Today's pictures are practically all of food hahaha. Because that's practically what we did all day: Eat and walk, walk then eat :P #piglife
So breakfast was hotel food!!! We headed downstairs promptly at 9am.
There was a salad bar so I filled up a plateful of them colourful veggies! You know what they say, a salad a day keeps the doctor away :)
Course #2: sweet potato porridge(with practically no sweet potatoes), and various Asian side dishes such as pork floss, cabbages, cauliflower etc. Also had a mini mantou which I doused in the sweet soy milk.
Seaweed and egg drop soup that was a lil too saltish.
The breakfast exceeded my expectatations (or at least was better than yesterday's but dad says it was the worst bfast eaten here)
After breakfast we headed back to our cosy room, where everyone fell asleep so we only left to walk at around 11am!
Park we passed by en route to the park near the temple.
We walked around the empty park for a while until we sufficiently covered enough ground, and then we headed back down for a spot of lunch.
Wanted to eat at a doujiang place but it was closed!! So we decided go find the highly recommended and famous scallion pancake (葱油饼）nearby.
Le stall! There were already people crowding around even before the opening hours (and thankfully we were one of the first as the crowd got bigger every minute)
We had to wait for quite some time as the guy had to wait for the oil to heat up and roll up his dough etc....
So dad got attracted to the opposite stall!
Black tea (really lovin the black teas here!!)
Pork sausages which were so juicy
While waiting for our scallion pancake (and I got bitten by Mosquitos meanwhile!!!)
Some 仙草茶
The guy rolling out his scallion dough so that it became flat
Then he plops in his ginormous vat of sizzling oil and it puffs up immediately! Following that (an unoictured process) if you want an egg, he will crack an egg and dump in into the oil as well (and watching it immediately swell and bubble is a strangely satisfying process haha)
He will then use a long pair of tongs to clamp the pancake and the egg together and they would magically join up like they were glued together!
The lady would them smear on a thin layer of soy sauce and chilli (if you want your pancake spicyyyyy) and then package them!
Our long awaited 葱油饼!!! One with egg and one without (though on hindsight we should have ordered both with egg as there's only a 5 元 difference)
IT WAS SO GOOD. Thin, crispy and hot, it paired well with the sauces and just made you want to keep eating.
The egg one was fabulous (always order the egg one!!!). The egg in the centre is hardly cooked so the yolk is still runny and when daddy bit into the huge ball of yolk, it EXPLODED, sending yolk all over his shirt haha.
Even though it was deep fried and greasy, it certainly didn't taste so!!
Obviously those two thin pancakes didn't really satisfy us so off we went to find 扁食 ( or wantons) which Hualien is famous for!!
Went to the stall just adjacent to our hotel which is supposedly not bad.
Braised pork rice polished off by bro and dad!
this was good. Dry wantons in a slightly sourish spicy sauce and topped with chives and seaweed. The sauce goes so well with it, and the meat in the wanton was so tender and the wanton wrapping itself was thin and almost melt in your mouth.
The noodle soup version!
Prawn dumplings!
Close up
The prawn dumplings contained both meat and fresh whole prawns which were really tasty!!!
A quick snap of the wanton making process by a group of woman outside. They were making dumplings non-stop all the time we were eating!!
Passed by this shop which I read in some reviews and I heard that it was good!!!
So we got some watermelon milk :) tasted like watermelon juice!
Then we walked to the seaside and breathed in some fresh air (I didn't take any pics)
Walked back to the city district for more food!!!
Polo bun and taro bun from a bakery that we passed by. Not bad.
We walked down a few streets that were left unexplored..... And found a dessert store that was raved about!!! Almost missed the store had dad/mom not pointed it out. Whoopie for unexpected foodie finds :))
Check out the certificates covering almost every inch of the wall surface!!
We ordered a hot and a cold dessert.
The hot dessert: tauhuey in a ginger broth with tapioca balls of varying flavours (such as the usual yam and sweet potato and also black sesame!!) and beans :) satisfactory but not the best!
And the cold dessert was the star of the show: it looks so beautiful!!!! This was the signature dessert of the shop known as Fiveheart tapioca caramel condensed milk shaved ice (whew what a mouthful!!!)
A layer of shaved ice topped with condensed milk and encasing tapioca balls, grass jelly and green bean and tauhuey. SO GOOD. It wasn't that sweet and the flavours and textures just blended together so well. Ahhhhhh Blackball ain't got nothing on this.
Remembered to snap a pic of the outside of the stall when we were on the opposite street!
After a tad more walking and a bit of shopping,
Dad bought this egg waffles! I ate it before in Singapore but this one somehow tastes more chewy and mochi like??? Yummy :)
And milk tea! With the bubbles taking up slightly less than half the volume of the cup and for a bit over a dollar....
We passed by a stall called Mr Goose which was also highly recommended so we decided to just heck it and try out goose!!
Goose blood. Tasted like all the other animal bloods hmmm.
Gooseeeeee! To be dipped in the dark sauce. The meat was very lean and it had a 'clean' taste. Tasted like chicken/duck.
Goose kidney??? Whatever but it was super good.
Fried oyster!!! Ordered as a last minute dish. This was damn good, frying the oysters just make them so soft and melt in your mouth. And it doesn't taste oily at all!!! Sigh the fried food in Taiwan seem to be almost deceptively healthy....
Headed back to the hotel for another couple of hours break, and then went out for more walking again!!!
Some lemon sour plum tea that we waited quite a long time for as it was freshly made individually.
It was so refreshing and good though, especially the sour plum bits at the bottom. Yummms.
And then.....I did it. Something I've been debating doing.
I CUT MY HAIRRRRRRRR!!! (Ok I look like a guy here but who cares)
The hairdresser was really professional though, and even blow dried my hair and styled it at the end!
Dad and bro were hungry after that (what's new) so we went off for some dinner/supper/ idk what meal at the shop adjacent to the one we ate yesterday: 公正包!!!
Black tea and soy milk
Irresistible freshly steamed buns which were so damn cheap. How to resist??!! I only ate one bun and two Jiaozi though while bro and dad polished off the rest.
FRIED STUFF from a small stall nearby
Chicken butt, chicken, and savoury pigs blood ALL fried. Oh well #yolo!! Why are Taiwanese fried food so well seasoned and delicious T.T
Then we went back (and bought a tomato milk and another watermelon milk from the same stall as in the afternoon)
Ate a few bites of a small dousha bun.
Heading back to Taipei tomorrow! Sigh all holidays must come to an end and that end is near :C
( although I'm secretly glad to be able to get back to healthy eating and regular exercise after this hehe)
