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Food

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Indoor Shrimp Fishing – Taiwan’s Unique Take on Fishing Pastimes

If you’re looking for a truly unique activity in Taipei, then you have to check out indoor shrimp fishing. We first saw this on Anthony Bourdain’s show, “No Reservations,” and we put it down on our to-do list for our visit.

Traditionally, to go fishing people had to go to lakes, rivers and oceans but many times that would be too expensive or impractical. But shrimp fishing solves all of those problems which makes it a perfect activity for people of all ages and sizes and has become a national pastime in Taiwan.

You’re probably wondering, what exactly is shrimp fishing? In a nutshell, it’s a very popular activity Taiwan where you go into large indoor facilities and fish from giant murky water pools for large freshwater shrimp. It may sound somewhat unappealing [even I wasn’t sure what to think when I first saw this] but it is actually very entertaining and a great social activity.

There are many of these indoor shrimp fishing buildings in Taiwan. Each building can hold several large pools that are about several feet deep and houses lots of freshwater shrimp, which are refilled every hour or so. You will see dozens of people sit on each side of the pool wherever there is space. You are given a simple rod and hook, a bobble, dried shrimp bait and a net to hold your catch [and you can also bring your own equipment too]. If you’re a beginner, not a problem! There are experienced fisherman or employees that will teach you the basics to shrimp fishing.

Fishing for shrimp is simple enough: you hook your bait and drop your line into the pool hoping for the shrimp to bite. There’s no reel and the line is a finite length. If your bobble goes down, that’ll indicate that a shrimp is biting at your bait and could be time to pull out the shrimp.

Although it looks easy, there is actually quite a bit skill involved and some patience needed. Newcomers may be fortunate to catch 2 or 3 per hour, but you can even go an entire hour without catching a single shrimp! Other experienced shrimp fishers will bring their own equipment and can easily catch 10 or 12 shrimp per hour. A group of young kids next to us were catching shrimp pretty easily, maybe one every 5-10 minutes!

While catching shrimp is the goal, it is also a perfect environment for friends and families to socialize. Many people can be seen eating snacks, drinking beer and having a good time with each others’ company.

We did pretty well for our first time. We spent about 2.5 hours and it was pretty fun and relaxing. Overall, we ended up catching 21 shrimp between the four of us.

With our catch in hand, we reaped the rewards and went to grill our shrimp. We used available sinks for washing and skewering the shrimp and salt is provided for seasoning. An employee helped us grill our shrimp as we ordered some additional dishes.

We were skeptical how good the shrimp would be coming from that murky water. But we will say that it’s some of the best and most fresh tasting shrimp we’ve ever had. It does make a lot of sense that cooking shrimp right after catching them ensures them being very fresh. It was totally worth the effort and lots of fun doing it.

Shrimp fishing cost us about $10/hour per person and you keep everything you catch. If you’re an experienced fisherman, you can easily catch enough for a large meal within an hour. But if have trouble catching the shrimp or don’t have the patience, these places will offer a full menu, including the same shrimp that you can catch. Shrimp fishing is also open 24 hours and 7 days a week, so you can expect a steady stream of customers from 4 pm to even 4 am in the morning. It really is a unique experience and a fun activity that any visitor should try.

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Din Tai Fung and Those Amazing Soup Dumplings, Taipei 101 Observatory

Taipei 101 is undoubtedly a signature tourist destination in Taiwan. It’s well-recognized for its architectural design looking like a tall bamboo stalk. Standing at 508 meters, it is far taller than any other building in Taipei and, at one point, was the tallest building the world. The first five stories of the building is basically a big mall comprised of various luxury brand stores and a food court in the basement level.

While there is plenty of shopping that could be done there, we had one main goal in mind during our visit at Taipei 101: To dine at the Din Tai Fung restaurant! Din Tai Fung is a Michelin Star restaurant that serves a full menu of Taiwanese dishes but is notably famous for its xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. While we’ve eaten at Din Tai Fung in Southern California locations, there was no doubt in my mind that the food would be far better at Taipei 101. We heard wait times could be as long as three hours but luckily we arrived around 4:30 PM on a weekday, which was just before rush hour, so we only had to wait five minutes to be seated!

