lapsang souchong-infused rum, smoked cheese foam, and porcini. It was so good that we returned to Bibber two days later. They only had ingredients for one remaining Tipsy, so we split it, before going rogue and ordering “literally anything else you can make with smoked cheese foam.” I’m so glad that we were able to spend so much time together, both 1:1 and with my family, and feel refreshed and restored from hours of deep conversation and connection.

 We were also thrilled to meet up with Burke, another Wesleyan friend (and Justin’s former college roommate), at the National Taiwan Science Education Center. This place wasn’t even on my radar, but Burke – who has lived in Taiwan for years - suggested it. It was absolutely spectacular for the kids on a rainy day. We were there for 3 ½ hours exploring the various exhibits. Simon even rode a Sky Cycle – a bike on the 5^th floor of the museum suspended over a net. Afterwords, we went out to hot pot, which we’d never tried despite there being hot pot restaurants all over the Seattle area.

All in all, it was so fun and special to spend time with two long-term friends here in Taipei.  

Day Trip to Shifen, Houtong Cat Village, & Jiufen

Another long day included a day trip to the Shifen waterfall, Shifen Old Street, Houtong Cat Village, Jiufen, and the Keelung Night Market. The highlight for all of us was our visit to Shifen Old Street – a former mining town – where we set off sky lanterns. The street is filled with small shops selling deflated lanterns with either four or eight sides. Each side is a different color; each color represents a different type of wish (e.g., “health and happiness;” “love and marriage.”) The lanterns are clipped to easels, where you paint your wishes onto each side. We helped the kids with their lanterns, while Becky gamely attempted to write some of her hopes in Chinese. Once we were done, each child got a chance to stand in the middle of the train tracks making silly gestures while a store attendant snapped pictures of them. Then, the attendant inflated each lantern, lit it on fire, and handed it back so that my kids could release them up in the universe.

The kids said the Cat Village was a bit of a let down, though we did see many adorable kitties and poked into some stores. I think they were anticipating throngs and throngs of cats everywhere, including baby kittens. In Jiufen, we visited a teahouse overlooking the mountains and sampled exceptionally tasty brown sugar boba milk with a burned marshmallow on top. Given the sheer volume of bubble tea shops around here, I have to say that having someone make handmade boba in the window of your store is fantastic advertising. We ended the day at the Keelung Night Market.

Night Markets & Other Food-Related Quests

The thing I was probably most excited to do in Taiwan was explore the night markets. Taiwan is world famous for its bustling night markets, each with their own delicacies and dotted with several Michelin recommended restaurants and food stalls. Between January 29^th – February 2^nd, I visited a different night market each evening. By the last day, I admittedly was ready to call it quits as my stomach could no longer handle further adventures in street eats.

Night 1: Ningxia Night Market (Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla)

Food eaten: Grilled squid (lemon; BBQ), pork dumplings, scallion pancakes stuffed with noodles, peanut ice cream roll with cilantro, cube steak

Vibe and verdict: We visited Ningxia mostly because it was walking distance from our apartment. The market was really narrow and crowded, making it hard to navigate with the kids. The food was good, but the atmosphere was stressful, and we kept losing one another. After we ate, we stopped to play some games, and I was glad that the boys only won small prizes.

Night 2: Feng Chia Night Market (Sara and Simon)

Food eaten: Grilled mochi on a stick (cheese; honey), deep fried mushrooms, pork wrapped around scallions, lemon juice

Vibe and verdict: Sprawling market with plenty of space to walk around, and not particularly crowded. The mochi was bonkers delicious which almost made up for the fact that the mushrooms were way too salty and the pork dish was disappointing (I thought I’d be eating pork stuffed into a scallion pancake. Whoops).

Night 3: Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market (Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, Calla, and Becky)

Food eaten: Sausage within a sausage (sticky rice), xiao long bao, stinky fried tofu, herbal tea with winter melon, fried fish on a stick with some egg, candied fruit - mountain pear, tomato, strawberry, grape, mochi with peanut and black sesame, sweet potato balls, scallion pancakes with egg and cucumber

Vibe and verdict: We visited this market as part of a walking food tour so didn’t get to select what we were eating. We appreciated that much of the market was covered since it was pouring out. We all unanimously agreed that the stinky tofu was one of the worst things we’d ever eaten. Jonah took a minuscule bite, while I popped the whole thing in my mouth, wondering whether I could will myself to swallow it before spitting it out. (Reader, I could not.) My favorite dish was the sausage, while the kids liked the soup dumplings and fruit, and Becky liked the scallion pancake. On our tour, we also visited a 7-11 (one of approximately 14,000 convenience stores in Taipei alone!) where our guide told us about her favorite snacks and beverages.

