Visiting & Eating in Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Not-to-missed local night markets, exotic local food, Taiwanese weddings & local massage.
We’re back in the U.S. after spending 8 days in Taiwan and feeling a bit exhausted. We are used to traveling abroad but it does require more energy and dealing with jet lag (kids waking up at 3 am) is a whole other story. However, we had a great trip overall and we already miss Taiwan and our family very much.
This is vol. 2 of our Taiwan Trip 2014. If you missed vol. 1, here’s the link to the post. First, let’s continue talking about food in Taiwan! Some of these pictures were shared on my Instagram.
Food in Taiwan
When we’re in Taiwan, we usually eat out most of our meals as Mr. JOC’s parents run a hospital and they are very busy all day. We like to try out new places every time we visit Taiwan but we also go back to our favorites. The Han-Hsien Heping Restaurant is our local favorite dim sum place. Parking garage is next building and it’s easy to take out Mr. JOC’s grandma for lunch there as she’s now having trouble walking. The dim sum served there is very authentic and sometimes they have special dishes they offer. This time they even had Strawberry Daifuku (Japanese dessert)on seasonal dessert menu, which was really tempting. My favorite pick of the day was the kabocha shaped mochi with taro inside. Absolutely adorable!
When you’re in Taiwan, don’t miss an opportunity to try Stinky Tofu (臭豆腐). When I first tried it for the first time 9 years ago from a street vendor at a night market, I had to say it was a challenging experience. I could eat it, but it was definitely not something that I look forward to eating. A lot of readers ask me how stinky it is and how it tastes, so let me put it this way… It feels like you’re eating deep-fried tofu in the middle of farm where there are bunch of cows and horses. You’re basically smelling very earthy, grassy, stinky odor while eating tofu. Besides the smell of tofu, it tastes great. I wish it has more pleasant odor so more people are willing to try, but this is definitely an acquired taste. After 9 years of being married to a Taiwanese person, I now can appreciate more about stinky tofu than before. Especially King of Stinky Tofu (江豪記臭臭豆腐王) makes a really good one, and it is one of my must go stops when I visit.
Compared to last year, my son is more into a variety of Taiwanese food. Zongzi (glutinous rice stuffed with pork, egg, chestnuts, peanuts, mushrooms etc, middle right picture) became his favorite during the trip. He had it several times at different stores, and his favorite so far is Liu Chia Zongzi (劉家粽子).
I’m still hesitant to try some food in Taiwan such as pig hearts (bottom right picture). I keep telling myself that I’d try one day… The Chinese Black Chicken Herbal Soup was served at both weddings. Black color chicken (black all the way to the bone) may look a bit scary to you, but this chicken called “Silkie Chicken” actually looks fuzzy and friendly. Have you tried it before? Abalone are also commonly served as one of the course at weddings.
Taiwan Night Market
If you visit Taiwan, spend one night in the local night markets. A lot of people are out hanging out and dining with friends and family. There are so many varieties of food available in night markets, including giant squid legs, snake meat, grilled Thai shrimp, Turkish ice cream, and the list goes on and on. Night markets remind me of Japanese summer festival with all the street vendors selling food and random things (toys, clothes, jewelries, etc), but Taiwanese night market happens every night, all year around! I don’t like oysters but Taiwanese Oyster Pancakes are one of my favorite food to eat from night market and we must have fresh Papaya Milk! SO good!
Japanese Food in Taiwan
As a Japanese person, Taiwan is very easy place to live because there are Japanese foods pretty much everywhere. These days there are many Japanese chain restaurants such as Mister Donut, Ootoya (大戸屋), MOS Burger, Tonkatsu Shinjuku Saboten, and many bakeries that serve Japanese style (European style) bread and pastries. We alternate our meals between Chinese and Japanese while we visit, depending what our children are craving at the moment.
Weddings in Taiwan
Mr. JOC’s brother’s weddings were very nice. I said “weddings” in plural because in Taiwanese culture it’s common to have two weddings – groom’s side family hosts one, and bride’s side family hosts one the day after. We had two weddings back to back in different cities so our last weekend became very hectic. I was going to document what Taiwanese wedding is like, but I became occupied with preparing traditional ceremony at home and leading the flower boy and flower girl (yes, there is no ring bearer), so I failed on even taking pictures on my iPhone. There were close to 500 guests for groom-side wedding and a lot of the guests remembered our wedding 9 years ago as I greeted them. After greeting the most of the guests at their tables during the wedding, we ended up missing about half of the meal (therefore no photos…sorry!).
