Taiwan, how I've missed you!

I am soooo happy to be able to tell you guys that Kristin and I are now in Taiwan!! We'll be here from Jan 9-16.  We're spending the first half with my aunt in Tainan in the south of Taiwan and the second half in Taipei with my Dad's side of the family.  Right when I got off the plane, I could see how different it is from China and I absolutely love it.

The high speed train station

We got into Taipei around 7pm on 9th and went straight the high speed train that took us straight to Tainan in about 1.5 hours.  My aunt picked us up around 10pm and took us straight to eat street food. YES.  My aunt is the absolute best!  We went to this stand where you could pick and choose different types of meat and vegetables and they fry it and put seasoning on it.  We got to eat chicken, sweet potato, green beans, a Japanese thing called Tian Bu La, mushrooms, taro... we feasted haha.  It was so not healthy, but absolutely delicious. Another thing different about Taiwan is that a lot of food places are open to really late at night.  So when we got our food around 11pm, it was still early for some places.  Taiwan people never stop eating! :D  However, what I've also noticed is that many places then don't open until 10:30 or 11 even!  I guess if you stay up late, you're going to naturally wake up later, huh? :P

All the choices of food we could fry

Fried deliciousness

The second day we were here, my Aunt took us to one of the biggest night markets in Taiwan!  It opens at 6pm and it's recommended to get there around 7pm if you want to miss the crowds because by 9pm the place is completely packed with people and the lines to get food or even enter the night market are crazy long.  With my sister, aunt, and I we got to sample a whole bunch of different things.  I tried some things like pig's blood that actually wasn't too bad, some yummy fruit on a stick, and oyster omelette just to name a few!  Taste buds galore at the night markets for sure. 

Some sweet glaze covered fruit (not sure what kind...) on a stick!

Squid and fish balls

Pig's blood covered in peanuts.  Not as bad as I thought it'd be :P

Taiwanese sausage.  This stuff is so delicious!

Oyster omelette

Rice noodle with pig intestines

PACKED

Yummy toffee glazed sweet potatoes

I can already tell why I like Taiwan so much better than my experience in Beijing.  For example, when we went to the night market, even though there were a lot of people, I was never shoved, pushed, or yelled at.  If someone bumped into me, they would apologize.  This would probably never happen in Beijing, especially if there was a large crowd.  Also, there's such a thing as customer service! When my sister and I got off the plane, we were a bit hungry and went over to 7-eleven to get some food and the people at the counter actually greeted and smiled at us!  And when we asked a train attendant for directions, he was really nice and friendly about it.  I've had situation in Beijing where I asked an attendant a question, and another attendant standing right next to her would pull her away from me to ignore me instead of helping me out!!  I was so frustrated.  But, I have yet to experience that in Taiwan :)

I am also happy to say that I have reunited with my favorite bakery ever! 85 degrees C!  This bakery can be found alll over Taiwan and their pastries are delicious and cheap :)  My favorite bread is pineapple bread but I decided I needed to try something new and I am glad I did!  I got a bread that I think was a strawberry bread that they put some Japanese style cream cheese in.  yummmy nummmyy. I love bread <3

I can't wait to tell you guys more about my time in Taiwan!!  More updates on my travels and food experiences soon!