One of the things I thought was mesmerizing was watching the entire process to making the famous little soup dumplings. No less than 20 employees were churning this fine-tuned-dumpling-making-machine. Each individual had a responsibility from making the dough, creating small balls of dough, rolling the dough into small circles, making the filling, enclosing the filling with the dough and putting them in the bamboo steamers for cooking. I’ll post a video to show this process.

Being that we were all starving and wanted to try as many things as possible, we ordered a bunch of items from the menu. Of course we got several orders of the xiao long bao soup dumplings. Those delicate little dumplings alone, filled with tender meat and deliciously hot broth, would’ve made the visit entirely worth it. I’m pretty sure I had at least 10 soup dumplings by myself! But we didn’t stop there and also ordered their braised beef noodle soup, hot & sour soup, shrimp wontons, green dishes, steamed dumplings and buns. The dishes were all delicious and were overall better compared to the restaurants in Southern California. The ingredients and soups tasted much more authentic and flavorful. The staff was also very nice and service was great.

The total bill for our meal was about $70 for the four of us for a pretty significant amount of food. Each dish ranges from $5-10. I’d recommend going during off hours and weekdays when possible to avoid long wait times, but it’s well worth the time and price for any visitor try out some famous Taiwanese cuisine.

After our meal, we did the next touristy thing to do which was go up top to the observatory of Taipei 101. Tickets are available for $10/person on the fifth floor and our wait time to get to the elevator was about 15 minutes (but can be longer). When you get into the elevator, you will experience the fastest elevator in the world. According the the Guinness World Records, the elevator can reach the 89th floor from ground level in 40 seconds with a max speed of 37.6 mph.

From the observatory, you can walk around the observatory for a 360° view of Taipei. The views at night are beautiful and picturesque. It’s definitely part of the Taipei experience and worth checking out.

Here is the address, phone number and hours for Din Tai Fung at Taipei 101:

B1, No. 45, Shift Rd., Taipei City (Taipei 101 Mall)

TEL: 02-8101-7799  FAX: 02-8101-7800

Sun-Thu 11:00 am – 9:30 pm

Fri, Sat 11:00 am – 10:00 pm

 

For more information, visit their websites: Din Tai Fung and Taipei 101.

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Addiction Aquatic Development – Paradise for Seafood Enthusiasts in Taipei

If you’re looking for fresh seafood, the Addiction Aquatic Development is a must-see in Taipei. Seafood enthusiasts will be able to try a variety of fresh seafood such as fish, crabs, lobsters and other shellfish.

We first went into the seafood market that houses tanks of various live marine animals, including huge king crabs, spiny lobsters, tiger shrimp, various mollusks, and fish. You can see the selection and pricing of the seafood and make purchases here. Although the prices seem expensive, items are relatively reasonably priced since there is no middle-man driving up costs. You can also buy already prepared and cooked food.

Next to the tanks in the same building is the market, kitchens and restaurants. You can see the kitchens preparing a wide selection seafood meals such as sushi and sashimi boxes, raw oysters, other seafood and frozen goods. It also serves as a normal market where you can also buy fruits, vegetables, beverages and other goods.

We were excited to try some fresh seafood, so we went to the sushi bar for lunch. Although it was very busy, we only had to wait 20 minutes for our space. We ordered a platter of items that included lobster, crab, tiger shrimp, oysters, and fish, which cost us around $120 USD for four of us. It was well worth the price as the food quality was so fresh and delicious! There wasn’t anything we didn’t like and would’ve gotten a lot more if we had more cash! The service was also good and the waiters were very patient with us when we asked for something. It’s definitely a must-eat when you visit!

Afterwards, we did get a few sushi boxes to try out, which were pretty affordable at around $8-10 USD. They were good but you could tell the quality was not as high compared to the sushi bar. It’s more comparable to store-bought sushi than restaurant quality sushi, which is what you’d expect for those prices. There is also an outdoor restaurant for hot pot and grilled seafood but we did not get to try it.