Sheraton in Hsinchu
Hsinchu ( 新竹) was the location of the bride’s side wedding. It was my first time stopping by this city which is commonly known as Silicon Valley of Taiwan. The city feels really new – with a lot of brand new high-rise condos and apartments everywhere, I rarely saw old parts of Hsinchu during my short stay. We stayed in Sheraton where the wedding was located. It was relatively new and the kids especially loved the shallow swimming pool next to the regular size swimming pool. The best part is the pools are indoor and heated! I wanted to eat Taiwanese breakfast for one last time before going back to the States, but McDonald’s and Starbucks were the closest restaurants so we had breakfast at Starbucks instead. Our flight home was the same day as the wedding, so everything was pretty chaotic.
What We’ve Been Doing in Kaohsiung
Well, not much, to tell you the truth. To avoid the kids waking up way too early due to jet lag, we put them sleep around 9 to 10 pm every night. We definitely took advantage of our free baby sitter (my parents-in-law) and enjoyed watching The Wolf of Wall Street at the theater and visited our local massage place (左腳右腳經典泡腳會館) for 1 hour body massage twice within a week! I’ve been going to the same person (#7) for the past 9 years and I definitely recommend him if you happen to be at this location! He has magical hands that rejuvenates your body and mind (but oh so painful!! Just focus on after the massage…).
Thank you so much for reading my Taiwan Trip 2014 posts! I hope you enjoy photos from Taiwan. If you’re interested in more photos, check out my Taiwan Trip 2012 post as well. We look forward to visiting Taiwan later this year again!
After read this article you and your kida must had great time in Kaohsiung ( Kaohsiung is my hometown and live in now) One of my Japanese friend love had food message in TW as well and almost must go ever time when she visited ~
I love to read your blog (actually I just find it few days ago), and I tried to make Japanese hamburger from your recipe today. OMG! It so delicious! ( you can see the photos from my Webside)
Thank you so much!^_^
Hi Vivian! We always enjoy our annual visit to Kaohsiung! We always go to the same foot massage (I actually do whole body massage) every year and he’s my go-to guy! I look forward to seeing him and “fix” my sore body! I haven’t found anyone better than him.
Thank you for reading my blog and trying my recipe! Your photo looks very pretty! 🙂
Love your Taiwan posts! Just found your blog after your Taiwan Trip Part I was linked in a Taiwan blog FB group. I used to live in Taipei for 3.5 years and I miss the food immensely. I absolutely love your website from the little bit I’ve been browsing so far. I cook a lot of Asian food at home, but Japanese is something I’ve struggled with for some reason. Excited to follow your blog now and check out your recipes and videos! 🙂
Hi Erin! So happy to hear you found me from this post! And my post was on Taiwan blog FB group? How cool!!! 😀 I just arrived in Taiwan this morning. Thanks so much for following and it’s very nice to meet you, Erin!
Thank you for sharing more about your Taiwan trip. You have such a beautiful family and you’re so very pretty!! You must have a great time visiting family. ^_^ The next time I visit Taiwan, I will be sure to visit your masseuse!
Thank you for sharing your experience and beautiful photos of Taiwan! I simply cannot wait to go back to Taiwan with Doni in just two weeks and discover vegan foods! We will be spending a week or so in Taiwan. Traveling with kids is challenging and I admire you for going through this jet lag, you did it! All the dishes in Taiwan are making me eager to go – I love stinky tofu & rice dumplings!
So jealous Nami – that food looks so good. Glad you had a good time and got back safely! 🙂
Taiwan is definitely on my future travel list. Street/outside food is something that I miss in Japan (although I have never been to a typically ‘street food country’ I’m sure Japanese food experience would be more fun with it 😉 so the night market would be obligatory! Stinky tofu sounds like something I MUST taste too!
Two weddings sound like lots of fun for guests who are invited to both!
Such a nice trip,
i guess we asians really like party, especially wedding,
Gosh, i remember how hectic and hillarious preparation of my older sister wedding where the wedding churches, my family wedding celebration and my brother in-law family wedding celebration held in three different city with 3 hours flight distance of each of it and only 7 days
my grand father insist that my sister as the oldest grand had a wedding on his church and then you know, my father and my in-law brother families lives in a different city and had their own relatives….
ahhh my mouth is watering looking at all your food pics! It’s so funny about the stinky tofu – when I first introduced it to my husband he was disgusted and couldn’t stand the smell. I made him try it a few more times and now he actually likes it. haha! It definitely is an acquired taste. I love it!
I’m still wondering why they can’t bring Mr. Donut to the US! sigh…
Thanks for sharing your trip and family photos, so lovely! =)
ps – that’s so cool that you’ve been to the aquarium in Kenting and it would be awesome if one day we could meet up in Taiwan. 😉
YAY!!! Finally get to see Mr. JOC! What great family photos! Two weddings back-to-back for the same couple in two different cities? That just sounds exhausting. It does sound like a fun trip with lots of good eats. However, you didn’t quite convince me on the sticky tofu. Another great travel post Nami! Thanks!
Sounds like gorgeous weddings! Actually gorgeous everything – wow, look at the abundance of food! Unbelievable!