Today was fat day no. 8!! Hehe seriously there hasn't been a day here in Taiwan where I haven't been stuffed to bursting with all the good food :P
Started the day off with some original yoghurt bought yesterday from 7-11! It became frozen in the fridge so it tasted like ice blended yoghurt when I drank it. Delicious :)
At around 8+ we went down for breakfast. ^ breakfast lobby
Brought down the Taiwanese milk bought from 7-11 also! I had high expectations for Taiwanese milk from the reviews I'd read before but it fell quite short of my expectations. Tasted rather tasteless and with no 'fresh cow milk' taste. Farmhouse still tastes nicer hehe.
Drinks spread! Mixed grain milk (quite ok, healthy tasting), OJ (which I didn't drink), and sweetened black tea which was good :)
Appetiser of salad with a sweet dressing! Ok, I make better salads.
And the breakfast spread itself. Sigh western again :( it was such a strange combination of foods, to say the least. A few French fries ( which were actually not bad! They were flavourful and you can really taste the potatoes.); a random mix match of fruits (Apple, kiwi, orange), 2 multicoloured keropok crackers, and an egg onion omelette that was rather tasteless. There was also some fluffy homemade cranberry bread which I spread with jam and bacon (which I gave to my brother cos I don't like bacon!!!) mehhs. I'll rate it a 6/10 on my personal satisfaction scale.
Some early morning shots of Cypress house.
Brown sugar cow tongue biscuits! (Again from the full house inn people)
At 9.15am, our tour guide arrived punctually to fetch us for our one day tour!
Some lemonade he recommended. Apparently the shop juices the WHOLE lemon and not just the pips so the lemon flavour is really strong. Oh well it just tasted like awesome refreshing lemonade to me :)
Next he stopped us at some mochi shop where he got us some mochi to sample!
Mochi-making process.
Bag of mochis w different flavours!
Black sesame mochi! It tasted really authentic, the skin was not too soft and adequately chewy (just how I like my mochis) and not too sweet either! The feeling was REAL sesame seeds which were crunchy rather than the usual finely ground super sweet black sesame filling. Uh-mazing.
Purple sweet potato with I don't know what filling? Tasted guuuuud.
One of our first stops was the qingshui cliffs!
Failed yoga pose :(
Then we drove into the Taroko nature reserve place, which was surrounded by mountains with pretty fantastic scenery. The guide was rambling on about the history of the mountains and the native aborigines who used to live high up there before they were chased down by the Japanese who came to occupy these lands. Poor aborigines :(
We were all provided helmets in case of falling rocks! (Though if rocks really fell I don't see how the helmet will help much)
Some bridge called 慈母, or merciful mother bridge. The guide explained the story behind the name:
Apparently when the bridge was being constructed, the highest ranking official overseeing the building of the bridge noticed the mother of one of the workers bringing lunch up for her son every day, climbing all the way up and down the mountain to do so. Touched by the live of the mother, the official named the bridge merciful mother in honour of her. Hmm :)
After the sightseeing, it was time for lunch!
At a aborigine restaurant where we will get to try aboriginese food!
PARANOMA of the inside of the restaurant
View from inside the restaurant
Free flow of drinks! A large array of drinks, ranging from plum juice, black tea, and hot drinks such as hot chocolate, Americano, and coffee.
Bamboo rice! Glutinous sticky rice stuffed in bamboo :)
Split open the bamboo shoot to reveal a cylindrical shaped log of rice!
We ordered two sets to share :)
This was so cute!!! Wild boat cups containing rice wine, which one had to drink out of the holes which were the 'mouths' of the pigs
And a salad as an appetiser :)
Set #1 (same as set 2 except the meat dish was some fatty tilapia fish which tasted amazing)
Set #2: same as set 1 just that the meat was some smoked pork ribs which were quite saltish but delicious nonetheless!)
Each set comes with:
- a vegetable pork soup (which was really flavourful!)
- roasted sweet potato (my love, my love, my only love)
-mushroom atop a lettuce leaf (ok....)
- some tomato salsa
-chicken skin and lettuce
-some green vegetables
-chilli skin which is slightly spicy but very yum!
And for dessert: passion fruit!
After lunch, we set off for a 45 min long walking trail!
Taken along the mountainside
Then we headed back to the van and went to another trail which was supposed to take 1hr30 mins, but we stopped way before that because we wanted to visit the beach before dark and the route was mostly monotonous anyway. (And too damn crowded!!!)
PARANOMA of the beach
Watched the huge waves coming in for a bit before finally heading back to our abode for the next 2 nights, Byeyer hotel!
*shall take more pics when I don't feel so full and lazy*
Finished up our mochi stash! Taro flavoured which tasted the same as the purple rice one!
And peanut mochi! Which tastes as good as you'll expect peanut mochi to taste ;)
Oh and a strawberry mochi!
As if all that sweets weren't enough, I downed a walnut and longan muffin as I was feeling a lil peckish #confessionsofaglutton
After a bit of resting, we headed out to find more food!! Initially we wanted to revisit Zhiqiang night market, but our current hotel is way too far away :( so we made do by walking around the city district which has a lot of food as well!!
After walking down a few streets, we came across two shops side by side which seemed to be quite crowded and had large tubs of tantalising looking buns displayed at the front of the shop, with busy employees strutting around carrying tall stacks of dim sum trays and making new buns. A busy shop is always a good sign so of course we were drawn in!!
Sweet and sour soup. Mehhs.
Chives dumplings. Yummy with thin skin and flavourful fillings.
Meat dumplings. How wrong can these dumplings go?? The meat was tender and delicious.
And we ordered a long of small baos as well. I was shocked by how much they seemed to be when they arrived!
Delicious dipped in the ginger soya sauce.
Altogether the entire meal cost about 140 NT (less than S$7) and we were stuffed!!! So worth it <3
We then walked further down the bustling city streets and found more shops, trying free samples from the mochi and bread stall as well as some roadside vendor.
Afterwards our tour agent offered to take us to drink some 'tea' which I thought was some famous bubble tea shop or something....
But it turned out to be some ceramics shop that she fetched us to with some elderly people sitting around talking! Apparently they were all a bunch of good friends and it was just a strange situation which involved:
Homemade pizza
Snacks galore: cuttlefish which I ate tons of
Like how cool is this pizza oven???!! And the owner of the house and ceramics business made it himself!!! What a freaking genius.
LOTS of pu'er tea. I think I drank like 10 cups no kidding.
Homemade fruit pizza! Soft doughy bread topped with banana and pineapple and cheese. Yummy but I only took one slice cos I was really full. ( who am I kidding though I ate so much of the other offered snacks later on :( )
The adults talked and laughed while I listened and it was an enriching experience that really showcased the warmth and hospitality of Taiwanese :)
Later the lady fetched us back to our hotel, and here I am typing out this blogpost now :)
Tomorrow is a free and easy day at Hualien!!
(I FEEL MY FAT ASS GETTING LARGER AND THE FATS PILING ON MY THIGHS. Need. to. Exercise)
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