Author: ana

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in taiwan

supermarkets and convenience stores

supermarkets continue to be a favorite place to check out on holidays, their shelves filled with curious flavors, fancy packaging or just intriguing items. we checked out a few in taipei, and they did not disappoint! a million types of rice or instant noodles, drinks galore!




my absolute favorite though were convenience stores like 7-11 and family mart. it feels like there’s one every 100m, and they are truly convenient. lunch, snacks, drinks, gifts, stationery, kiosk services… it feels like you can do so much in there! we tried a bunch of different things over time, and i particularly enjoyed their onigiris. the pork floss one was so good!

at some point, a postcrosser showed me how you could print your own photos as postcards at 7-11 and i was hooked. so easy! i printed a bunch of mini pictures to use on my travel journal for this trip.

Categories
foooood in taiwan

night markets

night markets are one thing taiwan is really famous for, and i was sooo looking forward to exploring them! they open around 6pm and offer an eclectic mix of street food and entertainment. sometimes they’re in a normal street that has traffic during the day and is closed at night, and other times they take place in purpose-made indoor markets. there’s a few in each city and they were always fun to walk: buzzing with people, arcade games lining the street and lots of food to try!

and the food is really good too — the variety is endless and some of the stalls even have michelin stars!






Categories
foooood in taiwan

a cooking class with ivy

one of the gifts the boy gave me last christmas was a cooking class in taiwan, and i loved the experience! beforehand, i picked a few dishes and discussed them with the teacher, and we agreed on the plan. we met at the market to grab some ingredients, including eggs, which were in shortage on the island for some reason. ours were salted eggs — the yolks are firm and delicious!

the market tour was definitely a highlight of the experience — they had so many types of rice, and things like spice mixes and dried leaves for all sorts of things, fruits i’d never seen, and the cuttlefish was so fresh it changed color if you touched it!

back in her studio, we had tea, and then started cooking! we made wontons in chili oil (which was not as spicy as expected) and sweet steamed red bean and sesame buns…

… and shanghai zongzi! zongzi is a laborious affair of rice, pork and salted yolk wrapped in a huge bamboo leaf that is then pressure cooked. ivy was super patient with me though, showing me the right wrapping technique while i made a mess in her kitchen.

it was amazing experience, with delicious results — and i even got to bring the leftovers home for the boy! :D

Categories
in taiwan

more manhole covers from taiwan!

after the first few, we kept seeing more and more fancy manhole covers, so we kept collecting, a bit all over taiwan. here’s some more from taipei:

from tamsui:

from hualien:

and kaohsiung!

also from kaohsiung, this rather funky constellation of little sewer lids, which i loved walking by:

Categories
in taiwan

taroko national park

what a magnificent place! taroko gorge is a national park near hualien, created by tectonic plates and millions of years of erosion that reveal gorgeous marble canyons. they are super narrow or deep in some places, others show the greenest water you can imagine.

it looked a lot like vintgar gorge in slovenia, but many times larger. it really looked like we were inside an ancient chinese painting, with the steep mountains and fog covered peaks!


our host recommended this place for lunch, and it did not disappoint — especially the sticky rice, steamed in bamboo!

one of the best parts came near the end. to get to a particular trail, we had to do 400 meters of tunnel through the mountain, and the tunnel was completely dark. i couldn’t quite understand why… but then some taiwanese tourists walking besides us shone their powerful flashlight on the ceiling and wow! sooooo many bats! i think this was the first time i saw so many of them together, and it suddenly made sense why the tunnel was so dark.

i did not realize there would be so many highlights to this place, otherwise i would have planned to stay more days so we could hike around the park between all the sights. something for the next visit! :)