Taipei, Part 1

I'm once again horrible at writing posts in a timely manner, but here we go! I flew out of Hong Kong on Friday morning on Hong Kong Airlines and was delighted to find that I had for some reason been upgraded to first class. Since this was first class on an international airline, that meant a whole cubicle to myself with a seat that turned into a bed, unlimited wine, and excellent service.

 

This is probably the only time I'll fly in such an amazing seat, so I took a ton of pictures. The flight attendant thought it was adorable and helped me arrange my food to be more aesthetically pleasing:

There were also some lovely views of various islands as we made our way towards Taiwan:

The flight was unfortunately very brief (about 1.5 hours) and we soon landed in Taipei. My friend Dana was kind enough to meet me at the airport and escort me back to her place via the fantastic Shinkansen (high-speed rail, installed by Japan). Her apartment is in an amazing neighborhood just near the famous skyscraper Taipei 101:

We decided to start eating immediately, since I wanted to try everything Taiwan had to offer in less than 72 hours. Our first stop was Din Tai Fung, a very famous chain of dumpling restaurants that was started in Taipei. This place is famous for its perfectly crafted Xiao Long Bao, or soup dumplings. These things are absolutely incredible. I had 10 and I wanted many more.

They're essentially filled with pork soup and encased in a very delicate skin. The process of eating them properly is a little complicated, and involves carefully puncturing the skin, slurping the soup, then dipping them in a soy/vinegar sauce. Here I am failing at this and dropping my dumping in my sauce:

We finished off the meal with some very yummy taro dumplings for dessert:

Afterwards we went to the kitchen window and watched as the cooks very carefully prepared each dumpling, throwing out any that didn't meet their high level of perfection:

Afterwards we walked around the city a bit and stopped by a local night market. Night markets are an important part of Taiwanese culture, and typically include a wide offering of foods and goods.

The eating continued, and I got to try several little snacks. I apologize in advance for not knowing the name of anything I post here; I really just ate whatever Dana told me to! These "goo balls" were a yummy dessert, filled green tea, red bean, and a few other things:

Many stands offer a variety of vegetables and meats that you can get deep fried. I had deep-fried chicken hearts!

Afterwards we closed the night out by grabbing some beers and doing laundry at a laundromat. Taipei doesn't really have open container laws, which is great when you just want to relax in the extreme heat with a cold beer. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the weather in Hong Kong and Taipei was HORRIBLE. Very hot (in the 90s during the day without much of a drop at night) and extremely humid. I felt sweaty and gross nonstop. Avoid visiting either of these places in the summer!