Taiwan - Day 2 (Taoyuan - Dharma Drum Mountain Nung Chan Monastery - Shilin Night Market

It's our 2nd day in Taiwan and Alan decided to bring us around Taipei like a local. Our stay at Dong Feng Motel includes breakfast for 2 person. This motel only serve breakfast in bed. The night before we have already selected our breakfast menu at the front desk and requested them to deliver to our room by 9am. We had sausage McMuffin with milk tea and lemon tea. Sausage McMuffin is a bit too salty for my liking. Their milk tea is very milky and taste unappealingly bland. I prefer the lemon tea but it would be better if they add in some ice. The weather is quite cooling in the morning around 19℃. We checked out from Dong Feng Motel before 12pm. Alan came and fetch us for lunch in Maokong, known for their "Tie Guan Yin" tea.

Motel breakfast

Sausage McMuffin with milk tea and lemon tea

We had our lunch at Sih Ye Tea House (貓空四爺) approximately 45 minutes drive (37km) from Dong Feng Motel. The restaurant has a two hours dining limit time policy for lunch. Alan ordered pyramid fried tea rice, vegetable fern salad, fillet beef teppanyaki, nut kung pao chicken, fried brook shrimps with beauty tea, apple spicy fried pork and a pot of Maokong Guanyin tea. I love the tea as it has this slight green floral aroma and most importantly it has a moderate level of caffeine. Apple spicy fried pork is a very refreshing dish and it's not spicy at all. It has the perfect combination of sweet and sour flavour.

Nut kung pao chicken is a Chinese style stir fried boneless chicken with cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, almond nuts, capsicums and dried chili peppers. Chicken is tender and I just love the nuts. Vegetable fern salad is super crisp and a non-veg lover like me actually enjoy eating it. The only dish that I did not enjoy is the fried brook shrimps with beauty tea. Basically I'm not used to eating the shrimp head and shells even though it's crunchy. Apart from that, the deep fried vermicelli is a bit too hard for my liking. Overall, we enjoy our lunch very much and thanks to Alan for the wonderful lunch.

貓空四爺

Restaurant ambience

Drinking water

Pyramid fried tea rice - NT$ 280

Vegetable fern salad - NT$ 200

Fillet beef teppanyaki - NT$ 320

Nut kung pao chicken - NT$ 280

Fried brook shrimps with beauty tea - NT$ 300

Apple spicy fried pork - NT$ 280

Maokong Guanyin tea - NT$ 250

Address:
貓空四爺
No. 16-2, Lane 38, Section 3,
Zhinan Rd, Wenshan District,
Taipei City,
Taiwan 116

We left Maokong around 3.10pm and Alan drove us to Dharma Drum Mountain Nung Chan Monastery, 40 minutes drive (27km) from Sih Ye Tea House. It's a monastery at Beitou District and has this modern minimalist architectural style.

Dharma Drum Mountain Nung Chan Monastery

Address:

Dharma Drum Mountain Nung Chan Monastery

No.89, Lane 65,

Daye Rd, Beitou District,

Taipei City,

Taiwan 112

We left Dharma Drum Mountain Nung Chan Monastery around 4.50pm and head to Shilin Night Market, approximately 13 minutes drive (5.5km) from the monastery. Parking is available at Shilin Night Market on level B2 and B3. However, they have limited parking space and we waited at least 30 minutes outside the parking lot.

This is the second time that we have visited Shilin Night Market. As usual the market is full of people and this round we didn't eat any street food. Instead, we had our dinner at the food court on Level B1. We didn't know that there's food court in this night market. We order watermelon juice, fish ball noodles, shrimp roll, seafood soup, fried stinky tofu, oyster omelette, claypot prawns and grilled squid.

I had the fish ball noodles and it's not superb. Fish ball texture is dense, solid and firm. Basically I prefer smooth, soft and bouncy fish balls. Noodle texture is soft. The claypot prawns are good. Prawn is fresh and succulent. After dinner we took a quick stroll and bought two boxes of sun biscuits and beef jerky.

Total bill - NT$ 950 excluding drinks NT$ 210

Shilin Night Market parking lot

Shilin Night Market

Shilin Night Market Food Court

Watermelon juice - NT$ 50 and claypot prawns

Seafood soup

Fish ball noodles - NT$ 60

Fried stinky tofu

Shrimp roll - NT$ 50

Oyster omelette

Grilled squid

Shilin Night Market

Address:

Shilin Night Market

No. 101, Jihe Road,

Shilin District, Taipei City,

Taiwan 111

Alan told us not to eat so full at Shilin Night Market because he's planning to bring us another round of hotpot at " 八卦夜未眠景觀餐廳". This restaurant is only 8km from Shilin Night Market but it takes approximately 20 minutes to reach there due to the winding hill road. The restaurant offers panoramic Taipei city views and they have this gorgeous open air place but it's like dining in the dark. Each table has a small table lamp but it's not bright enough.

Alan order a hot pot comes with cabbage, yam, bean curd, meat balls and mushrooms. Apart from that, he order additional side dishes - beef slices, mushrooms, prawn paste and fish fillet. The weather is chilly and glad that we brought our jacket along. The hot pot has a mild broth and the beef slices taste like pork to me.

They have this unique toilet sign for male and female which is quite confusing for us. I almost went to the male toilet. Anyway, they have this automatic opening toilet seat equipped with a lot of functions. There's so many buttons and I took quite some time to find the flush button as all the instructions are written in Chinese characters.

Overall we had a wonderful day thanks to Alan. He planned everything for us and even dropped us at our hotel in Taipei after dinner. That ends our 2nd day in Taiwan...

Total bill - NT$ 2,605

Note: NT$ 1 = RM 0.14