Famous, delicious, pork chop rice in Tamsui, New Taipei City (Even Taiwanese love it)

Tamsui is a must visit site for many foreign tourists. Today, we will bring you to a popular Tamsui restaurant that is well known among visitors. Not only that,  hei dian (黑殿) restaurant is also famous among Taiwanese locals! Let's try this together
Address: 251新北市淡水區中正路一段62巷12號
Open hours: Everyday 11a.m. - 8p.m.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/darkpalacetaiwanese (Chinese)

After arriving at Tamsui MRT Station, turn left at the exit, cross a street, and you will see the restaurant right behind the locomotive (train head) in a little park. It is not located at the usual tourists filled promenade, but one street further inland. 

 
The store's sign is only written in Chinese, but is very visible and unique.

After you entered the restaurant, you may find your own seat (waiters won't escort you). There are more seats on the 2nd floor. The menu/order sheet is on wall. Please write down your order with the pencil given.

You will need to pay when you order. If you are sitting on the 2nd floor, you can pay at the cashier located also on the 2nd floor. Some food comes in big and small sizes. We ordered the food in the blue circles.

Next, you have to pick up your utensils near the cabinet. They only offer spoon and chopsticks (no forks, sorry). You may also pick up some hot sauce and other spices on your own.

1. dai gu zhu pai fan (帶骨豬排飯)
This bowl of pork chop rice not only has a big piece of pork chop , it also has pickled vegetable (suan cai酸菜), dried bean curd (dou gan豆干), soy egg (lu dan 滷蛋), and fried bean sauce (zha jiang炸醬). We finished the entire bowl in 15 minutes, despite it was big, because it was really tasty.

 

2. Old recipe pickled vegetable raman noodle with fried bean sauce (zu chuan suan cai zha jiang la mian 祖傳酸菜炸醬拉麵)
After you mix well the fried bean sauce with the ramen noodle, the noodle is absolutely delicious, fresh, and unique. The fried bean sauce is made with pork, and once eaten with dried bean curd and ramen noodle, this dish definitely lives up to your high expectation.

After we finished both dishes, the only disappointment was that both dishes were little too salty, and the restaurant didn't offer any water. But since there are many drink shops nearby, you can easily get a good Taiwanese drink before you go on browsing the rest of Tamsui.

Taiwan local dessert restaurant Meet Fresh

When talking about taro ball soup (dessert), most foreigners usually associate it with Jiufen, but there are numerous places in Taipei where you can find taro ball soup just as delicious as the one in Jiufen. Today, we will be talking about "Meet Fresh鮮芋仙", a restaurant that serves Taiwanese desserts made with taro, including cheap, delicious taro ball soup.

address:台北市中山區復興南路一段36號
open hours: SAT10:00–22:00 SUN10:00–22:00 MON10:00–22:00 TUE10:00–22:00 WED10:00–22:00THU10:00–22:00 FRI10:00–22:00
official website:http://www.meetfresh.com.tw/

As you enter the shop, there are some images along the the menu above the cashier. There is a paper menu with English and Japanese translations, making it easy for foreigners to place their orders. The shop is fitted with comfortable seats, so you can enjoy your sweet treat at ease!

When we entered the shop at around 8pm, there were not too many customers, but we saw a group of foreign students along with some local folks. It seems that taro ball soup at this place attracts both local and foreign customers. After placing your order, the restaurant staff will give you a pager. You can find a nice seat, and pick up your order after the pager vibrates.

Lets go over what I ate this evening.

This bowl is Taro Ball Soup Order #4 on the menu (It may be served hot or cold). It is served with taro ball, boba, taro, and Jiufen taro ball (different flavors, but you may not decide which one) in red bean soup. The taro is very soft and fits my taste since I really love taro. The taro ball and boba have firm textures because they are made fresh daily.

This is taro milk made with fresh, sweet taro. The taro is smashed and added to the milk. The taro is very sweet, also making the drink sweet.

After talking for a while and finishing up our food, we were ready to go. Since it was a rainy day, there weren't too many customers. The lanterns inside give a very warm welcome to all customers. If you don't have the time to travel to Jiufen to enjoy taro ball soup there, this restaurant in Taipei is definitely a very affordable alternative. :)

healthy and saver supermarket I-MEI in Taipei

In the recent years, there are many food safety concerns in Taiwan regarding cooking oil and food additives. This trend has led many Taiwanese people to change their dietary habits. I want to introduce a supermarket franchise that sells food that most Taiwanese people believe to be safer than other stores.
address: 台北市大安區忠孝東路三段226號(near 忠孝復興 mrt station)
open hours: 08:00~22:00
All branches in Taiwan: http://www.imeifoods.com.tw/retail/

This is the supermarket's name and loco. Unlike other supermarkets, IMEI supermarkets do not sell produces, but packaged food such as cracker, nuts, candies, drinks. Although these supermarkets do not offer customers fresh produces, but they are ideal places to purchase packaged souvenirs.

This banana flavored cracker, resembling a Japanese souvenir, is priced about the same as other popular tourist stores.

This entire row is filled with snacks and candies Taiwanese usually ate as children. They are often very cheap and definitely worth a try.

This is my personal favorite - IMEI little puff. One bag only cost $24NTD, and comes in various flavors such as chocolate, lemon, strawberry, pudding, etc. After storing in a refrigerator for an hour, it is best served with milk. You might want to buy a few more bags because they go quickly as a TV snack!

