Do jiang, for those who do not know, is a traditional Taiwanese breakfast. My breakfast in particular consisted of soy milk, sao bing (a crispy flatbread), and fan tuan (rice burrito). While I cannot say that it is a staple breakfast for everyone, it is considered to be a form of comfort food for people. The combination of warm soy milk (which can be ordered sweetened or non-sweetened) and sao bing is quite delicious. The fan tuan (which can ordered sweet or salty), or rice burrito, consists of a sticky rice that surrounds a crunchy, sweetened interior. Generally the sweet fan tuans I eat back home consist of a 'you tiao' and sugar, but I could not figure out what it was this time.
One of my first cultural experiences came after breakfast when my grandma took me to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. At the time I could not understand what it was all about because everything there was written in Mandarin, however, after doing some research I found out that the memorial was constructed to remember the Dr. Sun Yat-sen, aka the Republic of China's National Father. The building was finished in 1972 I believe and houses a monument, library, and museum. Outside I noticed that there were random festivities going on so apparently this is like a cultural center for people to do things. When I first went in I noticed a group of Honor Guards performing a march and salute at the memorial. Apparently they do this throughout the day to pay respect.
For lunch, my grandma treated my friend and I to Ding Tai Fung. For those who do not know what Ding Tai Fung is, it is a very popular chain dumpling house. Many people I know back home love Ding Tai Fung. One store back home is located near me in Arcadia CA. The prices, from what I remember, is a little cheaper than what it is back home. We ordered wonton soup, beef noodle soup, pork dumplings, vegetarian dumplings, and a taro dumpling for dessert. The grand total came out to be like 946 NT after gratuity (for dining in).
After lunch, I went with my friend to the airport to pick up another school friend who was joining us from Hong Kong. After we picked her up and got back home, we planned our trip to the Shida night market for the night. We took the MRT to the Guting station and walked to Shida road where the night market was.
This was the first night market that I've been to in Taiwan. I have to say that it was quite interesting. There were many small shops and street vendors that sold everything. We were were definitely more interested in the foods that they had. They had everything there from meals to drinks to desserts of all types. Naturally there are a lot of exotic foods as well that are generally not found outside of Asian places back home.
Overall a pretty satisfying first day in Taiwan. Hopefully I'll be able to hit up more interesting areas in the future.
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