Taiwan - Day 5 (Taoyuan - Hsinchu

We stayed at San Diego Motel, located in Taoyuan City on our 4th day in Taiwan. Our stay comes with simple breakfast in bed. We checked out before 10am the next day and our friend brought us for breakfast again at Sian Tian Sia Dumpling, just 8 minutes walk or 3 minutes drive from San Diego Motel.

There's various type of dumplings sold here such as prawns, pork ground meat or vegetables. There's pan fried dumplings as well. Apart from that, our friend purposely ordered 2 types of soup for us to try - hot & sour soup and sweet corn soup. Sweet corn soup was delicious. Good for cold weather. On the other hand, we couldn't finish the hot and sour soup because they added vinegar to it which both of us don't really fancy.

Sian Tian Sia Dumpling

Pan fried dumplings

Steamed vegetables dumplings

Steamed prawns dumplings

Hot and sour soup

Sweet corn soup

Soy milk & herbal tea

Address:

Sian Tian Sia Dumpling "鮮天下(林口二店)"

No. 166, Wenhua 2nd Rd,

Taoyuan City, Taiwan 333

After breakfast we followed our friend back to his wife's hometown in Nantou. On the way, we dropped by Hsinchu City and had Taiwanese meatball or also known as "bak wan" in Hokkien. It's a translucent dough filled with stuffing such as pork, bamboo shoots and mushrooms, served with a sweet and savory sauce. Apart from that, we ordered one bowl of original flavour meatballs. The meatball was super springy and bouncy to the bite but the soup was a bit bland.

Besides their famous "bak wan" and meatballs, we ordered one plate of fried vermicelli and it was good. Both of us love the deliciously soft, smooth and fine but not mushy texture of the vermicelli. Hsinchu rice vermicelli also known as "Chuifen" or "Yumifen" or "Ximifen" meaning fine rice noodles. This shop is around an hour drive from Sian Tian Sia Dumpling.

Taiwanese meatball shop in Hsinchu City

Taiwanese meatball or also known as "bak wan" in Hokkien - NT$ 40

Original flavour meatballs - NT$ 40

Fried vermicelli - NT$ 50

Approximately 1 hour 40 minutes later, we reached Sunny Hills Nantou, famous for their pineapple cake. It's quite difficult to find a parking space hence we have to parked along the road. On the way to Sunny Hills there's many stalls selling fruits and snacks. Our friend bought fish shaped pastry from a mini food truck. It's stuffed with sweetened red bean paste and it was good. Not too sweet and best eaten when it's hot.

Mini food truck selling fish shaped pastry

Fish shaped pastry stuffed with sweetened red bean paste

Our friend told us that this is one of Taiwan's best pineapple cake and it's their favourite. We actually bought 5 boxes of pineapple cake as a gift to friends and relatives. (In total NT$ 3,150) This is the most expensive pineapple cake that we have ever bought! Since I don't eat pineapple cake, I can't comment much on the taste.

Sunny Hills

People queued up for free sampling

Sunny Hill's product

Sunny Hills Pineapple juice - NT$ 300 for 6 bottles

Sunny Hills Pineapple cake - NT$ 420 for 10pcs or NT$ 630 for 15pcs

Pineapple field

Address:

Sunny Hill

No. 2, Lane 1100, Bagua Rd,

Nantou City, Nantou County,

540, Taiwan

Opening hours: 10am to 6pm

Tel: +886-49-229 2767

Our next stop was the Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空" just 9 minutes drive from Sunny Hills. It is located on the highest point of Bagua Mountain with beautiful natural landscape. Animals such as piglets and pony are free to roam around. There's animals such as alpaca (resembles a small llama in appearance), guinea pigs, parrots, raccoon and pelican too. Great place to sit back, relax and chill.

Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空"

Free shuttle to Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空" from the parking lot below

Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空"

Old motorbike

Parrots

Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空" entrance ticket

Pelican

Guinea pig

Alpaca

A depressed pony

Wooden horse carriage

Fish pond

Raccoon

Piglets

Plum blossom

Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空"

Plum blossom

Address

Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空"

No. 200, Lane 146, Houtanjing Street,
Nantou City, Nantou County,

540, Taiwan

On the way to our dinner place, we dropped by Zi Nan Temple (竹山紫南宮) in Nantou, one of the most popular wealth God temple in Taiwan. Visitors flock here to pray for luck and wealth. It's approximately 35 minutes drive from Xing Yue Tian Kong "星月天空". The temple also boasts the most luxurious public toilet in Taiwan.

Zi Nan Temple

Gold chicken

Most luxurious public toilets in Taiwan - NT$ 38,800,000

Most luxurious public toilets in Taiwan (cleaning in progress)

Address:

Zi Nan Temple "紫南宮"

No. 40, Dagong St,

Zhushan Township,

Nantou County, Taiwan 557

Tel: 049-2623 722

Opening hours: 7am to 9pm

We had our dinner at "福伯黃金雞" just 3 minutes drive from Zi Nan Temple. This place is famous for their roasted chicken in a wood-fired oven. You will be given a pair of plastic gloves to keep your hand from getting greasy while eating the hot roasted chicken. The chicken was moist, tender and delicious. We reached there around 7pm and we were lucky because that was the last roasted chicken of the day. By 8pm, the workers already started cleaning up and getting ready to go back. Overall it was a satisfying dinner.

福伯黃金雞

Wood-fired oven

Woods to roast the chicken

Roasted chicken with sour plum powder

Chicken stock

Vermicelli and scrambled egg with shrimps

Chinese bamboo dish

Fried vermicelli

Vegetables

Intestine spring roll

Mushroom soup

Pig's blood cake

Address:
福伯黃金雞
No. 1808, Section 1,
Jishan Rd, Zhushan Township,
Nantou County, Taiwan 557

We checked in Hongqiao Lodge, 8 minutes drive or just 6 km away from "福伯黃金雞". After freshen up, we went to a nearby 7-eleven and bought some snacks. At the same time, we bought some fried food from a nearby stall. We had good chat while enjoying our late night snacks. Love both the chocolate and strawberry ice creams. Milk tea was nice and not too sweet. It has a very nice bottle design. Besides that, grape flavoured beer was nice too.

Note: NT$ 1 = RM 0.1460