Another day another three meals plus snacks of course. We went on two guided out of town excursions today which offered a couple of opportunities for new treats. After our morning tour to Keelung and Yehliu Park to see the Queen's Head geological rock formation, we returned to Taipei for a longer than expected lunch break. Adam suggested we check out the Saboten Tonkatsu [fried panko crusted pork cutlet] restaurant on the 6th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A9 building. We'd seen a huge line of people waiting outside this restaurant last weekend and all the waiting supplicants enthusiastically told us it was delicious. Anything with a long line is probably worth trying at least one time in my book.
We each got a little bowl to grind our sesame seeds before adding the Tonkatsu sauce
Adam and I both felt that this whole grinding things came dangerously close to us preparing our own food, a restaurant concept neither of us enjoy.
Tonkatsu Curry and Rice...deliciously light and crisp and the curry was yummy
Regular Tonkatsu, we chose the "fattier" pork cutlet option for this one
After lunch, we headed out on our second half day tour to Chiufen Village, an old town built over 100 years ago into a steep mountain. It used to be a copper and gold mining town. I guess they used to mine giant melon sized gold, but it kinda sounds like an urban legend. I certainly didn't uncover any giant melon sized gold nuggets.
Chiufen: Narrow steep streets, old shops, lots of tourists
Fried cheese bread...NOT at all delicious. Kind of a bust!
Lots of stands selling mochi dessert soups...
...so we had to try some ourselves
After we got back to Taipei, we met up with plasticmom for a progressive dinner. First stop was Emperor Foods, a quick service chain serving pork chops, chicken cutlets, fish cutlet and pork belly.
Pork chop noodle and pork chop rice to share
Pork chop close up. Very tender, even the little pickles were good
Stop two was the dumpling restaurant near Emperor Foods. They were rolling dumpling wrappers by hand and making them by hand. We shared an order of guo tieh or pan fried dumplings and a bowl of hot sour soup.
We dug into the dumplings before I could take a photo
Basket of garlic cloves and a hand silicone tool to remove the garlic skin
Adam demonstrating his superior chopstick skills
Apple soda...very refreshing
Finally we stopped by the Tonghua night market with plasticmom who was excited by the prospect of shopping for bags. We were stuffed from dinner, but we managed to find room for our new favorite, ice cream spring rolls. You're probably thinking, "SHUT UP!" That's right, ice cream spring rolls. Fresh spring roll wrapper filled with freshly grated peanut brittle, three scoops of ice cream and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro wrapped up like a spring roll. Cilantro might sound strange, but it works.
Giant block of peanut brittle, a plane grater
Spring roll wrapper, layer of peanut brittle shavings, ice cream and cilantro
Wrap it all up like a snug spring roll
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