3rd aunty called to invite me out and said her husband would drive. I suggested JioFen by JinGuaSi (Golden Gourd) my mother's home town.
These bead bracelets are also easy to find in various stones and styles.
I like tourist things in Taiwan. These massage slippers are common everywhere. They are made to stimulate the pressure points in your sole.
This is a good luck bundle you hang for safe travels.
These slipper shops are fun. I like being able to pick out the wooden hand crafted soles with beautiful carvings or paintings and then picking out the fabric for the slip and they can make it right then and there. It takes like five minutes.
These are mini malt sandwiches, crispy, chewy, sweet and bit size. Totally bad for your teeth.
This is a KeJia classic steamed taro. It's amazingly simply yet beautiful in taste, if you don't like taro then that will be a challenge in tasting the beauty in this dish.
This is durian, which I can't stand the smell. But it's beautifully fried in a taro yam crispy strips so that you get the crispy crunch on the outside and the creamy durian melts in your mouth on the inside.
These tops are classic post Imperial Era. I like these tops, they go great with jeans
This man is a mask artist who has a shop and studio together. This is quite common in Taiwan where the shop is part of the experience of the studio.
This place has a long line outside all waiting to get a cup or bowl of hot or cold taro balls. They are good. The boy is peeling the sweet potato for steaming and that usually comes out orange color and the taro is lavender in color. These women are rolling the steamed taro and yam into balls. This shop's name is called "A Gan Yi" Taro Ball Shop right next to JioFen Elementary School.
What you do is you get your order, then you walk through the kitchen where you see the actual working of what you are eating and you come to the seating area. Here is the view over looking the ocean and the rest of the town. It is beautiful to sit here and eat.
Then when they serve it they pour the sweet sauce over it with cilantro.
This is what it looks like in pre-steam stage layered in bamboo.
These steamed spongy brown sugar cakes are great. I like the taste of Taiwanese brown sugar.
Grilled, king oyster mushroom. I think I like mushroom period, fried or grilled or saute, but not fresh.
This is what the crammed street looks like, people everywhere.
When I first heard about this I could not imagine the taste. Taro ice cream with fresh cilantro and over a bed of shaved candied peanuts wrapped in a light mushu skin. But I tried it and it actually works. It's like one of the items you see in Iron Chef where they make this sorbet or that ice cream and you just can't imagine anyone would like it and they win the challenge. Ya, just like that.
These are puff pastries with a flaky puffy shell and usually with a light caramel malt center.