Taipei Day 1 | Start of our 'Seefood' diet!

Even at 22 years old, the thought of travelling overseas, and to a country that I've always wanted to visit still gets me excited. Finally after much planning and research, Taiwan here I come!

Our flight was at 7:00 which was relatively early, but since we did mobile check-in online, we only need to reach one hour before the flight. Luckily for the Grab promotion, we took a Grab Hitch ride at 5:30 to the airport.

According to our flight details, we alighted at Terminal 2. However, it ended up that Jetstar check-in counter was at Terminal 1 instead. Therefore, we quickly went to collect our portable Wifi before heading to T1 via the skytrain.

*Note to self: to always double check with Changi website.

Quick breakfast at Coffee Bean since we had wasted time on travelling from T2 to T1.

Had a Hot Vanilla to warm my body up in the early morning

Off we go! To the land of bubble tea!

Clear skies, good weather

Feel so excited when I could see the land below us, we were slowly approaching Taipei!

Touched down at Taoyuan International Airport!!!

Got our one-way bus ticket to Taipei Main Station! The ride was super comfortable with wide legroom and even wifi! Way comfortable than our flight. However, I dare not sleep in case we miss the stop. The journey was relatively fast and we reached in less than an hour. 

Taipei Main Station! The transportation hub of Taipei where high speed rail, railways and metro can all be taken here! The station was so big that we got lost while trying to find our way to the metro station to buy our easy pass. When we finally found the easy pass service counter, it was closed since it was a Sunday...

With all the time wasted, we decided to head to our hotel as it was almost time where we could check-in.

Seems like the day did not go as smooth sailing... I forgotten that our hotel was located at Ximending where we were supposed to take the metro one stop to ximen station, where our hotel is a short distance away. Therefore, we ended up walking all the way from Taipei Main Station to Ximending which is quite a distance 😬 lugging our luggage in the windy weather... oopsie, guess the getting lost at Taipei main station has confused me.

Finally, reached our hotel, Go Sleep Hotel Hankou after a long walk! Checked-in and got to our room! A simple and cozy room. Without further wasting time, we settled down our stuff and proceeded Ximen station to get our Easypass!

Back at the bustling Taipei Main Station where we had got lost the past hour. We pre-bought our Taiwan railway tickets with allocated seats to Ruifang for our trip to Shifen tomorrow. We got the direct express tickets which only takes us half an hour to reach! Yay! No need to worry about no seats and queue for tickets again!

Got our Easy Pass 优游卡! The card costs 100TWD but it makes everything easier as we can top up all at one go and need not waste time queuing to buy single tickets. At the end of the trip, we could refund the balance in the card too!

There were lots of food stalls selling snacks at Taipei Main Station. We got this egg custard as it looks cute and interesting! It was so good, the eggy goodness. The custard tasted milky yet not cloying nor overly sweet. Yums!

Then, we proceeded to take the metro to Zhongshan Junior High School station where our lunch place, Taipei fish market was located. As the fish market was not located directly at the station, we have to rely on google maps and walk a distance.

Finally reached Taipei Fish Market! The Tsukiji market of Taipei!

The fish market sells fresh seafood where one could either buy home or dine in.

So many people!

Come here of course must eat fresh seafood la! We ordered one portion of braised abalone, looked so delish!

Preparing our abaloneee

Salivating as he sliced the abalonee

And of course, pigg's favourite, sashimi! The prices were really affordable as this whole box only costs 320TWD which is like SGD15? Where can we eat such fresh salmon for such cheap price in Singapore?

So much feels, the raw seafood market section reminds me of the seafood market in Hokkaido where we had fresh Alaskan king crab that time 😋

Generous thick slices of Sashimi. Everything is so fresh here as the chef sliced the sashimi on the spot

Checked out our items and went outside where there are tables for us to dine in. Dayums, our first meal in Taipei! Fresh Seafood lunch! The entire meal costs us less than 40SGD. Seriously, where to find such generous portions and abalone at such a price in SG

So good that he's speechless

Tried the abalone, and it was so chewy and sweet! Can't get enough of it!

So good.

Pigg's turn to try the sashimi! Even though I don't eat raw fish, Seeing that it was so fresh, I gave it a try and it was not as bad as it seems. Unlike the previous ones which I tasted before that felt mushy to me, this one tasted better, with natural sweetness

The market also has restaurants where people can choose from the fresh seafood and dine in

And enjoying live music at the same time

After the meal, we walked to Xingtian Temple which was nearby.

Majestic temple!

Then we realised that we should have alighted at Xingtian Temple which was way nearer to the fish market. Oh well! Then we took the metro to Jiantan, where Shihlin night market was located!

The famous Shihlin night market

Our first snack! Torched scallops!

Interesting combination of passion fruit and cheese on both the oysters and scallops

Start of our seefood diet! To eat whatever we see

As illustrated on the photo, their oysters were big and juicy

Moving along to the next stall, we bought 葱抓饼. Something alike to prata but more flavourful with egg and cheese 🧀 🍳

Certainly a must-eat when in Taiwan!

And next, we got fruits, where we kinda got scammed. Not expecting fruits to be so expensive, we did not ask for the price and ended up paying 400TWD which was like 18SGD for two bags of fruits... even though the fruits were a lot, I do felt scammed as it is still quite ex and it's too much... could not eat much after eating all this fruits

Lesson learned: to ask the prices before buying anything. A bag of cut fruits in Ximen actually costs only 50TWD -.-

So lucky of us to fall into the infamous fruit scams, which I had apparently missed out while researching.

Though it dampened our mood, we continued to walk around Shihlin, lots of game, retail, food stalls. And fruit stalls where we shunned.

Then we headed down to the underground food court, where there are many similar stalls selling stinky tofu and oyster omelette.

Stinky tofu! Even though it's stinky, I want to try as I do not want to regret by going back and not trying any of their famous street food

Oyster omelette. As opposed to Singapore's version which was more flavourful, taiwan's one is more bland. Still preferred Singapore's for this.

Oyster omelette. As opposed to Singapore's version which was more flavourful, taiwan's one is more bland. Still preferred Singapore's for this.

The pong when you put it in the mouth. According to Pigg, this stinky tofu is not as good as the one he had in China which was way smellier and darker in colour since it's more fermented. Oh well, at least I tried! Stinky tofu ✅ off my to-eat list at Shihlin!

After all the food, we felt really full and we decided to head back to our hotel for a good night's rest since we will have to wake up earlier for Shifen the next day!

Long queue for a stinky tofu pushcart stall! Guessed we should have tried this one instead since so many people is queuing! Should be good!

Anyway we were too full for anything else!

In conclusion, the Taipei Fish Market is certainly a must-go for seafood lovers! One can enjoy fresh seafood at an affordable price without having to travel to Japan's Tsukiji Fish Market! Shihlin night market on the other hand, is quite a tourist attraction. Although there are some famous street food stalls, one should be wary of the tourist shams such as the fruits and games stalls. It is still worth the trip, just be careful (: