Today I meet up with Dark H and Knuckles!!! I woke up kinda early about 7:30am ish and headed to breakfast. I was careful not to eat too much since we will be eating breakfast at a-moom. I had a bowl of porridge and some fruit, two cups of black tea (which was sweetened) and then headed back up, Did my poop duty and then got myself ready. Managed to start the blog for yesterday and then headed down!!
Dark H messaged me and gave me some sweets and snacks and her illustrated post card to take up first. 😭 I had a peek and it looks so good aaaahhh!!
Down back I go and Knuckles asked me if I wanted to bike myself. I said yes we can, I have to hire a Youbike though. Lol I ended up being passenger again all day. I realised how much different muscles one uses when being a passenger like ouch! x'D Sore butt! Sore legs!
First we stopped at a-moom and there was no one inside. I was asked to go inside to check if they're open first and wait while they parked the bicycles. While waiting I got the memorial stamp and had a quick look at the menu.
Once they arrived we took our shoes off and went inside. There was no one else! We chose a seat next to the garden, and observed the window panes were probably original ones due to the imperfections in the glass. They were also not glazed, so would rattle inside the wooden frames. Some of the door screen papers were stained and yellow.
I chose a pumpkin salad toast breakfast with a hot spiced milk tea. 小D got a cinnamon roll and Knux got a mini mountain sandwich. My salad had nice vinegarette, and the pumpkin was sweet. The scrambled eggs were moist. My toast came on a wire rack and it was super thick. I spread the garlic butter on it. The garlic was really light so didn't affect the taste too much. My tea was kinda heavy on the spice but bearable!
(Second) breakfast was good. After we chatted for a while we headed out to 十八尖山 via bike. Knux biked a portion up and then at the parking lot we got off and entered the gated area, where they had to wheel the bikes because riding was prohibited.
There was quite a few bugs! And a lot of different butterflies. I saw a orange/black, black/brown with white dots, black with blue tips, and some others.
We also saw a big brown bird who didn't move when we got close. 小D said the nickname is 呆呆鳥 because they look like brain empty. Which was true lol.
It was cooler on the mountain as its mostly shaded. The slope was gentle and we stopped at a toilet halfway up. Like 4 toilets were out of order in the women's and only 2 were working. Apparently only 1 in the mens was functional lol. We had some water and Knux had a Sonic Frontier handkerchief he used to dry his hands. I joked if it was Nadi I would have said Sonic was kissing your hands hahaha.
We continued up and just chatted about random stuffs. 小D told me there was a Japanese researcher who confirmed birds have a universal language/call for certain things, such as 'enemy on the ground' or 'predator in the sky' and the birds would react accordingly. So far only 1 species was studied but it was observed some calls are universal across different species. This is really cool to have like actually evidence of the calls as confirmation.
We got to the top and there wasn't much of a viewing platform but you can see through the gaps in the trees. We were able to see the Hsinchu station intersection and Knux was able to identify the back of the station. Amazing. I couldn't lol. And in the further horizon they can see the rubbish incinerator.
An older gentleman joined in on the conversation when I was trying to ID the buildings. He was able to tell me what the big building is that was where the station intersection was.
After that, we headed down and ended up taking a wrong turn at a split. Knux realised after a wee bit cause the slope went up again, so we headed back because there definitely was a sign saying parking lot, and we went the other way. We came back to the split and passed a small temple/miao on the way, and it was a pretty short walk to the parking lot. It wasn't as long as the way up!
Once there Knux took us on a detour to the cycling loop place which was intended to be refurbed for a 2025 older athletes competition but it was still under construction as apparently it couldn't be signed off due to not being up to standard. The construction fences were still there but we could access it by going around the other slope on the side instead of the main entrance. There was a couple of small roadside altars to various deities and bodhisvitta on the way up. The arena/track looked nice since it's newly resealed and painted. There was one guy on a skateboard using the track lol.
Knux told me that when he was a kid he saw someone climbing the slopes of the retaining wall on a dirt bike. ??!?!!?
But the angle of the retaining wall is kinda goat level! Wtf lol.
I forgot to get a photo of this place. But that was neat. And we passed by a technical school on the way down. Once we were off the mountain we stopped by at a croissant stall. The stall sold Taiwan style croissants! The solid kind. I bought one on recommendation and kept it for later.
Next they took me to another old Jp colonial house. The residence of Hsin Chih-Ping which is now currently running as a restaurant. We had a look around the outside garden and there was an old garage shed for a rickshaw! Which later served as a storage shed. We noted the glass on the actual building must be new because of the clarity and smoothness of the surface (very flat). There was also an old banyan tree with lots of whiskers.
Next is lunch! We come to No. 10 Nanmen again. As we arrived there was an outdoor seats with 3 chairs empty but the rest was taken and busy. Neat timing! I got told to bags the seat first while they go park the bikes. As they came back the other two tables left. LOL.
That's fine, more quiet less smokers. We got a plate of chicken to share, and a bowl of 皮蛋 spicy noodles. 小D got her 炒手 (giant wonton) and Knux got a bowl of noodles too. The spice level is just at my tolerance and the spice builds up. I also got the can of Asparagus juice again! 小D gave me 2 of her wontons. The wontons are good, the skin is nice and chewy, but the filling would get really rich after like 3 of them.
