Jiufen, Shifen, and Shida

Written August 16, 2012

Dylan took off from work today to hang with his new American friends. We had wanted to go to Wulai, but he suggested something else.

A train, which works on the same "Easy Card" as the subway system, and then a bus took us up to Jiufen. 

The view from Jiufen with a temple in the foreground. 

A temple we checked out in Jiufen.

The view from Jiufen

Jiufen has a series of small, windy, shop-laden streets - overflowing with scents of various foods unique to the town. The three of us ate our way around the town, trying countless new tastes. We mostly ate from street vendors, but managed to stop in a famous "restaurant" that Dylan strongly recommended. The food on the street was actually better. I can't remember all of the things we ate, but I did manage to photograph everything. Below, you'll find only a few of the dishes we consumed (these are the pictures I like the most).

Coming in second place for best Jiufen dish, these shrimp balls were utterly fantastic. They tasted like shrimp latkes. 

Tofu 

Hands down the best food in Jiufen. Taro ice cream with cilantro and shaved peanut brittle, wrapped in a sweet Asian tortilla. 

Jiufen's stinky tofu is the best I've had thus far

From Jiufen, we took a train to Shifen, famous for their TianDeng, or Heaven Lights. Dylan, Tim, and I got a TianDeng, which is like a giant paper lantern that you write wishes on, and then it is set up to some sort of hot air balloon contraption and flies away. We paid a little more to hook up some firecrackers.

In Shifen, the train goes directly through the centre of town 

Someone else's TianDeng

One of my wishes was for Taiwan to be a recognized nation 

Another was for Obama's reelection #youknowyougotoGWwhen 

Our TianDeng flying away

After sending our TianDeng into the heavens, we went and got some more street food.

BBQ chicken stuffed with pork fried rice 

Some sort of pork sausage/hot dog type thing

This girl was cute:

After Shifen, we went back to Taipei. Tim wanted to find some incense for his room, so we hit up the Shida night market. We didn't find incense, but we did find some freakin' delicious pork dumplings.

To appease the internet gods, here are some pictures of adorable cats...