Look!
I'm questioning some things!
Taiwan, finally! After years of wanting to come here and years of planning, we are here! We could
not be more excited. We are starting our trip in Taipei, and we are visiting some of Taipei's
most famous sites today, and trying some of their most famous food - some of which I'm
even excited about. I'm a little bit nervous about something else. This is my best chance at liking
this. It turns out that stinky tofu has a taste that lingers. But we're still going to do it!
After we visit Taipei, we are going to be spending the next month traveling around
Taiwan, visiting some of this Island's most beautiful and most famous sites.
The variety that's here is amazing. We are starting our day today here at Taipei 101. This
is one of the world's tallest buildings and, in fact, for a short period of time, was the world's
tallest building. I cannot wait to see the view from up there to find out just how big Taipei is.
We made it! 91st floor. You can walk outside in a little area. There's some bars,
but you can still see really far and we are really high up. I mean, really high up. There's no other
building that we can see that even comes close to as high up as we are right now. This is amazing.
One of the interesting things about the tower is that they've actually managed
to put this giant mass damper in place to counter the effects of wind up here.
We know there's a lot of wind because we're able to hear whistling on top.
Actually, there was part - about three quarters actually - of the observation deck we weren't
able to go to because of wind. This huge hunk of metal manages to reduce the sway by 40%. It's,
uh, 660 metric tons. It's five and a half meters across. It says right behind us. This is where the
information came from. We're not normally this smart. It's being held up by eight cables that...
[16! 16.] Well it's...[engineering babble]
Somewhere between 8 and 16 cables hold up this
giant ball and they're about the diameter of my fist. They're huge, enormous. It's really neat to
see this in person. It's really unique, and we just are not sure we'll ever see anything else
like it in our lives. Really cool. Some helpful signs on our way out showed us that there are
at least four other buildings that also have wind dampers. Hey, we might be seeing those this year.
Attached to Taipei 101 is the most upscale mall, with all of the luxury brands that you've
heard of and probably a lot that you haven't. The main Centrum area of this is beautiful. The
architecture is so unique and stunning. I mean, I want to linger here, but we have a lot to do.
We just finished visiting Taipei 101. The view from up there was fantastic,
but what I wasn't expecting was all the Instagram spots. I don't know why I'm still surprised by that,
because we saw them all over Japan, but it still was unexpected. That was really a great
view up there and the elevator is impressive. It takes 37 seconds to go all the way up to the top,
and I guess technically to go back down. I think that was worth it. A little bit on
the pricey side, but it was something that we had our heart set on doing. Now we're starving
so it's off for some food that we've been looking forward to for a really long time.
As you may have guessed, one of our food destinations
today is the famous soup dumpling place, Din Tai Fung.
I don't know. There's nobody here to tell me how to say it. Din Tai Fung
is known for the exactness in which they create their soup dumplings. Inside of the dumplings is
the filling, but also this delicious broth that comes out. We've seen it on television so many
times that I've wanted to try this for a really long time, and I am super excited to be here.
The wait though is an hour. It better be worth it. I'm sure it will be. It's super popular.
Our Xiaolongbao has arrived,
and there's a card that tells us it's what we're supposed to do so thankfully we have
instructions. They're supposed to be really hot. We grab one carefully. Oh my gosh. It's so thin!
And you put in your little spoon, and carefully, and then you poke a hole in it,
[Poking the hole is so hard!] so that the broth runs out. Oh no. I'm so nervous!
Okay well the steam ran out. Oh wait. I've got broth! I got broth!
Enjoy it, but it's hot. How hot is it going to be? It smells really gingery.
Oh, the broth is so good. I haven't even bit into it yet.
This is some of the thinnest dough I've had on any kind of dumpling
or dumpling like food ever. It is crepe thin. You can see through it practically,
what's in the center. It's amazing. The filling itself is really savory. It's a pork and maybe
a green onion mix, and it's absolutely delicious. It's the perfect single biteful.
I'm really glad that we waited an hour. Of course it's delicious. We also ordered chicken
because we wanted to try something a little bit different. The pork is their signature dish,
but we haven't had chicken in a while, so that's what we're going to try next.
Oh, the broth is a different color. It's a little bit lighter.
It's beautiful, just like the pork. It smells even more gingery than the last one.
Wow, that one is completely different than the pork ones that we already had. The chicken is more
like a gingery chicken soup that has been poached forever. It's so tender and juicy. Absolutely
delicious. The flavor on this one, I might like a little bit better than the pork, I have to say.