There is also a diverse collection of candies. My favorite ones are peach and grape flavored fruit gummy. If you worry you might buy too much at a time, you may also purchase the same brand at convenient stores.

IMEI's best selling product is its soy milk. Since Taiwanese people love soy milk and often drink it with fried oil stick (youtiao). Soy milk is divided into no sugar, low sugar, and normal. The small bottles could be purchased at convenient stores for $28NTD. The bigger bottle costs around $60NTD. Other variations include black soy milk (made from black soy beans) and rice milk (made from brown rice). Just for soy milk, there is already a handful of choices you may try in Taiwan.  Now, lets take a look of souvenir selections IMEI offers.

This is Taiwan's iconic Kaoliang liquor. While it looks just like a vodka, a typical Kaoliang is often with up to 58 percent alcohol by volume. (some might be even higher). One bottle costs $720NTD, and it is a good choice for self consumption or as a bring home souvenir.

Most foreigners have already known Taiwan's most famous pineapple cake. Although IMEI's pineapple cake might not be well-known as other bigger brand, but it has safety guarantee and costs only around $300NTD.  Lastly, it is time to introduce a special product that you may have never seen before.

They box contains walnut cake, which is made from walnut and sugar.  It is sweet and best served with tea. The tin container is very delicate and bears the iconic images of Taiwan, so it is definitely worths more than the listed price of $300NTD.

If you have an questions related to this posting, please feel free to leave any comments. We will be more than happy to answer them.

cheap, delicious Taiwanese cold noodle with peanut sauce

Tired of eating beef noodle in Taiwan, have you tried the popular cold noodle in Taiwan? Today, we will introduce a cheap, delicious Taiwanese cold noodle with peanut sauce. It is very common to find cold noodle in Taiwan's convenient stores and local restaurants. The restaurant we visited today is called 高家涼麵.
Address:  台北市大安區忠孝東路三段217巷2弄1號 (10 minutes walking from Zhong Xiao Fu Xing Station 忠孝復興）
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GaoJiaLiangMian/info/?tab=overview


















The price is very reasonable, ranging from $40 NTD to $60NTD per plate. It is served throughout the year, but it is most widely eaten during summer time. Since it is noodle with only vegetable and sauce, it is very common for people to order side dishes along with it.

There are total six tables inside with a capacity of maximum 30 customers. During this visit, because it was raining at night, there were only 5 or 6 other customers in the store.

This is the menu/order sheet you can find on the right side of the entrance.
Since all the items are written in Chinese, we will translate the one we ordered into English for you.
1. Chinese cold noodle with peanut sauce 涼麵 (with garlic sauce, peanut sauce, cucumber) (you can also add some vinegar sauce, chili sauce on your own at the table)

2. Miso Soup with meat balls 味噌貢丸湯 (included tofu, green onion, and port meatballs -- similar to Japanese miso soup)

3. Marinated Tofu/Egg 油豆腐／滷蛋 (Marinated with soy sauce)

This very fulfilling dinner meal for 2 people was $190NTD, which is very cheap compared to many regular restaurants near the same station (SOGO station). The environment and service might not be exceptional, but the food is very local and authentic, like any other local restaurants.

this is the business card of the store. Wish you guys enjoy the local food here! 

RT-MART in Taiwan

RT MART is a Taiwanese retail store chain that sells clothing, electronic appliance, produce, package food, bakery goods, food to go (Taiwanese style pizza). It is very similar to Target in America. However, to enjoy all the discounts, you have to become a member, free of charge.

All major cities in Taiwan should have at least one RT MART. These cities include Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Chiayi, Tainan, Taitung, etc. Below is a link with all the locations written in Chinese only:
http://official.rt-mart.com.tw/store_new.asp

At the entrance, there are regular size shopping carts as well as smaller shopping baskets with handles, making the shopping experience less heavy. :) Throughout the year, there are different major sale at the store, and the store sets up different theme decoration relevant to the sale. In this case, a Japanese spring sale is being displayed at the store.

Beside the traditional sale signs inside the store, RT MART has many creative way to promote its products. Here, they use boxes of thermo bottles to build a cat/mouse?

Here, they use toothpaste containers to build a ferris wheel. Taiwan's tissue companies love to use cartoon characters pictures for packaging. LINE is the most popular messaging APP in Taiwan, and their emoji characters are well known.

There is a good variety of cereal brands in RT MART, but if you are looking for your good American cereal, chances are that you probably can't find them here. Still, you will recognize some of them, and you most likely will take a long time choosing the right one.

Beside the big brands such as Coca Cola, you can also find some local drinks that are only sold in Taiwan. Here are some fruit flavored vinegar drinks.

There are always long lines for the cashier at night.

Remember to have your membership card out and scanned at the beginning of the checkout.

RT MART opens at 7:30am and closes at 11pm every day. There are connection buses from nearby MRT stations for some locations. If you feel hungry after shopping or you have to wait awhile for the next bus, you can dine at one of the restaurants outside the cashier area.

There is a "scratching fun"(刮刮樂) lottery shop. Each scratching card cost between NTD 100 to NTD 1000. Rules for each card are different based on the price of the card. The vendors cannot communicate in English. If you want details and instructions on this topic, you can leave a comment. We will do a separate post if we have enough requests.