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.
All these snacks are tofu based, been around for centuries called "DoGan" in spicy flavors or sweet, salty, wasabi, etc...
These snacks are preserved plums, dates, prunes they are usually a combination of salty, sweet, and sour. I like them. They are traditionally eaten with tea, but I like them by itself. My favorite are the sweet seedless black plums.
These are mini malt sandwiches, crispy, chewy, sweet and bit size. Totally bad for your teeth.
These fluffy, flaky pastries with taro filling are so good. They are not very sweet but totally delicious.
Candied fruits traditional style, I never got into them. These guys date way back in history. They show up in old paintings, and epic classic novels and definitely kongfu sagas.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.
More steamed rice and tapioca goodies, none are too sweet or salty, you can taste the basic ingredient in it's natural form.
This is yam and taro lightly candied so it's buttery flaky on the inside and crispy sweet on the outside.
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.
Traditional way to preserve and sell olives bundled in banana leaves.
Handy crafts of all sorts, this one is animal key chain coin pouches.
Beautiful fans made with a bamboo spine and paper or fabric cloth. Some are even scented.
These are purses shaped in traditional Chinese female tops of the 1920's.
These tops are classic post Imperial Era. I like these tops, they go great with jeans
These are traditional clay pots with water boiling in sand and barks at a tea shop with classic decor where you can order a pot of tea and chat with munchies.
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.
These steamed stuffed patties are one of my favorites. They just don't sell this is the US. It's chewy on the outside and the inside is stuffed with "Ang Zao" also known as Anka. 
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.
This lady is holding a potato chip tower. It's actually a whole potato screw cut then pulled out into one long string and then fried into potato chip. You can order whatever seasoning you like.
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.
If you like peanuts, candied peanuted in a block then shaved fresh before use is one of the best things in the world.
These are puff pastries with a flaky puffy shell and usually with a light caramel malt center.
