KY travels – Taipei Family Tour Day 5 – Xi Men Ding and more food!

The last day at Taipei started with a brunch at a pretty nondescript neighborhood noodle and ruroufan shop. We ordered two bowls of noodle, a couple ruroufan (rice with braised pork), a plate of pork belly, some pork ears with hard boiled eggs, and a serving of boiled vegetable for the 3 of us (plus the baby, of course).

neighbourhood noodle and ruroufan shop for breakfast

We then packed up, checked out, and headed to downtown for our final destination of the trip – Ximending.

Ximending is a huge shopping district much like a mixture of bukit bintang, petaling street, and jalan alor all mixed together, except with even worse parking situation but a better weather for walking around (when there’s no tyhoon). It is definitely a must-visit for most people who comes to Taiwan, and I don’t disagree.

bubble tea shop at 95 music zone, ximending

Fun fact, at Taipei, underground parking lot has the same 1-way ramp to go up & down different levels, the exit is the entrance and vice versa, and only wide enough to fit a single car going through, one of you would need to reverse if meeting the other at half-level. Fun stuff.

Upon getting out of the parking, we saw a small queue outside 95 Music Zone, and upon closer inspection, there’s a bubble tea stall integrated into this record store. Naturally, we lined up to order.

who says bubble tea should be expensive?

The milk tea here was only 30 NTD, or 40 NTD if you opt for fresh milk. They were as delicious as any I’ve tried, and if you ordered normal Oolong tea and such, they are as low as 10 NTD, which was equivalent to RM 1.40, no wonder there’s a queue.

Who needs those fancy bubble tea chain?

sweet potato ball snacks

There are plenty to see and more to buy if you’re a shopping type at Ximending. For those who are into snacks and street foods, there’s even more to stuff your mouth with. We bought some sweet potato ball snacks to try, but frankly speaking they were just “ok”, a bit deflating both literally and metaphorically to be honest.

sushi wakasakura, Ximending

Since Taiwan is both physically pretty close and has been occupied by Japan for quite a lengthy period of time, Japanese food is also very pervasive here. Naturally, it meant that I must pay a visit to one of their countless Japanese restaurants in the city.

The chirashi sushi I had was laden with sweet shrimps, scallops, and salmon, while mom had an unagi bowl. Both were as good as any I’ve tasted, certainly not disappointed.

bitter gourd lemon juice, maybe too healthy..

We also spotted a rather interesting stall offering bitter gourd lemon juice with some beautiful white bitter gourds on display. The drink is exactly what you’d expect it to taste – sour, bitter, and absolutely feeling like you’re pumping up your health meter as you drink (especially when you opt for sugar free), there’s chunks of bitter gourd to chew on too.

end of the trip, was a great few days with the family

We then drove to airport, dropped the car, and flew back to KL. It was a great trip with some wonderful food, great scenery, and most importantly, awesome memory spent with family. Can’t wait for more.