Last day in Taiwan began with a breakfast of fried egg tucked into slices of lightly grilled thick toast with hash browns as a side. Then there was a piece of radish cake specially ordered because we wanted to try how Taiwanese dim sum tasted like.
There was, of course, coffee.
I don't have a picture of the radish cake.
For some reason I didn't get to take pictures of it- perhaps I was too hungry- but if I'm not wrong, I think the radish cake was of the thick, chonky kind, full of yam (not flour), well fried at the edges and smushy soft on the inside.
Breakfast over we took a quick walk around the area, first going along Section 1, Jinshan South Road, passing by what I think is Lane 53 Qidong Street, then maybe into Linyi Street and Section 2, Jinan Road.
To be honest I have no idea where we were. Our route basically followed the general direction of where our hotel was, and I know we didn't go very far off the quadrangle.
Somewhere along the way we probably walked along Lane 134 of Section 2 Zhongxiao East Road before making a round back to Section 1, Bade Road where we decided to have lunch.
Along this walk we passed by a good number of indie cafes, like those serving coffee and cake and dessert. There were shops offering clothes. There were shops offering vintage stationery and whimsical, quirky knick-knacks that you'd place on your desk or bedside table.
Then there were shops offering hearty meals and tummy-filling food.
If I'm not wrong there was a Japanese cafe offering omurice or donburi or ramen (I can't remember), there was a noodle shop selling huge sized bowls of traditional noodles (beef, pork, I think), then there was a shop offering mixed-dish bento boxes in the way that reminded me of Singapore's chap cai png, and which fascinated me so much I sneaked a picture.
We had lunch at a bistro along Section 1, Bade Road, which, although needing a minimum order of 600NT per person, tasted actually really good. There was much on the menu that interested me, like the salmon pizza, the fish and chips, the Korean style fried chicken and the stir fried scrambled eggs with truffle.
But there were other even more interesting items on the menu and so we decided to have a Truffle Mushroom and Minced Meat Pizza, a Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab Hamburger with Peanut Butter, and a dish of Fries with Salted Egg Sauce.
For drinks we tried their signature teas.
One of us had Vanilla Bourbon tea (me) and my friend had Geisha Blossom.
The pizza was interesting- it's not often that I get to have a huge thick-crusted pizza that combines the distinctive smoky flavors of truffle with that of bak chor all laid out and baked perfectly.
They didn't stinge on the quantity, nor did they compromise on the quality of bak chor either. There was enough meat to satisfy our lunchtime craving, and salty enough was the minced meat too.
Yet it was the burger which made us fell in love.
It's like, how often is it that one gets to have a deliciously deep fried chonk of a soft shell crab stuffed between two soft brioche burger buns?
How often is it even that one gets to try the same soft shell crab with a huge serving of peanut butter?
I'd never tried crab with peanut butter before, much less one this creamy and salty.
Let's just say it enhanced the flavors of the crab and made the whole taste incredibly unusual.
Let's also say that the peanut butter, which had come in lieu of the sauce, added that right amount of texture and balance to both the bun, and the crab.
It was so good.
We loved the tea as well.
Vanilla bourbon had the warmth of vanilla blended inside the tea, and the geisha blossom was, I tell you, so, so fragrant.
I wish we'd had more time to (slowly) savor and finish up all those gigantic plates of food.
There was too little time for the (homemade looking) thick-sized salted egg fries.
I shall have to wait till I'm back in Taipei to have the same meal at another time.
This afternoon we were flying off, so back to the hotel it was where we collected our luggage and Ubered to Taipei Main Station before boarding the 1330 Airport Express to Taoyuan Terminal 1.