So if you’re craving some seafood, the Aquatic Addiction Development is the place to go!

Some tips to know when you visit:

1. It can be very crowded during peak hours and weekends. Seating is very limited but there are standing tables available. It may be better to visit during off hours and weekdays.

2. Only cash is accepted at the Addiction Aquatic Development, no credit cards. Be sure to bring enough cash for the amount you want to eat, which I recommend around $50-100 USD (about NT$1500-3000) per person to be safe.

3. Menus do not provide English translation, but you can point to the menu based on how much you want to spend. Most of the items are pre-set platters so you don’t have to order individual items. You can also try bringing translations for what you want to order specifically.

Visit the Aquatic Addiction Development website here for more information.

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4 Places with Awesome Food in Iceland

Icelandic Plate Combination

Even though we were in Iceland for only a few days, we could not stop raving at how delicious the food was! Ok, so we didn’t get to try out that many places and we didn’t try some of Iceland’s most traditional dishes like sheep head, whale meat, puffin or shark (which I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for some of those things)…but the stuff we did eat was amazing! What interested me the most were how simple these dishes were, yet they were some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. However, if you’re on a tight budget, don’t expect to find cheap prices on these menus compared to the United States, but they’re reasonable compared to other parts of Europe. Here’s a list of four of our favorite places we did dine at.

Cafe Loki

Located in Reykjavik, Cafe Loki sits directly across Hallgrímskirkja church and specializes in traditional homemade Icelandic dishes. We tried several dishes including their meat soup, one of their Icelandic Plate combinations, a vegetarian plate and rye bread ice cream. I loved the rye bread combination dishes, which consisted of smoked trout, smoked lamb, mashed fish or egg and herring. But our favorite had to be the rye bread ice cream, which was possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever had. The combination of flavors is unique and absolutely delicious.

Cafe Loki Icelandic Plate Combination Rye Bread with Egg and Herring Rye Bread Ice Cream Cafe Loki Mural ICELAND 1 & 2_158

Restaurant Brúin

Located in the town of Grindavík, this family-owned restaurant was our surprise dining discovery. As we were going through the town, our group was hungry and needed a break, and we came upon Restaurant Brúin. Little did we know that we would have some exceptionally good dishes. We tried some pan-fried fish, soup and even their traditional Saltfiskur, which is essentially salted fish. All of our food was very fresh, as all of the fish were caught on the same day they were cooked. I did like the Saltfiskur, but it may not be for everyone. Their traditional fish soup was also interesting, when it didn’t come out as soup, but as mashed up fish. But to our delight, the traditional fish soup was really good! So if you’re passing through Grindavík, be sure to take a break at Restaurant Brúin for some good homemade Icelandic food.

Hotel Skogafoss Bistro Bar

After our visit at Skogafoss, we needed something to eat before our long drive back to Reykjavik and Hotel Skogafoss Bistro Bar is right next to Skogafoss Waterfall. Presumably, it has a great view of the falls, but it was completely dark by the time we sat down. The interior is very modern and has a nice ambiance. But we enjoyed most the food we ordered. I ordered the lamb leg, which was simply amazing. The meat was fall-off-the-bone delicious and tasted so fresh and tender. We also tried the lamb soup, which was also very good. Another great dish was the baked cod, which was lightly seasoned and cooked perfectly. Fair warning though, we’ve seen negative comments about the dishes, but there was nothing about our food that was short of excellent.

Sjavargrillid Seafood Grill

Also located in Reykjavik, Sjavargrillid Seafood Grill is a great choice for some fine dining Icelandic dishes, although the prices easily exceed far above the other options listed here. The main dishes were pretty high for our budget, so we chose to order some appetizers and light main dishes instead. Our dishes were fish or seafood dishes, and all of the food was very fresh and tasty. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t try some of the main dishes, but if you have a bigger budget, you definitely should try Sjavargrillid Seafood Grill.

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