 Night 4: Raohe Street Night Market (Sara and Becky)

Food eaten: Black pepper pork buns, mochi with peanut and black sesame powder, durian with cheese, taro balls with salted egg and cheese, corn cakes, brown sugar mochi-stuffed pancakes, soup dumplings with American cheese, chicken on a stick

Vibe and verdict: Despite the intermittent rain, Becky and I rocked this night market, which we visited after our leisurely drinks at Bibber, hungry and ready to eat. We wandered around at a slow pace, stopping to sample whatever struck our fancy. The night market felt never-ending, and joked that - years from now - we’d still be walking the streets of Taipei, sampling new foods at the Raohe Night Market. I brought most of the American cheese-covered soup dumplings back to the apartment, since it’s essentially what I would have created had you asked me to design the ideal street food for Jonah.

Night 5: Keelung Night Market (Sara, Becky, Jonah, and Calla)

Foods eaten: Nutrition sandwich, deep fried crab, assorted shumai, millet donut, grilled corn, sweet potato balls

Vibe and verdict: It was pouring rain the night we visited, which dampened the mood both literally and figuratively. I appreciated that all the stalls had English translations on their signs, and was disappointed I didn’t get a chance to try “Lin Manual Tofu” which I’d hoped might be a classic American immigrant story of greatness.

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Things we ate that were not purchased at a night market:

· Wrapaninis (cheese and corn, s’mores) with a brown sugar latte

· Stuffed bagels (brown sugar boba, three cheese, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate strawberry, strawberry cream cheese, taro salted egg)

· Cheese milk ice cream

· Brown sugar boba milk with toasted marshmallow

· Gelatinous Taiwanese meatballs

· Salty gluten rice with dried fish

· Pork buns

· Pork pot stickers

· Salty soy milk with fried dough

On our last full day in Taipei, we attended a cooking class with CookInn Taiwan, where we made Xiao Long Bao and smashed cucumber salad, as well as assisted with beef noodle soup and bubble tea. I was amazed by the precision required for the dumplings (dough rolled to 9cm circles, 8 grams for the wrap, 18 more grams for the filling) and everyone enjoyed getting to make their own lunch. For dinner, we decided to take everyone’s advice and head to Din Tai Fung. I initially thought this was a bit silly since we have a Din Tai Fung 15 minutes from our house, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Taipei branch - or at least, the one we went to - blows the Bellevue branch out of the water. The dough was more delicate, and the fillings more flavorful. I also really appreciated the orderly way of waiting for a table. I took a number for a 5 person table, and then waited in a small library where I could watch the numbers change on a screen outside the restaurant. Justin and the kids arrived after 40 minutes, just as our number appeared alerting us that our table was ready. On the morning of our departure, Calla and I visited a local breakfast shop for a traditional Taiwanese breakfast and soy milk. Though we didn’t love the food, it was a nice bookend to our first full day in Taipei, when I took Calla to the coffee shop across the street while everyone else slept in.

Our family has been in Asia since mid-October, and we hope to return someday soon. I find that the more I travel, the longer my list grows of places I want to visit. (My kids have forbidden me from discussing future vacation plans with them.) Next up: New Zealand, where we’ll meet up with my mother and sister! 

Justin’s Soapbox

After two separate longer-term stays in Thailand and then Vietnam, our stop in Taipei feels like a bit more of a bookend to the east-Asia leg of our journey than I may have preferred.  While we did get to see quite a few areas of the city as well as outside of it, we've nonetheless been in a bit of a transitionary period as we prepare to move to more in-depth explorations of New Zealand and Australia. Being here over Lunar New Year, it was inevitable that we'd miss out on some of the regular day-to-day life of Taipei as so many places were closed and people were home with their families. The unavoidable realities of our scheduling in Taipei may not have been auspicious, but we nonetheless enjoyed quite a lot of what the city had to offer.

I've been noticing an interesting pattern in some of the architecture of Taipei that I'm having trouble putting into words, but I find it to be very striking nonetheless. A number of buildings have this very "thick" look to them with broadly defined edges, almost like a bolded font. It's a mix of cute and imposing at the same time. I wouldn't necessarily describe the iconic Taipei 101 building in this way, but it deserves honorable mention nonetheless. I was also struck by how the central interiors of some buildings are incredibly spacious, almost feeling like there are buildings within buildings. The Taipei Man Station and Science Museum especially felt like they were outdoor areas that happened to be enclosed by a steel and glass building. This was not the norm, but common enough for me to notice and be impressed by.

Ok let's get some food opinions out of the way, because mine are decidedly mixed. I had some excellent items here, such as the pork dumplings from a hole-in-the-wall shop on our first day that set a real high bar, as well as scallion pancakes with noodles from a night market, and a delightful Hot Pot restaurant experience. But this past week definitely had a lot more "not for me, thank you" experiences than expected. Stinky Tofu? Lives up to the name. Duck Blood? Less exciting than it sounds. Sausage-in-a-sticky-rice-bun? Sounds great on paper but left me uninspired.  In general, ordering food has required a little more judiciousness than we had come to expect, though admittedly we've been spoiled rotten by continually fantastic food from the Italy / Morocco / Thailand / Vietnam parade of deliciousness. 

My general reaction to the flavor profiles overall is that I think I just don't like the amount of sweet + savory combinations in flavoring than others might, especially with the amounts of star anise and fennel taste that make up that "Chinese 5-spice" signature flavoring. Some people love it, I think I'm a little over it, personally. 

