Yong Kang Jie & Bitan

Over the weekend one of my friends decided to venture out and eat at an apparently famous street called Yong Kang Jie (Yong Kang Street) in Taipei. After waiting about an hour to gather everyone who was going together, we finally set out. As there were eight of us, we split up into two taxis and had at least one fluent mandarin speaker put into each cab just in case the taxi driver didn’t know the way. The restaurant that we were going to was called Yong Kang Beef Noodle Soup (although oddly enough it was about a block away from Yong Kang Jie). As many good eats in Taipei, Yong Kang Beef Noodle Soup was also located in an alley. The signs outside were bright yellow so that it was really hard to miss finding the location. The signs outside also boast that the restaurant has been around since 1963, so theoretically the food inside should be pretty tasty. Upon arriving, we noticed that the restaurant was still really busy even though it was already 1:00 in the afternoon. We waited for about 10 minutes until we were given seats. My friend actually planned that we would hit up a few spots that afternoon, so we decided that we would order minimally there and just split everything so that we would still have an appetite for later. Collectively, we ordered two orders of soy sauce braised beef noodle soup, beef soup, steamed ribs, and an array of little appetizers. The food, I must say, was pretty delicious. The beef and beef tendon were both really tender and soft. The noodle soup itself had a good hearty flavor. Overall, based on the quality of the food and helpfulness of the staff, I can really see why the restaurant has been open since 1963!

Afterwards, we headed over to a little restaurant about a block away called Yong Kang Kou. We ordered the stinky tofu, oyster vermicelli with intestine, and handmade sticky rice stuffed in intestines. While the English names of these dishes might not sound very appetizing, actually eating them is an entire different story. Everything was so good and very authentic Taiwanese tasting. It was definitely a good find.

After finishing up our 2^nd round of food, we walked across the street to a shaved ice plane called “Ice Monster.” The entire outdoor seating area was packed and the line curved around the corner of the street. My friend told me that it one of the most popular shaved ice places in Taipei
and apparently he was right! We waited in line for about 10 minutes and ended up ordering the mixed fruit shaved ice, mango shaved ice with pudding, and red bean shaved ice. Everything tasted absolutely delicious--the fruit was especially ripe and sweet. I definitely plan on going again sometime in the near future.

While we were all basically stuffed, we kept walking around the area exploring the different shops all around. We found an interesting fruit shop that sold exotic fruits and drinks like Japanese grapes, durian milk, and avocado milk. We bought a few things there and headed next door to a dried snack store where each of us ended up purchasing about 600 NT worth of dried snacks to either eat ourselves, or bring back home as presents. Still not done exploring, we ventured off and decided to stop at a frozen yogurt place that had very pretty décor inside. There was a minimum purchase charge if you sat inside though and since not everyone wanted to get some frozen yogurt we got it to-go and decided to eat at a little park that was close by. We found a place to sit, ate our frozen yogurt, and afterwards revisited childhood and started to play around in the playground. The parents of the children who were there probably thought we were all crazy.

By the time we finished it was already nearing 5:00 PM and people were getting tired. A majority of people decided to go back home, but two other friends and I decided to stay out and explore an area at the very last stop on the green line of the MRT (Taiwan’s subway system) called Bitan. About a block away from the exit of the subway, we found Bitan’s scenic area which boasted a river with foot peddling boats that I’ve only seen in the movies. There were dozens of people out in the river on boats with swan heads, penguins, and whales peddling away to their heart’s content. My friends and I decided to rent one of the boats and give it a try. It was only 130 NT per person to rent one of the boats. We peddled out and went to one end of the river and peddled back in about an hour. It was really a pleasant area with people just walking around visiting the various stores and stands that were adjacent to the river. There was also a big bridge that crossed the river which lit up when it got darker. After returning the boat, we walked around the little night market area by the river as well as the street of restaurants next to it. I ate some deep fried mushrooms, deep fried meats, grilled mochi ice cream, and drank some sugar cane juice. The general atmosphere of the area was very boisterous and lively. After walking around for about three hours, buying lots of food, and just absorbing the scenery, we finally decided to go home.

(Pictures are coming soon...)