Today was a freezing cold day...seriously I was freezing my ass off most of the day.
Breakfast today was at 9am.
Usual charcoal toast and pumpkin soy milk
Yay Asian again today!! The porridge was different- century egg and pork porridge. It was good by itself and could probably be eaten even without the delicious side dishes ( I had two bowls #fatlife) There was a new dish today; homemade red bean pastry with sesame seeds that was awesome and an unpictured scallion pancake.
Fruit salad again!!! Then we got ready to leave this pretty place :(
Last pic of the beautiful front yard
So sad to leave the amazing hosts!! They even gifted us with some food items before we left. So nice of them :')
We took a one hour plus train journey to Hualien, where we will spend the next 3 days.
We met the tour guide at the airport and our half day tour begun!!
Cow tongue biscuit (one of the gifts) eaten before a boat ride!
T
Our carriage!!!
It was a four person boat, and we were given a one hour time limit to paddle as far as we could around the enormous lake.
PARANOMA
It was much harder than it looks!!! The boat moved at a snail' space and it required everyone to be synchronized. We stopped many times and only used up around 35 minutes out of the 1 hour time limit whewww.
After our 'workout' it was time for some refuelling!
Cute dog outside one of the shops
Papaya milk! So yummy!
Fried stuff
Got some fried taro which was drenched in a sweet sauce
Fried sweet potato. My loveeeee
And fried pregant fish!!
It was all good but if only the root vegetables weren't all fried :(
Next up we went for a one hour walk around the lake (around 3km) to burn FATS.
After the walk we got back into the van and off we went!!
Next up we went to an artificial European themed place with grand villas
Artificial lake. Looked too artificial for my liking :(
Mom outside one of the villas
We only lingered a while before we set off for the next destination: some clam and sea bass farm
Another gift from the full sweet inn sweeties: some walnut date muffin which is supposedly an Yilan speciality :) it tasted almost healthy!
The seafood farm was also nothing remarkable cos I was mostly freezing my ass off so we left pretty quickly
Next: some Japanese pine tree touristy area which I didn't take any pictures cos there was nothing much to take???
Some piping hot tauhuey in a gingery broth that was unbelievably awesome because of the freezing weather
Finally we were sent back to the place where we were to spend the next night: Cypress house!
The house. I think most of the place is made of wood from the cypress tree or something, but it was smaller than it liked from the pictures!
After a bit of resting (and changing out of my jeans cos they were too damn tight) it was time to head to yet another night market: Ziqiang night market!!!!
But first off we ate an appetiser ( or 'salad' as dad termed it) before going to said market. ( salt water chicken or something, from a shop recommended by our tour guide)
Le spread: dad got lotus root, yam, pig intestine, chicken thigh, vegetables, bamboo shoot and I can't remember what else.
At first I thought it would all be tossed into a soup much like Yong tau foo but instead they were all put into a jug, had spices and salt added to them, and then shaken around and served in a plastic bag.
It was nice but a bit too saltish!!! You need a drink to go along with this, definitely.
After a few more minutes of walking we reached the market!!!
It was an extremely small night market (compared to the ones we had been to) and strangely neat and empty.
First we headed to the famous BBQ meat stall recommended by our tour guide and the queue is apparently so long that you have to get a queue number and may have to wait for as long as half an hour!!
Array of BBQ stuff which you get to choose on your own. Strangely today die to the empty market we didn't have to wait THAT long, only about 10 people before us.
So meanwhile as we were waiting for our BBQ....
We made our way to the coffin toast stall!!! Deep fried bread stuffed with a filling of choice, ranging from various meats like pork, beef, lamb and chicken of different flavours. We found our seats and sat down.
Collected our BBQ which we ate with the breads. Here we have pigs blood cake (inserts hearts), handmade tianbula, chicken butt, pig intestines, mushroom and meat wrapped vegetables, all marinated in a special BBQ sauce which tasted slightly sweet. I actually didn't find anything so great about this, or maybe I'm just not a BBQ fan.
Milk tea and red tea bought from the same stall! Refreshingggggg.
Mala chicken!
Black pepper beef!
The breads were fluffy and probably fried with some sort of egg batter before being stuffed with the flavourful meats. Nice but filling.
BBQ corn! The lady was really an expert, she knew where to place the charcoal do that the corn would cook quickly, and timed the roasting of the corn to perfection.
The result: hot corn fresh off the grill, basted in a sweet sauce and dusted with chilli powder. Chewy and yummy :)
Meanwhile dad ordered some luwei from a stall.
Enoki mushrooms, taukwa, pigs intestine, seaweed drenched in a spicy slightly too saltish sauce. It was ok. Tasted like something you'll have to eat with rice.
There was also some white bitter hours juice and mango milk (that was a fantastic combo!) from this famous stall. Didn't take a pic though cos I was away buying corn :(
Handmade QQ balls!
Sweet potato and taro fried chewy balls!! Damn nice and tasted like air.
Pink guava
Hehe
Mediocre lamb soup which was tasteless and herbal and the lamb was tough and only edible with the accompanying sauce.
And finally what's a visit to the night market without dessert? As quoted frome me: ' old people means good food'
And I was right!!! Red bean and taro and sweet potato balls
And a yam version.
Maybe it was because I was damn cold but this was nicer than the Jiufen one! The addition of the fresh sweet potato and taro made it better :))
And then stuffed to bursting (at least I was) we headed back to the warmth of the hotel :)
The end. / ahhhh the trip is ending soon nooooooooo
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