Very good. so She said with the wontons, we're supposed to mix them together,
I think, with the - there's some sauce on the bottom,
and then there's some green onion topping here. Well, the sauce looks really good.
Well, that was fantastic and well worth the wait. The food was excellent. The
staff was very attentive and helpful, explaining everything as we went. It did take several hours,
so now we're behind on all the things that we need to do, but it was absolutely delicious. That is an
experience we wanted to have ever since we saw other people do the same thing on television. It
was amazing. Now we are headed to one of the other iconic sites in Taipei, which is just
a brief walk away, so if you are familiar with Taipei at all, you know where we're headed next.
We are here at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, and one of the things I didn't fully appreciate,
is how large this square is. It is enormous. Seeing it in two dimensions on YouTube and
television doesn't do it justice. I don't think we've mentioned it, but we've also
been fighting the rain all day today. We are not going to stop and count them all,
but there are 89 steps that lead to the top of the memorial. One for each year of his life.
This is really cool to see. It's much bigger than we expected and this square actually is the scene
of many protests and demonstrations and even some religious gatherings,
which is going on way in the background right now. We are much further down from the Memorial Hall,
and we are... [spin, spin, spin!] All right. There's that building,
and now we're in front of the gate, which is really cool. Now we are facing the Memorial Hall.
This is really beautiful. I love how so many people are gathered here. We
just ran into some local girls who shared their pet with us, which was really weird,
some kind of flying squirrel type thing. If you know what this is, comment down below. They tried
but they didn't speak a lot of English and we of course don't speak any Chinese or anything. It was
fantastic to see The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and Chiang Kai-shek, although a complicated figure,
is effectively the father of this country, father of Taiwan. It's fantastic. One of
these buildings is an exhibition Hall and the other one is for concerts. I'm pretty sure
this one is the exhibitions and this one is the concert hall. Did it just lightning? I'm pretty
sure it just Lightning'ed. This does not bode well. We are not done yet. We have a lot to do still!
As you can tell, it is absolutely raining out, so we had to make a judgment call. Do we go to
the temple, or do we go to a night market? I think you can tell what won - the night
market. We have one final thing that we need to do before our first day in Taipei is complete,
and that's trying stinky tofu. Yes, it's happening. We have somewhere
picked out and I think we're almost there. It's pouring out. Pouring!
All right. We're going to try our first stinky tofu. I've done my research and my research says
that you should try fried - deep fried tofu - the first time that you're trying stinky tofu.
[You can say that again!] See? He knows, too. I like tofu. I like fried things. Let's find out
how deep fried fermented tofu goes...with the lady standing right behind me. I read that her stall is
really good, too, so this is my best chance at liking this. Stinky deep fried tofu. Here goes.
I'm not going to smell it, too. You're supposed to breathe through your mouth when you eat it.
Oh, it's kind of pickled!
I like it!
It kind of tastes like kimchee.
You know you want Bill to try this too, right?
Originally she was threatening to have me just eat this, because Bill will eat anything,
right? I always said that I wanted to try it. Here goes nothing! [Enjoy!]
It's okay. What's the big deal? No, that's what I said too. If you're not familiar with stinky tofu,
it's a fermented tofu, but this one gets deep fried afterwards which kind
of mellows out the flavor, which makes it a fantastic choice for first time stinky tofu
people like us. There's cabbage and some some kind of pickled flavor in
there. It's actually okay. Yeah, it's really good. Not bad. Yeah.
Turns out that stinky tofu has a taste that lingers. My face permanently looks
like this now. Stinky tofu is stinky. We're fixing that. This looks amazing.
What is that?
What? This is like shaved milk. I've never had anything like this. What is this? This is wild.
Okay, I did not expect to have to explain this. I thought it would be like shaved ice, but it's more
like shaved milk. It's not overly sweet. It's very creamy, but icy. I think it's shaved
milk. Oh, it's delicious. This is a huge bowl, though, that - easily we can share this. Wow.
I'll tell you - it was a lot of fun. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to do. The rain's
chasing us away, but we're going to be back in a month, so maybe we'll get to finish things then.
Until then, we'll be exploring the rest of Taiwan. Thanks for watching. See you next time. Bye!
There are 89 stairs leading up to the top of the mem-memorial. There are 89 stairs leaving - oh my God.
We're not normally this smart. No, I'm just kidding. We are. Or we aren't? You decide.
Okay Bill. Shaved ice costs 170. Wow, what an amazing bargain! Oh, it's recording.
Is it recording before? Yep. At least, could you spin it around so we get some useful b-roll?