With due respect to sights like the Taipei 101 tower, Cat Village, and Taipei Zoo which we all enjoyed, I think our central comfort in Taipei was the chance to see some old friends. It was wonderful to have a Wesleyan reunion of sorts with Becky (who joined us from China) and Burke (who has lived in Taipei for a decade). Wesleyan alumni can be elusive to find in the wild, so this was definitely a special occasion. Becky braved coming along with us on two days of our tour and I can only hope we didn't overwhelm too much with our 3-kids energy. Our hot pot dinner was an experiment in table manners for the kids, since that dining experience is a bit of a collaborative effort. Burke was kind enough to share one of his pro-level card tricks with Jonah, and especially kind in not relating any incriminating stories about me from the college years. This all helped the kids to engage more socially. 

I write this now having just completed a fantastic cooking class where we learned the secrets of making soup dumplings, a longtime family favorite. The kids were on great behavior here as well, and the food was delicious, so it feels a bit like going out on a high note. While there are many aspects of Taipei that we no doubt missed or may have failed to fully appreciate, I'm grateful for our time here and the chance to explore a new fully urban area in Asia. This marks the end to our second major leg of the tour, so there's a familiar sense of uncertainty and anticipation in the air as we forge ahead. But there's no stopping us now! 

Jonah’s Musings

We are visiting Taipei. Taipei has been one of my favorite places on this trip. In Taipei, we went to the Taipei Zoo and we saw so many animals. We saw lions and tigers and bears, oh my! (We also saw Wicked in the movie theater.) One of the bears sat down and started waving to everybody. I don’t know if it was trained but it did that and it was really cute. We also saw a bunch of hippos piled on each other. They looked like a bunch of big sausages where the top looked like it was burned and the bottom looked undercooked. I was most excited to see the panda, and when we finally found it in its enclosure, it was eating bamboo, obviously. I loved the Taipei Zoo so much and I think it’s been the best zoo I’ve ever been to because it has so many different animals. If you ever go to Taiwan, I’d recommend going to this zoo.

I also love the food here so much. We’ve had a lot of dumplings, bubble tea, and noodles – some of my favorite foods in the entire world! The night markets have been really cool, and we’ve gotten a lot of interesting food there like sweet potato balls and sausage wrapped in sticky rice.

Finally, we are staying in a little apartment above a mall, and its really cool because we can go down to the mall whenever we want. The city kind of reminds me of New York, but less loud and crowded!

Simon’s Reflection

I shall talk about my time doing a cooking class in Taipei. The first thing we were making was dough for Xiao Long Bao, but that will come later. To make the dough, we had to pour water into the flour and squish it up. Once we made a ball, we put it in plastic and went to the next thing. Then, we watched the chef make beef noodle soup. (I wasn’t really listening about the beef noodle soup, so I’m not going to write about it.) After that, we got a giant cucumber, a chili pepper (I took away the chili), and garlic. We cut the cucumbers up and then peeled the garlic and then put them in a container with sugar and shook them up. Then we added some more ingredients. A little bit later, we were finally able to remove the plastic from our dough. We cut the dough into pieces and each one had to be 8 grams. We rolled out the dough into tiny pancakes. Then we made one dumpling at a time. We put meat in the middle of the spread out pancake and it had to weigh exactly 26 grams. Then we pinched it a lot and I don’t know how I did it, so I don’t know how to explain it, but it looked better than I thought it would be! Then we put it in the steamer and made bubble tea. To make the bubble tea, we had a shaker with ice in it. We put tea in it and milk and shook it and then we put it with a bunch of boba and brown sugar. After that, we waited a little bit and we finally had our food. It was really yummy. That was my time of doing a cooking class in Taipei. I really enjoyed it!

Calla’s Corner

Mommy: Calla, what would you like to talk about for your Taipei blog?

Calla: So, I’m kind of like Simon because I’m going to talk about all the cooking. So we made some dumplings, we made flour and water to make the dough, and once we made them into mini pancakes, then we took them and made them bigger pancakes and then we put them on the scale and then we put meat on them and then we folded them and then I made some plain ones and some beef ones. The plain ones were so good and the beef ones were so good! And we made bubble tea and we poured the tea in and then we eat [sic] the bubble tea once it was done.

Mommy: I also really loved our cooking class. What else have you enjoyed here?

 Calla: So, when we met Becky and Burke, we went out for hot pot. I’m 5 years old and I still ate some hot pot! I know it sounds spicy but I still ate that one and it was delicious. And, I know it sounds spicy but it isn’t spicy. It sounds very lovely, but when you know it you grow it! So, off to the zoo now. We saw elephants and zebras and lions. We stopped for a little lunch there with some rice and seaweed. There’s two things that were surprising: now,

I know how to cook and it was my first day eating everything [when I ate all the seaweed and rice] and now this is my second day eating everything [when I ate all the dumplings]. I think that’s pretty much it!

Mommy: Thank you, Calla, for another informative blog! 

Calla: You’re welcome.  

See you all in Oceania!

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla