Starting the day with food is a good idea, but starting the day with really good seafood is so much better. We started our day by going to the Addiction Aquatic Development which is a well-known seafood grocery/restaurant. It’s located in Zhongshan District, a bit of a distance from our place. We took a bus and had about a ten minute walk to get there. The building is a bit innocuous and we weren’t exactly sure we were there until I finally saw the facade I’ve seen from blogs.
It’s a huge building which is a grocery store, a place to catch sea food, and a restaurant. It’s a standing restaurant and a self-serve place.
There is a sushi restaurant inside within the grocery but we didn’t eat there. We looked around first to see which food we’d like to get. Eventually we ended up with a box of lobster rolls, unagi, grilled prawn with cheese, assorted fruits, seafood pasta, some suhi, and deep fried durian.
The food there is decently priced ranging from NTD 100-250 depending on what you’re getting. We got quite a lot of food because everything seemed so good. It’s easy to overspend.
After our lunch we went to the National Palace Museum next. The two places are pretty close to each other and we just took a taxi since the commute seemed a bit tricky.
The area around Addiction was a bunch of independent workshops which really brought me back to my old job in Shell. I remember talking to agencies to create the branding and signage for their workshops. Also, another cool thing is that we passed by a Ford dealership! It was the first and only Ford dealership that I saw in my whole stay. When I was still in Shell, my favorite thing to do when out of the country is see what their Shell stations look like and now that I’m in Ford, I try to see what Ford dealerships look like.
While the museums looks like an traditional Chinese building, it’s very modern looking inside! There’s a bit of a walk from where you get off the bus to the entrance so I’m glad that our taxi dropped us off the entrance of the museum.
The museum is really huge with majority of its exhibits focusing on the different ceramics during the different dynasties. It was a vast exhibit that goes through the ages. There was also a collection of old writing/books. The calligraphy was very intricate and beautiful and how they managed to preserve the books so well. The highlight of the museum was the jadeite cabbage and the meat-shaped stone. Unfortunately, the cabbage was in Taichung for the flower expo but we did get to see the meat-shaped stone. It was lovely!
I thought it will take us much longer to be in the museum but we actually got back in the city early. We decided to try the milk tea place near our AirBnB, ShareTea. I don’t think we have Sharetea in the Philippines so I was really excited to try it. They also have a really yummy selection of pastries.
We brought the snacks to our AirBnB and ate it there. Our AirBnB is a small studio room but it offers a great view of the Taipei101 building. It was a great afternoon to cap off the day we had. We stayed in for a few more hours before we headed out to the Ximending night market.
Ximending is another night market just at Ximen station. This is probably the most vibrant place I have ever been too. It’s just screaming of so many things to do and see!
I’ve seen the Ay Chung noodles as part of must try foods in Taipei and it completely slipped my mind until I saw their stall. There was a long line, but we were served really quickly. We just have to pay, get a ticket, walk to where the noodles are being served and that’s it!
We ordered the small noodles (NTD 50) and decided to split it. It’s still a generous serving despite getting the small size. It was so good because it warms your insides as it was chilly! I can’t quite describe how it tastes, except that if you are a cilantro hater then it’s best that you skip this. The noodles were very filling. All I can remember is how fresh and warm it tastes.
We walked a few more with nowhere specific to go, just looking around. After a bit of walking I found another store that sells huge fried chicken.
We walked some more just finishing the food we bought. There’s so many things to try and see. Apart from food, I noticed that there was a lot of arcade games in the area. We didn’t try out any but they are scattered everywhere.
We walked a bit more and there was a guy singing Meteor Garden songs. It was so nostalgic because Meteor Garden is my childhood! I remember watching that show religiously and making sure I was already home and done with my tutor before the show started. The guy singing Meteor Garden songs was in front of Uniqlo and we needed to buy a few things there. Their Uniqlo was huge! It was four floors and they had a lot on display — mostly winter apparel that I don’t really need to bring back home. After that, we went back to our AirBnB. It has been an exhausting day but it was filled with a lot of really good food! My tummy was very happy.
Hedda Damasco 