My noodles were really good, the actual noodles itself are chewy and qq. Sauce nice too. Yummy. I wanted to come back for some reason and it's definitely the noodles. xD a rubbish truck with the tune stopped by whilst we were eating lol, and both of them paused cause of the smell. I felt it was OK since there is a nice breeze and it was only faint.
After our stunning meal they took me to a gelato indie shop called Samoo. This shop uses all natural flavours and has some unique combinations. They're located within the traditional market of 東門, which is an unexpected location pick.
The shopkeeper kept letting me taste them!! I was wanting to do a roulette lol. I ended up getting a mint choc (as it was natural mint taste), and macha 艾草 flavour. The shopkeeper added some olive oil and salt in the grass herb flavour, which was quite a unique combo. It worked. Since 艾草 is uniquely Tw I got that flavour.
That was very enjoyable.
Then they took me to a mochi store called Yamada, which is apparently quite famous but a little price at about $60 a mochi. I ended up getting taro and sat in a little bench seating (with the wooden traditional long stools) area just next to the store. The taro filling inside is very legit and the mochi chewy but not tough. Some peanut powder was dusted on the outside. It was good.
I'm so full lol.
Next stop was a restored building of Hsinchu's very first department store; OR House.
The building is 4 stories tall. On the third storey they still have the original tiling for a large part of the building, which was super interesting. It's now a shared/teaching kitchen, with the other half a bookshop.
The first floor stocked a lot of specialty food products, and a corner had a little introduction and video playing of what I assume is the restoration project, and the beginnings of it. Unfortunately, I didn't really get time to focus on the video.
The second floor is mostly a café floor and they framed the original brick walls as artwork which I found is really neat.
The 4th floor was half a floor (including roof balcony) which currently has an artist exhibition and a small theatre room with seats.
It's cool to see the layers of wall and paint and the original wooden door fittings and such. Through the 3rd floor you could see into a little courtyard where there's a door entrance with flower stained glass on the 2nd floor level, but no balcony. Then you can see remains of a tiled floor on the wall adjacent which suggests the floor fell away. So cool.
Knux had a coconut ice cream on the first floor while there lol. They also had a macaron and patisserie shop counter on the first floor.
Next we went to Hsinchu Library which is a colonial building restored and is now a Starbucks. There were a couple of info signs around. It felt like the Starbucks in Yunlin of the old colonial fire station. It was nice.
Next was Fox. Cone and I got 3 scones for takeaway.
Oolong tea flavour, a green tea and cheese flavour, and maple bacon.
Then, onto our next stop Knux realises there was a teashop of the brand of double layer glass mugs they had at home but is starting to crack/go. So we went inside and they did some shopping and ended up buying a clear double layer glass mug and a clearance (seconds) cocktail glass with no handle, in the same clear glass style.
I saw a Frieren 春聯 lol and also a tea set with a pottery sieve with really fine holes! How did they make that! Mind boggled.
Dinner time. We went to Beimen and saw one of the old buildings still being restored. Last year it was covered by scaffolding. This year you can see the front. They did good detail work restoring the stone carvings near the roof! Amazement. The construction gate door was left ajar so you could peek in. There was a lady inside talking to someone. I could see sea blue wooden frames and a couple lengths of timber stacked against it.
Hujiaobing time. In the time I was making my mind up, beef got sold out lol just before. The boss said if I was quicker I would have gotten it. The person after me asked for 4 beef and we laughed cause boss said the same thing hahaha. The smell was so good, the slight char of the stone oven. I got pork.
At this stage my but was so sore from the passenger seat.
小D and Knuckles didn't get Hujiaobing they wanted to get 黑貓 meat bun. On the way there we passed a temple that looked really old, and it was. Aady was sketching the old shop front across the road. Had a wee look and then we rode off to the meat bun stall. They got theirs and we headed to the park nearby to eat.
I ran out of water and Knux ran off to find some for me. 😭 Thank you bro. He returned with sparkling water as it was the only option in the vending machine full of alcohol lol. Cause eating the Hujiaobing is drying (the pastry). It was really good though. Didn't get too heavy or rich like the Taipei one.
I'm so full by this point. 小D shared a piece of her bun with me. The sauce from the filling was good and the dough wasn't too cakey/sticky. The ratio of dough to bun was good imo, which she pointed out that most people like thin skin and fat filling, but she liked more balance (like me). Nice!
Struggled to finish my pepper bun (it was good) but I did it. Knux gave me a plastic bag to catch the drip with but the paper bag it came with was waxed, and it didn't drip lol (he asked if there was any when I finished it). I said the sesame crumbs I can let it return to nature and just emptied it out lol. 小D was like, for the ants to eat? Yes lol. Since I'm a clean eater.
After that we went to the last stop... The pineapple syrup 粉圓冰，who has moved from next to Hujiaobing to somewhere else. They also sell hot taro mash, but they add like fried spring onion on it which is pretty unique.
I got a bowl of original with no toppings... At my limit but I really wanted to eat. I tested while Knux ordered first and then after he finished I ordered and asked him to take like half the bowl. XD
I managed to finish 90% of my bowl of ice. Good effort!
Then finally, back to the hotel. I went upstairs and came back down to give 小D their yummies (peanut butter and coco candy ynut). Said bye bye had hugs and will see you tomorrow.
Exhausted, I just tidied up my stuff and took a shower and bath. The bathtub was patched and the patch was a heart shape.
Didn't do much and just went to bed! Defeated lol.
No comments:
Post a Comment